Rapid Growth in Online Credit Card Services - Up 57 Percent

The use of the internet for credit card account management has increased significantly, with customers visiting card issuers’ sites 57 percent more often to service their accounts in 2006 than in 2005, according to a comScore study of online credit card services. That increase follows a similar - 55 percent - rise in 2005 over 2004, writes MarketingCharts.

Strong growth in online servicing has continued in the first quarter of 2007, as the number of customer visits to issuers’ sites jumped to more than one billion, an increase of 32 percent versus the same period a year ago, comScore reported.

As part of the study, comScore measured consumer attitudes toward online servicing of credit cards:

• 63 percent of credit card users find online servicing important to their overall experience with their credit card.
• 69 percent of all customers have logged into their credit card website at some point in time.
• 58 percent of online customers log in more than once a month.
• Among customers for whom online servicing is important, viewing online statements, paying credit card bills, and disputing charges were cited as the most important online services:

Also, according to comScore’s Credit Card Solutions Benchmarker, the number of online credit card payments has grown significantly during the past two years: In 2006, 524 million credit card bills were paid online - a 73 percent increase versus 2004.

Regarding the enrolling of customers for paperless credit card statements - big cost-saving opportunities for issuers - the comScore survey found…

• 62 percent of credit card users are either already using the service or are willing to use the service.
• Issuers can expect paperless adoption to grow with rising adoption among younger consumers, as those age 18-44 are 20 percent more likely to use the service than consumers age 45 and older.
• Incentives and appeals can boost further adoption of paperless statement service among various customer segments, with 58 percent of them being enticed by a cash incentive.