Offered by almost every card firm, online applications are essential tools for turning site visitors into card holders. Though each firm’s application serves the same basic purpose – facilitating the account-creation process – the different forms use various layouts and designs, and offer different card options and levels of help. In this report, we look at the following aspects of nine major issuers’ online applications:

• How many steps and pages is each issuer’s application?
• Are dynamically updating sections or other Web tools used to make the applications more user-friendly?
• What information about the card is included within the application?
• What card add-ons can users request within the application?

Online credit card applications have been greatly streamlined over the years. Every firm in this report now collects all applicant information on a single page, rather than spreading these fields over several pages. While this format can increase usability and application completion, there can be drawbacks – certain applicant information pages in this report were too long and required too much scrolling, thereby reducing usability. Better-performing firms utilized dynamic information fields that adjusted to reveal their data fields only when relevant to the applicant, thus reducing page length.

Firms varied significantly in terms of card information provided within applications. Every firm but one includes the name of the card for which a user is applying, and 56% of firms include bulleted information about the card’s attributes and rewards on the main informational page of the application. Every issuer that offers card applications online enables prospective clients to request optional card add-ons for their account, including additional card holders or authorized users. Two-thirds of issuers include balance transfer request fields within the application, and two allow clients to request paper suppression of account documents such as statements.

This report also discusses the following key findings:

• One major credit card issuer recently pulled online applications from its site completely, while a second limits online applications to existing bank clients
• Every firm provides FAQs, contextual pop-ups or a detailed Help section on applications. One-third of issuers also provide an online chat feature within the application.

Segment: Credit Cards
Publication date: Wednesday, June 30, 2010
# Pages: (47 pages)