Segment: Credit Cards
Publication date: Friday, May 29, 2009
# Pages: (38 pages)

Abstract | Table of Contents

Over the last several years, online statements have become important, nearly universal features on card issuers’ private sites. In this report, we look at the types of online statements being offered by issuers, as well as the design and features of their private site statement centers. In particular, this report focuses on the following questions:

• Are firms offering Internet-formatted online statements or statements that replicate the hardcopy version?
• How many months of back statements are automatically available in the private site statement center?
• Can card holders order older statements from the private site for either hard copy or digital delivery?
• What are firms doing to promote paperless statements?

Firms have overwhelmingly moved toward offering replica account statements in recent years, with 81% of firms in this report offering true-to-form documents online. Four firms go a step further, offering both true-to-form and Web-formatted statements. Every firm that offers online statements also allows card holders to suppress paper delivery via a private site tool – an excellent way to promote and advance the feature.

In order to provide access to back statements that are not automatically available in the private site statement center, six card issuers offer a special private site ordering tool. Half of these firms upload ordered statements to the existing statement center, while four firms send a standard statement copy to the card user’s home address. Only two firms with statement ordering tools charge a fee to clients for the statement copy; one of these firms drops the fee for card holders enrolled in paperless statements. Only 30% of firms, however, currently offer incentives for stopping paper statement delivery.

The report also expands on the following key findings:

• 80% of issuers also allow clients to stop and restart their paper statements online
• Few firms offer statement inserts within their online statement centers
• Seven firms automatically offer more than 12 months worth of statements on the private site
• One firm offers the Important Disclosures section of their monthly statement as a private site pop-up; eight other firms embed it within their PDF statement copies

Subjects

Website Reviews/Company Reviews, Account Management, Online tools, calculators, etc.

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