It should come as no surprise that in the latest J.D. Power Annual Customer Satisfaction survey, overall customer satisfaction has dropped. The total ranking score of 703 out of a thousand is akin to a C- grade. However, what is surprising is that the total satisfaction score only fell 7 points from last year, despite the fact that 20% of survey respondents reported interest rate increases, a doubling from last year. Throw in credit limit cuts, and the damage these have caused to credit scores, and one has to wonder if a majority of the 9,000 participants in the study worked for bailed out credit card issuing banks.
Amid all the chaos that has wreaked havoc on the lives of so many honest Americans with no intention of defaulting on their credit card accounts – see absurd amount of credit card complaints posted on this site – the credit card companies Smart Balance Transfers have been recommending, American Express and Discover remained at the top of the pack. I’ve long held Discover up as the best credit card company for most consumers (see my take on the best credit card company published 18 months ago) and their ranking as number 2 for the third straight year was reassuring-it is good to know that a company I recommend to thousands of visitors every month is treating them well.
Of the major banks included in the survey, only Discover, American Express, Chase and National City ranked above the industry average. Citigroup and Bank of America ranked below the average (though I think the government’s involvement in Citi may be making them a more customer friendly company), while First Premier Bank, an issuer of high fee sub-prime credit cards and Capital One ranked near the bottom.
However, I’m of the opinion that Capital One tends to get poor rankings from their customers with lower credit quality as Capital One does provide quality rewards and competitive rates for consumers with Prime credit.
All in all, the past 12 months have been a terrible month for credit card companies and all of us who use credit card companies. Lax lending standards led to huge losses at many of these companies and the efforts to generate more revenue from good customers has really hurt a lot of wallets. Hopefully, however, the past twelve months will mark a turning point in the credit card industry and once again consumers will be able to live without the fear of finding a piece of mail that turns their finances upside down every time they open their mailboxes.
For more information on credit card offers from companies mentioned in this article, please see the credit card application section of Smart Balance Transfers.
Sources:
http://www.smartmoney.com/breaking-news/on/?story=ON-20090901-000183-0746&afl=yahoo
http://www.jdpower.com/corporate/news/releases/pressrelease.aspx?ID=2009162
