Pop-up form greets users abandoning online applications.

With the Feb. 7 seizure of NextCard’s NextBank subsidiary and the halt in trading of NextCard stock, it appears the final chapter of this Internet pioneer’s story has been written, although we still expect its widely recognized brand to live on under new ownership. Evidently, fatal errors in underwriting and risk management brought the company down. We were surprised and disappointed by its sudden demise.

Whether taxpayers were best served by its shutdown will never be known; in these Enron-sensitive times, we can’t blame regulators for moving quickly. Regardless, the company will long be remembered for its 4-year string of online product and marketing innovations.

Ironically, as we looked in on NextCard’s Web site on the evening of Feb. 7 to see if they were still taking applications (applications were halted early on Feb. 8), we noticed the company was using a simple, but very effective marketing tool aimed at gathering the email address of users which had clicked on the NextCard application, but had abandoned it prior to completion.

Users exiting from the first page of the application are greeted by a popup message offering various incentives to leave an email address for future contact. After 50 to 75 tests, we determined that the company was testing five different offers: (1) O% APR bulls-eye (above); (2) Tired of high rates (below); (3) No Time? (below);
(4) subtler 0% teaser (below); (5) Free credit report offer (not shown). Great idea; hopefully someone else can put it to profitable use.