What is it about planes that make people share the most embarrassing details of their lives? Last year I was hijacked by a man who told me that he and his ex-wife were still best friends (sure, uh-huh) and that he was letting her and her boyfriend live with him until her condo was finished (weird), but he was cool with that because he just started dating their kids’ 19-year-old dance teacher (ick) and that evening was taking her to a Green Day concert (liar), and it was great because his nine-year-old daughter was going too but was sitting with her friends, so although they weren’t going together they were bonding, so... Aaaaarrgh!!!!!

Hey Chatty Charlie, I should have told you this to your face, but since I am too polite, I’m going to blog about it to the whole world. You aren’t your ex-wife’s best friend, you’re her best doormat, and the only concert playing in town tonight is Hannah Montana. But I digress.

Airplanes aside, as talkative as people can be, the one thing most people will NOT discuss is their finances. Privacy is critical for us at Financial Service Centers Cooperative Inc. (FSCC). FSCC is a credit union shared branch network where the credit union members use the branches and kiosks of other participating credit unions to do their financial transactions. The network also includes 2,200 Vcom kiosks in 7-Eleven stores.

For the last year we have noticed an interesting trend at the kiosks. The dollar volume of loan advances has been going up steadily. And the average loan payment at a kiosk is slightly higher than a payment taken at the teller window. When all other kiosk transactions tend to be two-thirds the size of teller-assisted transactions, we had to ask ourselves why? What is it about the kiosks that would appeal to someone getting a credit advance or making a loan payment?

We believe the answer is simply privacy, or rather, the additional privacy of not having to do certain transactions with a teller. And it appears the credit union collections departments already know this. Even if the marketing department does little to promote shared branching, many times it’s the savvy collections department that uses the network most effectively. It’s usually the collections officer who lets the member know that she will get immediate credit (as opposed to delayed credit when the payment is mailed) on her loan payment if she makes it at a shared branch or kiosk. If that payment is late, making it at a kiosk offers the additional privacy of not having to face another person.

Similarly, someone needing a credit advance can access funds at a kiosk without having to work with a human.

The 2009 SSKA consumer survey on self-service supports our assertion. Results of the survey showed that one of the significant reasons people use self-service is for the privacy. During these tough economic times, the ability to maintain one’s dignity by not having to face a teller when making a late loan payment is important. Kiosks provide this dignity, and sensitive institutions appear to be picking up on this.

Like me, most consumers just want to make the payment or fly home in peace. Kiosks allow us to get through our day talking to the people we want to talk to and keeping our most private information private.