Credit card customers go online
As household budgets tighten many credit card customers will be looking for better deals. New research from Global Reviews reveals that the majority of credit card customers prefer to research, apply and manage their credit card accounts online, however, the quality of credit card provider websites varies widely.64% of credit card customers prefer to apply online
68% want to manage their credit card accounts online
Lloyds TSB top of credit card website league table
Research from Global Reviews, the customer experience benchmarking company, found that 78% of credit card customers said that they use the web to research credit card deals. Only 11% visit a branch for credit card information and 2% use the phone. 64% said that they prefer to apply for credit cards online, with only 20% saying they would prefer to apply through a branch and 7% over the phone. The survey also found that 68% customers would like to be able to manage their credit card account online.
When asked what is important to them when choosing a credit card, 51% said that there is no annual fee, 46% said the rate of interest, 40% said the ability to manage the account online and 30% said the rewards and extras.
Global Reviews asked over 1,000 credit card customers how they choose a credit card, the role the internet plays in the process and what information and service they would like their provider to offer online. It then looked at the leading websites across the industry to create a benchmark of best practice with over 540 different criteria against which 12 of the UK's leading provider websites were assessed; HBOS, RBS, First Direct, Lloyds TSB, MBNA, Capital One, HSBC, Barclaycard, Halifax, Virgin, Egg and Natwest. Criteria included the content and tools, customer support, prospective customer information, online application and site utility.
The benchmark found that;
In the overall league table of providers Lloyds TSB (60%) was found to offer the best overall credit card website, followed by with Egg (53%), and HSBC with 49%.
Against the industry average of 48%, Barclaycard scored 47%, Halifax and Capital One scored 43%, RBS, MBNA and Virgin scored 42%, HBOS 41%, Natwest 40% and First Direct 33%.
Lloyds TSB offers the best online application (56%). The industry average is only 36%.
Egg received the highest scores for information for prospective customers (73%) and customer support (69%). HBOS scored only 14% for its online support.
Egg offers the best content and tools with a score of 54%. Capital One scored only 15% for this category.
Global Reviews director, Adam Goodvach said: "As household budgets tighten across the UK, many credit card customers will start to notice the rates they have been paying on their credit cards and begin to look around for better deals. With so many customers going online, providers wanting to attract these customers need to make sure that their website offers the information customers are looking for. All the online applications we looked at could be significantly improved. There is a lot more that providers can be doing to make it easier for their customers online."