Account opening Archives - Page 4 of 4

Citibank and WaMu Rated Tops in Deposit Account Sales Process in Change Sciences Study

By Jim Bruene Posted on May 16, 2008
Categories: Account opening, Citibank, Deposits, Checking, Savings, CDs, Metrics & Market Research, Washington Mutual

Change Sciences, publishing under the moniker of its new Kantuit research service, just released its latest financial services website evaluation. The report uses proprietary user-experience modeling to rate, rank and compare 18 leading banking sites on how easy it is to find, select, and open a new deposit account online (see Table 1, inset).

Citibank and WaMu were ranked one and two and scored significantly better than the others. Wachovia was third, scoring about 20% higher (the lower the score, the better). Bank of America, Fifth Third and BB&T were in the next tier, finishing about 50% higher. Among mega-banks, U.S. Bank had the worst score, more than double the leaders.

The Change Science score includes various components that show how a consumer may struggle with various aspects of the application process. These individual scores are totaled to come up with the final composite score shown in Table 1 right.

For example, Figure 1 below illustrates the scores for "Effort (expended) finding and learning about deposit accounts" with Fifth Third leading the way with a 0.1 score, compared to Peoples United Bank, the worst of the sample, scoring 19x higher at 1.9

Download an abstract of the research results here (registration required). The full report runs $4,000; a significant investment yes, but you could make that up with just a handful of additional good deposit accounts.

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Out of the Inbox: WaMu Welcome to Business Online Banking, Virgin Money Valentine’s Day

By Jim Bruene Posted on February 15, 2008
Categories: Account opening, Email Marketing, Email Samples, Virgin Money, Washington Mutual

WaMu Welcome to Online Business Banking
I recently opened a business checking account at WaMu and logged onto online banking for the first time yesterday (see note 1). The 4-step process was done completely online, which, while user friendly, may not be the best idea security-wise. Anyone with enough detail about my business would have been able to log in and abscond with my $100 opening deposit. That's a topic for another day.

I was impressed how well the process worked and that the bank sent an immediate message to my email address welcoming me to online banking. It's a good message, presenting nine bullet-pointed account benefits and encouraging me to sign up for Business Bill Pay with another four bullet points.

The only thing that could be improved is the bare-bones signature area. It would be much better if my business banker and/or branch manager signed it, with an actual signature if possible. However, I'd accept someone from the central customer service area if they used an actual name and provided contact info within the letter.

Finally, the bank is missing an opportunity here to see if my initial experience has been positive. There should be a line that says something like "Please contact me if you have any questions or concerns about your new account" (note 2). Even better would be a short survey to provide feedback on the account-opening process.

Overall, I give it an A-.

Valentine's Day from Virgin Money
While I don't think Valentine's Day represents a particularly strong marketing opportunity for banks, at least one financial services company marked the date with an email to its customers (see note 3). Virgin Money sent this simple message to its customers yesterday morning (7:01 AM Pacific).

Notes:

1. I opened the checking account in the branch because it was a corporate account with multiple signers. The business banker offered to set up online banking for me, but I declined so that I could see how the process worked.

2. In fact, I did have trouble ordering paper checks for the new account, something the bank could easily fix if they realized they had the problem. A feedback mechanism in the welcome letter would provide plenty of good ideas from new customers, and the occasional headache, of course.

3. I purchased a $99 loan package from Virgin Money in December (see Online Banking Report #150 for more info). Sadly, only four Valentines greetings made it through my spam filters yesterday. My wife (thanks, honey), HP Logoworks, the alumni association from Iowa State University, and Virgin Money. An interesting mix.

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Bank of America Checking Account Onboarding Needs Improvement, at Least in Washington State

By Jim Bruene Posted on December 14, 2007
Categories: Account opening, Forms & Loan Applications

It's been a few years since I've opened a new checking account online. Even though it took more than a week, Bank of America did get my account set up without a glitch. That's a significant improvement over my last experience when I applied for a small business checking account online at WaMu and never heard from them again (note 1).

I wrote about the mediocre application process at Bank of America two weeks ago (here). But its so-called onboarding process was even worse (note 2). Below is my list of complaints. While none are deal-breakers for a new account holder, in total they created a relatively bad first impression, especially surprising for a company that has built such an outstanding online banking program used by 23 million Americans.

My main issue: The bank still relies on snail-mail to onboard a new online customer. And it arrived in five separate pieces beginning more than a week after I'd applied online. Here are the mailings alone with the approximate day of arrival (the day indicated is the approximate number of calendar days after submitting the application online note 3):

Day 10 (calendar days after applying online): PIN mailer
Day 12: Welcome mailing with signature card
Day 12: Online banking letter
Day 14: Debit card
Day 21: Credit report from the monitoring service (I purchased).

In comparison, I received just two emails, one confirming that I'd applied and one a week later telling me my account was ready.

After submitting my online application in mid-November, I was told it would take "additional processing time," and I heard nothing for more than a week. That's way too long to keep someone waiting for a new account. I've had a credit card in good standing with Bank of America for more than a decade, what could possibly have caused the holdup in adding a free checking account?
The first thing I received in the mail was my debit card PIN mailer with nothing other than a generic PIN number. That shouldn't be the first thing that comes in the mail.
Over the next few days, I received a letter about online banking, my debit card, and a new account package with a "signature card" that must be returned. From a consumer standpoint, three separate mailings creates more confusion than is necessary.
The signature card form was poorly designed. I've been in banking for more than 15 years, and I didn't understand half of what was on that form. It looked like something that a bank rep would fill out in the branch, not a customer form at all. And there were no instructions with the form.
The bank didn't send any paper checks, which is fine, but it neglected to tell me what routing number to use to get funds into the account electronically. I had to call the bank to find out.
Furthermore, the bank didn't provide any deposit slips or info on how to get more money into the account — a serious omission for a checking account!
The new checking account did not show up with my existing BofA credit card when I logged back in. I had to call customer service in order to link my card to my checking account, even though I had signed up for the checking account using a link in the online card-management system! Apparently, this has something to do with the unique system that houses checking accounts in Washington and Oregon. The service rep was nice, but couldn't really explain why my online banking didn't work right. And I'll only be able to see one of my two BofA cards with my checking account. I will have to use two separate online banking logins to track all three accounts; again, this is a problem unique to Pacific Northwest customers.
Even though I deposited $1,000 into the account via credit card, I did not receive any confirmation of that transfer.
During the application process, I signed up for a free trial of the bank's credit monitoring service. I received my paper credit report in the mail within two weeks, but again, no email confirmation of the service was received. The paper report also neglected to mention anything about the free trial or the pending monthly charge.

Notes:
1. Since this first incident occurred at least three years ago, I won't be too critical of WaMu here since the initial incident is well beyond the "blogging statute of limitations." While I cannot rule out user error on my WaMu checking account application, I'm reasonably certain I submitted a valid application. I had lunch with a WaMu exec yesterday, and he assured me the bank's online application process works extremely well these days.

2. I hold Bank of America to a much higher standard here. With 23 million online banking customers, they have the resources to make the process flawless.

3. Unfortunately, I failed to log the mail and am relying on memory here, but it was just a few weeks ago, so this is accurate plus or minus a day or two.

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Bank of America Offers $75 to Entice Credit Card Customers to Open a Free Checking Account

By Jim Bruene Posted on November 20, 2007
Categories: Account opening, Bank of America, Deposits, Checking, Savings, CDs

For some time, Bank of America has been offering its credit card customers a cash bonus for opening a new checking account. Today, with $75 dangled in front of me, I decided to take advantage of the offer and went ahead and opened up a free MyAccess Checking account online. Below is a screenshot of the main credit card page with the offer strategically placed in the upper-left quadrant.

While the online account opening process was relatively smooth, there are a number of things the bank could do better, starting with pre-filling the application with my personal info. Even though I have two Bank of America credit cards and I responded to the offer from within the secure online banking environment, I still had to start the application from scratch.

And taking a queue from online retailers such as Dell, the bank drops a number of cross sells into the application process. I'll have a full analysis of the account opening process in our upcoming Online Banking Report on online account opening to be published in first quarter.

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eBay Pitches Co-branded MasterCard to Bidders

By Jim Bruene Posted on November 20, 2007
Categories: Account opening, Credit/Debit Cards, Ebay, Email Samples, GE Money, PayPal

Given how many times I've had to tell clerks, "no, I really don't care to save $18 on my purchase today" (by adding yet another revolving credit product to my life), the come-on at checkout must work pretty well. Amazon has used this approach at online checkout for years, offering up to $30 in savings if approved for its co-branded credit card.

eBay recently began pitching its eBay MasterCard to bidders in its online auctions. As you can see below, a small "up to $25 back" is presented to users as they consider what bid amount to enter. The card is issued by GE Money and requires a PayPal account. Customers can opt to display their eBay userid on the no-annual-fee card.

Analysis
I also received an email offer last night (7:34 PM Pacific) for the card (see screenshot below). It's an attractive holiday-themed message with the slightly misleading email subject line, "Get 10% off eBay purchases through Dec. 15." I clicked on it wondering why eBay would offer me, a frequent buyer, such a substantial savings. It turns out to only apply to the first $250 spent, for a $25 savings, not so rich compared to other credit card offers I typically receive in the mail. But with the tight integration and 30-second loan application, it should provide a reasonable flow of new applications.

The online application is simple and fast with pre-populated personal info and a 30-second approval promise. All I had to do on the first page (note 1) was decide whether to put my eBay ID on the plastic and enter my birthdate (see screenshot below). However, the process is marred by the upsell of credit insurance disguised under the seemingly innocuous heading (see closeup below):

Yes, enroll me in the Account Security program.

Granted, the cost is clearly disclosed, however, many applicants will check the box thinking they are protecting themselves from fraud, and only later find out they are paying an extra 1.5% per month (that's $900 per year on a $5,000 balance) for an insurance product they probably don't need. With all the problems its had with phishing and fraud, eBay should NOT trick customers into signing on for credit insurance under the guise of "security."

Email solicitation from eBay (19 November 2007)

Landing page for email solicitation of eBay MasterCard (19 November 2007)

Note:

1. I did not proceed past the first page because I could not tell if hitting "continue" at that point would trigger a credit application. They may ask income and employment questions on the next page.

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