TwinStar Credit Union began in 1938, created by a group of Olympia High School teachers. In fact, the credit union – originally known as Thurston County Teacher’s Credit Union – can trace its history to the exact spot of origin: Room 121 of Olympia High School.
“We were in a depression at the time and people – just regular people – couldn’t get loans for things they needed,” explains Matt Devlin, TwinStar Credit Union Vice President of Marketing. “In some ways, things have changed so much in 75 years, but in other ways, they’ve stayed the same.”
The credit union founder’s idea was simple: to provide reasonable loans to people at good rates and good terms that they couldn’t get elsewhere.
As TwinStar nears its 75th anniversary, the credit union can look back on a long, successful history of doing just that.
Today, TwinStar Credit Union has 90,000 members and 325 employees. The majority of employees work here in Thurston County, though the organization has grown into a regional player, with branches stretching from Renton down to Portland.
“We have an extensive branch network, with 24 of them, whereas a typical large credit union might have 10 or 12 branches,” says Devlin.
And there’s a reason for that larger number. “We think that talking to people personally is important,” Devlin says. “And it’s a symbol of convenience and availability.”
Devlin believes the recession has encouraged people to take a look at not only where their checking account is, but whom they’re doing business with, as well.
TwinStar, and the credit union industry in general, has benefited from this shift and is certainly on an upswing. TwinStar has garnered 10,000 new members in each of the past three years.
“We’re a financial cooperative, so we have no stockholders,” Devlin says, explaining the main difference between a bank and credit union. “We think only of returning value to the members, whether that’s through rate or fee or service improvement.”
“We’re local employees making local decisions,” he continues. A radio tagline used by TwinStar says it all: Deal with somebody up the street, instead of Upper Manhattan.
Anyone who lives or works in the state of Washington or the four-county Portland metropolitan area can become a TwinStar Credit Union member.
Many credit unions, including TwinStar, participate in a shared branch program, which allows members to walk into any of 6,500 credit union branches nationwide and conduct transactions for their specific accounts. Simply visit CUSwirl.com and type in a zip code to find nearby participating credit unions.
Taking that idea of cooperation even further, TwinStar has teamed up with Washington State Employees Credit Union for a literal shared branch, located in Lacey, near Saint Martin’s University.
Co-operated and co-owned by the two credit unions, the shared location has been a success. “We do things the banking industry wouldn’t,” Devlin says with a laugh. “The signage is split right down the middle. It’s a huge place, so buying the land and building the brick and mortar was more doable when the two of us came together. That’s a credit union philosophy.”
Another credit union philosophy TwinStar brings is providing access points for members anytime and anywhere. “So beside our branch network, we have every other way to get to us, whether it be on your phone, a mobile app that gets you to your account, Internet, or ATM use anytime.”
“We want people to be able to use TwinStar how they want to and not how we’re telling them to,” he says.
Devlin stresses that TwinStar strives to educate its members and get them into the best product for every situation — not the best product for TwinStar. “That’s the difference between being a profit maximizer and a company that needs simply to make a profit in order to give it back to the client.”
A lot of checking accounts and car loans look alike, but TwinStar has developed a couple of products that are a little different.
TwinStar’s Accelerator checking pays members a 2.5 percent annual percentage yield, provided the member follows some simple guidelines: receive an electronic statement, rather than paper; go online to look at their accounts at least once a month; and use their debit card 12 times a month.
“If your average balance is $1,000, that’s $25 a year in dividends. Not bad. It’s been a really good acquisition product,” says Devlin, who admits it can be difficult to get folks to move their accounts from one financial institution to another.
TwinStar also offers an interesting loan product, its ChoiceLine Home Equity Line of Credit, which offers up to three separate fixed-rate, fixed-term advances and allows members to reuse the funds as they pay the balance.
TwinStar is deeply committed to community, which is no surprise, given its roots and guiding philosophies. From United Way to Sand in the City, TwinStar reaches out to help over 100 recipients every year.
“Our community commitment budget is about $125,000 a year,” says Devlin. “And because our roots are in education, we direct a lot of that into scholarships.”
And coming full circle from the credit unions beginnings in that Olympia High School classroom, TwinStar offers a popular Classroom Cash grant award.
Any teacher in TwinStar’s service area who is a member can fill out a simple, short application that describes what they’d do with the money.
“This has been a real winner,” Devlin says proudly. “In 2011, 177 teachers won. They’re buying construction paper, glue, calculators, software, and science equipment. Or they’re going on a field trip, which they wouldn’t have done otherwise. It’s an awesome program.”
TwinStar Credit Union
P.O. Box 718
Olympia WA 98507
1.800.258.3115
