Board and Addition Financial negotiate one-year affinity debit-card deal, revert proposed 4¢ giveback to 3¢

The Leon County Schools board and representatives from Addition Financial discussed revisions to a proposed affinity debit-card contract during an agenda-review workshop on March 9.

Addition Financial presented a redline that had asked to increase the per-transaction contribution from 3¢ to 4¢ and included an Exhibit C listing contingent contributions aimed at supporting school events and programs. The presenter described Exhibit C as a composite of what has historically been provided and what Addition would sponsor going forward. "This list is a composite list of what they have traditionally done on an annual basis without a contract," a district staff member said during the presentation.

Board members pressed the vendor on two core concerns: whether contract language implied exclusivity, and how reliably the district could count on the proposed contributions. The vendor representative said the apparent exclusivity applies only to co-branded debit-card branding and marketing, not to preventing other financial institutions from supporting the district in other ways. "We would never limit any other financial institution from trying to support the school district," the Addition Financial representative said.

Board members and counsel proposed several edits to the draft to remove ambiguity. The board asked that partner language referencing a "trusted" or "official" credit-union partner be moved specifically into the debit-card subsection so it would be clear that branding language applies only to the co-branded card.

The parties agreed in principle to three substantive changes to the draft: revert the proposed 4¢ per-transaction contribution back to 3¢; shorten the contract term from three years to one year; and require quarterly transaction reporting rather than annual reports. Addition Financial said it would work with the district to create a tiered bonus model after a one-year term and provide transaction analytics. "Something we would be open to is if we take this agreement and term it to a year," the representative said, describing a plan to evaluate a tiered structure after the initial term.

Addition Financial also addressed earlier rollout and systems-merger issues, telling the board its contact center, branches and back-office teams were focused on resolving member problems and on protecting customers' accounts. The representative said the credit union had added resources to support members affected by the systems change.

Next steps: board counsel confirmed the suggested redlines (moving partner language into subsection a.2/b for the debit-card program, inserting quarterly reporting in 2d, and changing the initial term to one year in c.4). Staff will circulate an amended Exhibit C and a revised contract for board review at the next meeting.