Reinventing the Checking Account

Is it “game over” for mid-size banks and credit unions when it comes to checking accounts? Are the threats from deposit displacement, P2P providers, Amazon, and megabanks insurmountable? No.  Despite the prevalence of free checking accounts, many consumers express interest in switching to that hypothetical Amazon-offered bundled checking account we discussed earlier in this report.…

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It’s Time to Kill Free Checking

Why would consumers show more interest in a fee-based account from Amazon than a free account? One reason is surely the value-added services bundled in. But there’s another reason: Consumers have learned (the hard way) that a free checking account isn’t really free.  As one bank customer, commenting online, put it:  “The issue isn’t wanting…

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The Threats to Checking Accounts

person using laptop computer

Over the first half of the 2010s, the number of checks written in the United States declined from 41.9 billion to 17.1 billion — a nearly 60% drop. Bad news for checking accounts, right? Wrong.  According to the FDIC, the percentage of U.S. households without a checking account dropped from 8.2% in 2011 to 7% in…

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Use Good/Better/Best for Checking Success

Man and woman walking holding hands

Shop for a new car, a cell phone plan, a cable TV package, or a major appliance these days, and you’ll find one consistent and very successful product strategy: Good/Better/Best (GBB). GBB is a three-tiered strategy conceptually defined as follows: Good: A basic level of value for price-sensitive customers. Good offers a minimal amount of…

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Can You Honestly Say Your Checking Account is Modern?

man on cell phone

Case in point: the rapid adoption and use of smartphones in today’s world have made consumers aware of two realities:  Those devices break. Bad people are misusing other people’s personal data.  What’s your checking products doing to help your customers/members with these realities? If the answer is nothing, here’s a few research points to start…

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Is Your Checking Account Worth Paying For?

To thrive in today’s financial marketplace and stand out from the pack, you must deliver checking products with benefits that consumers are demanding, many of which they are already buying from other companies, and your competition isn’t providing.  To get started, take a look at what consumers are already using — and, in most cases,…

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Give your FI a competitive advantage — even against the megabanks

Does investing in customer experience improvements really create an economic return or a competitive advantage? Before you can answer that question, you must answer two others:  How much will it cost to be the industry leader in customer experience? What competencies or capabilities will be required to achieve and maintain that leadership position?  In their…

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Serve Where Customers Expect You to Be

various app screens from Lemonade and Dave

When my 15-year-old daughter needs money to chip in for a car-owning friend’s next fuel fill-up or dinner out with her boyfriend, she doesn’t ask if I can swing by the ATM for her. She doesn’t ask to go to the bank with me, nor does she take checks. Heck, I don’t even think she’d…

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Smartphone Ownership Surpasses Three Billion

The number of smartphone users worldwide surpassed three billion in February and is forecast to further grow by several hundred million in the next few years. While there has been some stagnation in smartphone purchases, the smartphone market still has high growth potential as the smartphone penetration rate is still lower than 70% in most…

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