Credit Cards Online Information

NEW YORK, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 2000 APR 25 (NB) People who surf the Web looking for credit card offers are more ethnically diverse and also more receptive to online branding than the general online population, according to a recently released study from Cyber Dialogue, a company specializing in Internet customer relationship management.

The study is part of the company's "American Internet User Survey."

Cyber Dialogue also says that it has found online credit card seekers to be younger, primarily male and more likely to carry larger balances than other segments of the cyberspace population.

To date, according to Cyber Dialogue projections, 9.8 million Americans have shopped for credit cards on the Internet.

Newsbytes spoke with Sam Callard, a financial analyst for Cyber Dialogue's Internet Strategies Group about the findings of the study. He said he thinks the study, which traces the offline and online consumer use of financial services, provides important information for credit providers in understanding how online credit card seekers differ from consumers looking for other types of financial services, such as home loans or insurance.

For example, Cyber Dialogue says, online credit card seekers are especially attractive because nearly half of them a projected 4.3 million have actually applied for a credit card directly online. This translates into a reduction in the cost of acquisition to online credit card issuers.

Another positive aspect of online credit seekers, according to the report, is that online credit card applicants have a high conversion rate. This means that more than half of those who applied for credit cards on the Web a projected 2.2 million ultimately acquired a credit card online, and began using it.

"Credit card companies are missing an opportunity to acquire potentially valuable lifetime customers by overlooking such largely untapped groups as ethnic minorities," said Callard. One of the benefits of the Internet, Callard points out, is its ability to reduce both the offline cost and risk of targeting these kinds of small, high-potential customer segments.

But online credit card seekers are also more demanding than the general Internet population, according to the report. They are especially driven by low interest rates as well as the reputation of the credit card issuer.

Cyber Dialogue reports that 90 percent of online credit card seekers list low interest rates as an important feature of a credit card; and, 83 percent list a trusted institution as being important in their choice of cards. The general online population is said to be a third less likely to cite these two factors as important elements in their choice of a credit card issuer.

Among the other findings of the report was the statistic that 35 percent of online credit card seekers are in an ethnic minority group, as compared to 20 percent of the total general online adult population. The primary reason for this, Callard feels, is due to the anonymity of the Internet.

Another figure of importance for credit card issuers is that with an average balance of $3,100, online credit card seekers carry $1,000 more credit card debt than the general online population. This translates into greater merchant fees and more interest income for card issuers, as long as the monthly payments are made.

The findings reported by Cyber Dialogue are from the company's cybercitizen Finance Continuous Advisory Service which is part of Cyber Dialogue's American Internet User Survey (AIUS). According to Callard, the AIUS random measures via telephone 1,000 online adults, age 18 and older, as well as 1,000 non-Internet users.

The number of Americans who have shopped for credit cards through the Internet is a projection updates hard data from the second quarter of 1999. The number of consumers reported to have actually acquired a credit card is, according to Callard, also based on hard data.

# posted by Medical Information : 2:30 AM