Cash App Is Coming For Your Future Members. Credit Unions Should Pay Attention.

For years, credit unions have talked about the need to attract younger members. We have created student checking accounts, sponsored financial literacy programs, offered scholarships, posted money tips on social media and occasionally refreshed a debit card design to make it feel more youthful. Yet the industry's average member continues to get older, and younger consumers increasingly begin their financial lives somewhere else.

Cash App's latest move should make us think differently about why.

Cash App has expanded its family offering to allow parents to establish managed accounts for children as young as six. Kids can receive their own customizable debit card, get an allowance, establish savings goals and begin learning how to manage money. Parents maintain oversight through spending controls, transaction notifications and the ability to lock the card when necessary. As children get older, the relationship can transition into Cash App's teen experience.

On the surface, it looks like a kids' debit card. Strategically, it is something much bigger.

Cash App is building a customer acquisition pipeline that can begin at age six.

That should get the attention of every credit union leader who gives a damn about the future of their credit union.

We may be trying to attract younger members too late

One of the most important lessons from our recent work around Gen Z is that credit unions may not have a rejection problem as much as we have a relevance problem. Many younger consumers aren't actively choosing a fintech or national bank instead of a credit union. Too often, credit unions simply aren't part of the consideration set.

Recent Vertice AI research with Gen Z reinforces this. Many participants had limited understanding of what makes a credit union different from a bank, and some had barely encountered credit union marketing at all. What was particularly interesting, however, was what happened once the credit union model was explained. The ideas of community, shared ownership, better financial outcomes and an institution designed around members became much more appealing.

That creates both an opportunity and a warning.

We can certainly do a better job telling the credit union story to 18-, 22- and 25-year-olds. But companies like Cash App are demonstrating that the financial relationship is forming much earlier. By the time someone opens their first "real" checking account, they may already have years of experience moving money, using a debit card, saving, receiving money from friends and interacting with a financial brand.

The question for credit unions, then, isn't simply how we attract younger members. It is how early we need to become relevant in their financial lives.

Cash App understands something important about families

Perhaps the smartest part of Cash App's strategy is that it recognizes there are really two customers involved.

The parent makes the decision, but the child uses the product.

Those two people want very different things. Parents want safety, oversight, responsible financial habits and an opportunity to teach their children about money. Young people want independence, personalization and something that feels like it belongs to them. Cash App has designed an experience that attempts to satisfy both at the same time.

That distinction is important because many credit union youth products are still designed primarily from the institution's perspective. We create a youth savings account, establish an age range, develop a cute name and then tell parents that opening the account will teach their children financial responsibility.

But the account itself often isn't particularly interesting to the child.

If we want to compete for younger relationships, we need to move beyond simply having a youth product and start thinking about the experience surrounding it. There are three places I believe credit unions can begin.

1. Build a family financial experience, not another youth account

Most credit unions already have many of the products they need. The bigger opportunity is connecting those products into an experience that grows with the family.

Imagine a parent opening the credit union's app and seeing a simple family hub. They could establish an account for their child, automate an allowance, transfer money for chores, set spending controls and help create savings goals. As that child grows, the experience could naturally evolve into a teen checking account, first debit card, direct deposit and eventually a first credit product.

The child's experience should feel different from the parent's. Give young people some ownership. Let them personalize their card, name their savings goals and visually see their progress toward the bike, gaming system, concert, first car or whatever else matters to them.

The parent should walk away thinking, This is helping me teach my kid about money. The child should walk away thinking, This is my money and I'm learning how to use it.

That is a much stronger proposition than "Youth Savings, ages 0–17."

More importantly, it begins turning the credit union into the financial home for the household rather than simply another account the parent opened for the child.

2. Stop marketing financial literacy and start creating financial experiences

Credit unions care deeply about financial education, and we should. But we sometimes package it in ways that make sense to financial institutions rather than the people we're trying to reach.

A 13-year-old probably isn't particularly excited about learning the fundamentals of compound interest. They may be very interested, however, in figuring out how to save $400 for something they desperately want.

That is where financial education becomes powerful.

Instead of simply publishing another article about the importance of saving, credit unions could create savings challenges inside the actual experience. Save your first $100 and receive a small reward. Save half of your allowance for eight weeks and unlock something. When a teenager gets their first job, challenge them to save 20% of their first four paychecks. Let parents create rewards for reaching goals or matching a portion of what their child saves.

Suddenly, we're not teaching a lesson about saving. We're helping someone experience what saving feels like.

The same thinking can follow a young member through important financial moments: first debit card, first paycheck, first car, first credit score, first credit card and eventually their first apartment or home. Each creates an opportunity for education at the exact moment the information becomes relevant.

Credit unions have always said financial education is part of our mission. The opportunity now is to make education feel less like a class and more like a useful feature of the relationship.

3. Use the parents you already have to acquire the members you don't

This may be the biggest opportunity of all.

Credit unions spend significant amounts of money trying to reach younger consumers while thousands of potential future members may already be sitting at their existing members' kitchen tables.

That changes youth acquisition from a media problem into a data problem.

A long-time member in their 30s or 40s with direct deposit, an auto loan and a mortgage likely has different financial needs and life circumstances than a 23-year-old who recently opened their first checking account. The credit union already knows a tremendous amount about these relationships, yet most marketing still treats both members largely the same.

This is where the work being done with platforms such as Vertice AI becomes particularly interesting. Better data and predictive tools allow us to move away from sending the same campaign to everyone and toward identifying the members most likely to need a particular product, service or conversation.

Apply that thinking to youth acquisition and the opportunity becomes much bigger. Instead of marketing a "Youth Savings Account" to the entire membership, identify households most likely to have children in the relevant age ranges and start a conversation specifically with those parents.

And don't lead with the account.

Lead with the problem the parent is trying to solve.

Your kid is going to learn about money somewhere. Let's help them learn it well.

Now the credit union isn't selling another deposit account. It is helping a parent accomplish something they already care deeply about.

The real value isn't the $300 youth account

This is also where credit unions need to think differently about ROI. A child's savings account with a few hundred dollars in it isn't going to transform the balance sheet this year, which makes youth products easy to deprioritize when we're focused on immediate loan and deposit growth.

But measuring the value of the account today misses the economics of the relationship tomorrow.

An eight-year-old might begin with savings and allowance money. At 13, that relationship can become a debit account. At 16, a first job introduces direct deposit. At 18, there may be a first credit card. At 19 or 20 comes a first auto loan. A few years later there may be a more significant savings relationship, and eventually a mortgage, business account or growing household relationship.

Not every child will follow that path, of course. But the institution that already has a trusted relationship when those needs emerge has an enormous advantage over the institution introducing itself for the first time.

And that is what makes Cash App's move worth paying attention to. They aren't looking at a six-year-old and asking how profitable that customer will be this year. They are creating familiarity, habits and relationships that have the potential to grow over time.

Credit unions should be thinking the same way.

We don't need to out-Cash-App Cash App

It is easy for smaller financial institutions to look at fintech companies with enormous technology budgets and conclude that we can't compete. But copying every feature isn't the objective. Understanding what those companies are getting right is.

Cash App is making money visual and interactive. It is giving parents control while giving children ownership. It is reducing friction and allowing the relationship to evolve as the child grows. Most importantly, it is recognizing that a lifetime financial relationship can begin long before someone needs an auto loan or mortgage.

Credit unions have something equally powerful to build from. We can serve the entire financial life of a family, from a child's first savings goal to a parent's mortgage and eventually that child's first car, first home and first serious financial decisions. We can combine digital convenience with real people, community connection and the cooperative model younger consumers often find appealing once they actually understand it.

But none of those advantages matter if we arrive too late.

The next generation of credit union members isn't going to show up automatically because their parents belonged to one. We have to create a reason for parents to introduce their children to the credit union and, just as importantly, a reason for those children to want to stay.

Maybe the industry's younger-member problem doesn't start at 18 after all.

Maybe we're already ten years late.