RALEIGH, N.C.–For one student, if any financial lessons were taught prior to arriving in college, he concedes not much has “stuck” with him, even if he displays a good understanding of the basics. And that includes his credit union.
The student’s perceptions are the latest to be featured in a series that asks college students what they really think and know about credit unions, money management, finances and more.
CUToday.info has partnered with Zogo, a fintech founded by undergraduate students at Duke University that is focused on innovative ways to use mobile first to improve financial literacy, to feature real interviews with college students.
Some of the answers as revealed in a new series of interviews, which were conducted by Zogo, will be eye-opening to many in credit unions, and will likely send decision-makers back to the digital drawing board if they want to capture the next generation of members.
The introduction to the series, including the first student interview, can be found here. Other interviews can be found here, here, here, here, here, and here.
Here’s what the latest student in the series had to say:
Name: Brent Van Vliet
Age: 21
Hometown: Harrisburg, N.C.
Major: Political Science and Global Studies
Grade: Senior at the University of North Carolina
Fun Fact: Studied abroad in Spain
Zogo: How did you learn about personal finance in high school?
Van Vliet: My parents. I never took a class on it in high school. So just my parents and the Internet.
Zogo: What do you know about personal finance?
Brent Van Vliet
Van Vliet:I wouldn’t say anything really stuck with me.
Just save a certain amount of your paychecks.
Zogo: How can a person increase their credit score?
Van Vliet:By paying off their credit cards on time or by taking out a loan and paying it back with interest on time.
Zogo:What is an insurance deductible?
Van Vliet:When you have insurance, if you have a cost, your deductible is the amount that you’re responsible for. Like some people have a deductible of $1,000 for medical costs. That’s what they have to pay before the insurance kicks in.
Zogo: Can you describe banks to me?
Van Vliet:I’ll just talk about big banks. It’s somewhere where people put their money. Then the bank is going to take that money and invest it in companies, mortgages, loans, and things like that and collect interest on those. That’s how banks turn a profit. There’s different types of banks. There’s like the credit union, which doesn’t really do that…it’s not beholden to shareholders. But there’s investment banks too, and there are smaller community banks.
Zogo: Who do you bank with?
Van Vliet: Coastal Federal Credit Union
Zogo: Do you have a favorable or unfavorable opinion of them?
Van Vliet:I have a favorable opinion of them. They’re helpful and I like using them compared to a big investment bank, someone like Wells Fargo or Bank of America. It’s just because of the structure of a credit union. They’re less motivated by sheer profit and their “shareholders” are all the people that put their money in. I’ve never had a bad experience with them.
Zogo: Do you feel loyal to the credit union?
Van Vliet: Yeah. I will probably keep using them as long as I am capable of using them. I don’t have any reason to change to another bank.
Zogo: Why did you choose a credit union?
Van Vliet: The reason I started is just because that’s what my parents used when I had my first bank account.
Zogo: What are some things that a financial institution can do to make you feel loyal towards them?
Van Vliet: I think there’s a general notion around a lot of financial institutions or banks that they don’t care as much about protecting your money as they do about their own profits, which is why a lot of people would advise you to use a credit union. People tend to find them a little shadier because they might partake in some riskier practices in the interest of profit that in the long run might make their clients vulnerable to financial risk. So, any practices that make them feel like they can trust them more, that they’re not doing risky things with your money, is going to make people want to use a bank more.
