Members will have noticed the introduction of current accounts and debit cards in early August 2021. For the first time, the St. Colman’s membership now truly have access to 24 hour/7 day per week banking from anywhere in the world accepting Mastercard, which we’re reliably informed is 210 countries and territories. View the MYCU intro video.
St. Colman’s is also offering an overdraft service to compliment the current account offering with an approximate maximum facility offered of one times net pay period. In other words and as an example, a maximum facility of €500 would be offered to a member receiving that net pay per week or €2,000 to a member in receipt of that net pay per month.
Planning and bringing this highly regulated product offering to the membership has been a multi-year project in addition to considerable funds being invested to realise a successful project. The project has also thrown up many other challenges, not least of which has been to retain a first class IT infrastructure, given the 24 hour need to provide authorisation for debit card purchases, be they online or point-of-sale and potentially from anywhere in the world.
We must stress that the approval granted by the Central Bank of Ireland to the Irish Credit Union sector and by extension, to those Credit Unions intending to offer the service, has been for personal use only and therefore not suitable currently for business use. We do hope to be in a position in the not too distant future to also provide an offering for business members.
None of us like paying charges but to have offered this service in addition to the current suite would have been impossible without a charging structure. St. Colman’s is of the strong opinion that the charging structure applied will compare really well with alternative providers, is clear and transparent and offers good value for the discerning member.
So in summary, St. Colman’s now offers an impressive array of loan facilities, including Personal, Business, Agri and Homeloans. A full Online ‘banking’ service is also available using the best in class technology as support for those members wishing to conduct business, without attending either of our offices. The latest addition of full current account, overdraft facility and debit card allied with the traditional deposit taking service, now means the credit union is in a position to offer a comprehensive range of services for all members, regardless of location and delivered by an Institution of the highest integrity, who’s sole purpose is to benefit it’s members!!