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Schwab Promotes 4% APY Checking Account on Homepage

By Jim Bruene Posted on October 18, 2007
Categories: Charles Schwab, US Bank

I never thought I'd see the day that Charles Schwab featured a checking account on its homepage (see note 1). Even Schwab, that built its business catering to do-it-yourself individual investors, wants a piece of those cash balances sitting in non-interest checking or low-rate checking/savings accounts.

With many major banks still paying next to nothing on deposits (as low as 0.10% annually on savings, see note 2), direct banks and other non-traditional outlets are still looking to grab deposit share even though most have dropped their promotional rates below the magic 5% mark (previous coverage here).

Schwab.com homepage (18 Oct. 2007, 11 a.m. Pacific)

Schwab login page (18 Oct. 2007, 11 a.m. Pacific)

Note:

1. The bank promotion is on Schwab's main site, NOT a special landing page or Schwab Bank page.

2. Memo to US Bank: Don't you think it's time to raise your savings account rates? I have my checking account at US Bank and was thinking of parking some cash for a few weeks in an interest-bearing account. But I was shocked when I looked at the rates. There is nothing I could apply for online that would pay more than 0.40% and most paid just 0.10% (see inset).

That's no typo; one-tenth of one percent on savings accounts across all balance levels. That's less than a $1 per month on a $10,000 balance! Pre-tax.

There's only one deposit account that cracks the 1% mark, Maximum Money Market, which pays 2% to 2.5% for balances greater than $10,000. But you can't even apply for that one online, you have to visit a branch.

I don't care how much you make on the so-called lazy money, a rate page that looks like US Bank's (see screenshot above) is a marketing and PR disaster.

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New Online Banking Report Published: 2008 Planning Guide

By Jim Bruene Posted on October 18, 2007
Categories: Online Banking Report, Strategic Planning, Strategies

Over at Online Banking Report, we just posted the latest report, our 13th annual Online Banking Planning Guide (2008 version). It includes 60 pages of ideas, tips and tools to help you generate new ideas, plans, and strategies for 2008 and beyond. Subscribers, you may download it now (here) as part of your subscription. Others may purchase (here).

While there are more than 500 online banking product and marketing ideas in the report, we hand-selected 15 to put on the hot list for next year:

Alt-mortgage zone
Balance transfers
Fraud monitoring
Green banking
High-yield savings
Home equity center
Long-term archives
Microbusiness services
P2P loan servicing
Personal finance
Premium/VIP online banking option
Prepaid cards
Problem mortgage help
Web 2.0
Widgets

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Online Financial Services Scorecard: August 2007

By Jim Bruene Posted on October 17, 2007
Categories: Compete, Metrics & Market Research

In April, we introduced the Financial Services Monthly Performance scorecard produced by Compete. It summarizes the overall performance of 23 large U.S. financial institutions and lead-generation sites. Refer here for the detailed methodology as well as companies tracked.

Commentary
In August, the continued rise in interest rates led to a drop in home equity, mortgage refinance, and credit card applications while deposit accounts and purchase mortgage applications were up.

Some highlights from the monthly activity:

Credit Card applications were down 2% overall, but Chase (27%) and Capital One (5%) grew applications and conversion compared to July
Savings applications were up across the group with the exception of Citibank which posted a 13% decline
For high-yield savings, only HSBC and ING Direct saw both application and conversion growth
Home equity application/lead volume and conversion dropped across the group with declines observed at 9 of 16 providers
Purchase mortgage application/lead volume was up over July with Countrywide and Capital One both showing notable growth
The refinance mortgage market was flat overall, masking strong application/lead growth at Countrywide, E-Loan and NexTag while declines were recorded at LendingTree/GetSmart, LowerMyBills and Low.com

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Virgin Money USA Launches in Boston/NYC Today

By Jim Bruene Posted on October 15, 2007
Categories: Loans & Credit, P2P Lending, Virgin Money

Ever since Virgin bought CircleLending for $50 million earlier this year (previous coverage here), I've been looking forward to its launch. We hoped they might launch at our FINOVATE conference two weeks ago, but we lost out to the Mortgage Banker's Association's 94th Annual Conference in Boston, where Sir Richard Branson delivered the opening keynote a few hours ago.

According to today's NY Times, Sir Richard himself will hand out red "dollars" today in Boston's Copley Square while mere mortals will be doing the same in Manhattan.

We now have answers to several questions about the new venture:

Will Circle Lending's product, person-to-person loan administration and servicing, live on?
Answer: Yes, in fact it looks identical, but with much more marketing pizzazz.
Will the Circle Lending product be extended into a person-to-person loan marketplace like Prosper and LendingClub?
Answer: Not yet, but I still expect that to happen.
Will Virgin Money use person-to-person lending as an entry point for a full line of financial services?
Answer: Not yet, but there has to be more coming.
Will Virgin Money bring the hip U.K. direct-banking vibe to the United States?
Answer: Yes, the website is very progressive by U.S. banking standards (see screenshot below). I haven't seen any other media efforts yet. However, the current homepage design is marred by an annoying Flash display that is a real turnoff even on a broadband connection. Once you get off the homepage, the rest of the website is excellent.

According to today's Boston Globe, the company currently employs 30 in Waltham, Mass., a headcount that will double the over the next year as it introduces more services. The only new service disclosed so far is student loans, an obvious fit with the friends and family real estate, business, and personal loans offered today. We'll be following Virgin Money USA closely and will include an in-depth analysis in an upcoming Online Banking Report on person-to-person lending (2006 report is here).

Virgin Money USA homepage (15 Oct 2007)

Goodbye page at CircleLending.com (15 Oct 2007)

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Mint.com Traffic = $17 billion bank

By Jim Bruene Posted on October 11, 2007
Categories: Metrics & Market Research, Mint, Personal Financial Management

Compete's latest data confirms the spike in traffic at three-week old online personal finance startup Mint. The startup created considerable buzz after winning the $50,000 grand prize at TechCrunch in September (see previous coverage here).

According to Compete, Mint's 200,000 unique visitors in September equaled that of $17-billion Webster Bank, the 64th largest U.S. bank or thrift holding company according to American Banker (Q1 2007). It will be interesting to see if Mint experiences a dramatic traffic decline after the publicity-driven visits slow down.

Traffic at Mint.com (blue) vs. Webster Bank <websteronline.com> (red)

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Banks Scarier than Criminals. Really?

By Jim Bruene Posted on October 11, 2007
Categories: Fee Income, Public Relations

You know you are losing the PR battle when headlines like this begin to appear:

The point of Tuesday's column from MSNBC's Bob Sullivan, is that consumers fear overdraft fees more than fraud. Hmmm….would that have anything to do with the fact that customers PAY for overdraft fees while the bank picks up the tab for most fraud?

But even overlooking that minor piece of common sense, how does annoyance at overdraft fees equate to being "scarier than criminals?" The headline does a disservice to Sullivan's well-researched and thoughtful column.

What Banks Should Do
While the headlines will hopefully be a bit more objective, expect more of the same in the coming year. Overdraft fees are becoming a big story. And as the 2008 election cycle kicks in to full gear, expect more grandstanding from politicians on both sides of the aisle. No one wants to be on record as being "for" overdraft fees, or any bank fee for that matter.

Banks need to do two things to head off a PR disaster and avoid pricing caps and/or more regulation from Congress:

1. Look hard at overdraft fee policies including both size and timing of the charges. And if you do find a way to cap/lower or lower overdraft fees, wrap that news in a big bow and deliver it to your customers for the holidays. And if you have a lower fee than the big banks in your market, by all means, let your customers know.

2. Proactively sell overdraft protection options and balance-awareness services such as online/mobile banking and low-balance alerts via email and text message.

And one more thing:

In press interviews and marketing messages, eliminate all references to "courtesy" and "a service for our customers" in describing overdraft fees. Stay on the message that the onus is on the customer to track their balances. Here's a great response, ABA congressional testimony quoted in the MSNBC article:

The bottom line is that customers are in the best position to know what their actual balance is — only they know what checks they have written, automatic payments they have authorized and debit card transactions they have approved," Nessa Feddis, a spokeswoman for the American Bankers Association, said during congressional hearings earlier this year. "Simply put, consumers are in control of their finances and can avoid overdraft fees.

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Splash Screens: PayPal Promoting its Debit Card at Login

By Jim Bruene Posted on October 10, 2007
Categories: Epayments, PayPal

Logging in today at PayPal, I was greeted with a full-screen message promoting its debit card (see screenshot below). Note the prominence of the yellow Apply Now button compared to the Go to my account in the lower right. The company has offered a debit card option for more than five years and promotes it from time to time within its site.

Speaking of PayPal, the melodramatic headline on the front page of this month's Bank Technology News grabbed my attention (see upper-left corner of October issue here and inset):

Electronic Payments are a Knifefight.
PayPal's Bringing a Gun.

Evidently, there is at least one headline writer trying to make it logk like a major war is brewing between PayPal and the banking industry. Sure, they are a tough competitor, but they also facilitate a large number of profitable credit card transactions that directly benefit issuers. And I don't see how PayPal is any more of a threat now than they were last year, or the year before.

PayPal is not going away anytime soon. Rather than worrying about the "gun" the company is wielding, banks should be looking for ways to leverage the PayPal payments platform. For example, recent Facebook apps such as Geezeo's iWant (coverage here) or ChipIn (coverage here).

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First Look: Bank of America’s New Networking Site — Small Business Online Community

By Jim Bruene Posted on October 10, 2007
Categories: Bank of America, Small Business

In the past 10 years, we've seen dozens of bank-powered sites targeting small businesses. Citibank ran one for a few years called Bizzed. Back then, they were called "portals." Now, they are "social networks." But the purpose remains the same: Create a destination site for business owners to learn how to run their business better while reinforcing the bank brand as small business savvy.

In general, it's a good idea. But it's extremely difficult to get traction with small business owners who usually lack the time and/or interest to read extensively about how to run their business (note 1).

Bank of America's effort, Small Business Online Community, tries to get around the attention problem by creating forums where specific questions and answers can be posted (press release here). Again, not a new concept, but probably the best way to get something like this off the ground.

Analysis
I registered (see note 2) and spent a few minutes poking around the site. In addition to the forum, the site includes columns by business experts and reader-submitted stories. It will be interesting to see if the so-called user-generated content in the latter category is all self-serving promotions from the small business participants, or meaningful perspectives that allow conversations to begin.

The well-designed site, with Web 2.0 touches, is off to a good start from a registration standpoint. This morning alone (as of noon Eastern time), 300 new members had signed up. They may all be bankers in disguise, but it's still far more than I would have expected.

Other than the small "powered by" link in the upper right corner, the site doesn't appear to have any direct involvement from the bank. Frankly, I'd like to see bank officers weighing in on the financial topics, as long as they take a consultative approach and disclose their affiliation. But I understand the bank's initial restraint.

Note:

1. However, entrepreneurs in the research phase, what is sometimes called "pre startup," often devour reams of material. And since they are often highly interested in financing opportunities, a bank-sponsored site could gain their attention.

2. A couple nitpicks:

Usernames are case sensitive; a twist that tripped me up when trying to log in the first time. The bank should remove that stipulation, especially in a less security-sensitive application such as this.
Lots of the material is available as RSS feeds, but other than the little orange icon, it's not very obvious how to subscribe via RSS or email.

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PayPal Revives X.com Domain for its Lab Site

By Jim Bruene Posted on October 9, 2007
Categories: Epayments, JP Morgan Chase, PayPal

Last century, serial entrepreneur Elon Musk launched what he expected to be a top-10 bank by now. And in true late-1990s dot-com fashion, it was simply called X.com. In retrospect, maybe not the best name for a bank, but it certainly was more memorable than First Security Bank of Whatever. The company soon merged with PayPal, dropped the single-letter name, and eventually took over the world of alt-bank payments.

For most of the past eight years, if you typed X.com into your browser, you simply ended up on the PayPal homepage. But recently, PayPal has opened a new area under the X.com URL called PayPal Labs. This is a place where competitors, developers, analysts, and anyone with too much time on their hands can see the latest new "beta" services under development at PayPal.

With just two services listed (see below), it's no Google Lab, but it shows that PayPal still has Silicon Valley DNA at its core, despite five years working within the shadow of the larger eBay brand.

My take: More financial institutions should open "lab sites" to demonstrate their commitment to innovation. The only one I remember was JPMorgan's LabMorgan, which was really was part VC, part incubator. But its URL only shows an error message these days, a shame.

Update (10 Oct): A reader reminded me about Fidelity's lab site, fidelitylabs.com.

In the PayPal Lab

PayPal Request Money for Facebook (see previous coverage here)
MySpace Fundraising Badge

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Mint Attracts 50,000 Users in First Two Weeks

By Jim Bruene Posted on October 8, 2007
Categories: Mint, Personal Financial Management

New TechCrunch co-editor Erick Schonfeld posted a short article yesterday (here) about Mint winning the Best of Show award at our FINOVATE conference (note 1). That post allowed TechCrunch's 600,000 readers to weigh in again on the pros and cons of Mint's model. During the past 24 hours, it attracted 72 comments, many with security concerns. Mint's CEO Aaron Patzer bravely joined the discussion and posted a half-dozen of the comments himself.

It's interesting to understand the concerns posted by TC readers. Of course, this is not at all a mainstream audience, so we take the complaints with a grain of salt. But it's still indicative of the hurdles a new financial institution, especially an unregulated one, faces when launching a new service.

Schonfeld's post also included the first metrics we've seen from the two-week old company:

50,000 total registered users
35,000 active users (have come at least once since registering)
5,000 power users (use it every day)
5,000 mobile alert users

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E-Mailbag: InsWeb Auto Insurance

By Jim Bruene Posted on October 8, 2007
Categories: Email Marketing, Email Samples, Insurance, InsWeb

Personalization of the subject line is less common in financial services marketing. Although the technique doesn't guarantee a response lift, it's a good variable to test (note 1).

InsWeb encourages customers to review their insurance coverage every six months with an eight-minute survey that begins within the body of the email.

The company creates interest by claiming a $301 average savings on a six-month policy. If accurate, it's a great ROI on the eight minutes required to complete the online form. It would be interesting to see a bank or credit union use this technique to market other financial services, such as deposits or home equity loans.

Email Characteristics

Date: Mon. 8 Oct, 2007

Time: 3:02 PM Pacific

Subject: Bruene Auto Insurance Review

From: InsWeb Customer Care [email protected]

To: [email protected]

Personalization: Subject line

Full Message

Landing Page

Note:

1. See our Online Banking Report on Email Marketing.

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Facebook Battle: Students 1, HSBC 0

By Jim Bruene Posted on October 5, 2007
Categories: Facebook, HSBC, Public Relations, Social Networks

My teenage son has just starting "Facebooking," and he loves it. It's his first foray into social networking, and I can tell he'll be a user for the rest of his life, or at least until something better comes along.

Those of us who are merely parents of social network users often find it difficult to understand its power. In my son's circle, Facebook IS the Internet. It's where every online session begins and ends and where important social connections are made and nurtured. That's why strategic investors such as Microsoft, Google and others are said to be giving Facebook as much as a $10 billion valuation (see previous coverage here).

All this has enormous implication for every retailer and service company on the planet. It amplifies word of mouth exponentially. Remember the old adage that every disappointed customer tells 10 people about their problem. With the instant broadcasting capabilities, an unhappy customer can now share his/her thoughts with 100+ Facebook friends with a single click (note 1).

And it's not something that is 15, 10 or even 5 years away. It's happening today. Case in point: this summer HSBC (UK) was forced to reverse a policy change that would have ended a common perk for U.K. student banking accounts, a multi-year grace period for overdraft credit lines with limits up to US$3,000 (see HSBC student page here).

Local students were so taken aback by this change in account terms, they formed a Facebook group called, "Stop the Great HSBC Graduate Rip-Off" (here or see screenshot below). Apparently the group was planning to rally its 5,000 members into a little civil disobedience. The group was hoping to cause customer service headaches by flooding the bank's branches, and overloading teller lines, with student customers asking for detailed explanations of the new fees.

According to news reports (here and here), the bank quickly backed off the rate change and reverted to the liberal interest-free borrowing guidelines.

Implications
You should be using, tracking, analyzing, and brainstorming about how to tap social networks for sales, marketing, service, and recruitment.

Note:

1. And the simple click-and-complain activity can be broadcast to every friend before the disgruntled customer has a chance to cool down (and/or sober up) and think through the issue in a more rational way.

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