SCRANTON -- For customers of a credit union headquartered in Scranton, nights and weekends are no longer off limits.
Tobyhanna Federal Credit Union will soon have its tellers working 24-7, but they will serve customers using a video screen.
Tobyhanna Federal Credit Union is telling customers in Scranton they'll soon offer 24-7, in-person teller service. But it depends what in-person means to you.
You will be able to go to the bank on Franklin Avenue in Scranton 24 hours a day, seven days a week but the teller you'll be talking to will be on another floor of building looking at you through a video screen.
The service will start next week. the credit union's putting the final touches on the technology. The machine looks like a regular ATM.
"If you go back to when banks started, everyone's lives were regulated by banking hours. You had to be at your bank between 9 and 3, or 9 and 1 on Saturdays. Now people can come to the bank whenever they feel like," said Sean Jelen at Tobyhanna Federal Credit Union.
The rest of the credit union will have regular business hours, but if you wanted to come in the middle of the night, you can swipe an access card that lets you into this part of the building where you can talk to a teller 24 hours a day.
"Society is changing with the electronic age, and video conferencing, and cell phones, and everything. I think it's a good idea," said Matt Brady of White Haven.
Officials from Tobyhanna Federal Credit Union say the credit union is the only one in northeastern Pennsylvania, one of only a few in the country that's using video tellers 24 7. And just like mobile banking has taken off, the credit union's CEO says he thinks this will as well.
"Banks and credit unions that want to be successful in their future will probably leverage this because in order to make people happy, you have to provide them service 24 hours a day," Jelen said.
24-hour tellers will start greeting customers on a computer screen next week. The credit union hopes to have this service in all of its branches next year.