Intuit’s New Quicken Site Sprouts Some Mint

image If anyone still wondered how serious Intuit is about incorporating the Mint brand into its portfolio after its $170 million acquisition, take a look at the latest version of the Quicken sales site. Mint is prominently featured (see first screenshot below), especially if you scroll one “ad spot” over (second screenshot).

I also found Mint mentioned at PayTrust, Intuit’s bill management site (third screenshot). There’s even a small plug on the Quicken Online login page (fourth screenshot).

However, on Mint’s site the co-branding is not reciprocated. Quicken is not mentioned at all and Intuit is relegated to 8-point type at the bottom of the page (fourth screenshot).

The latest traffic figures from Compete support the theory that Intuit is de-emphasizing Quicken Online in favor of Mint. Traffic to <quicken.intuit.com> fell 50% in November to about 400,000, while Mint held steady at about 3x that, 1.2 million unique visitors.

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Source: Compete, 10 Dec 2009 (link)

Quicken homepage on default choice, Quicken 2010 (link; 9 Dec. 2009, 11 PM)

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Quicken homepage with Mint.com selected from scrolling choices
Note: Yellow highlight is mine

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Intuit PayTrust homepage (link)

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Quicken Online login page (link)

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Mint homepage
Intuit mentioned twice at bottom of page (yellow highlight is mine). 

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Note: For more information on the PFM space, see our Online Banking Report on Personal Finance Features.

P2P Payments: CashEdge’s POPmoney Spotted in the Wild at First Hawaiian Bank

clip_image002When CashEdge demo’d its new person-to-person (P2P) payment solution, POPmoney, at Finovate in September (video here), they said they expected four clients to be live by year-end. It looks like the first one is there, or almost there.

imageFirst Hawaiian Bank has a lengthy POPmoney FAQ posted on its website (see screenshot  below). Pertinent details on the new POPmoney service include (refer to full text below):

  • Cost is $1 per transaction
  • Users can send money via email address, mobile phone number, or directly into the recipient’s bank account (if known)
  • Online banking customers will find it in the Transfers section under a tab entitled Send Money
  • P2P payments are limited to $5,000 per month subject to a daily maximum of $1,000 via email/mobile or $2,000 transferred directly to another bank account
  • Payments can be scheduled up to one year in advance

For more on the P2P payments market, see our latest Online Banking Report, published 15 minutes ago: Making the Case for Person-to-Person Payments

First Hawaiian Bank’s POPmoney FAQ (link; 8 Dec. 2009)

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FAQ text:

What is “POPmoney”?
“POPmoney” is a feature of the FHB Online® banking service that lets you send money to someone electronically via their email address, mobile phone number, or directly to their bank account. Payments to someone’s email address or mobile phone number are accompanied with a personalized message letting them know that the funds are available for electronic deposit to wherever they choose, while payments to someone’s bank account are deposited automatically.

How much does POPmoney cost?
Sending money via POPmoney costs only $1.00 per transaction.

How do I sign up for POPmoney?
POPmoney is available to customers through the FHB Online service and can be accessed via the “Send Money” tab within the “Transfers” section. If you are not currently enrolled for FHB Online, visit www.fhb.com and click on the Online Banking “Enroll” button in the upper left-hand corner of the screen. If you are already enrolled for FHB Online, sign onto FHB Online, go to the Transfers section, and then click on the Send Money (Personal Only) link. Follow the three-step sign-up process:

  • Step 1 POPmoney Agreement – Accept the FHB Online POPmoney amendment.
  • Step 2 Contact Information – Your email address and mobile phone number are required as part of the sign-up process. You will need to verify the email address we have on file is correct. If it is incorrect, please close the window and click “Update Email Address” within the Customer Service tab to update your email address. After confirming your email address, return to the “Transfers – Send Money (Personal Only)” link and you will also be asked to provide a mobile phone number as part of the sign-up process.
  • Step 3 Email/Mobile Phone Validation – We will send verification codes to your email address and mobile phone. Please check your email and your mobile phone for these codes and enter them in the boxes shown on-screen to complete the sign-up process.

Once you’ve completed the steps above, you will receive a confirmation message indicating that you have successfully signed up for POPmoney. Click “Continue to POPmoney” to start using the service.

Who can I send money to?
You can send money to someone just by knowing their mobile phone number or email address. The person receiving the notification will be able to deposit the money to any personal checking, savings, money market checking, or money market savings account at FHB or nearly any other U.S. bank. You can also send money directly to someone else’s bank account if you have their bank routing and account number information.

How does the recipient receive and deposit funds?
If you are sending money to a mobile phone or email address, the recipient will receive a notification with a personalized message indicating that you have sent them a payment. The recipient has two ways of depositing the funds:

  • If the recipient is a First Hawaiian Bank customer, they can deposit the funds into their account via the FHB Online service. Upon enrolling, or if the recipient is already enrolled for FHB Online, they can click on the “Send Money (Personal Only)” to access the POPmoney feature. Any payments that have been sent to them will be listed under the “Incoming Payments & Alerts” tab. They can then select an account to which to deposit the funds. They can also designate whether future payments should be automatically deposited to this account.
  • If the recipient is a not a First Hawaiian Bank customer, or would like to deposit the funds into a non-FHB account, they can visit www.popmoney.com/FHB. They will be prompted to provide their mobile phone or email address along with their bank account information for the payment to be deposited.

Can I send money internationally?
No, you can only send money to individuals via their accounts within the U.S.

What is the maximum transaction amount I can make via POPmoney?
The maximum daily amount allowed for POPmoney transactions is the current available balance in the source account (plus any available credit in an associated Yes-CheckSM account if applicable) up to the daily limit mentioned below, whichever is less. This includes any single transaction or the total amount outstanding or “in process.” For additional information, see below:

Sending Money to Bank Account

Maximum Amount

Daily

$2,000.00

Monthly

$5,000.00

Sending Money to Mobile or Email

Maximum Amount

Dail
y

$1,000.00

Monthly

$5,000.00

Can I set up recurring or future-dated transactions?
Yes, POPmoney transactions may be scheduled up to 365 days in advance of the date the transaction is to be made. Automatic recurring transactions may also be scheduled for substantially regular intervals (e.g., monthly) in the same amount between the same two accounts. You can schedule recurring transactions to be made weekly, every other week, twice a month, monthly, every four weeks, every other month, quarterly, twice a year, and annually.

How far in advance can I schedule a transaction?
You can schedule a POPmoney transaction up to one year in advance.

When are POPmoney transactions processed?
Transactions will be processed on the date you specify up to a year in advance. Transactions will take approximately three business days to process. Transactions scheduled to process on a weekend or holiday will be processed the previous Business Day.

What is the cut-off time to submit a transaction?
The cut-off time for submitting transactions is 7:00 p.m. HT each Business Day. Transactions submitted after 7:00 p.m. HT or on weekends or holidays will be processed the next Business Day. A Business Day is every calendar day except for Saturdays, Sundays, and bank holidays.

What is the cut-off time to change or delete upcoming transactions?
The cut-off time to change or delete an upcoming transaction is 7:00 p.m. Hawaii Standard Time the previous Business Day prior to the send date.

When does the transaction get debited from my account?
The transaction debit request is initiated on the “send date” but will not post against your account for one to two days.

What happens if I set up a transaction but do not have sufficient funds in my account on the “send date?”
If, on the “send date,” there is insufficient balance in your account to make a transaction you authorized, we will delay the transaction and try again on the next Business Day. If there is still insufficient balance to make the transaction, we may either refuse to pay the item, or we may make the transaction and overdraw your account. In either event, you will be responsible for any non-sufficient funds (“NSF”) or overdraft charges that may result.

How many people can I add to my list of contacts?
You may add up to a total of 50 contacts.

I used to send money to third parties via the External Transfers function. What will happen to this information?
As part of introducing POPmoney, we have migrated your third-party information and activity from External Transfers to POPmoney. This includes contacts or accounts, as well as upcoming and previous transactions. Categories for previous transactions will not be migrated and will need to be re-defined.

How do I disable POPmoney?
You may disable POPmoney by calling us at 643-4343 (1-888-643-4343 from the Continental U.S., Guam, and CNMI). Please note that disabling POPmoney will also disable your access to External Transfers.

Citibank Ends its Three-Year Test with Obopay

imageIt appears that the Obopay/Citibank co-branded service is being shut down. From the sparse note on the webpage <citi.obopay.com> (see screenshot below), it doesn’t sound like a temporary hiatus: 

As of Dec. 22, 2009, “Citi Obopay” will no longer be available.
If you would like to use the Obopay service go to www.obopay.com.
The service available at www.obopay.com has no affiliation with Citibank.

The companies have been working together on Obopay-powered mobile payment for more than three years.

Citi Mobile SVP Marylou Dowd said on Thursday in American Banker that the Obopay tests were concluded this summer. Not coincidently, Citi’s mobile joint venture MMV announced last week that it was partnering with CPNI Inc. of Toronto to build a mobile P2P payments service.

Obopay’s website still shows Citi Obopay on its Financial Institutions page (see inset above). But Citigroup, which invested at least twice in Obopay in the July 2007 C-round and April 2008 D-round, is not listed on Obopay’s investors page.

The site was never publicized by Citibank. Traffic peaked at 7,000 unique visitors in Feb. before falling so low that Compete could not measure it after April 2009:

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Source: Compete, 3 Dec 2009, link

For future reference, we’ve archived the website screenshots below.

Citi Obopay homepage (3 Dec 2009, 4 PM Pacific)
Note: The <citi.obopay.com> URL now redirects to the Obopay homepage.

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How Citi Obopay Works page <citi.obopay.com>

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Get Citi Obopay page <citi.obopay.com>

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Citi Obopay Fees page <citi.obopay.com>

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Note: For more info on mobile banking, see our Online Banking Report: Mobile Banking via iPhone (March 2009) as well as our earlier reports on Mobile Banking (Feb. 2007) and Mobile Payments (April 2007).

Finovate Events in 2010 Announced — Apply to Demo Now

We’re incredibly pleased to announce our Finovate events for 2010 today. Over the last few years, our Finovate conferences have grown tremendously and become must-attend showcases of the best new innovations in financial and banking technology.

FinovateSpring 2010 Logo

FinovateFall 2010 Logo

In 2010, we will again be organizing two great Finovate conferences. The first, FinovateSpring, will take place in San Francisco on Tuesday May 11 and the second, FinovateFall, will take place in New York City on Tuesday October 5.

Both events will showcase dozens of fintech innovations from established leading companies and hot young startups via our special demo-only (no slides allowed) format. Every company selected to demo at the events gets 7 minutes on stage to show their latest and greatest to the entire audience plus a plug-and-play demo booth during the intimate networking sessions to connect one-on-one with the attendees. The powerful blend of a ton of high-quality demos and top-notch networking in a single day that has won rave reviews year after year from both participating companies and attendees is back!

In 2009, the high-quality audiences of financial execs, press, bloggers, analysts, VCs and entrepreneurs at both conferences grew 20% and in 2010 we expect the events to be even bigger and better.

If you’re interested in doing a demo at one of the 2010 events, please email me today at eric@netbanker.com for more details. The application window for the spring event is now open and will close at the end of February (there are advantages to applying early).

P.S. Tickets for both events are on sale now at www.finovate.com. Register today to lock in your spot and the super early bird price!


ericphoto.jpgEric Mattson is CEO of Online Financial Innovations, the parent company of NetBanker, Online Banking Report and the Finovate Conference Series. He can be reached at eric@netbanker.com.

Launched: PerkStreet Financial Focuses on Debit Card Rewards and Free Checking

image With growing debit card usage, and few rewards programs with meaningful payment bonuses (note 1), the market seems right for a focused debit-card-rewards provider.

But the market has not evolved as fast as many thought. Capital One threw in the towel on its decoupled debit rewards program. Finovate alum (video hereTempo Payments is refocusing on affinity-branded cards, which often have a reward component paid for by the affinity partner.

But a new entrant, PerkStreet Financial (powered by The Bancorp Bank) may have the right answer: reward levels on par with credit-card programs, 1% of spending value, 4x the average debit card program (note 1). The company emphasizes rewards paid via free coffee (nice tie-in to the name), music downloads (going after the youth market), or gift cards from name-brand retailers (adds retail interest to the account). See the first screenshot.

But with lower interchange, and no monthly fee (note 2), how can a bank afford such high rewards?

  • No branches
  • Rewards paid out on retail stored-value cards which are provided to the bank by retailers at prices less than face value
  • $30 overdraft charges (but it’s OPT-IN optional)

$50 new-account bonus: If you navigate directly to the website, there is no new account bonus (see screenshot 2). But if you use Google, it’s hard to miss PerkStreet’s ad (screenshot 3) or the affiliate deals. Going to the site through those options earns you a $50 bonus (screenshot 4), and in the case of the Google ad, an additional $50 qualified satisfaction guarantee (screenshot 5). 

1. PerkStreet perks page (link; 2 Dec 2009)

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2. Standard homepage with no offer, emphasizing free

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3. Google search for “PerkStreet Financial” (2 Dec 2009, 5:30 PM Pacific from Seattle IP address)

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4. PerkStreet homepage accessed via affiliate (Doughroller link)
$50 bonus with $25 opening deposit and three months of activity

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5. Landing page offer (link, 2 Dec 2009)
$50 bonus now with direct deposit, and $50 more if not satisfied within eight months.
To qualify as not satisfied, you must have set up direct deposit within 60 days of account opening, made 10 or more debit transactions per month for six straight months, and have closed your account within eight months of opening.

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Notes:
1. According to the fine print disclosures on PerkStreet’s homepage, 17% of debit cards provide rewards with an average value of 0.23% of spending (source cited: BAI/Hitachi 2008 Study of Consumer Payment Preferences).
2. The account has a monthly fee ($4.50) only if there is no activity.

Finovate 2009 Demo Videos Available Free Online Now

I’m excited to announce that the videos of all the demos from our Finovate 2009 conference this fall are now available free online.

It was an amazing conference with a ton of great innovations showcased on stage. We hope you enjoy watching the demos in video format as much as the 450 attendees enjoyed watching them live on the day of the event.

As usual, we’ve provided all the videos in both Windows Media and QuickTime formats. We’ve also added a higher-res download version so you can watch them in bigger-screen glory. To download the bigger-screen version simply right-click on the link that says QuickTime HD (hint: it’s located under the video player) and choose “save as”.

A huge thanks for all the demoing companies (listed below alphabetically) for participating at Finovate 2009. 

P.S. If you’re interested in demoing at a future Finovate event, please reach out to me for more details.


ericphoto.jpgEric Mattson is CEO of Online Financial Innovations, the parent company of NetBanker, Online Banking Report and the Finovate Conference Series. He can be reached at eric@netbanker.com.

ING Direct Black Friday Screenshots

As a followup to our pre-Thanksgiving post, here’s what the ING Direct website looked like on Black Friday (the day after Thanksgiving).

ING Direct Black Friday homepage (27 Nov 2009, 1 PM Pacific)

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Black Friday deals landing page <ingdirect.com/blackfriday>
Note: All the “Learn more” links went to the regular product pages

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Another Black Friday Banking Special: Service Credit Union

imageING Direct wasn’t the only one with a Black Friday promotion (yesterday’s post).

Portsmouth, NH-based Service Credit Union also took advantage of the U.S. vacation day to promote a special 10% APY 3-month CD ($1,000 max deposit) and 1% off loan rates (promo page). But unlike ING Direct, the CU’s special offers were redeemable only in its branches, which opened at 5 AM to mimic giant retailer early-morning specials.

The offer was promoted in a rotating banner on the homepage (see inset and screenshot below). And it had its own landing page (see screenshot below).

I like the creativity, so I’ll give them an A for effort. But seriously, opening at 5 AM? Maybe they were hoping for PR exposure, but it’s just not right (note 1). I understand (sort of), heading to Best Buy in the middle of the night to save a couple hundred on a TV. But who would go to their bank at 5 AM to make an extra $20 on a CD (note 2) or apply for a car loan (note 3)?

But there was one offer in the fine print that was more valuable for a typical Black Friday shopper, fee-free gift cards until noon. Although, I’m not sure why they limited the number to five per customer. 

Hat tip: Bank Deals blog

Service Credit Union Black Friday promo page (link, 27 Nov. 2009, 9 AM Pacific)

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Service Credit Union homepage

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Notes:
1. Now if you have in-store branches, it’s another matter. Desert Schools FCU opened its 24 WalMart branches at 5 AM along with the retailer.
2. Extra interest on a $1000 CD for 3 months is about $7 per month, or $20 total. And that’s before tax.
3. The almost unreadable type on the bottom of the small banner mention great prizes and giveaways, but the landing page makes no mentions of prizes. Now, free stuff would make it worth a trip to the branch, so I wonder why the CU didn’t mention that on the promo page? Maybe they didn’t want people to show up only for the prizes? 

Holiday Themes: ING Direct Offers Up Anti-Black-Friday Tease

imageRarely does ING Direct disappoint when it comes to adding a little holiday pizzazz to its website. And it’s no turkey this year.

The bank’s homepage is given over entirely to a flash animation that starts with its trademark orange ball rising over a cityscape. Then a decked-out turkey joins the scene and its revealed that its a play on tomorrow’s NYC Thanksgiving Day parade balloons.

But the more interesting development is the small orange “Black Friday” sale tag in the upper right corner (see inset). ING Direct has four Black Friday specials that will be revealed at one past midnight this Friday at <ingdirect.com/blackfriday>.

imageWe are sworn to secrecy on two of the deals, but we can tell you that there will be a $683 discount (the average amount American’s spend on holiday gifts) on ING mortgage products (currently 3.75%) and a 20% off ShareBuilder deal.

The Black Friday tease was also emailed to ING Direct customers this morning (see inset).

My take: The Black Friday promotion, which is being pushed out to media outlets in advance of Friday, is brilliant. It plays perfectly into the more-conservative budget mindsight in the country and gives the press something else to write about beside the long lines at Best Buy at 4 AM Friday.

Grade: An A+ and an extra helping of sweet potatoes to ING Direct for both timing and creativity.  

In a quick survey today of the 25 largest retail banks, three others had holiday promotions or themes: 

ING Direct (USA) homepage (23 Nov 6 PM Pacific)

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ING Direct black friday landing page (25 Nov 2009)

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Zions Bank homepage (23 Nov 7 PM Pacific)
Note: Trusteer promotion on homepage

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Wells Fargo homepage (25 Nov 2009, 1 PM Pacific)

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Note: For future reference, this post was made on the day before Thanksgiving.

Chase Bank’s Second iPhone App: Gift Planner

imageA few days ago, we predicted there would be tens of thousands of financial institution iPhone apps as the big banks released dozens to support their major business lines. PNC Bank and Wells Fargo were the two examples we cited.

There’s another multi-app bank: Chase. In our search for an iPhone gift planner to replace the web-based Zions Bank service, we ran discovered the bank’s Gift Planner (iTunes link).

Version 1.0 was released in time for the holidays last year (3 Dec. 2008), but it looks like Chase didn’t take over ownership/sponsorship until release 2.0 in August. The app is supported by an excellent small website at yourgiftplanner.com that displays the app and solicits feedback.

image The app and website are 100% Chase branded. The only indication that a third party is involved is a notation in the iTunes store that the app is sold by The Archer Group (inset), a Wilmington, DE-based digital agency.

Evidently, the app didn’t show up on our radar because it’s placed in the App Store Productivity category instead of Financial. The app doesn’t appear to be mentioned on the Chase main website. A site search there came up blank.

Review: It’s great looking app that can be used for any holiday. The app supports “shake for help,” an advanced feature. The integration with your contact list makes it easy to add new contacts without typing, although you must wade through your entire list. And, the imageprocess of adding gifts is a bit tedious. You have to add a gift to the master gift list, then go to each person and add the gift to their profile. It would be better if you could simply type a gift on the fly.

iPhone users have been relatively unimpressed, giving the latest version a 2-star rating out of five; pretty low for a professional app (see inset).

It’s a good branding tool for Chase, but it the app itself could use retooling.

Gift Planner iPhone screenshots (24 Nov 2009)

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Gift Planner website (link)

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Note: For more info on mobile banking on the iPhone see our March Online Banking Report.