Halliburton Employees’ Federal Credit Union, of Duncan OK asset size of 123 million, hosted a one day only loan sale to be held on Valentine’s Day. The “Sweetheart of a Deal” would allow the first $500,000 in loans funded on Feb 14 only to receive an annual percentage rate of .99%, the remainder of the day all other approved loans would receive 1.99%.
Marketing for this event began on Jan 16, using branch media, newspaper and email tag lines. Word quickly spread about this sweet deal.
“We had several members anxious to be the first in the door,” expressed Jackie Haines, Marketing/Business Development Associate at HEFCU. “One gentleman came at 5:15 pm the day before, set up a lawn chair with a poster on it that said he was first in line, and camped in his vehicle the rest of the night. When we opened our doors at 9:00 am there were about 25 people waiting in line at our main location.”
In only 30 minutes the $500,000 was gone. After the funding on those first loans was done the credit union actually funded $598,234.97 at the .99% APR, and completing the day with $768,219.13 funded with the 1.99% APR, for a total of 61 loans funded at $1,366,454.10.
“Part of the catch of the promotion was members had to have everything ready to fund that day,” Phil Van Buskirk, Senior Loan Officer at HEFCU explained. “We opened the pre-approval process on Feb 8 to give members the opportunity to get a purchase agreement, loan payoff, title information and any other required documents so they could be ready to sign and fund their loan on Feb 14.”
Some members used this as an opportunity to purchase someone close to their hearts a new vehicle, such as the gentleman who waited all night to surprise his wife for Valentine’s Day.
“We will definitely do this promotion again in the future, this was the first time we had done a promotion like this, so there are some changes we need to make going forward, but in all it was a great day for the Credit Union and for our members,” stated Chris Bower, President/CEO of HEFCU.