Announcing Annual Monitor Award Winners in Banking & Credit Cards

Now in its 22^nd year, the Monitor Awards program recognizes digital innovation and best practices, awarding gold, silver and bronze medals in recognition of significant advances in web and mobile user experience over the past year.

“In 2020, banks and card issuers adapted to customers’ skyrocketing needs for remote self-service, P2P payment technology and budgeting analysis tools,” said Michael Ellison, president of Corporate Insight. “With the pandemic pushing users to handle all finances online, we expect to see continuing, accelerated investment in intuitive functionality and vital planning resources.”

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Below, we proudly present the 2020 Monitor Award gold medal winners, determined by our Personal Banking, Credit Cards and Small Business Finance research services:

Personal Banking

Account Information

• Bank of America won a gold medal by combining existing best-in-class account details and document center pages with recently improved money management tools, including the upgraded My Financial Picture account aggregation platform and Life Plan financial planning interface.

Payments

• Chase wins gold for the second year running with its unique consolidated payment interface, including extensive payment scheduling and management options. By combining Pay Bills & QuickPay with the Zelle interface, Chase provides a holistic view of each service, listing all recipients with keyword search and filter options.

Account Servicing

• Bank of America wins gold for strong self-servicing and alert management paired with commendable authenticated site help and best-in-class online ordering capabilities. In addition to all the standard profile and security management options, the firm notably provides a sign-in history and optional two-factor authentication at every login.

Transfers

• Chase earns a gold medal by offering a robust transfer interface with dynamic scheduling options and advanced capabilities. A single Transfer Money interface integrates internal and external transfer scheduling options, enabling users to make selections for all transfer specifics and set up recurring transfers via a toggle switch.

Website Design & Usability

• Wells Fargo wins for its modern, user-friendly site combining comprehensive navigation with strong information architecture, organizing interfaces and cross-linking to related resources. For the main navigation, it employs extensive, categorized flyout menus that offer one-click findability for most authenticated site pages.

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Credit Cards

Account Information

• Chase earns a gold medal for its exemplary homepage and dashboard details. The firm stands out further for a robust document center, an impressive transaction history, and a strong and recently improved spending analysis tool.

Account Servicing

• Discover earns a gold medal for the second year running for commendable card management functionality and interactive customer service paired with strong help resources. The firm lets card holders freeze or remove cards from digital wallets for devices that may be lost, surpassing other firms that only offer basic card replacement options for lost, stolen or damaged cards. It uniquely asks customers to choose a new card design when replacing a card.

Payments

• Citi earns a gold medal for a payment scheduling journey with extensive preset and customizable options, all available in a well-organized interface with a full suite of management options. Citi stands out for allowing users to add payment accounts by providing their external login credentials—a feature unique to the firm—as well as its visual payment and balance meter and its post-purchase installment payments program, Citi Flex Pay.

Rewards

• Chase wins for offering standout reward-earning merchant offers, an array of redemption options, and exemplary reward information and resources. The Ultimate Rewards microsite provides a wealth of features and program information in a well-designed standalone interface with straightforward navigation.

Website Design & Usability

• Chase earns the gold medal for its intuitive desktop site experience, easy and secure login process, and ample customizable site options. The site’s flat design, large typography, and clearly delineated sections help it stand out in usability and aesthetics. The site also includes many calls to action in plain language and indicates the user’s status with progress meters to aid in error prevention and provides abundant contextual help via tooltips.

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Small Business Credit Cards

Account Information

• Chase finishes first in the most important category (determined by our Digital Audit) thanks to its exemplary homepage and dashboard details. The firm stands out further by leading with a robust document center, for offering an impressive transaction history and by providing a strong spending analysis tool. The firm uniquely allows card holders to choose which page to set as the homepage—either the Summary page or the Account Activity page; each option offers a different level of account information but the two together boost Chase to achieve top honors overall.

Account Servicing

• CitiBusiness wins for its strong card management, self-servicing and transaction disputing as well as excellent interactive customer service. A variety of card and self-servicing functions partnered with centralized help content, industry-leading and unique site search, and ubiquitous live chat position the firm well.

Employee Card Management

• American Express earns gold for its exemplary authorized user addition process and its solid array of primary card holder controls. The firm stands out for its account manager permissions, authorized user addition inputs, the overall interface design and the contextual help offered to primary card holders.

Payments

• CitiBusiness wins for exemplary scheduling capabilities with extensive preset and customizable options and for its well organized, straightforward interface with a full suite of payment management features. The firm stands out for its post purchase installment payments program, Citi Flex Pay, as well as for allowing users to add payment accounts by providing their external login credentials, a feature unique to the firm.

Website Design & Usability

• CitiBusiness earns a gold medal for a carefully designed and intuitive navigation scheme that allows users to journey quickly and easily throughout the authenticated site, standing out for its modernity, consistent design choices and usability. The firm also offers a straightforward login and user authentication experience as well as a middling array of customization options.

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