Blog - Page 1182 of 1221

Wamu Targets Savers on Google

By Jim Bruene Posted on September 21, 2006
Categories: Deposits, Checking, Savings, CDs, Direct Banking, Washington Mutual

As we reported Aug. 16, Washington Mutual Bank is looking to win back some of the high-yield deposit business from ING Direct, HSBC, and Citibank. The bank is now bidding aggressively on Google with its "5.00% APY" landing it in fifth place for "savings accounts" (placing it second on the right-side list) and eighth for "high-yield savings" (see inset, search conducted 21 Sep, 1 pm PDT, from Seattle IP).

After clicking through the ad, potential customers are delivered to a well-designed landing page further emphasizing the "5.00% APY Statement Savings" rate (see screenshot below, click for larger view). Wamu continues its year-long effort to lampoon bankers with the three-piece suited icon "complaining" about the high rate paid on savings (see also, 28 April).

A new Wamu checking account (opened after 11 March 2006) is required to take advantage of the special rate. That important fact is downplayed on the landing page but is obvious once the user clicks through to the application (see screenshot by clicking the continuation link below). Furthermore, both accounts must be opened online. However, deposits can be made in the branch.

Wamu landing page from Google ads on "savings accounts" (see continuation link to see full page with fine print)

Full landing page (with fine print)

Full application

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

Countrywide Uses Dedicated Microsite to Market SavingsLink

By Jim Bruene Posted on September 20, 2006
Categories: Countrywide Bank, Deposits, Checking, Savings, CDs

Countrywide Bank is using a microsite <savingslink.com> to funnel users interested in its new high-yield savings account (see screenshot below). The account was advertised in Sunday's (10 Sep) New York Times (Business section, National Edition, p. 4) with a one-third page, 5-inch tall ad that asked, "Can your bank match our online savings rate?"

The account is also to be advertised aggressivly on Google, appearing second from the top in the right-hand column for searches on "online savings accounts" and "high-yield savings accounts." However, it's only in eighth position on the more generic "savings account" search (searches conducted 20 Sep, 10 am PDT, from Seattle, WA, IP address).

The bank took a low-key approach to using its main brand by using just a small logo in the lower-right corner. The fine print explained that the advertised 5.25% APY applied to balances of $10,000 or more with smaller balances garnering a still-respectable 4.50%. The bank has raised the SavingsLink rate a full 1% since its launch in mid-May with a rate of 4.25%.

Analysis
The use of a dedicated microsite for marketing a high-profile product such as a high-yield savings account offers a number of benefits:

Ability to focus users on a single product/offer
Easier to track traffic and test layouts
Avoids the distractions of other website navigation
Can use a different look and feel than the main corporate website
Makes the product feel like a true "special offer"

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

Webby Award Deadline Oct. 27

By Jim Bruene Posted on September 19, 2006
Categories: Allstate, Bank of America, PayPal, Website Usability & Design

The 11th annual website beauty contest, The Webby Awards, is accepting entries for the best websites and interactive advertising campaigns. Financial institutions may compete in any of the advertising categories, or one of the three website categories:

Best Banking/Bill Pay
Insurance
Financial services (everything other than banking or insurance)

Last year the winners were Bank of America in Banking/Bill Pay; PayPal in Financial Services; and Allstate's nowwhat.com in the Insurance category (see inset).

Early entry deadline is Oct. 27. Fee is US$125.

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

Automobile Title Insurance has Fee Income Potential

By Jim Bruene Posted on September 18, 2006
Categories: Experian, Fee Income, First American, Loans & Credit

When it comes to generating incremental fee income, it's difficult to find new ideas. One you may not have considered is automobile title insurance.

Although we've purchased two used cars on eBay, we'd never heard of title insurance for autos until we read about it in the Wall Street Journal today. For a one-time fee of $50 to $60, consumers can buy insurance that protects them against fraudulent titles, including instances where a salvaged auto has had its title wiped clean by registering the vehicle in a state with more liberal salvage rules.

According to First American Corporation, which markets a $49.95 policy in a joint venture with Experian Automotive, 20% of salvaged autos end up with clean titles. The product is called TitleGuard Vehicle Title Insurance and is sold through a stand-alone website <autotitleguard.com> and through resellers such as Credit Union Direct Lending and Escrow.com.

Financial institution opportunities
There are two ways financial institutions could use title insurance:

Education: In your auto-loans area, explain the ways that car titles can be manipulated with links to outside informational sources.
Resell title insurance: Title insurance is most needed when purchasing vehicles from unknown private parties. Even if you don't finance such transactions, you could earn commissions on customers referred to third parties for title insurance.
Bundle title insurance with loans: If you offer financing for private transactions, you could bundle title insurance with your loan to help differentiate your product and help justify premium pricing. The title insurance could be mandatory or optional and either way could be priced as a fee-based add-on or included in the regular loan-origination fee.

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

PayPal’s 30-Second Credit Card Application

By Jim Bruene Posted on September 15, 2006
Categories: Credit/Debit Cards, Forms & Loan Applications, PayPal

PayPal is advertising its PayPal Plus card with this box located in the upper-right of the main account start-page within the secure area (click screenshot below for a closeup).

With the falloff in response to traditional direct mail raising acquisition costs to $200 or more, a pitch delivered within an online banking session can be far less expensive. And with online banking users typically wanting to get in and out quickly, the 30-second response shows that the company is sensitive to the time constraints of its customers (notice they did NOT say that it was a 30-second process).

The PayPal card is issued by GE Money Bank, the same company behind PayPal Buyers Credit used by sellers to offer longer-term financing of major eBay purchases. The Plus card includes a free rewards program offering 1 point per dollar purchased. The current rewards structure includes three levels:

1,000 points – Free shipping up to $7 on a PayPal purchase
2,500 points – $25 voucher (for merchandise at most PayPal merchants)
9,500 points – $100 voucher (for merchandise at most PayPal merchants)

The card carries a variable rate from 14.24% to 24.24% and has no annual fee.

Here's the main account page displayed after login:

Here's the landing page displayed after clicking on the apply button:

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

billQ Bill Payment Mac Widget Released

By Jim Bruene Posted on September 14, 2006
Categories: Best of the Web, Bill payment, billQ, Desktop Presence, Seen Creative Group

Our most recent OBR Best of the Web winner (NB Sep 1), Seen Creative's billQ, has achieved another industry first, a bill payment-tracking widget for Apple Mac users (here's where you can download it from Apple's site).

The widget allows Mac users to drop a small billQ screen right onto their desktop (see NB 2 May 2005). It allows users to see what bills are due and mark them as paid without ever leaving their desktop.

The widget can also be downloaded at billQ's website <mybillq.com>.

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

Forrester Says 24% of Gen Y Reading Blogs

By Jim Bruene Posted on September 13, 2006
Categories: Blogs, Metrics & Market Research

In a new Forrester study on Gen Y consumers (must be a Forrester client to access), Analyst Charlene Li tracks the growing influence of blogs. The company's research shows that one in four Gen Yers regularly reads one. Here's blog readership by generation:

24% Gen Y (ages 18 to 26)
12% Gen X (ages 27 to 40)
7% Young Boomers (ages 41 to 50)

We've seen studies that show even higher usage; it depends on whether you count social networks such as MySpace as a "blog." The influential Pew Internet & American Life Project <www.pewtrusts.org> released a blogging report this summer. In that study fielded in January, Pew found that 39% of Internet users, or 57 million, were reading blogs and 9%, or 12 million, were writing them.

Financial institutions thinking of starting a blog might want to tune into Charlene's teleconference next week (Sept. 22, 1:00 PM Eastern; cost = $250) when she looks at the criteria companies should use when choosing a blogging platform, including a review of nine providers.

She's also summarized the vendor comparisons in a $995 report which looks at Drupal, iUpload's Customer Conversation System, Roller, Six Apart's Movable Type and TypePad, Telligent Systems' Community Server, Traction Software's TeamPage, UserLand Software's Manila, and WordPress. Her report abstract names iUpload as her favorite.

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

Zopa Courting U.S. Credit Unions

By Jim Bruene Posted on September 13, 2006
Categories: Loans & Credit, Prosper, Zopa

According to OpenSourceCU, a blog operated by website designer Trabian, person-to-person lender Zopa is actively soliciting credit unions to partner with the U.S. version of its service scheduled to open later this year (see NB Sep 7). One idea floated by Zopa's Wade Lagrone to attendees of the Taps Lending Symposium put on by Forum Solutions, was requiring Zopa borrowers to join a credit union in order to participate.

It's not as far-fetched as it sounds. In our analysis of peer-to-peer lending published in March (see Online Banking Report #127), we identified a number of ways financial institutions could benefit by referring customers to competitive loan marketplaces. It helps you serve the "long tail" of borrowing, those specific situations that your underwriting cannot accommodate, but where you still want to satisfy the customer to retain their other banking business.

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

BudgetSnap Launches Full-Service Multi-Language Personal Finance App

By Jim Bruene Posted on September 12, 2006
Categories: BudgetSnap, Personal Financial Management

Just when we thought we'd found all the online personal finance applications (see Online Banking Report #131/132), another one pops up, BudgetSnap <budgetsnap.com> from Walton, NY-based BudgetSnap LLC.

Feature-wise, it's a winner with support for not only budgeting, but also for tracking investments, credit accounts, bills and so on (see screenshot below). And right out of the gate it supports local currency and language across 14 countries and six languages (English, French, German, Spanish, Portuguese, and Japanese). There is also a mobile version in the works (see inset).

The company has filed for patent protection, but we haven't heard back on what portions of its service they are seeking to protect.

As with other standalone, personal finance apps (see previous NB articles), we have serious doubts as to whether BudgetSnap can attract a critical mass of users without financial institution connectivity. The company appears to recognize this limitation and is actively pursuing partner relationships as evidenced by this statement tacked on to the bottom of its price list:

Educational, co-brand and white-label discounts available for qualified institutions. Please call (917) 865-4896 for more details.

Pricing
The company is offering a 90-day free trial plus price incentives (prices good through year-end):

1 Month @ ~~$9.95~~ $7.96 – Save 20%!
3 Months @ ~~$24.95~~ $19.96 – save 33%
6 Months @ ~~$47.95~~ $33.57 – save 44%
12 Months @ ~~$89.95~~ $62.97 – save 47%
24 Months @ ~~$149.95~~ $89.97 – save 62%

The company has an additional incentive for two-year subscriptions, The Money Book for the Young, Fabulous & Broke by Suze Orman. Finally, students/seniors qualify for an additional 15% discount.

Endnote: BudgetSnap's homepage can be instantly translated into six different languages using the country flag icons at the bottom (see screenshot below).

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

MBNA’s Big & Ugly Card Application

By Jim Bruene Posted on September 11, 2006
Categories: Credit/Debit Cards, Forms & Loan Applications, MBNA, Website Usability & Design

In direct mail, sometimes "big & ugly" beats "short & sweet." But when it comes to preapproved credit card applications, we're pretty sure the 8-screen form posted by Bank of America's FIA Card Services (formerly MBNA) isn't going to help improve response rates (see the full form by clicking the continue link below).

My wife received a preapproved, direct-mail offer from Fidelity Investments where she has an investment account. The solicitation included the usual one-third sheet mail-back "acceptance form." Recipients could also either call a toll-free number, or go online to www.ibscredit.com.

Those that went online were greeted with this almost-blank screen operating under a different URL www.applyforcreditnow.com and had no reassuring message or graphics to assure users they had not arrived at a phishing site.

After entering the 6-digit code from the mailing, prospective cardholders are transported to this boring form, which surprisingly includes MORE fields than its paper-based counterpart (click on inset for closeup; click on continuation below to see the full 800 x 5200 screenshot). For example, it contains a section to be completed by students, who are unlikely to be receiving this particular Fidelity Investments WorldPoints Visa card with no preset spending limits.

Not only are the layout and design dull, but also two major design flaws are readily apparent:

No reinforcement of product benefits above the fold, especially the "0% through Nov. 2007" offer
No division into smaller segments, the first of which should gather the email address

See Online Banking Report #104 for more on application design.

— JB

Endnote: Full online application (820 x 5200)

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

Facebook Launches MoochSpot, a “Social Loan” Tracker

By Jim Bruene Posted on September 8, 2006
Categories: Bank 2.0, BillMonk, Epayments, Facebook, Personal Financial Management

In mid-August, Facebook, the popular social networking site aimed at college students, alums, and now a few select corporations has released a simple personal finance application. The original name was FaceBank (see screenshot at bottom of article), but recently it was renamed MoochSpot (click on screenshot below for closeup).

MoochSpot allows Facebook users to loan (i.e., spot), borrow (mooch), and settle debts with other Facebook users. At this point there is no payment capabilities, so the money must change hands through other methods.

Here's how it works:

Create a "piggy bank" to track the funds
Select a Facebook friend from the list that automatically shows in the MoochSpot list (note, in our screenshot below, we don't have any predesignated friends, so the list is empty)
Enter the amount of the loan
(Optional) Enter a reason for the loan

Analysis
MoochSpot was developed, not because of huge user demand to track personal debts, but to showcase the type of application that can be built by outside developers using the recently released Facebook APIs. MoochSpot is highlighted on the Facebook developer's page <developers.facebook.com>.

BillMonk, the self-proclaimed "social money" site which allows debts to be split and tracked via website or mobile phone (see NB Apr 30), is the first financial services provider to jump on the bandwagon and create Facebook integration (in inset, see Facebook login in lower-right of BillMonk's homepage). We tried on several computers to get it to work and were unable to get past the Facebook login. We'll check back in a few days to see if they have the bugs worked out.

Financial institutions looking to create online banking sites that click with college students should pay close attention to BillMonk and MoochSpot. It would be relatively simple for a bank to use the Facebook API to develop even more powerful payment applications that combine the loan-tracking benefits of MoochSpot with actual epayment capabilities to move money back and forth among friends. While it wouldn't do anything that Paypal doesn't do today, the integration within online banking is important.

But the biggest reason to integrate with Facebook, MySpace, or any other 20-something social network is because it positions yourself as a bank or CU that understands the younger generation. And make sure you have genuine 20-somethings designing the marketing and writing the blog copy.

Appendix:

Below is the original FaceBank application prior to changing the name to MoochSpot:

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

Update on Zopa’s U.S. Release Date

By Jim Bruene Posted on September 7, 2006
Categories: Loans & Credit, Prosper, Zopa

Zopa <zopa.com> continues to work towards a 2006 launch of the U.S. version of its person-to-person lending exchange. The company is trying to spur a bit of word-of-mouth in advance of its launch by buying a case of beer for anyone sponsoring a Zopa barbecue this summer.

The company website also contains a newsletter-like posting <www.zopa.com/ZopaWeb/ promo/newsletter/ us/issue1/> with info on the U.S. division (click on inset for closeup).

Beside promoting the free beer offer, the newsletter profiles Bruce Brenkus, VP Credit and Risk at Zopa U.S., an excellent choice of subject matter since credit management is the biggest concern for prospective Zopa lenders.

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook