Let freedom (from credit card interest) ring!
Written by Bryan Donovan (contact - e-mail) -- July 5th, 2007 | Recommend ThisOkay, I could have inserted just about any burdensome topic into the parentheses above because when it comes down to it, Americans prefer freedom. Sometimes we want the noble freedom, like our forefathers, of choosing our own destiny and sometimes, like 3 year olds, we just want freedom from any and every imposed restriction.
The credit card study we just finished provided yet another example (or two) of how we want and seek freedom in every aspect of our lives. Compete analyzed consumer credit card shopping behavior at Bankrate.com and Creditcards.com from January through April 2007.
- The majority of consumers viewing card-specific content are looking at low interest/balance transfer products
- However, these cards make up a large proportion of all the cards offered on these sites, so it is difficult to determine cause and effect
At Compete, we want freedom from bias in our research so we try to rely on multiple sources of information. One way we do this is by surveying consumers based on their behavior (in this case, card shoppers) to get at the attitudes behind the behavior.
- Although the magnitude of the responses differ from online behavior, the order of interest remains the same (we did not ask specifically about airline miles)
- Low interest cards are confirmed to be the top choice of in-market card shoppers
Satisfied? We weren’t, so we teamed up with Umbria, Inc. to capture what consumers are saying online. The team at Umbria (thanks Howard and Niraj!) monitors conversations on over 60 million blogs to gain crucial insights into consumer generated media. Advanced analysis of the text in each post reveals the context and sentiment of the conversation.
- Low interest cards were confirmed to be the most popular topic based on the quantity of conversations
Examining the sentiment of the posts revealed that bloggers also spoke most positively about low interest cards.
Airline miles cards generated the highest percentage of negative posts. The negativity was primarily due to frustrations with blackout dates and lack of seat availability. I told you, we want freedom!
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July 8th, 2007 at 8:46 am
Interesting stuff. There’s a very simple explanation for this behavior: Age. Younger consumers — who are more likely to research their credit card needs online, typically have lower income than older (ie, over 40) consumers — are more likely to be looking for low interest cards.
August 1st, 2007 at 3:20 am
A credit card is a system of payment named after the small plastic card issued to users of the system. A credit card is different from a debit card in that it does not remove money from the user’s account after every transaction. In the case of credit cards, the issuer lends money to the consumer (or the user). It is also different from a charge card (though this name is sometimes used by the public to describe credit cards), which requires the balance to be paid in full each month. In contrast, a credit card allows the consumer to ‘revolve’ their balance, at the cost of having interest charged. Most credit cards are the same shape and size, as specified by the ISO 7810 standard. http://usacreditcards.cn/
August 28th, 2007 at 7:19 pm
One of the main reasons people switch credit card providers is simply to get rid of unwanted recurring charges that are hitting their current credit card. The merchant-bank complex is so stacked up against the consumer that typically the only *easy* way to deal with unwanted charges is to cut your card in half with a scissors.
May 3rd, 2008 at 3:37 pm
Bryan,
Very interesting read. Thanks.
Another option to consider when trying to tap what consumers are saying online is a FREEMIUM account from http://sm2.techrigy.com. Gives you analysis features for Sentiment, Demographics, Geographics, Trends, Themes, and Authority.
Regards,
Aaron
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Aaron C. Newman
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Techrigy, Inc.
cell: 646-280-5168
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