Someday, Maybe You Will "Wesabe" Verizon Before Signing that Two-Year Contract

By Jim Bruene Posted on
Categories: Intuit, Personal Financial Management, Wesabe

You know you have it made when your company becomes a verb. Everyone on the planet knows about Googling. Then there is MapQuesting directions to the party, Yelping the best Thai food South of Market, and in financial services, Zillowing the house down the street. Someday, you may Wesabe your wireless provider to see how much users spend there and how they rate the experience.  

At least that would fit the vision of Wesabe co-founder and CEO Jason Knight, who I caught up with over coffee yesterday in Seattle as I was putting the finishing touches on a report on Wesabe and other so-called "social personal finance" companies (note 1).

I came away with a new respect for what Wesabe is trying to do. They are not so much looking to be a Web-based Quicken, as I assumed; but more a Quicken/Google mashup, delivering consumer insights by finding meaning in millions of consumer purchases. Overall, it's more like what Google does with a billion Web pages, than what Quicken does with a few thousand transactions (for each user). 

But unlike Google, which can crawl websites at will, Wesabe must convince consumers to open up their spending files to the equivalent of a search engine crawl. To do that, Jason says that Wesabe "must make financial information interesting (to its users)" while also making it drop-dead simple to upload data to Wesabe.  

No easy task. But Wesabe seems to have a head start on making that happen. More on that in our full report (see note below).

Note:

1. Our next Online Banking Report, Social Personal Finance, will look at the entire sector. You'll find it here next week. It will include a detailed look at Wesabe and Lending Club, which is catering entirely to Facebook users (see post here), and what banks should do to compete and/or partner with this new type of financial provider.

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UK’s Co-operative Bank Goes Green at MySpace

By Jim Bruene Posted on
Categories: Green Marketing, MySpace, Social Networks

Link to Co-op Bank's MySpace page Until this week, we hadn't seen much worth writing about on MySpace, other than Cassie's page, an avatar from Wells Fargo's Stagecoach Island (here). A few dozen credit unions have posted pages that range from tolerable to atrocious using the same free tools that 16-year-olds favor. A clear recipe for mediocrity. 

But last week, UK's Co-operative Bank <co-operativebank.co.uk> posted an excellent page that reinforces its reputation as a good corporate citizen (screenshot below). There's an interactive poll about automobile taxes, a CO 2 emissions calculator, some videos, wallpaper downloads, and the usual MySpace stuff. And to drum up friends, an important measure of success on MySpace, the bank will donate 20p to The Children's Society for everyone who signs on. So far its raised about US$20 with 48 friends. But the number is growing quickly; in the last 12 hours growing more than 50%, from 31 friends to 48.

The MySpace URL uses the company's tagline:  <www.myspace.com/goodwithmoney>. The bank chose Joni Mitchell's Big Yellow Taxi as its background music, an appropriate selection. 

The Cooperative Bank's MySpace page

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Mobile Banking from ING Direct

By Jim Bruene Posted on
Categories: ING Direct, Mobile Banking

(Originally published at NetBanker.com)

Link to ING Direct mobile, redirects to loginThe latest entry in the WAP camp is ING Direct, which recently began delivering Electric Orange checking account data to mobile phones at <ingdirect.com/m>. The "m" may become a trendy indicator for WAP sites, although most have put it in front of the URL, e.g., <m.google.com>, <m.yahoo.com>. The idea is to have as few keystrokes as possible without requiring a new URL to be memorized.    

How it Works
I used my new Samsung Blackjack with Windows Mobile to access ING Direct's Mobile Orange and almost made it into my account. The /m URL takes you directly to the login page where ING Direct uses the same two-factor Passmark/RSA-powered login on my Windows Mobile device as it does on a desktop browser.

In my test, I was able to enter my customer number, although it took a while before I realized I had to "double click" on the Enter button. Then I correctly answered the two security questions after several tries, and my personal picture and phrase were displayed. But I could go no further. ING Direct would not accept my PIN, which worked fine on the desktop moments earlier.

There are several explanations for my problem. It's possible that the bank wouldn't let me in because my desktop session was still active (doubtful). Or ING Direct may have mistakenly kept me out (doubtful). Or it could have been user error (likely). 

Although, I used the correct PIN number, because of the limitations of my Blackjack, it's difficult to know whether you are typing numbers or letters from the keypad since they are asterisked out in the ING Direct input box on screen. I tried it with and without NUM LOCK pressed; then with SHIFT, then with FUNCTION. Anyway, I was locked out after five or six attempts, and now I can't get in from the desktop or mobile. Hopefully, it will automatically reset tomorrow so I can avoid a phone call to customer service.   

Analysis
The reason I bored you with the details of my failed login is that it points out the serious usability issues with mobile banking. Delivering services to tiny screens with tiny keypads that may or may not have dedicated alpha and/or number keys makes the entire experience much less enjoyable. And it will create a new category of support call to customer service. These drawbacks will be fixed in time, but they will be a drag on adoption in the short term. 

For more information on mobile banking, see our full report at Online Banking Report here.

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New Person-to-Person Lender, Lending Club, Hopes Facebook Linkage Allows it to Prosper

By Jim Bruene Posted on
Categories: Facebook, Lending Club, Loans & Credit, P2P Lending, Prosper

Link to Lending Club homepage Just as we are putting the finishing touches on our latest Online Banking Report, which looks at the intersection of personal finance and social networks, a new person-to-person lender launches. And how do they plan to gain traction? Through tight integration with Facebook, the second-largest social network. So we are holding the presses, and adding this important new development to our upcoming report.

We'll have much more on it later, but if you are curious now, login to Facebook and check out Lending Club (the easiest way is to login via the link at the top of the Lending Club homepage). Or read Colin Henderson's great analysis here.  

Last year, Facebook developers created a proof-of-concept personal finance app, originally called Facebank, then changed to MoochSpot (see previous coverage here). That effort was designed to show how third parties could leverage the Facebook API to create new services. It didn't take long for someone to take the bait. Within a few weeks, BillMonk created an interface to Facebook to support their expensing tracking service, now owned by Obopay. Buxfer also supports login via Facebook's username/password (post here), but does not link into the social network as yet.

But Lending Club is the first to leverage the Facebook interface to support actual financial transactions, in this case lending/borrowing. The company is modeled after Prosper. Lending Club timed its launch to coincide with the Facebook developer's meeting and launch of Facebook Platform.

We'll be testing it during the next few days and will report back on whether its a challenge to mainstream lending, or merely blog fodder. Given the rising power of social networks, my guess is the former. 

LendingClub homepage from outside Facebook

LendingClub homepage mockup

LendingClub homepage from inside Facebook

LendingClub page inside Facebook

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ING Direct Adds Mobile Banking

By Jim Bruene Posted on
Categories: ING Direct, Mobile Banking

Link to ING Direct mobile, redirects to loginThe latest entry in the WAP camp is ING Direct, which recently  began delivering Electric Orange checking account data to mobile phones at <ingdirect.com/m>. The "m" may become a trendy indicator for WAP sites, although most have put it in front of the URL, eg. <m.google.com>, <m.yahoo.com>. The idea is to have as few keystrokes as possible without requiring a new URL to be memorized.    

How it Works
I used my new Samsung Blackjack with Windows Mobile to access ING Direct's Mobile Orange and almost made it in to my account. The /m URL takes you directly to the login page where ING Direct uses the same two-factor Passmark/RSA-powered login on my Windows Mobile device as it does on a desktop browser.

In my test, I was able to successfully enter my customer number, although it took a while before I realized I had to "double click" on the Enter button. Then I correctly answered the two security questions after several tries and my personal picture and phrase were displayed. But I could go no further. ING Direct would not accept my PIN, which worked fine on the desktop moments earlier.

There are several explanations for my problem. It's possible that the bank wouldn't let me in because my desktop session was still active (doubtful). Or ING Direct may have mistakenly kept me out (doubtful). Or it could have been user error (likely). 

Although, I used the correct PIN number, because of the limitations of my Blackjack, it's difficult to know whether you are typing numbers or letters from the keypad since they are asterisked out in the ING Direct input box on screen. I tried it with and without NUM LOCK pressed; then with SHIFT, then with FUNCTION. Anyway, I was locked out after 5 or 6 attempts, and now I can't get in from the desktop or mobile. Hopefully, it will automatically reset tomorrow so I can avoid a phone call to customer service.   

Analysis
The reason I bored you with the details of my failed login is that it points out the serious usability issues with mobile banking. Delivering services to tiny screens with tiny keypads that may or may not have dedicated alpha and/or number keys makes the entire experience much less enjoyable. And it will create a new category of support call to customer service. These drawbacks will be fixed in time, but they will be a drag on adoption in the short term. 

For more information on mobile banking, see our full report at Online Banking Report here.

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NY Times Reviews Citi Mobile

By Jim Bruene Posted on
Categories: Cingular, Citibank, Firethorn, Microsoft, Mobile Banking

Link to NY Times article The May 24 New York Times contains a generally favorable review of Citibank's new mobile phone service (article here). Writer John R. Quain also touches briefly on Bank of America's WAP service and gives Firethorn's application a spin via BancorpSouth's mobile service.

For followers of the space, there's not much new information here. But a 1,200-word article in the NY Times is significant for the mere fact that the editor's found the subject newsworthy. 

The only downside cited, and it's a HUGE one, is the cost from the carrier. In the author's test, it cost him $2.59 in data charges for what sounded like a single Citi Mobile banking session (he did not have a data plan). Ouch. 

Here's the exact passage near the end of the article:

For example, checking my balances, making a transfer and confirming a few payments totaled 244 kilobytes, plus one text message, on Citi Mobile. Total charges from AT&T: $2.59. 

Update: Drew Sievers, CEO of mFoundry, the vendor powering Citi Mobile, emailed to say that the data charges cited in the NY Times article included the initial download. Subsequent sessions, would cost just pennies each, even without a data plan. He also said that the typical user attracted to mobile banking will already have a data plan, making mobile banking essentially free, at least from the carrier.

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New CU Blogs: Midwest Financial, Old Hickory, and Secure One Credit Unions

By Jim Bruene Posted on
Categories: Blogs, Credit Unions

In our blogging report published last fall (here), we predicted there would be 300 U.S. financial institution blogs by the end of this year. Five months into the year, we are way behind on that projection, with about two dozen financial institutions blogging. That includes just two banks (Wells Fargo and Bank of Internet) and 20+ credit unions (see previous coverage here).

We found three new credit union blogs this weekend, another 1% of the way towards that prediction, which looks high. But I still think there will be close to 200 by year-end. And I promise not to profile ALL of them here.

My Credit Union Blog

MidWest Financial Credit Union and its affiliate, University of Michigan Health System Financial, launched a joint blog on May 14. Although, these two financial institutions are part of the same company, joint blogging efforts across several credit unions in the same geographic area could make a lot of sense.

My Credit Union Blog is attractively laid out and has five postings in its first week, several that are fairly long and fall into the "consumer education" category. It's fine to sprinkle those in over time, but don't overwhelm your readers with long lists of tips and tools. They can already read that stuff at just about any financial website.

Your blog should primarily have short, interesting articles of local interest. Limit the educational pieces to one or two per month at most. Again, Piedmont CU is the best FI blog I've seen in terms of content (see previous post here).

My Credit Union Blog from MidWest Financial CU and UMHS Financial

Old Hickory Credit Union

Old Hickory Credit Union's blog began last week with the obligatory welcome message and the first entry on going green with electronic statements, always a good blog subject. With just one entry, it's too early to comment on the content. But the layout is clean, it wisely uses it's own URL <blogohcu.org>, unique template, and covers the basics in the About section introducing the two bloggers behind the effort. Hopefully, over time the blog will be spruced up with more graphics and pictures.

Old Hickory CU blog

Secure One Credit Union

Unlike the other two new blogs, Secure One Credit Union, should consider pulling its blog down until it has more resources to commit to the project. The blogger platform makes it look cheap (which it is), but the fatal flaw is lack of content. There are only two entries since its March 20 launch, and the last, which is more than a month old, simply lists CD rates, something that can easily be found on a regular website. Here's the link: <securefirstcu.blogspot.com>.

You don't have to blog that often, but once or twice per week is a good rule of thumb, and at least some of the posts should be original content, not cut-and-paste jobs from your website.

Secure One CU blog

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One-quarter of 50 Largest Online Advertisers are From Financial Services

By Jim Bruene Posted on
Categories: Advertising & Promotion, Metrics & Market Research

Link to Freecreditreport.com by Experian It's no surprise that financial services companies are some of the largest online advertisers. It's been that way since the medium began accepting advertising in 1995. However, you might be surprised who was the number 1 financial-services advertiser in 2006: Experian with $128 million, 50% more than Microsoft's $82 million. Only five companies spent more online in 2006: Vonage, AT&T, Dell, Disney and GM.

The credit bureau and direct marketing company has expanded its direct web-based financial services presence via acquisition over the last few years and now owns prolific advertisers such as LowerMyBills.com and FreeCreditReport.com.

Most financial companies in the top-50 were in the brokerage and investment category with TD Ameritrade, Scottrade, E*Trade and Fidelity all in the $100 to $120 million category. Non-brokerages included IAC/Interactive parent of Lending Tree and GetSmart, American Express, Capital One, Bank of America, and the biggest surprise in the top-50: LoanWeb with $37 million, more than any retail bank in the country, except BofA. 

Here's the financial services companies in the top 50. Data in from TNS as cited in Online Media, Marketing, & Advertising Magazine (OMMA) last week (here). Previous NetBanker coverage is here.

Overall Rank/Company/2006 Online Advertising Expenditures

6   Experian               $128 million
9   IAC/Interactive    $123 million (includes non-financial products)
10  TD Ameritrade     $120 million
14  E*Trade                $107 million
15  Scottrade             $105 million
18  Fidelity                 $98 million
23  American Express $80 million 
25  Charles Schwab    $72 million
29  Forex Capital Markets $57 million
34  Capital One           $53 million
35  Morgan Stanley     $53 million
44  Bank of America    $43 million
48  LoanWeb               $37 million

Source: TNS, 2007

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First Look: Verity CU’s New Blog

By Jim Bruene Posted on
Categories: Blogs, Trabian, Verity CU

Seattle’s Verity CU, the first financial institution in the world with an external company blog, is replacing its aging Blogger version, in use since the December 2004 launch.

Verity posted a clever “farewell” in its old blog on May 11 (see screenshot below) and promised a link to the new version “soon.” A week later, the new blog is live, and you’ll want to take a look at it <blog.veritycu.com> (screenshot below).   

Link to Trabian The new site is pleasing to look at, easy to follow, and state-of-the-art in just about every way, exactly what you’d expect from Trabian, the red-hot social media design firm. I especially like the middle column which showcases  recent blog postings by department: marketing, member services, executive, HR, IT, accounting, and business services. It helps expose more great posts, while demonstrating to members that the blog is a true company-wide effort. Each department’s posts can also be accessed through the Categories area in the lower-right.

I give it the first A+ of the year. Excellent work!

New

New Verity CU blog

Old

Verity CU old blog

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mShift Leads in U.S. Mobile Banking Deployments

By Jim Bruene Posted on
Categories: Metavante, Mobile Banking, mShift

mShift is the biggest mobile banking player you've never heard of. Despite powering WAP sites for 32 U.S. financial institutions, with several in operation for more than five years (see list below), the company remains relatively unknown. I had a chance to catch up with CEO Awele Ndili and Director of Biz Development Pam Livingston at Metavante's user conference this week, where mShift demo'd its WAP services in the exhibition hall and in a private session.

San Jose-based mShift has 32 clients live, 5 banks and 27 credit unions, many deployed through mShift's relationship with online banking platform provider, Digital Insight, now a unit of Intuit. Only 5 clients have been deployed prior to 2004. More than half (19) launched in the past 12 months, with 8 launching in December 2006 alone. 

Here's a list of mShift clients and when each first deployed WAP-based mobile banking:

2000 (1 deployment)

  • Patelco CU (Sep)

2001 (2)

  • Alliance CU (Nov)
  • VisionsFCU (Dec)

2002 (2)

  • BFSFCU (Oct)
  • Golden 1 (Nov)

2004 (3)   

  • DCU (Jan)
  • XFCU (Mar)
  • Illinois National Bank (June)

2005 (3)

  • Premier America CU (April)
  • MACU (July)
  • FlagStar Bank (July)

2006 (15)

  • VyStar CU (Feb)
  • Amplify CU (Mar)
  • First Republic Bank (Aug)
  • SAFE CU (Aug)
  • Owen Com. Bank (Sep)
  • Trumark Financial CU (Oct)
  • STCU (Nov)
  • Metro CU (Dec)
  • NIHFCU (Dec) 
  • TDFCU (Dec)
  • Allegacy FCU (Dec)
  • Metro1 CU (First Metropolitan CU) (Dec)
  • Sun West FCU (Dec)
  • Heritage Com. CU (Dec)
  • SEFCU (Dec)

2007 (6)

  • CECU (Jan)
  • Mazuma CU (Jan)
  • First City Credit Union (Jan)
  • Salem Five Bank (Jan)
  • Cardinal Bank (Apr)
  • SDFCU (Apr)

In addition to the usual balance/transaction info, the mShift system can also display check images on the mobile phone display, a service we hadn't really thought would be in high demand. But at least on larger mobile devices, such as a Blackberry or Treo, the check images are very readable. As mobile browsers improve the ability to easily zoom in on selected content (for example, Apple's iPhone), the check-image display should prove popular. It's an important part of online self-service with one caveat: However cute the check-image display on today's small flip phones, they are still largely unreadable.

Update: Steve Bills at The American Banker published an article today that discusses mShift and the advantages of a so-called vendor-neutral WAP mobile service (article here).

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ING Direct Offers 1% Cashback for 60 Days

By Jim Bruene Posted on
Categories: Debit Cards, Deposits, Checking, Savings, CDs, Email Samples, ING Direct

Email from ING Direct announcing cashback bonus I just received an email (inset) from ING Direct announcing a 1% cashback promo for its Electric Orange debit card. Not surprisingly, the rebate applies only to signature debit, where interchange fees cover the cost.

Initially I thought it was a permanent feature of the bank's new paperless checking account. But after clicking through to the landing page (see screenshot below), I discovered it's just a two-month promotion, running June 1 through July 31.

Given ING Direct's staunch consumer advocacy positioning, I am a little surprised it is not a bit more upfront about the two-month time period. Perhaps it's just an oversight, or maybe they are testing different copy treatments.

The 1% offer is also shown on the bank's main Electric Orange product page (here). Again, there is no mention that it's a promotion until you click through the "1% cashback" banner.

Analysis
Overall, it's a good promotion. A clear benefit for the customer and limited duration for the bank. And it helps build awareness that ING Direct supports debit card use at the point of sale, a relatively new feature for the direct bank. See previous coverage here.

Landing page (here)

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