Essential Federal Credit Union Teams With Elan Financial Services On Credit Cards

To connect its members with a collection of credit card products and services, Louisiana-based Essential Federal Credit Union (Essential) has teamed with Elan Financial Services, according to a Monday (March 1) press release emailed to PYMNTS.

“Helping Essential create feature-rich and digitally-centric programs for their cardmembers is a textbook example of our approach to building successful partnerships,” John Owens, senior vice president and general manager of Elan credit cards, said in the announcement. “Leveraging our product development expertise, enhanced rewards and payment technology with Essential’s engaging and collaborative team has set a solid foundation for our future endeavors together.”

Via the partnership, Essential provides its members with various credit card offerings that include rewards, different account opening options, and onboarding and security features. In addition, the multi-year deal enables Essential to leverage Elan’s suite of marketing programs, such as direct mail and targeted digital acquisition campaigns. Essential has more than 40,000 members in nine parishes in the Baton Rouge community.

“Working with Elan supports Essential’s mission of placing its members first,” Richard Williams, president and CEO of Essential, said in the announcement. “At Essential, our goal is to ensure that our members have access to the best financial products and services available. We’re excited to partner with Elan on a broad range of credit card options to meet our members’ needs throughout their lives.”

The news comes as PYMNTS’ January 2021 Online Security and the Debit-Credit Divide, a collaboration with Elan, polled almost 2,500 U.S. consumers to find what they like (and don’t like) about credit card usage. The findings bode well for credit cards. “Our research indicates that credit cards will remain an essential and growing component of the online payment mix,” according to the new study. “41 percent of consumers prefer credit cards when paying online, making it the most commonly used payment method, and 28 percent have increased their online usage of the cards since the pandemic’s onset.”