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Banking and Cards Research

Digging into the Customer Experience: Banking and Credit Cards

Corporate Insight’s Bank Monitor, Credit Card Monitor and Small Business Card Monitor provide ongoing coverage of the products, websites and overall customer experience offered by the nation’s leading banks and card issuers. Our value-added banking and credit card research digs deeply to evaluate the retail and small business customer experience.


Account Activity Presentation PDF Print E-mail
The most widely visited private site page among card holders is the Account Activity page, from which clients can gain insight into the current standings of their account. Here, clients are able to review individual transaction details, track purchase amounts and balances and access summary information. In this edition of Bank Monitor Report, we investigate the Recent Activity pages and associated transaction tables provided by each firm, focusing on how transactions are displayed and what sorting options are available. 

In this Bank Monitor Report, we looked at each firm’s Account Activity page, examining not only the information made available but also the functionality within the Account Activity page’s accompanying transactions table. The best Account Activity pages provide customers with an interactive transactions table that offers multiple sortable columns as well as the ability to customize Transaction Descriptions or add Category tags. Additionally, we focused on what summary information is also provided within the Account Activity page. As we investigated each firm’s Account Activity page, we focused on the following issues:
  • What data points are shown in transaction table columns?
  • Do firms offer sortable columns within the transaction table?
  • Are summary data points about the account offered on the Account Activity page?
All 16 firms covered by Bank Monitor offer transaction tables to clients, providing at least the Date, Description and Amount information. All of the firms but one also offer a Running Balance or End-of-Day column within the table. Depending on the firm, users are provided with anywhere between three months and two years of available transaction history, with three firms only offering the last three months and five offering up to two years. In addition to the type of data within the transactions table, 82% of firms offer users ways to manipulate this data through sortable column headings. Of the firms that offer sortable columns, all firms allow clients to sort by at least date, with 63% offering users to sort by Transaction Description. Only one firm in this report allows transactions to be sorted by Balance.

In addition to the data found within the transactions table, all 16 banks offer at least basic Summary Details about a client’s account; however, few firms provide additional details aside from Total/Current Balance and Available Balance. Only nine firms provide interest rate information for savings accounts within the summary sections, while only four firms provide the date of the most recent statement. Two firms also include the Date/Amount of the last deposit within their summary section, and only one firm offers the date of the last transaction.
 
Additional key findings include:
  • Two firms allow the customization of transaction descriptions.
  • Only two firms offer a unified amount column within the transaction table, as opposed to two separate columns for debit and credit.
  • Printer-friendly links are provided by 63% of the firms.
 
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