Above, the busy “Card Offers” page on CardTrak.com from Ram Research offers links to many of the biggest online credit card issuers.

Source: Ram Research, 11/24/98, *corresponds to banner ads left, www.cardweb.com/cardweb/cardweb.html

Two years ago (OBR 9/96 ), we predicted “credit card issuers will take to the Net with vengeance beginning in 1997.” Turns out we were off by a year for a variety of reasons: credit problems, staff turnover, mergers, and Y2K. Credit card issuers may have been slower to the Net than other consumer product companies. But, according to a recent survey from Brittain Associates www.brittainassociates.com , card issuers are making up for lost time.

Brittain found that as of Sept., 10.7 million Americans had applied for a credit card found online with 42% approved, resulting in 4.5 million new accounts. More than three-quarters (77%) of the sample also applied for the card online (Web or AOL), for a total of 8.2 million online applications. Based on this data, we estimate that total online applications are now more than one million per month.

But the action isn’t just in credit cards. Just as many Internet users (15 million) have checked mortgage and/or equity loan rates online. The biggest mortgage referral sites, GetSmart (OBR 5/98 ), Quicken Mortgage (OBR 5/98 ), and Lending Tree (OBR 6/98 ) continue to post impressive volumes. Lending Tree reported $1 billion in application volume
in third quarter (at $200,000 per loan that’s 5,000 loans).

The company also said it closed 20% of loan applications receiving multiple offers (i.e., the good ones). GetSmart is averaging 1.5 million hits per month resulting in to 40,000 to 50,000 loan referrals per month.

And new players continue to come online. Two promising ventures made their debuts during the past 60 days: eStudentLoan.com , on Oct. 7 and MortgageAuction.com on Nov. 17. Participation in these new marketplaces is a strategic decision you cannot ignore much longer.

Source: Online Banking Report, 11/98