Citibank using Google to Pitch Credit Monitoring

By Jim Bruene Posted on
Categories: Citibank, Credit Reports & ID Theft Protection, Google, Search Engine Marketing

Citi_creditmonitoring_logo

Since the dawn of the online credit bureau era (1997/1998), online credit report marketing has been dominated by the specialists: Experian, Equifax, TransUnion, ConsumerInfo.com (now owned by Experian), Fair Isaac, Intersections, and others.

Citi_creditmonitoring_googlead_2Now, financial institutions are becoming more involved. For example, Citibank’s AdWords spot pitching its Credit Monitoring Service showed up fourth overall (and second in the right-hand column) in a search today for "credit report monitoring" on Google (click on inset right for a closer view). With 84 advertisers vying for space on the first page or two of results, that’s expensive real estate.

Citi’s $9.95/mo service (after one free month) is powered by Intersections <intersections.com> and includes info from all three credit bureaus, daily alerts based on Equifax info, $20,000 in identity theft insurance, and other benefits (see screenshot below for a full listing).

Another surprise advertiser in the category is Wal-Mart whose ad appears in the sixth position along the right side of the search results (see inset above). The retail giant’s $7.46/mo service is co-branded with TransUnion’s TrueCredit (click here for screenshot).

Citi_creditmonitoring_learnmoreAnalysis
We are big fans of credit report monitoring, having personally used it for more than a decade. And while the service does deliver significant value, we think the single $9.95/mo price point is too high for the mass market. Granted, ten bucks is better than the $14.95/mo charged by TransUnion’s TrueCredit for a similar service (see inset for an email received today). But the $120/yr is simply too much for information that can be extracted relatively easily by consumers themselves.

Better would be a multi-tiered offering: Regular/Gold/Platinum that starts at under $5/mo and peaks at $9.95/mo for an individual, $14.95/mo for a family. That way, more customers would receive the benefits of proactive monitoring while the truly paranoid could use the pricier options for added peace of mind. Truecredit_email

Another puzzling aspect of Citi’s service: it’s impossible to find it through the home page. It not only lacks its own link in the product menus, but also comes up blank in searching on "credit report monitoring" or even "credit reports." You shouldn’t have to use Google to find such an important service, especially at a bank that’s spent tens of millions promoting itself as a safe haven against identity theft.

For more information on credit-report monitoring, see Online Banking Report #83/84. For more on pricing, see OBR #109.

—JB

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E*Trade’s Intelligent Investment Analyzer

By Jim Bruene Posted on
Categories: E*Trade, Investment Products

Etrade_intelligent_investorToday E*Trade added yet another new feature to its website, the Intelligent Investment Analyzer. It sounds a lot sexier than it is, an eight-question asset-allocation worksheet. But that’s the point. E*Trade is using classic marketing techniques to identify customer needs and concerns and design the solutions to address them.

The company’s core messages touch on security, maximizing investment returns, minimizing loan rates, and so on. And the messages are delivered with an understated flair. For example, look at the homepage graphic above. It delivers the message in a number of ways including good color, an effective image of an open laptop displaying a colorful pie chart, and copy that emphasizes key benefits:

  • Fast: "recommendations in minutes" and "one-click investing"
  • Smart: "diversified," "optimizer," and "intelligent"
  • Personalized: "custom recommendations"

Etrade_intelligent_investor_questionaireWho wouldn’t be tempted to click through to see what’s behind the optimizer? Unfortunately, the questionnaire, powered by Thomson Financial, isn’t particularly appealing (click on inset left for a closer view). And once completed, users are required to log in to their E*Trade account to view the "All Star" mutual fund recommendation designed to fit your self-described investment needs. But all in all, it’s an excellent lead into the company’s mutual fund area.

For more on E*Trade’s string of innovations, select "E*Trade" in the topics reachable via the top navigation bar, or click here.

—JB

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Len Heckwolf Moves from Morgan/Chase to Bank of America

By Jim Bruene Posted on
Categories: Bank of America, JP Morgan Chase

Veteran payments executive Len Heckworth is leaving JP Morgan Chase & Co. to head Bank of America’s new payments and receipts product management group, part of BofA’s global treasury services unit. He’s responsible for all U.S. payments and receipts product management and development, and reports to Skip Heaps, global product management executive for global treasury services.

Continue reading “Len Heckwolf Moves from Morgan/Chase to Bank of America” →

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Bill Nelson Joins FS/ISAC as Exec. Director

By Jim Bruene Posted on
Categories: Uncategorized

Bill Nelson, NACHA’s long-time executive vice president, left that organization effective Feb. 1 to be the FS/ISAC executive director. His job: Grow the organization from its current 1,800 members—up from 60 in 2002—and reinforce its mission, possibly to include fraud alerts in its daily information feeds.

“We want every financial institution in the country to be a member,” says Nelson. “There really isn’t any reason they shouldn’t be, in some capacity. So I’m going all over the country as part of an ongoing FDIC road show and pitching it. The U.S. Treasury, the FDIC, and the American Banker’s Association have all endorsed it.”

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Billeo Powers Bill Pay at Visa.com

By Jim Bruene Posted on
Categories: Billeo, Credit/Debit Cards, Epayments, VISA

Visa_billeo_searchboxLast week, Visa USA redesigned its direct bill-pay area using Billeo’s technology to power biller search and facilitate direct payments via credit card. It is a major coup for the fledgling direct bill-pay solutions provider Billeo, which earned an Online Banking Report Best of the Web last year for its innovative bill-pay toolbar (OBR 116/117).

The implementation at Visa bears careful review. It wisely uses biller search to engage users (see inset), then prompts them to save their personal biller list using Billeo. After registering, users download and install the toolbar directly into their browser, Billeo_visa_mainthen input credit card information to facilitate payments. After the initial setup, users can pay select bills directly from the toolbar using the saved credit card and biller info.

Next week, we’ll look at Visa’s implementation in more detail and share insights from our conversation with Billeo founder, Murali Subbarao. In the meantime, you might want to give it a spin yourself at Visa’s bill-pay site, <usa.visa.com/personal/using_visa/pay_bills_with_visa/> (click on screenshot right for a closer look).

Previous articles:

–JB

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The Truth about ID Theft from Javelin Strategy

By Jim Bruene Posted on
Categories: Bank of America, Identity Theft, Metrics & Market Research, Security & Privacy, Washington Mutual, Wells Fargo

Judging by media reports, almost everyone in the civilized world has lost their identity to cyber-criminals. But while there has been an unending torrent of news about data breaches and related identity thefts, the damage has been much less drastic than that, says a study from Javelin Strategy & Research.

“The impression in the general public is that identity fraud is spiraling out of control, but what we came away with is the contrary; the growth [in the phenomenon] has been contained,” says Rubina Johannes, the Javelin research analyst who wrote the report.

Continue reading “The Truth about ID Theft from Javelin Strategy” →

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Bank of America’s “Keep the Change” Banner on MSN

By Jim Bruene Posted on
Categories: Advertising & Promotion, Bank of America, Credit/Debit Cards, Deposits, Checking, Savings, CDs

Bofa_msn_homepageAlthough we have concerns about the underlying program (see NetBanker Oct. 5, 2005), you have to tip your hat to the marketing execution of Bank of America’s Keep the Change campaign. Today a small but distinctive postage-stamp ad on MSN’s homepage, tied in with MSN Money headlines (see inset), invites readers to "Open a Checking Account and Keep the Change."

Bofa_msn_landingpageIt’s an intriguing headline and likely does well prompting clickthroughs. The landing page (click on inset right for a closeup) is also well done. A graphical explanation of the keep-the-change rebate is shown on the right, which helps alleviate the need for prospects to wade through the 479 words of fine print on the bottom of the landing page.

Another landing-page graphical element that you should immediately consider adopting: pictures of the three key banking products being pitched with simple checkboxes for selection (see below). However, in this case it’s used in a backwards fashion. Users are supposed to tell the bank which accounts they already have, rather than the ones they want to buy. This is counter-intuitive and should be redesigned.

Bofa_msn_landingpage_orderform_5

Bofa_msn_ddasav_appAfter selecting the BofA accounts already owned, users arrive on a secure Checking & Savings Account Application page that does a good job reinforcing benefits and referencing the original "Keep the Change" hook (click on inset left). A pop-up box offers live chat with a Deposit Specialist if desired.

Summary
The bank scores high for great online copywriting, superb graphics, and good ad positioning at MSN. We also like how Bank of America reinforces the benefits of automated savings. However, the offer is complicated and smacks of a gimmick that will do little to engender long-term loyalty or create a real savings ethic. Finally, the low 0.50 percent rate paid on the underlying savings account damages the program’s credibility and makes it less likely the account will be used to amass meaningful deposit balances.

Grades:
A+ for online advertising and sales (banner, landing page, application)
B+ for encouraging savings
C- for the debit card rewards program

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Zillow and RedFin Cater to Do-It-Yourself Homebuyers

By Jim Bruene Posted on
Categories: Mortgage, Refi & Home Equity, Zillow

Zillow_logoIn many urban markets, new tools aimed at homebuyers are about to alter the purchasing paradigm. These tools, which make it much easier to scour home listings, determine market value, and make legally binding purchase offers, are slowly diminishing the role of the real estate agent, especiallyRedfin_logo on the buy side (sellers still need access to the multiple listings). Already, 24 percent of recent homebuyers first learned of the home they eventually bought through their own Internet research (see Note 1 below).

What does this have to do with online finance? Plenty. With 77 percent of home buyers already using the Internet in their home search (see Note 1, below), the online real estate venues will begin to play a much larger role in the process. Financial institutions that get their name in front of homebuyers early in the process have a much higher likelihood of being chosen as the mortgage lender. And with buyers less likely to contact a real estate agent early in the process, traditional agent referrals will become less of a factor in the mortgage-purchase decision.

The Latest Homebuying Resources

Zillow_searchresults_3

Zillow <zillow.com>, the Seattle-based company launched Feb. 8 to much fanfare (so much that it crashed the site) including favorable articles in Walt Mossberg’s Wednesday WSJ column, Seattle Times business section, The New York Times, and many others. Zillow, started by former Expedia founder and CEO, Rich Barton, allows users to research comparable housing market values, both current and historic. Similar services have been around for almost a decade, but none match Zillow’s depth of information and ease of use (click on screenshot right for a closeup). Note: Zillow is using an advertising business model. Currently, it displays Google AdSense ads on the right, banner ads across the top, and other ads scattered throughout the site. Real estate brokers and lenders are expected to be major advertisers. ZipRealty, a buyer’s agent that rebates 20 percent of the commission, is a major sponsor at launch. Other similar services: HouseValues.com, HomeSmartReports.com, and HomePriceCheck.com (from LendingTree).

Redfin_searchresults_1 –

Redfin <redfin.com> another Seattle-based startup, provides not only home-value data, but also overlays home-for-sale listings and recent sales on a satellite image of the neighborhood (click on inset for closeup; red boxes are homes currently for sale, blue-green indicates a recent sale). And with a business model that includes pocketing 1/3 of the home-sale commission, while rebating 2/3 to the buyer, it offers a potentially disruptive business model to the real estate industry which generated more than $60 billion in commissions in 2005 (reference: Seattle Times, Feb. 5, 2006). Although the site covers only the Seattle metro area at this time (which generated $1 billion in commissions in 2005), its primarily California-bred executive team is planning a San Francisco area launch later this year.

Action Items

  1. Keep abreast of homebuying venues in your market areas. Consider advertising or sponsorship opportunities to drive new buyers to your financing options.
  2. Improve the visibility and benefits of your mortgage preapproval program. Look at what Third Federal has done with its Mortgage Passport, a lifetime mortgage preapproval service (NetBanker Jan. 23, 2006).
  3. Develop a robust real estate marketplace for your website. Use your impartiality as a drawing card, e.g., "Looking for a home? Check out yourbank.com’s Real Estate center, where we show you how to find ALL the homes in the market, not just the ones your agent wants you to see."
  4. For those not currently receiving referrals from real estate agents, consider adopting the Redfin discount real estate agent model, helping buyers earn large commission rebates. You could even take it one step further, allowing the rebate (which could be as high as 3 percent of the purchase price) to pay for all or part of the down payment at closing.

    Run this scenario by your legal department: The bank refers customers to a flat-fee real estate attorney who handles the purchase offer and subsequent negotiations for a pre-set fee; let’s call it $500 (see Note 1). The remainder of the buying agent’s commission is used as down payment for a mortgage from your bank. On a $400,000 home, that potentially makes more than $10,000 available for the down payment.

Big Caution: Anyone helping cut real estate agents out of their full commissions will be extremely unpopular, and will face backlash from the local real estate industry. This strategy (#4) works only for financial institutions with relatively few ties to the existing homebuying power structure.

— JB

Continue reading “Zillow and RedFin Cater to Do-It-Yourself Homebuyers” →

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