What about your debit card users who fail to opt-in in the coming months?

A startling statistic emerged from the just-released ACTON Market Intelligence nationwide overdraft opt-in study.

60% of overdraft heavy users – those overdrawing their accounts ten or more times a year – who do not get opted-in by the Reg E deadline, said they are likely to switch to another financial institution should they incur a number of denials at the point of sale.

One has to assume this will occur as it is unlikely these customers will suddenly become more balance conscious before using their debit cards at an ATM or point of sale.

As my mother reminded me often, “a leopard never changes his spots.”

Immediately, this begs the question: Why didn’t these folks simply opt-in to avoid future overdrafts?

While there are several reasons for failing to opt-in, suffice it to say, no matter how much money, effort, or time you spend on your opt-in solicitation campaign, some number of customers will simply fail to get – or act on – your marketing and sales messages.

Others may initially elect to opt-out simply because they didn’t understand your messages.

There’s no such thing as a 100% effective communications effort.

As a result, it is extremely important that your bank or credit union has a backup plan to handle the debit card users who fall through the cracks and emerge without overdraft coverage.

Failure to achieve a 100% opt-in response on moderate to heavy overdraft users means a potential jump in checking account attrition as a number of these folks may leave your institution for one offering a less costly or simpler overdraft protection program.

Not only do you need a backup plan to reach out to your non-responders, you need a real-time tracking program to quickly identify your high-risk debit card users so you can contact them about opting-in.

My concern is that while most bank and credit union marketers are extremely busy planning their overdraft opt-in solicitation campaigns, many of them will most likely overlook the necessity of a backup plan.

Failure to have a backup plan puts your financial institution at risk of losing some of your best fee-generating checking account customers.

“Debit Card Denial & Customer Psychology” is the title of an interesting, nine-page section at the back of the 115-page ACTON Market Intelligence report mentioned above. To obtain a copy or learn more about the AMI study, click on the link in the sidebar to the right.