Your members aren't complaining. They're leaving, and you'll see it two quarters late.
It costs $350–$700 to win a member who generates $100–200 a year, so every one lost to a fixable friction point is a multi-year investment gone. See your annual number.
~11%
of members leave in an average year, and 25% of new accounts churn within the first 12 months
$350–$700
to acquire a member who generates only $100–200/year, 2 to 4 years just to break even
4.5+/5.0
is where top apps now sit; a 3.4-rated app surrenders members to a megabank a tap away
$7M–$13M
in deposits and fee income preserved in a representative $2.8B-CU channel program
The cost that shows up two quarters late
For years, credit unions could count on one advantage: members were stickier than bank customers. That gap is closing fast. The 2026 Cornerstone Advisors / Alkami report finds digital is now the primary channel for member interaction, and delivers a blunt verdict on the last wave of spending: community institutions are "drowning in a sea of sameness."
It costs $350 to $700 to acquire a member who generates $100 to $200 a year, two to four years just to break even. About 11% of members leave annually, and a quarter of new accounts churn inside the first year. Every member lost to a friction point you could have fixed is a multi-year investment walking out the door, and you usually don't see it until the deposit numbers move.
This calculator pulls that cost onto one line, in about five minutes, and shows what you'd preserve by closing the gap.
This calculator pulls that cost onto one line, in about five minutes, and shows what you'd preserve by closing the gap
What the calculator gives you
Your annual attrition cost
A single dollar figure: lost member value + members chosen away by digital-first competitors + acquisition spend wasted on members who leave before they're profitable.
Value you could preserve
A forward number: the deposits and fee income you'd protect by closing the gap — modeled on the 80–150 bps retention lift from a real $2.8B-CU program.
A board-ready business case
Download The COO's Member-Outcome Business Case — a one-page, non-technical template the CEO and board will approve. Member problem → outcome → deposits preserved → staff hours returned.
No core replacement required
The whole model assumes you keep your core. Closing the gap is a member-experience decision built around the core — not a multi-year rip-and-replace.
Calculate your cost of standing still
Enter four figures you already know: annual IT budget, the share spent running existing systems, new-project spend, and how many releases legacy delayed last year. We apply the benchmarks and return your number instantly.
Total technology budget for the year, in USD.
Keeping existing systems alive (maintenance, support, infrastructure). Industry benchmark ≈ 67%.
Budget for new product, capability, and AI work this year. If unsure, use 'grow + innovate' ≈ 33% of total.
Roughly how many planned releases slipped half a year or more because of legacy constraints last year.
Standing still is the most expensive thing your credit union can do
The members you're losing to a slow app or a missing feature don't announce themselves, they just don't come back, and the megabank or neobank that won them is a 90-second download away.
Every quarter the gap stays open, acquisition costs climb and primary relationships erode.
The Good News: Closing it doesn't require touching your core. It's a bounded, member-first program, faster decisions, fewer manual steps for staff, deposits that stay, and a team that owns the result with no permanent vendor dependency. Run your number, then take the one-page case to your board.
4.5/5.0 app
rating recovered within 6 months in a representative $2.8B-CU channel program
80–150 bps
of improved primary-relationship retention, $7M–$13M in preserved deposits and fee income over three years
9 months
core untouched: a modern member experience built in front of the existing core, in three quarterly releases
Want the full research behind the benchmarks?
This calculator is a companion to The Cost of Standing Still: What Legacy Systems Are Really Costing US Financial Institutions in 2026 — Devsu's research ebook quantifying the five hidden costs of legacy systems with data from McKinsey, Cornerstone Advisors, Alkami, IBM, and the NCUA, including the full mid-size credit union scenario behind these numbers.
About Devsu
Devsu is an AI-native engineering and system-intelligence partner for US financial institutions. We help credit unions modernize the member experience around the existing core — bounded, governed, and built so your team owns the outcome. No rip-and-replace, no permanent vendor dependency. A decade of engineering excellence, teams across the Americas, trusted by industry leaders.
Trusted by Industry Leaders
Benchmarks: Gartner Forecast: Enterprise IT Spending for Banking & Investment Services, Worldwide (Q4 2025) and IT-budget allocation benchmarks; McKinsey Unlocking value from technology in banking and Breaking technical debt's vicious cycle; Accenture 2026 banking technology research; IBM Security Cost of a Data Breach Report 2025. Figures are directional, for internal planning and board discussion.
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