The Debbie headline this month is that we grew our member base 50% in Q2 vs. Q1. We’re super proud of the continued demand coming from our users, and the awesome credit unions and fintechs supporting their journeys.

Now on to the news in the wild…

Trivia time! 🎲

Which state has the most financial distress, according to WalletHub?

A: Florida

B: Texas

C: New York

D: Louisiana

Submit your answer here or reply to this email - one lucky person who gets the right answer in the next week will win a Debbie sweatshirt/hat/t-shirt.

Student loan delinquency is at 30%

That’s right - 30% of people who owe money to the federal government on their loans are now delinquent, and it’s about to start reporting on their credit report. Top that off with the fact that BNPL will start getting reported, and the rate of credit card borrowers who transitioned to serious delinquency (90-plus days) is now at 2008 levels.

This means we’re probably about to see a reckoning for credit scores in the next 6 months, which means way fewer people will have access to credit. Something to think about as you tune up your underwriting models.

My co-founder and I got declined for CU membership

You want to grow. You’re spending money to grow. You’re driving traffic to your pages. And then….nothing.

People don’t complete sign up. Or they don’t fund the account. Or they fail your verification checks. So you start looking for someone to blame — maybe it’s the digital account opening provider, maybe your fraud rules are too strict, or your funding requirement is too high.

Story time - both my co-founder and I got rejected for CU accounts (or got pushed to manual verif with a phone call we never answered), because the address on our license didn’t match our residential address. One survey found that nearly 40% of those age 18-29 don’t have an ID that matches their current address.

For most credit unions, only 15–30% of applicants actually submit an application. And about half of those get declined — usually by ChexSystems or fraud checks. Sometimes it’s real fraud. But a lot of the time, it’s just an outdated rule doing what it’s always done: turning away good people.

Watch Frida’s podcast with Jim Marous from Financial Brand on why your account onboarding is broken.

What’s New? 👀

AI Partner Match is Live 🚀

• We recently launched our new AI partner match - where our users can see their compatibility with our network of CU partners across multiple metrics, like geography, product set, and more. The goal is to send the most qualified members who are more likely to engage as high-value members.

  

Debbie Rewards 2.0: Gamifying debit card usage👋

• This past month, we started testing awarding Debbie points for grocery transactions on partner CU debit cards. We’ve started to see the conversions roll in for both dormant existing member accounts, as well as net new member accounts.

  

🚀 Our Roadmap

Rewards 2.0 Full Launch - August release

• We are completely transforming our rewards system and will be assigning a dollar value to points. Think of this as a reverse credit card program.

Q3/Q4 Roadmap

• WithClutch integration

• Offers 2.0

• Digital banking APIs

📍 Events We’ll Be At

As always, here are some conferences we’re attending coming up. Let me know if you’ll be there so I can say hello!

• MoneyLive North America (9/15-9/16)

  • Frida will be speaking on Loyalty and rewards: adding value for customers

  • Stage 1 | Session 3 at 2:20pm CST

• Reseda Summit (9/17-9/18)

  • Reseda has continued to be a great partner in our CU journey, and we’re excited to present.

• CU WealthTech Connect (9/21-9/23)

  • This will be the inaugural wealth-building conference for CUs, and Rachel will be presenting

    

• Trustage Fintech Summit (9/24-9/25)

  • While we won’t be there in person due to the Rosh Hashana holiday, we have some exciting surprises in store for attendees!

    

• GroceryShop (9/28-10/1)

  • This is our first time attending this event, as we are exploring expanding our rewards redemption network to basic stapes like groceries!

As always, if you’re interested in joining Debbie’s Preferred Partner Growth Network, reply to this email with the keyword “Growth”.

Debbie Nachas Wall

nach·es. noun: nachas Nachas is a Yiddish word meaning that you are happy and proud, especially of someone's accomplishments.

This amazing Debbie Fam member was able to save up enough to build a new home!

We’ve got everyone - Millennial, Gen Z, Gen X, and Baby Boomers working on their finances.