ding free® summer road trip shows Canadians how to avoid ATM surcharges

National campaign promotes the credit union difference

VICTORIA, Aug. 6, 2013 /CNW/ - The ding free® sea-to-sea road trip that is showing Canadians the benefits of banking with a credit union and saving on ATM surcharge fees kicked off in Victoria last week.

Spearheaded by an alliance of Canadian credit unions, the road trip will stop in 32 communities in an effort to spare more people from the millions of dollars lost each year to ATM surcharge fees.

Driving a special ding free van kitted out with a surcharge-free ATM, seasoned improv actors Tegan and Kyle, along with a video crew, will stop at some of Canada's most iconic roadside attractions. With the typical ATM surcharge costing a toonie, they'll be encouraging Canadians to share their ideas about just how far those toonies they keep can be stretched.

The team will explore various 'out of the ordinary' attractions and conduct interviews to reveal the unheralded and wonderfully bizarre stuff that can be found in Canada's backyard. They'll chronicle their travels through online videos and images at ding-free.ca and on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

Canadians can follow along with the route on the ding free site and are encouraged to give a shout out on social media if they see van on their travels.

"The summer road trip is a quintessential Canadian tradition," said David Phillips, president and CEO at Credit Union Central of Canada. "With the ding free sea-to-sea road trip, we're taking Canadians on a journey across this great land, in an effort to show how easy it is for credit union members to bank ding free - wherever they are."

Credit union members have access to at least 1,800 ding free credit union ATMs across Canada. For members whose credit unions are on both ACCULINK® and THE EXCHANGE® ATM networks, the number of ding free ATMs grows to more than 3,200 — a bigger network than most banks. 

ding free credit union ATMs are identifiable by their bright green ding free decals and can be found using the ding free ATM locator app for smartphones.

For every credit union member who downloads the ding free smartphone app from ding-free.ca,

Canada's credit unions will donate a toonie (up to $25,000 in total) to their choice of three charities: the Terry Fox Foundation, the Rick Hansen Foundation or the Trans Canada Trail Foundation. To date, almost $5,000 has been raised for these causes.

Last year, Credit Union Central of Canada (Canadian Central) launched the National ATM Accessibility Project, led by a national credit union committee and developed by Central 1 Credit Union's marketing team and their creative agency Dead Famous. The campaign promotes surcharge-free ATM access for credit union members under the ding free banner. Several initiatives have launched since then, from various social media initiatives to local street team activations.

"In April, we handed out over $25,000 worth of toonies in nine cities across Canada as part of our first-ever 'ding free day,' giving Canadians back some of the money they lost to ATM surcharge fees," said Martin Reed, AVP of Marketing at Central 1. "Now, we're taking our message across the country to introduce even more Canadians to ding free - not with ads, but with laughter. Because if we can't poke a little fun at ourselves, how Canadian are we really?"

Note to editors

Video and photos of each day's activities are available at:
http://ding-free.ca/

Follow the tour:
http://ding-free.ca/follow-the-tour/

See the van:
https://ws.onehub.com/folders/68yhpayu

Additional content can be found at:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dingfreeATMs
Twitter (ding free): https://twitter.com/dingfree
Twitter (Tegan & Kyle ding free tour): https://twitter.com/dingfreecanada
Instagram: http://instagram.com/dingfree

About Credit Union Central of Canada
Credit Union Central of Canada (Canadian Central) is the national trade association for the Canadian credit union system. Canadian Central represents five provincial/regional Centrals and one Federation representing 339 credit unions with more than $154.2 billion in assets and serving 5.3 million members, outside of Quebec. For more information about Canada's credit union system and Canadian Central, visit www.cucentral.ca.

About Central 1
Central 1 is the central financial facility and trade association for the B.C. and Ontario credit union systems. Central 1 represents a consumer-oriented, full-service retail financial system that serves 2.9 million members and holds $86.2 billion in assets and is owned primarily by its member credit unions, 44 in B.C. and 99 in Ontario. With offices in Vancouver, Mississauga, and Toronto, Central 1 provides a wide range of services such as liquidity management, direct banking, and payment service solutions. Visit www.central1.com.

Canada's credit unions
For the eighth consecutive year, Canadians ranked credit unions first in overall Customer Service Excellence among all financial institutions, surpassing all Canadian banks in Ipsos 2012 Best Banking Awards. Credit unions also took sole honours in the Values My Business and Branch Service Excellence categories. Credit unions tied for first among all financial institutions for Financial Planning and Advice and Telephone Banking Excellence.

SOURCE: Credit Union Central of Canada