do you really have to remind people that you're not responsible for the entire internet?

Building better offsite “speed bump” warnings for CU websites

Be honest – does your credit union’s website show a Big Scary Lawyer Warning (BSLW) like this when a member clicks a link?

OH NOES! You are leaving the Awesome CU web site! Awesome CU has no control over and is not responsible for the content or privacy practices of other web sites. ABCFCU does not endorse or guarantee products, information or recommendations provided by linked sites and is not liable for plague, failure of products or services advertised on these sites, or alien invasion. So if you click a link somewhere else and your toes fall off, don’t come running to us!

Is this REALLY necessary? Probably not.

Yes, of course you need to make it clear when someone is leaving your site, but do you really have to remind people that you’re not responsible for the entire internet? Besides, who’s going to read all that? Plus, why is the wording such a frightening mass of legalese?

Consider simpler, gentler speed bump wording that gets the point across without getting in the way or causing fear and doubt. A simple “OFFSITE NOTICE: You are leaving Awesome CU’s web site. Thanks for visiting!” tells the user everything they need to know, and might actually be read and understood.

Choose links carefully and review often

Still, whether you wanted to or not, by placing an outside link on your site, you are in fact offering the credit union’s implicit endorsement of the other site. So be very choosy and mindful about which links you post on your site. If an outside site stops working or has a problem, it can reflect badly on your credit union.

And keep it useful. What can you show members and recommend that they might not find on Google? Make sure you explain why each link is there and what it does. A short, organized, well-curated list with good descriptions is a lot more useful, and easier to maintain, than a long list of every bookmark in your browser.

Keep a list of your web site’s offsite links and review or scan them periodically to make sure they all still work as intended.

Handle partners differently

Of course, every credit union works with many different partners to offer services. So a multi-tier approach to wording your offsite messages works a lot better.

Transaction Partners – No Warning

This would include things like online banking, online loan apps, contact forms, and perhaps appointment scheduling. Anything where the member is essentially interacting more or less directly with the credit union’s systems, and it’s safe to use account numbers, social security numbers, etc. These should get out of the way, go direct, and have no warnings.

Trusted Partners – “Friendly” Partner Warning

Trusted partners often include things like investment and advisory services, debt management, insurance, etc. These are environments where you need to make it clear that this is a partner the member can trust, but it’s not actually the credit union.

Something like this, perhaps: “OFFSITE NOTICE: You are now leaving Awesome Credit Union’s website to visit the website of a trusted partner. Thanks for visiting!”

All other Links – Standard Warning

And of course, all other links would get the standard warning, as succinct, understandable, and user-friendly as you can talk your compliance officer into.

Automate for Consistency

On the credit union websites we build, we completely automate all the above; offsite links on a list of transaction partners get no warning, the trusted partners get the more polite partner warning, and all other links get the standard warning. That way, it’s impossible to forget to add the warning to a link, and links are always handled consistently.

Brian Wringer
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