Tap to Pay is Coming Soon!
Tap to Pay is Coming Soon!
Ascentra cardholders will soon be experiencing the ease of paying with their debit or credit card when tap to pay becomes available on your NEW Visa® Debit Card in March 2025 and your NEW Visa Credit Card in May 2025. What, no more inserting your chip card or swiping at the merchant terminals? Yes, look for this symbol when making your in-person purchase (insert the symbol here) and tap your card to pay.
Issuing new debit and credit cards to our membership is a large task, and we want to make sure we are communicating with you along the way. It is important that your current mailing address, email and cell phone numbers are up to date within our records. Communication will be delivered to you via all three of these methods, and of course, your new cards will be mailed to your physical address. Stop in any of our branch locations, give us a call or chat with us at ascentra.org to ensure we have your most up-to-date information.
Rewards programs have been offered to Ascentra's cardholders for several years now and we know this is an exciting perk for our membership! As we transition to our new cards, there will be a small disruption in our rewards program in early 2025. The existing rewards program, uChoose Rewards, stopped earning points on Jan. 31, 2025. Members who are enrolled in this program will have until Feb. 28, 2025, to redeem their points for cash or merchandise. In early March 2025, when the new Visa debit cards are activated, our NEW rewards program will be available to earn points with purchases. In early May 2025, when the new Visa credit cards are activated, the NEW rewards program will be available to earn points with purchases too. Tap to pay and earn reward points redeemable for cash, merchandise, travel or donation to the Ascentra Credit Union Foundation.
Security is top of mind for everyone. Tap to pay and mobile wallets provide an extra layer of security through tokenization of your card number when using at merchant terminals. What is tokenization you ask? A tokenized payment means that instead of transmitting your actual card details, a unique, temporary code (or token), is used to represent your 16-digit card number during an in-person transaction, significantly enhancing security by preventing the exposure of your sensitive card data. Mobile wallets (Apple Pay, Google Pay and Samsung Pay) are offered today for Ascentra cardholders, and we encourage everyone to use this technology for added protection. As we transition cardholders to their new Ascentra cards, mobile wallet technology may have a waiting period of up to 30 days, following card activation, to incorporate the newly issued 16-digit card numbers. Until your new card can be recognized in the mobile wallets, we ask that you tap to pay to have the same level of security. Ascentra will make sure to let you know as soon as mobile wallet is available.
New card designs? New card numbers? All debit and credit card holders will be receiving a newly designed card, with a new 16-digit card number, expiration date, and CVV code. We want our cardholders to have the most up-to-date technology and security features so new card numbers need to be created to deploy these important enhancements in our cards. We realize that cardholders who are making automatic payments with their existing Ascentra card will need to get the payment switched to their new Ascentra card and we understand that this will be a slight inconvenience for many cardholders. We encourage you to take time now, ahead of your new card(s) being issued, to gather information about these payments so that when the time comes you have the resources to make the switch to your new Ascentra card number.
We are so excited to bring you contactless, tap to pay Visa Debit and Credit Cards! Over the next few months look for ample communication from our Ascentra Team as we begin to deliver this technology to you, our valued membership.
Thank you for your continued membership. We look forward to delivering this enhanced payment technology to you soon!