| | ...contact Lois Kitsch, REAL Solutions National Program Director, at 800.356.9655 x 6770. |
 | "REAL Solutions® is designed to help show that lower-income households can benefit from credit union membership and be transformed into the next generation of credit union members nationwide."
Steve Delfin
Executive Director
NCUF |
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Credit unions can save borrowers millions of dollars in rates and fees by providing sustainable alternatives to payday lending. Our experience with REAL Solutions® has yielded several alternative payday loan models. REAL Solutions® Field Coach Nancy Pierce details these models in a white paper produced by the CUNA Lending Council and the National Credit Union Foundation. |
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 | | | | | Check out Lois Kitsch's progress report on REAL Solutions' first 2 years as the National Credit Union Foundation's signature program. |
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See how much imagery matters! This report published by the Filene Research Institute and funded by the National Credit Union Foundation shows how credit unions could market much more effectively by appealing to emotions of potential members.
REAL Solutions® participants can click here for a free download from Filene! | |  |
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A new research report sponsored by the Filene Research Institute and funded in part by the National Credit Union Foundation offers insight into how consumers with low and moderate incomes approach money, savings, and their children’s financial futures. NCUF funded this report as part of the REAL Solutions® program to help credit unions better understand and serve low-wealth and modest means households. | |  |
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 | | | | | Real Solutions™: Solving the Financial Service Needs of America's Working Families |
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 | | | | | Information on the program from NCUF's 2005-2006 Annual Report |
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 | | | | | This toolkit gives credit unions resources to implement products, services and business models with which to serve low-wealth households currently using the services of payday lenders, check-cashers, rent-to-own stores, pawnshops and other institutions in the alternative financial sector (AFS). This toolkit also gives credit unions basic information, guidance, resources, implementation considerations and direction on how to effectively reach low-wealth households and make them loyal, long-term members. |
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| | | | Browse all REAL Solutions™ related publications |
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|  For predatory loan victims climbing out of debt...working families facing emergencies...young people striving for the American dream...and everyone struggling to live paycheck to paycheck...
REAL Solutions®
"REAL" stands for "Relevant, Effective, Asset-building, Loyalty-producing" Solutions. The program works through state credit union leagues to help credit unions offer services that have proven successful for people of modest means and "low wealth."
Real People
Low-wealth households include not only low-income workers, but also renters with moderate and middle incomes who are unable to save. REAL Solutions® reaches consumers of all ages and all ethnic groups.
Real Needs
Millions of people with low wealth need opportunities to build savings and assets. Many have no alternative but predatory lenders when they need cash in unexpected emergencies.
Read testimonials from members whose lives have been changed!
Read more testimonials from members whose lives have been changed! |
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|  If credit unions learn from seven lessons in a new research report published by the National Credit Union Foundation, more credit unions can offer financially viable programs to help car buyers “steer clear” of predatory auto loans.
Steer Clear: How Credit Unions Help Car Buyers Avoid Predatory Loans, shows how credit unions could gain a sustainable share of the “non-prime” market, where 8 million used cars are sold each year to borrowers with less than prime credit scores.
The 57-page Steer Clear report is available free of charge, thanks to funding by NCUF and The Annie E. Casey Foundation.
NCUF plans to bring the Steer Clear project to a national scale by adding non-prime auto lending options for credit unions to offer through NCUF's signature program, REAL Solutions®.
Marketing Opportunities
More than 88% of Americans need a car to drive to work. Affordable transportation is even more critical for workers with low incomes. Yet the non-prime auto loan market is currently dominated by sub-prime lenders (60% market share) and banks (30% market share) that charge much higher interest rates than credit unions.
“Non-prime auto lending represents a substantial opportunity for credit unions to expand their markets, build net income, and attract new loyal members by giving them a substantially better deal,” observes report author Bill Myers, Field Coach for NCUF’s REAL Solutions® program and Senior Fellow at The Aspen Institute.
The report’s seven lessons are based on experiences from over 250 credit union lenders who responded to a survey commissioned by NCUF, as well as Myers’ follow-up research on best practices from credit unions making “large and sustainable inroads” into non-prime auto lending. |
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Cornell Research Cites REAL Solutions® as "Successful Strategy" |  Research conducted by Cornell University in a report commissioned by the Filene Research Institute finds that "The REAL Solutions initiative illustrates the type of strategy credit unions could adopt to successfully engage the underserved financial market."
REAL Solutions® is the signature program of the National Credit Union Foundation (NCUF). "REAL" stands for "Relevant, Effective, Asset-building, Loyalty-producing" Solutions. REAL Solutions® helps credit unions offer a wide range of financial services that have proven successful in serving working families with low wealth and modest means.
Researchers at Cornell University's Center for Sustainable Global Enterprise emphasized that "This is important because underserved households -- while at the bottom of the economic pyramid now -- represent future savers, future car-buyers, future homeowners, and future generations of credit union members."
This report -- titled Back to the Future: Integrating Sustainability into Credit Union Strategy -- touches on much of what NCUF has learned so far about why and how credit unions can provide affordable services to the underserved financial market. Several of the strategies detailed in the report are based on REAL Solutions’ practical experience.
“The most successful services are not only affordable for consumers, but also sustainable for credit unions,” explains REAL Solutions® National Program Director Lois Kitsch. “Sustainable services can become a permanent part of credit unions’ business plans – as opposed to ‘loss leaders’ that must be limited in volume or subsidized by other parts of the credit unions’ operations.”
Report co-author Monica Touesnard, Managing Director of Learning Labs at Cornell University’s Center for Sustainable Global Enterprise, agreed. In a thank you letter to NCUF Executive Director Steve Delfin, whom she interviewed for the report, Touesnard wrote, “This report gives credit unions a reliable working definition of sustainability providing a variety of models to consider for integrating sustainability into credit union strategic plans.” |
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Payday Lending: The Credit Union Way |  "Credit unions are beginning to realize they need to be a part of the solution and cannot ignore what it is costing their members to do business with payday lenders. Credit unions can offer a better-valued product that is both empowering for their members and sustainable for their credit unions."
- Nancy Pierce,
Field Coach, REAL Solutions® Program
Author, Payday Lending: The Credit Union Way
Produced by the CUNA Lending Council and National Credit Union Foundation
Click here for a five-page excerpt of the white paper, Payday Lending: The Credit Union Way.
Click here for the full 34-page report. |
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How to Help Credit Union Members Avoid Payday Lenders | | There are more payday lending franchises in the U.S. than McDonalds and Burger Kings combined -- so how can credit unions help their members avoid the high cost of fast credit?
Lois Kitsch, National Program Director for the National Credit Union Foundation's REAL Solutions® program, offers helpful advice.
REAL Solutions® has helped pioneer payday lending alternatives and many other services for underserved borrowers at credit unions in more than 20 states. (More information from many participating states is just a click away on the left margin.)
Some of the most unique payday lending alternatives leverage credit unions' ability to work together as not-for-profit cooperatives.
Alternatives across America range from "Stretch Pay" loans, where credit unions can offer more affordable rates by pooling their loan loss reserves, to "GoodMoney," where credit unions can collaborate with Goodwill stores and an affiliated financial education provider. | |  |
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| Credit Unions Make Payday Loans Affordable | | National Credit Union Foundation Presents “Real Solutions® to Members’ Payday Loan Needs”
Credit unions are saving consumers millions of dollars in fees by offering payday loans at break-even prices, panelists revealed at the National Credit Union Foundation’s breakout session during the Credit Union National Association’s Governmental Affairs Conference (GAC).
A standing-room-only crowd of 450 packed the Hilton Washington’s West International Ballroom to learn about “Real Solutions® to Members’ Payday Loan Needs.” Three panelists described products to prevent credit union members from becoming victims of for-profit payday lenders.
Click here for the full story and to download each presenter's presentation.
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REAL Solutions® Becomes Signature Program of National Credit Union Foundation |  To further credit unions’ efforts to serve low-wealth and modest means households, the National Credit Union Foundation (NCUF) in 2007 began the national expansion of REAL Solutions® as its signature program.
Over the next three years as a program of the Foundation, REAL Solutions® is projected to help more than 2,000 credit unions in 33 states offer new products and services to attract more than 250,000 members from these largely untapped and underserved markets.
"REAL" stands for "Relevant, Effective, Asset-building, Loyalty-producing" Solutions.
Read more about how the program works...
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| REAL Solutions™ Video Shows Impact on Consumers | | Watch the following video to see how REAL Solutions™ is helping consumers throughout Wisconsin: |
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| REAL Solutions™ Gets "Great Feedback" from Lawmakers | | CUNA News Now - The Wisconsin Credit Union League's annual Government Affairs Conference drew more than 250 credit union activists headed for Capitol Hill--a record, said the league.
The conference, held at the state capital in Madison, Wis., featured credit union activists visiting nearly all of the 132 state Assembly and Senate members' offices, Lindsay Hoglund, league government affairs specialist, told News Now.
During the visits, credit unions explained the credit union difference and explained REAL Solutions™. They presented lawmakers with a REAL Solutions™ DVD and brochure. REAL Solutions™ encourages credit unions to attract and serve low-wealth or modest-means households.
"We got great feedback on these," said Hoglund.
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| New Mexico Lawmakers Issue REAL Solutions™ Proclamation | | CUNA News Now - New Mexico State Rep. Daniel R. Foley has introduced a proclamation or "memorial" commending the state's credit unions for their work with REAL Solutions™, according to the Credit Union Association of New Mexico (CUANM).
View the proclamation here.
REAL Solutions™ is the program aimed at helping provide financial services to people of low-wealth and modest means. It is a signature program of the National Credit Union Foundation.
More...
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| Montana Credit Unions Gain Grants to Provide REAL Solutions™ | | Montana Credit Unions for Community Development (MCUCD) has attracted $65,000 in outside grants that will support credit unions participating in the REAL Solutions™ program offered by the National Credit Union Foundation (NCUF).
REAL Solutions™ are now being provided by nearly 300 credit unions in 19 states. In most states, credit union leagues are using their own funds and/or state returns from the Community Investment Fund to cover nominal REAL Solutions™ implementation expenses. Montana is the first to add resources to the program by attracting funding from outside the credit union community.
“We commend this creative funding approach,” said NCUF Executive Director Steve Delfin. “By raising outside grant dollars to implement REAL Solutions™, Montana Credit Unions for Community Development will be able to add value, both in terms of financial resources and human resources, for credit unions and consumers.”
In a report to the Montana Credit Union Network Board, MCUCD Executive Director Jeanne Saarinen described the new sources of funds. “I am very appreciative of our funders for this project: the Kellogg Foundation and Consumer Credit Counseling Services of Montana for providing $45,000 to hire staff and enroll in REAL Solutions™ and the Montana Homeownership Network (an affiliate of Neighborworks Great Falls) for providing $20,000 toward a guarantee fund to offset a percentage of the credit union losses associated with offering payday loan alternatives. Without their support, this payday loan alternative project would not be getting off the ground.”
Read more about this innovative REAL Solutions™ approach... |
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