News from the Wire

Credit card issuers drive use of digital wallets

Wednesday, December 04, 2024 — 13:18:34 (EST)

Wilmington, Del. December 4, 2024 – Keynova Group, the principal competitive intelligence source for digital financial services firms, today announced the results of its second annual 2024 Mobile Credit Card Scorecard. In this highly detailed competitive evaluation of the cardholder experience using the mobile apps and mobile web channels offered by 10 leading U.S. credit card issuers, Bank of America won first place overall and first for its mobile app, while Wells Fargo and American Express tied at first place for the mobile web experience.

This year’s Mobile Credit Card Scorecard revealed issuers’ focus on driving the adoption of digital wallets and secure mobile checkout options, expanding the use of mobile apps for cardholder acquisition and improving details for cardholders about their credit cards’ rewards.

“Issuers are delivering additional value to their growing mobile-only customer base and are creating opportunities for expanded card utilization by promoting digital wallets and secure mobile payments and by better communicating the rewards structure and earnings potential associated with specific credit cards,” said Beth Robertson, managing director, Keynova Group. “Mobile apps are also becoming integral to cardholder acquisition, increasing the number of cardholders and credit cards held by the current customer base.”

Key Findings:

Digital Wallets Expand Issuers’ Secure Mobile Shopping and Checkout Options Issuers are encouraging convenient, fast and secure payment options to effectively position and increase card utilization. As digital wallets are a key alternative for mobile payments, issuers are using several strategies to drive wallet adoption. Half of Scorecard issuers now offer newly approved card applicants the opportunity to begin immediately using a new card via a digital wallet, and one issuer encourages loading a card to the digital wallet during its card activation flow. Card replacements are another opportunity for up to two-thirds of issuers to provide new card data via a digital wallet, enabling instant access prior to a physical card’s delivery. With the recent rollout of bank-based digital wallet Paze, 60% of Scorecard issuers have expanded their secure mobile checkout options with a virtual card solution. All of the issuers offer and promote additional secure mobile checkout options, such as Click to Pay, and 30% of issuers enable proprietary virtual card number programs to protect a cardholder’s actual card number.

Growing Use of Mobile Apps in Cardholder Acquisition

Mobile apps are becoming an important channel for cardholder acquisition, enabling issuers to prospect among current customers who are not already cardholders or those who may be interested in an additional credit card. Currently, 60% of issuers offer a direct path to credit card product details and applications from the public screen of their mobile apps. And 70% supply access to card product information and applications from the authenticated area of their apps, with close to three-quarters of these firms prefilling the application with known customer data. Half of issuers provide a direct in-app display of credit card products and benefits, with 30% highlighting preapproved card offers and 60% showing or linking to card product comparisons.

Issuers Provide Detailed Information on Reward Earnings and Redemptions

Beyond core rewards redemption options, issuers are increasingly conveying more detailed information to mobile cardholders about rewards earnings and redemptions to highlight the value proposition associated with a card’s rewards. This reinforces the card’s rewards potential and can generate additional active spending. While all of the reviewed issuers highlight a card’s current rewards balance on their mobile card summary screens, half of issuers’ apps and 60% of their mobile web channels report year-to-date (YTD) rewards earned. Showing transaction earn values (in dollars or points) and earn rates can help cardholders understand how much they are accumulating in rewards and how they might change their card spending to drive higher earnings. In one or both of the mobile modes, 90% of issuers now show earn value by transaction and 40% display the relevant earn rate. Another 40% cite total rewards by category, such as for utilities, restaurants or gas station purchases, as a way of highlighting actual spending relative to earnings. Viewing YTD reward redemptions can also help cardholders gain a more comprehensive picture of how the use of a specific card benefits them – an option offered in 20% of issuers’ apps and by 40% via mobile web.

About the Mobile Credit Card Scorecard

Keynova Group’s Mobile Credit Card Scorecard objectively evaluates the cardholder acquisition and servicing experience for consumers using the mobile websites and apps of 10 leading U.S. credit card issuers: American Express, Bank of America, Barclays US, Capital One, Chase, Citibank, Discover, PNC, U.S. Bank, and Wells Fargo. With more than two decades of experience benchmarking online and mobile financial services, Keynova Group’s Online and Mobile Credit Card Scorecards identify best practices and trends in the competitive landscape for consumer credit card issuing. For more information about Keynova Group’s Credit Card Scorecards, please visit www.keynovagroup.com/scorecards/#credit-cards-and-lending.

About Keynova Group

Keynova Group is the nation’s foremost competitive intelligence firm providing trusted benchmarking insights and analysis of consumer and small business digital financial services, including banking, credit card, home lending and insurance. Since 1999, Keynova Group’s Scorecards have served as the go-to source for leading financial services firms to obtain reliable competitive intelligence and actionable insights. The firm’s proven methodology and highly detailed results help its clients maximize the value of their digital channels to deliver a premier experience to customers and prospects.

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Source: Company press release.