WARREN, Ohio – 717 Credit Union’s new affinity credit card program aims to have a positive impact by giving directly back to the community.
The Greater Warren-Youngstown Urban League will be the first organization to benefit from the new co-branded card.
Qualifying applicants can receive the card and benefit from a 7.17% interest rate on all purchases and balance transfers made in the first 90 days. The rate will remain on the balances until they are paid off. After 90 days a card’s rate will be adjusted based on the user.
The card also features no annual fees, no balance transfer fees and no cash advance fees.
And for each purchase made with the card, 7.17 cents will be donated to the Greater Warren-Youngstown Urban League. Each swipe of the card will benefit the Urban League’s initiatives to improve financial literacy, improve housing opportunities and more.
John Demmler, president and CEO of 717 Credit Union, and Tom Conley, president and CEO of the Greater Warren-Youngstown Urban League, announced the partnership Feb. 18.
Demmler said instead of 717 giving a one-time or annual donation, the card gives those using it an opportunity to improve their financial situation by benefiting from one of the lowest rates in the country and help an organization that benefits the local community.
“We’re happy. We’re grateful. We’re humbled for this partnership with 717 Credit Union, because this is life changing,” Conley said. “This is historic.”
The Greater Warren-Youngstown Urban League is working to renovate River Gate High School, a dropout recovery school, and make certain financial literacy is a part of what the students learn. The homeless shelter operated by the Urban League provides services to 600 individuals per year. Recently, the Urban League took on a homeless youth program. “You would be surprised how many people in high school are homeless,” Conley said.
The Urban League is also helping people on adult probation learn the right way to survive financially.
With credit card debt at an all-time high and the average interest rate at 20%, Demmler said the past few years have been tough on families, and more people have been using credit cards just to get by. “Today is not about introducing one more credit card product to the mix. It’s about providing a solution and a roadmap forward to financial security,” he said.
Demmler hopes individuals with high-rate credit cards will take advantage of the card to move those balances and get out of debt faster. The lack of fees with the card also will help give back to the community.
“Sometimes giving back is about not taking to begin with,” Demmler said. “Banking local matters, and when we bank with purpose we can build a stronger community.”
Demmler said he hopes more than $10,000 will be sent to the Urban League through the program. 717 will disburse the money quarterly to support Urban League initiatives.
The Rev. Todd Johnson from Second Baptist Church in Warren, said the credit card and relationship with 717 Credit Union is an opportunity to empower the community.
“It provides such a healthy approach to credit that individuals in the Black community normally do not experience. When you look at the proliferation of cash advance businesses that come into our community, the unhealthy credit products that are pushed onto our young people … to see this and to be able to promote this means the world to me,” Johnson said.
Pictured at top: Present for the announcement are John Demmler, president and CEO of 717 Credit Union; Tom Conley, president and CEO of the Greater Warren-Youngstown Urban League; Rhonda Bennett, Urban League board chairwoman; Youngstown Mayor Jamael Tito Brown; Dorian L. Smith, 717 senior vice president of business development; and the Rev. Todd Johnson.