Canadian Customers Are Losing Enthusiasm for Credit Card And Banking Apps And Sites

Banks and credit card companies have launched online services and mobile apps over the years to reinforce ties to their most valuable customers and win new ones. But, in Canada at least, that effort is hitting a brick wall, a series of new reports from J.D. Power indicates.

While Canadian consumers, like their American counterparts, routinely use digital channels to access their accounts and perform tasks like transfers and payments, user satisfaction with broader services is “languishing,” according to Troy, Mich.-based J.D. Power, which has released reports on consumer sentiments on both online and app-based transactions for banking and credit cards.

Waning satisfaction has especially impacted usage of what J.D. Power classifies as “more advanced” features, such as virtual assistants, alerts, and budgeting tools.

“Across both bank and credit card digital offerings, we’re seeing a situation in which customers have been slow to adopt the newer tools and resources that were meant to improve their digital experience. While customers are routinely accessing digital channels for routine tasks, like making payments, checking balances, or tracking transactions, use of more advanced features is lagging,” said Jennifer White, senior director of banking and payments intelligence at J.D. Power, in a statement.

That lag is impacting overall satisfaction scores for banking and credit card sites and channels, according to Power’s reports. User satisfaction with credit card apps—including those from prominent card networks—has dropped 12 points year over year, while satisfaction with the card companies’ Web sites has dropped four points, according to Power, which measures consumer satisfaction on a 1,000-point scale.

White says the Canadian results came as a surprise at Power. “We know that an increasing portion of consumers are struggling today, the financial indicators of financial health or stability are sobering,” she says in an email message. “Against that backdrop, we are surprised that more consumers are not making use of tools to help them understand their current financial state, help identify empowering steps to take to help build stability, help set personal highly relevant goals, and help them track progress against those goals.”

Among card apps, American Express tops the ranking, with a score of 657, followed by Tangerine Bank at 638 and TD Canada Trust, 613. With a 668 score, National Bank of Canada tops the rankings of online credit card providers. Tangerine Bank, at 647, and CIBC (631) follow at second and third.

In the rankings of mobile apps for banking, RBC Royal Bank comes first, at 644, with CIBC second, at 634. Royal Bank also tops the list for online banking satisfaction, at 619, with CIBC second at 616.

Power says the results released Thursday reflect findings from four separate studies conducted recently: The Canada Banking Mobile App Satisfaction Study; Canada Online Banking Satisfaction Study; Canada Credit Card Mobile App Satisfaction Study; and Canada Online Credit Card Satisfaction. These reports, which compiled results from queries conducted in February and March, measured performance in navigation, speed, visual appeal, and content, and reflected responses from 9.173 customers, Power says.