I just spent the better part of two days attending BancVue's monthly client/prospect meeting called BTAN (note 1). I knew they would have high-energy presentations, great ideas, and outrageous antics; after all, I've seen them take home three Finovate Best of Show trophies. They know how to drive a point home.

But what I didn't expect was to come home believing its Kasasa strategy might really work. Kasasa launched at FinovateFall 2009 (video here) and is the first major attempt to create a nationwide brand around the checking account. They are trying to do for checking what Visa/MasterCard did for the credit card or what Intel did for PC manufacturers with "Intel inside."

One very different element here is that BancVue is creating a national brand exclusively for use by community banks and credit unions. Large banks are viewed as the enemy (see inset from BancVue's "about us" page) and are not allowed to "stock" the Kasasa brand.

On the surface it seems impossible. How could hundreds, if not thousands, of proud, local financial institutions -- many who've been building a local brand for many decades -- unite under a nutty brand called "Kasasa" of all things?

But is it crazy like the iPod was crazy? Smaller banks and credit unions are being taken to the cleaners by the big banks, losing more than half their market share in the past two decades. They have the local ties, the human connection, but it is usually hard to maintain the product set, marketing power, and online/mobile UI, of Bank of America or Chase.

But what if someone was able to level the playing field with best-of-class products and combine the marketing power of 1,000 financial institutions into a national brand? (note 3) Then the community banks/CUs could go ahead and compete on service, price, value and local connections.

It sounds too good to be true, really. And I was skeptical when I heard the pitch two years ago. But after seeing how BancVue has signed up more than 600 FIs for rewards checking, hit #23 in the Inc 500, and witnessing their passion in person, I think they have a real shot.

Bottom line: It takes a long time to build a national financial brand, especially one centered on lowly checking accounts. Other than PayPal, what's the last one you can think of? Capital One, founded 1988, maybe. Discover Card, launched in 1985, perhaps (note 4). And I can think of a hundred reasons why it won't work.

But Kasasa is definitely out of the gates and gaining traction. Having just finished my review of the most important trends of 2011, I have a feeling Kasasa could make this list in 2012 or 2013. 

-------

Kasasa product set (11 Jan 2012)

Kasasa products dominate the homepage of Farmers Citizens Bank (link)
Question: Do Kasasa ads clutter the Farmer's homepage? No more than any other promotion. And they are at least attention getting. 

 

Landing page at Farmers Citizens (link)

---------------------------

Notes:
1. I attended the event at the invitation of BancVue. But I am not consulting for them or their customers. BancVue is a customer of The Finovate Group for our event and our published reports just like hundreds of other companies. However, they did feed me really well, which, as my family will attest, is a powerful motivator in my life. So I can't say I'm totally unbiased.
2. After hearing the detailed reasoning behind the branding decision, I actually think the Kasasa choice makes sense. But you'll need to see the presentation to get it. The Financial Brand breaks it down here.
3. BancVue says that with 1,000 financial institutions offering Kasasa it would be bigger than the largest U.S. bank in branch network and marketing budget.
4. I can't think of any major national banking brands that have appeared in the Internet age other than PayPal, and perhaps NetBank (RIP). ING Direct made it, but they were a spinoff of a powerful international brand, and even then they spent more than a BILLION in the United States alone during the past 12 years making ING Direct a household name. E*Trade, Ally also come to mind, but the former is more associated with brokerage and the latter is a name change from GMAC. Bank of Internet is doing well, but is hardly a household name.

I glanced at my ING Direct eStatement alert today (screenshot below) to see what they had to say in the new year. The soon-to-be-Capital-One direct bank is usually pretty creative in its copywriting. And I was not disappointed today. Here's the pitch inside the alert:

I love the idea of a "Social Network...of Savers," a Facebook-like place where friends help each other keep spending in check and achieve politically correct savings goals such as the down payment on a home, the college fund, or a rainy day reserve.

But I don't think the Facebook model works in the real world (note 1). Even though it might be interesting to follow your friends' drunk spending (note 2), most users want this info to be kept VERY private (note 3). And in most circles, money accumulation is never openly discussed. Who wants to read about someone's "trip to Tahiti" savings goal when you are trying to get off unemployment?

In its recent email, ING Direct is NOT looking to create the Facebook of savings in any way. While the bank celebrates savings throughout its marketing (e.g., Wethesavers.com), this email offer isn't about sharing with your network, it's about selling to your network to earn a $10 referral fee per new account, up to $500. And that's OK, because everyone loves to share "found money."   
----------------------------

ING Direct email (4 Jan 2012, 9 AM Pacific)

Referral landing page (link)
Note: There's even a Flash demo of the referral split for the math challenged.

Notes:
1. I'm not saying that all sharing is a dead end. For example, sharing savings/spending goals can work very well within tight-knit groups such as extended families. And compiled/masked data about peer spending/savings is very promising (see Citi's Bundle joint venture). Finally, there are numerous opportunities for "social investing" (our 2008 Online Banking Report on the subject), because it's much more complicated and often openly discussed.  
2. There is room for "social savings" in the context of sharing discounts, money-savings tips, and so on. But that's not what ING Direct is talking about in this message.
3. Hence the pivots by the two "class of 2010" startups, Blippy and Swipely, which were founded on a "transaction-sharing" model.
4. And the bank makes its win-win. The new customer gets the biggest share, $25 for a savings account, a 70/30 split of the $35 up for grabs. New checking customers get $50, from an 85/15 split of $60.
5. For info on family banking, deposit gathering, transaction sharing, social investing, and much more, see our subscription newsletter, Online Banking Report.

Wells Fargo generally does a good job with its login product pitches. I like how the bank provides a "Remind me later" and "No thanks" option next to "Apply Now."

However, in today's pitch for the rebranded Wachovia Way2Save account (see old logo, inset), the bank seems to have forgotten an important part of consumer decision process: explaining what the account is. There is no Learn More button to be found on the ad or landing page.

I had to leave the app and search the Wells Fargo website to determine the rate and unique features of Way2Save (see note 1). The main benefit: users receive a 3% APY on the first $500 in the account for one year, provided they use one or these automated savings features:

• $25+ per month or $1+ per day transferred from Wells Fargo checking (outside accounts not an option, except for initial account funding)
• Automatic $1 transfer from WF checking to savings with every debit card purchase or pre-authorized debit  

After one-year interest drops to the prevailing rate, currently just 5 basis points, 1/60th the premium rate. 

Online application process: Choosing Apply Now on the interstitial drops users directly into the bank's generic online app where's it's difficult to even confirm what you are applying for (see upper right corner of second screenshot). 

Since I only have a Wells Fargo credit card, the bank offers me a $5/mo checking account, which is free if I have direct deposit or $1500 on deposit. But the checking account is not required. You can setup a standalone savings account, though it won't qualify for the interest rate bonus or be able to use the automation tools.

On the final page users can fund the account with a transfer from a Wells or non-Wells deposit account or they can deposit up to $500 via credit or debit card. 

Bottom line: Automatic savings are a win-win. And offering a $15 interest bonus is a good way to improve signups. But Wells needs to explain the offer better so that customers customers are motivated to complete the application.    

--------------------------

Wells Fargo interstitial login ad for Way2Save (10 Nov 2011)

Landing page, which is the first page of the online application (link)

Wells Fargo online application (page 2)
Note: The bank is still disclosing at $3 debit card usage fee

----------------------------

Notes:
1. Way2Save was inherited from Wachovia (previous posts). Here's the cached 6 Nov page from Google. The page now redirects to Wells Fargo savings.
2. Wells Fargo acquired Wachovia in 2008.
2. For info on online account opening, deposit gathering and much more, see our subscription newsletter, Online Banking Report.

Just last month we published a report (here) about the large, and mostly unmet, opportunity to bank tweens/teens AND their parents.

Evidently ING Direct didn't need our report. The direct bank, soon to be part of Capital One, is launching an aggressive $10 million advertising campaign for its new MONEY account (note 1). There's no official mention of the program at ING Direct, except for a wall post on its main Facebook page (see last screenshot).

However, several online elements have been released:

• Microsite <ingdirectmoney.com> (see first screenshot below)
• Facebook page <facebook.com/ThatsMoney> with 129 likes as of 2:00 PM Pacific, Aug. 29 (see screenshot 2)
• Facebook app (screenshot 3-5)

Product: There's only a few sentences describing the product, but it sounds like a standard checking account with debit card access. It will have no fees and no minimums and can be managed online (duh) and through a smartphone app.

Campaign: The $10 million campaign (note 2) is primarily fulfilled via Facebook (see screenshots below) and includes:

• Advertising on Facebook and online
• Supporting sweeps has (10) $1,000 prizes, (10) MacBooks, (20) iPod Touches
• Those submitting pictures of themselves, may get it projected on a Times Square Jumbotron for 15 seconds (begins Sept. 15)

Our take: With 1% rates killing its traditional value proposition, it makes perfect sense for ING Direct to build for the future by positioning itself as a place that caters to the banking needs of the entire family. Well played.

----------------------------------------------

1. ING Direct's teen-banking microsite at ingdirectmoney.com (30 Aug. 2011)
Note: In the lower right is a "pre-registration form" where the bank collects the name and email address of interested parties

2. Parents are encouraged to send a message to their children to let them know about the sweeps
Note: The lower right contains a place for parents to send email messages to their children

3. Facebook page at <facebook.com/ThatsMoney>

3. Facebook page info page (Facebook app)

4. Facebook page sign-up form

5. Thank-you page after pre-registering

6. Wall post this afternoon on main ING Direct Facebook page (link, 30 Aug. 2011)

------------------------------------

Notes:
1. New agency Berlin Cameron is spearheading the effort according to today's Adweek article.
2. That's about 40% of ING Direct's projected $25 million media spend for 2011.
3. Hat tip: MyBankTracker
4. For more on teen banking, see our recent Online Banking Report.

ING Direct has brought a number of security innovations to the United States: 

• Password entry via pin pad instead of keyboard
• Trusteer "safe login" browser plugin (previous post)
• Challenge questions at login (when needed)

  Now add a fourth item to that list:

• Authorization required when a new book of paper checks is ordered (see update below)
  

ING Direct, which famously eschewed paper checks when it launched a checking account, Electric Orange, in 2007, recently began offering a paper-check option. True to form, ING Direct added a few twists to standard industry practices:

• Paper checks can be bought only in quantifies of 50
• Each order is just $5
• Only one set of 50 can be ordered at a time (but once they have been authorized, another set can be ordered)
• Before the checks can be used, the book of 50 must be activated online (similar to credit/debit card authorization)
• Because the order must be authorized, third-party paper checks will not work at ING Direct (another security improvement)

_____________________________________________________________________

How it works
_____________________________________________________________________

The bank isn't exactly pushing paper checkbooks. There are no obvious links to the option on the primary or secondary navigation. Users must click on the Payments tab, then select Overview on the secondary navigation. That brings up a list of the ways to make payments, with "Checkbook" listed half-way down the page (see below).

New paper-check option at ING Direct (12 Aug. 2011)

And the bank's order form is drop-dead simple, unlike most major banks which drop you to a third-party order-entry site.

One-click check-ordering process

Confirmation screen explains next steps

________________________________________________________________________

My take
________________________________________________________________________

Offering paper checks is a good move. Most U.S. customers still need the occasional paper check, and waiting 5 days for ING Direct to send one out on your behalf was slow and cumbersome.

And I really like the authorization feature. Since I was old enough to know about check fraud, I've always felt that a book of checks sitting in my mailbox was a bit disconcerting. This solves that worry.

Finally, the $5 per 50 pricing is consumer friendly and competitive. The lower quantity (compared to typical 150-200 orders) subtly discourages paper-check usage, but the price is in line with other financial institutions, which typically charge $15 to $25 per 200 checks (note 1).

-------------------------------------------

PS. ING Direct must be very close to launching remote check deposit. It has a "stay tuned" message posted under the "Deposit Checks" tab in secondary navigation (see below). 

ING Direct's website implies that remote check deposit is coming soon (12 Aug. 2011)

Update (16 Aug. 2011): I heard from Citibank today. Apparently, they've used checkbook authorization for online account opening since 2007.

Notes:
1. And you can pay more: Chase recently dinged me for $23 for a book of 50 money-market checks (which I didn't ask for) when I opened a new business savings account. In comparison, I earned $0.40 (before tax) in interest on the balance. That means it would take more than 7 years to earn enough interest to pay for the book of checks. But I'll give Chase credit for immediately reversing the fee after I dropped the unwanted checks off at the branch. 
2. Apparently ING Direct changed its homepage navigation items earlier this year. The overall minimalist design remains unchanged. But now, in addition to View My Account, the bank offers three choices: Banking, Investing or Retirement. Previously, there were only two other choices: Open an account and Learn more.

It's been more than six months since we last featured a new mobile app from a financial institution (see Arvest Bank's financial calculators). It's not because of lack of activity, or importance. In that time, more than 1,000 financial institution apps have been introduced and the market has really heated up.

But we focus on what's new and different. And for the most part, the class of 2010 and 2011 have been "me-too" entries. Which is exactly as it should be. Every mid-sized and larger bank and credit union needs at least one app in the iTunes store, so the last 18 months have been about gaining competitive parity. 

But things will start to get more interesting again as financial institutions:

• Introduce advanced features such as mobile photo billpay
• Reinforce their overall brand positioning with a novel look and feel
• Look to mobile to differentiate themselves from other players
• Introduce niche apps for defined customer segments

Southern Bancorp's new mobile app, Shake and Bank, ticks all four boxes. It's an iPhone/iPod Touch app designed to give kids (or any account holder) a quick look at the balance in their account. As you can see below, Shake and Bank is pretty much self-explanatory:

1. Open app (note 1)

2. Shake iPhone

3. See balance

The app requires a setup code to launch. According to the iTunes entry, the code can be obtained through the bank's website or at a branch. But as of today, I see no mention of Shake and Bank, or mobile banking for that matter, at their website.

Bottom line: I'm a sucker for pigs, so obviously I like it. But more importantly, Southern Bancorp makes it easy to monitor account balances with a simple kid-friendly approach. And parents will appreciate the help reinforcing the savings habit (note 1).

Southern Bancorp has $1.1 billion in assets and 40 branches in Arkansas and Mississippi.
------------------------

Southern Bancorp's iPhone app targeted towards kids (link, 25 April 2011)

---------------------------

Notes:
1. Since I couldn't test the app without an account, I assume there is no subsequent login requirement once you've entered the setup code. And more importantly, I hope that it oinks when shaken. 
2. For more info on mobile banking, see our previous Online Banking Reports.

Yesterday, I visited Chase Bank's checking account sales page (screenshot 1 below). Overall, I was impressed. The page is attractive and the bank lays out the options well. I especially liked the icons across the page emphasizing the free benefits applicable to all account types: online/mobile banking, alerts, ATMs and the debit card. Finally, it's easy to figure out how to apply for an account online.

However, the bank's "help me choose" function is flawed (though wisely buried at the bottom of the page, so it may be lightly used). It starts out fine by asking two simple questions:

• What is your estimated deposit balance you'll keep at Chase?
• Are you interested in checking account benefits for students age 13-24? (Yes/No)

But things quickly go off the rails.

Flaw #1: Bad form design

Since I have two kids in the student bracket, I naturally chose "yes" to the second question (see second screenshot). I wasn't looking for a student account, but sure, I'm interested. And I thought it was pretty smart of Chase to try to sell me on a kid's account from the get-go.

However, the bank assumed that was all I cared about and pushed me towards student bank accounts even though I'd said I was keeping $15,000+ on deposit (see third screenshot).

So I went back to that page to change the student selection and discovered that once your selection is made, it cannot be changed. Even when you click the "clear" button, the radio button stays set to "Yes." You have to choose "cancel," which sends you all the way back to the previous page, and then start over from scratch. By that time, many (most?) customers will have moved on. 

Flaw #2: Not enough info gathered to make meaningful recommendations

While I applaud the simplicity of the wizard, the bank can't really make a solid recommendation knowing only my anticipated deposit balance. There has to be some understanding of how the customer values the features of the deluxe checking account options such as no-fee non-Chase ATM usage, free OD transfers, free companion checking accounts, free safety-deposit box (see recommendations, screenshots 4 and 5).

Flaw #3: Doesn't identify existing customers 

And speaking of missing info, the bank is neglecting a huge part of the equation, whether I'm an existing customer or not. In fact, I do have a business account there and just a few days ago an in-branch account rep had pitched a free companion personal checking account to me. But the checking account wizard doesn't ask if I'm an existing customer (and the bank apparently is not using cookies to hone in on that either).

Bottom line: Chase does a good job engaging checking account prospects, but it's missing an opportunity to help them choose the right account.

------------------------------------------------------------------

Chase Bank's main checking account page (28 March 2011)

The help-me-choose wizard

Results page when checking the student box on the wizard

Results page if student not checked (and balance equals $15k+)

Results page if student not checked (and balance is less than $15k)

----------------------------------------------

Note: For more on online account opening, see our Online Banking Report: Online Account Opening (June 2009).

Last June, we wrote about Piggymojo's unique "impulse saving" tool designed to help couples motivate each other to save (previous post). Basically, you text your spouse when you save cash during the day, e.g., drinking the company's free swill instead of trekking to Starbucks.

The concept is great, but it needs direct integration to financial accounts so those "virtual saves" are translated into actual dollars sitting in a savings account.

Today, the Brooklyn-based startup announced the first financial institution integration with Brooklyn Cooperative Federal Credit Union. The program is being funded in part with a $300,000 CFSI grant to gauge whether the program helps lower-income members to increase their savings (press release). Four other projects shared in the $1.5 million total grant (details). 

Weekly summary of savings activity via Piggymojo (7 March 2011)

Longer-term tracking

------------------------------------------------

Note: For more info, see our Online Banking Report, where we wrote in late 2008 about various ways to leverage your online/mobile channel to boost deposits (here).

Today, I ran into Google's new savings-account comparison chart for the first time (see notes 1, 2 and screenshot below, link). The search giant now offers separate pages with financial product comparisons for mortgages, credit cards, CDs, checking, and savings accounts. And the comparison matrices are at times positioned prominently on searches potentially reducing traffic to top advertisers and to organic results as well (see screenshot below).

Savings account search results
Let's look at an example search today for "savings accounts." The results include a blue-chip lineup of paid advertisers. Following is a list of the top 10 paid results compared to their position on the Google comparison page (note 3):

1. American Express (#1)
2. ING Direct (#7)
3. US Bank (#24, 30, 32, 33)
4. BECU (local advertiser)
5. Citibank (#19, 25, 26 )
6. Capital One (#10, 15, 31)
7. Navy Federal CU
8. TD Ameritrade
9. Zions Bank (#4, 5, 22, 23, 27)
10. Discover Bank (#2, 11)

Analysis
I still don't understand why Google would risk antagonizing its financial advertisers by drawing traffic away from their ads and into the Google-powered comparison matrix. The company says its focus is on the user experience. So I guess they believe that long-term this approach will generate more traffic, more searches and ultimately more revenue, possibly from commissions for actual accounts generated, rather than just pay-per-click.

But in its current beta stage, there are some odd results. How would you feel if you are US Bank, bidding high enough to be number three on the search results page, but not shown until page three of the savings-account comparison page? Worse, three top-10 advertisers, BECU, Navy Federal CU, and TD Ameritrade aren't even listed on the savings comparison page.

Which brings up a bigger question. How does Google determine which FIs are listed? The savings-product comparison indexes only 17 banks, of which five aren't even playing the rate game at this point with rates of 0.25% or less (note 4). Furthermore, there's not a single credit union and just one smaller bank (Bank of Internet) listed. 

I understand this is just a trial balloon from Google and that product comparisons could make it easier for users to find the best rate. But right now it's unfair to any financial institution not in the chosen 17, and it doesn't allow users to easily choose from criteria other than rate, monthly fee, and whether a branch is nearby.

It also looks like the system could be gamed. What's to prevent one of these banks from launching ten, or 20 or 30 different savings accounts, all with temporary teaser rates, to soak up more space in the matrix?

Sure, Google will eventually build algorithms to prevent that, but that will take time. Meanwhile, it's an odd transition time for the search engine and its financial advertisers. But if you rely at all on Google to deliver new customers, you better pay close attention to developments with its product-comparison pages.

Google search for "savings accounts" (12 Jan. 2011, 4:00 PM Pacific, Seattle IP address)

Google's "savings" comparison page

Offer details page for American Express High-Yield Savings

---------------------------------

Notes:
1. According to MyBankTracker.com, Google started running the deposit-account comparisons in late December 2010 in the U.S. market.
2. We wrote about Google's credit card comparison matrix in November.
3. Google's savings-account matrix listed a total of 44 results, from 17 unique banks, displayed 10 per page
4. 14 of the 44 results, almost one-third of the matrix, were accounts paying 10 basis points or less.

In doing some initial research for a report we are planning for Q1 on "family bank accounts," I started where I usually do, on Google. The only financial institution advertising specifically on the term "teen banking" was USAA (see note 1).

The top-of-the-page ad led to a well-designed landing page devoted to Teen Checking (see screenshots below) with a clever call to action: 

We won't take any of your teen's allowance.
Teen checking without hidden fees.

USAA even has a dedicated site with its own URL to support its youth-banking efforts: https://my.usaa.com

Relevance for NetBankers: Teenagers may be one of the most lucrative segments to attract to your financial institution. They not only spend billions themselves, but also could literally stick with you for a lifetime.

The thinking goes something like this:

1. Attracting the children of your customers helps you retain the parents
2. Retaining the parents helps you retain the kids as they become young adults
3. Young adults become parents
4. Repeat

This didn't work so well in the old branch-based world because one of the first things the kids did when they moved away was open a checking account at the closest branch to their new apartment or dorm room. In an online/mobile-centric world, that no longer has to happen. 

Google search for "teen banking" (see note 1; search conducted at 5:00 PM on 11 Jan. 2011 from Seattle IP address)

USAA's "Teen Checking" landing page

Notes:
1. First-page organic results included (note, search was limited to items posted in past month) 
-- Fremont FCU
-- North Shore Bank
-- Coast Hills FCU
-- U.S. Bank (Visa Buxx)
-- S.T.A.R Community Credit Union
-- American Riviera Bank (my new favorite bank name)
2. If anyone wants to point out great examples of teen/youth/family banking efforts, please drop me an email jim@netbanker.com or leave it in the comments. Thanks.

I've long been an admirer of Cascade Bank, a $1.7 billion bank headquartered in Everett, WA. A friend was marketing director there for a number of years, and I learned a lot from her about community bank marketing and management.

While I used to have a mortgage at Cascade, I don't have any accounts now; hence, the email I received earlier this week. The bank invited prospective customers to come to one of its 22 branches (today only) and enter their name in a drawing to win an iPad. Five iPads were being given away bank wide.

And while in the branch, hoping to pick up a free ipad, the bank dangled an attractive duffel bag in front of visitors as a premium for opening a new checking account. And Cascade promised to drop an extra $25 in your account if you traded in your old check register from the competition.

Bottom line: Thanks to the iPad and some great graphic design, the mailing had a stunning visual, good title, and compelling offer. Excellent work.

Email announcing the giveaway (received 30 Nov. 2010)

Cascade Bank homepage (3 Dec. 2010)

Landing page pitches free checking with duffel bag premium and $25 bonus 

Note: For more ideas, see Online Banking Report: Growing Deposits in a Digital Age.

ING Direct ran a slew of Black Friday offers again this year (see screenshots below; last year's coverage). And they weren't the only one. Service Credit Union also ran a homepage-dominating ad for its 6 AM-to-noon "doorbuster deals" today:

• 10% APY 3-month CD with maximum deposit of $1000...$23 in extra interest compared to its regular CD (pre-tax)
• Fee-free Visa gift cards (limit 5)
• 1% rate reduction on new personal loans
• $25 Visa gift card for opening a new credit card
• Unspecified "in-branch checking account specials"

The credit union's U.S. branches opened at 6:00 AM to mimic the retail craziness on the day after Thanksgiving. Specials were available until noon only, and all required a branch visit to redeem.

I was going to say something about the lack of online-redemption options, but luckily I checked back after noon and found that a Cyber Monday promotion had taken the place of the Black Friday ad. Online users are being offered similar specials on this coming Monday (aka Cyber Monday):

• 7% APY 3-month CD with $1000 max deposit (a $17 interest bonus)
• $100 bonus for opening a new checking account (requires direct deposit and estatements)
• $25 Visa gift card for opening a new credit card
• Free personalized credit card design for first 100 members ($9.95 value)
• $25 Visa gift card for a referral

Bottom line: The dual promotion was a clever way to involve both online and in-branch members.

Service Credit Union placed a bold advertisement on its homepage promoting its Black Friday deals (10:00 AM Pacific, 26 Nov. 2010)

Later in the day, the CU posted Cyber Monday specials on the homepage (1:00 PM Pacific)

Landing page (link)

ING Direct homepage on Black Friday (26 Nov. 2010) 

Landing page (link)
Note: Offers are good for the entire weekend

We first opened an account at ING Direct back in 2001, not long after it opened for business in the United States. Almost since the beginning, my wife and I used it to store money and handle allowance bookkeeping for our kids. To keep things simple, we  created sub-accounts from our main savings account.

That made for a super-easy setup since it takes about 20 seconds (I've timed it) at ING Direct to create a new sub-account. The sub-accounts are nicknamed for each child and automatic transfers drop their allowance in so we no longer had to remember that every week. It's a great system. 

However, the above approach doesn't officially put the money into the child's name, which could have tax and other advantages. And if you want to provide your kids with online account access, you have to turn over your own username/password. And if you do that, there's nothing to keep enterprising youngsters from making an extra transfer or two into their own accounts. While I'm sure that wouldn't happen in our house (right, boys?), it's not an ideal setup.

ING Direct solved those limitations in October when it launched special kids savings accounts, which are joint accounts with an adult. But the child gets his own login-info separate from the adult. Kids can log in to check their balance, but only the adult can make transfers.

The ING Direct kids account pays the same rate as the adult version, currently 1.1%. And there are no fees, an ING Direct custom. The only downside, you have to complete a small application process, which took 3.5 minutes, not much, but still a bit of a chore compared to the 15-second, sub-account set-up process.

Once established, the new savings account shows up on the adult's main account menu like any other account.

Bottom line: It's a nice addition to the ING Direct lineup. While relatively bare bones in terms of features and functions, it will be interesting to see what the bank does with it over time such as integrating with Planet Orange, the bank's financial education effort (see screenshot below).

Landing page for more info on Kids Savings Accounts ( link, 23 Nov. 2010)

Kids account application, for adding to an existing adult account
Note (not shown): On the second step, you choose a 6-10 digit unique PIN for the child and on the third step, you fund the account with a minimum opening deposit of $1.

Planet Orange is the bank's financial education resource <orangekids.com> Note: So far, no integration with Kids Savings

Hat tip: DepositAccounts.com

Today I received a letter from a large credit union (note 1) informing me that my certificate of deposit was up for renewal. I was given six choices at the bottom of a form (note 2) along with a postage-paid return envelope. 

Had I received that letter in 1988, I would have considered it state of the art. But in the modern world of instant communications and researching rates via Google, the communication was inadequate and reflects poorly on the CU's brand:

• No current rate info: I realize that rates are subject to change and are miserably low, but at least tell me what they are today so I have some idea of what's going on. While you are at it, remind me of what my rate was. Avoiding naming the specific rate is a huge red flag that yours is probably not so competitive. Plus, it's irritating when it's obvious how easy it would be to program current rates into the form letter. The CU did at least direct me to its website and call center to find current rates. However, the call center had no main menu option for rates, so you had to guess which number made the most sense. 
• No email/call center option for choosing: The only way to communicate my investment choice is to return a postage-paid envelope. How about an email address, phone number of even a simple URL?
• No email notification: I signed up for this account online, and the bank's marketing messages arrive via email. Why didn't I get an email asking me which option I prefer?
• No clear info on what happens next: According to the fine print buried in the accompanying Truth-in-Savings disclosure, my certificate will automatically renew if I take no action. But nowhere in the main letter does it say that, nor is the deadline for taking action spelled out. The "current maturity date" is provided, but that's using banking lingo that could be clearer.
• No niceties (or even a sales pitch): The letter was bare bones with just two sentences and an info box about my CD (note 3). There was no salutation, no signature, no thank-you, no names of anyone at the CU, no local branch info, no encouragement to renew, and so on. 

--------------------------------------------------

Notes:
1. As previously noted, we generally avoid posting the name of financial institutions that we criticize here; but we'll privately tell readers so long as it's not posted online (email me if you are curious).
2. The choices:
     A. Change term to 6, 12, 24 or 36 months (it was already 12 months, so that was a
          bit confusing, too). 
     B. Deposit to another account with a blank for writing in the account number
         (and no instructions on whether that had to be an account at the CU)
     C. Send a check for the balance (but with no ability to take a partial payout)
3. My CD is small ($500) and was set up online through a now-defunct third-party. So it's very possible that there are different communications sent to larger CD holders, and/or those that were acquired by a specific branch.

So far, I'm underwhelmed with the industry's online marketing response to the new opt-in debit card OD protection regulations. I expected to see new pricing models transforming small overdrafts into a value-add for debit card users, rather than the onerous penalty they had become over the past few years.

On the positive side, the elimination of OD charges for small transactions is a good first step. Three of the five FIs in our mini-survey have dropped fees on ODs of less than $5 (PNC and GTE Federal) or $10 (U.S. Bank). And Wells even makes a bit of a game out of it: Customers who cover the OD during the same day incur no fee.

And Bank of America has just thrown in the towel on the whole notion, running full-page ads (p. A11 in today's WSJ; Overdraft Control landing page) saying they'll just deny any attempt to overdraw via debit card. The retail giant joins Citibank and ING Direct, which already followed the same approach.

But financial institutions are missing an opportunity here. Take Wells Fargo, for example. When I ran across the bank's new homepage ad for debit card OD protection (see first screenshot), I expected to click through and find a novel take on the new federally mandated opt-in requirement (see second screenshot).

Wells does a good job explaining how the new rules benefit customers (the two steps forward): 

• The bank's website copy is understandable and nicely outlines the lower-cost credit line, and savings account transfer options are offered
• The toll-free number to sign up is prominent, although where's the online signup option? 
• Great to see online and mobile balance-tracking tools offered up to help avoid overdrafts in the first place
• My favorite: Customers are allowed to cover the overdraft during the same day and avoid the charge

But much of that uptick in consumer goodwill is negated when you get to the pricing:

• Debit card overdrafts are $35 each, with a maximum of 4 per day, or a $140 daily penalty if you opt in and make a mistake coffee-shop (or more likely bar-) hopping some weekend.

In a spot check of other financial institutions, it's clear that Wells Fargo is far from alone in the $30 per item price range:

• US Bank will charge $10 per overdraft of $20 or less and $33 for all others; it will charge for up to 3 ODs and 3 returned items for up to 6 per day; there's a $25 fee if you don't pay back within a week, but no charge for any item that results in less than $10 in total negative balance.
• Fifth Third Bank will charge $25 for the first overdraft each year, $33 for the next three, then $37 each after that; maximum of 10 per day; $8 per day after the third day it's not paid back; no OD charge if negative balance is $5 or less.
• PNC Bank charges $36 per item up to 4 per day, plus $7/day the account is overdrawn for a maximum of 14 days.
• GTE Federal Credit Union is charging $29 each, with no charge on under-$5 items (blog post, Facebook post)

I just don't see customers being too pleased with the price/value here. Wouldn't customers, and shareholders, be better served with a value-based pricing strategy? How about $5 each for an under-$100 mistake? Or follow the telecom model and sell debit card overdraft protection as a $4.95/mo subscription.

By my simple math, a million customers paying $5/mo is a whole lot more revenue than a few thousand paying $35 a pop. Then there are all the side benefits: customer goodwill, reduced customer service headaches, positive word-of-mouth, and the PR/marketing value of making debit overdrafts into a real service.

Debit card OD link on Wells Fargo homepage (13 July 2010)

Landing page (link)
Click to enlarge

Note: Upper-right graphic from Horizons North Credit Union, which is charging $25 per item, with no limit on the number. The opt-in ad is a huge part of its current homepage (inset, click to enlarge).

I've always been a bit perplexed by how the online application process ends with such a whimper at many financial institutions. Often new applicants receive little more than two or three lines of small text such as:

Thanks for applying! Please watch your mail. Within 7 to 10 days you should have your xyz account. 
If you have any questions, call 800-YOURBNK. Have a nice day.

Think about how anti-climactic this is. Customers have just gone through an intensive research process, decided to go with xyz bank, evaluated the various options at the bank, figured out how to apply, located the necessary documentation, read through the disclosures, entered their most private financial details and passed through an online identify verification. 

Then after all that work customers receive in exchange no more than a short thank-you message and perhaps a confirmation code. Generally, customers can't even log in to their new account.

Here's where a new customer stands after submitting an online app: 

• They cannot explore their new account to see how it works
• They cannot verify the opening balance or pending deposit to see if it was processed properly
• They cannot add additional funds to their new account
• They cannot access their money to make a purchase, even via online shopping
• They cannot set up bill payments, change passwords, set up alerts, adjust account preferences, add mobile banking or any of the dozens of activities that have to wait until account materials arrive in the mail
• Users cannot purchase other products, consolidate balances, transfer info from an old account, order checks, contact customer service, refer friends, or do anything account related

New users are basically abandoned on-screen with absolutely nothing to do. The dead end is not only a bad first impression, but also affects account activation and engagement, resulting in lost profits.

This standoffish behavior may be partially rationalized: Since many applications will ultimately be denied, why waste time with someone who may not even qualify? But we know it makes no financial sense to treat every applicant as a potential loser. Why not assume everyone is a winner, and go from there if they are not?

So it was refreshing to find a financial company that understands the importance of a good start. Mango Financial <mangomoney.com>, is another startup out of MPower Labs, the financial incubator from the the founders of NetSpend, brothers Bertrand and Roy Sosa. Two other MPower ventures debuted at FinovateSpring 2010, GoalMine from Gratio Capital and MPower Mobile (videos here).

The prepaid cards are issued by Austin, TX-based Horizon Bank, SSB.

How it works: The sales process for a Mango prepaid card is short and sweet, as it must be. It takes less than a minute to sign up. Users are automatically issued a reloadable plastic card which is shipped immediately, even before you load money on it. The company also issues a virtual card, which can be used immediately after money is loaded onto the card.

The card can be loaded via electronic bank transfer (ACH), direct paycheck deposit, or through retailers such as Walmart and CVS via Green Dot. Electronic loads are currently free of charge, while retailer-based loading costs $4.95 per transfer.

After the simple application process, users are presented with an action-oriented page (see first screenshot below). Users are congratulated for becoming Mango members (second screenshot) and given clear choices on what to do next (third screenshot) including a $20 incentive for directing their paycheck into their Mango account, making the prepaid account a clear checking-account substitute (note 1).

1. Final screen of successful application process at Mango Financial (18 June 2010)

2. Closeup view of the confirmation section above

3. Closeup of the "what to do next" options

4. Mango Financial homepage (17 June 2010)

Notes:
1. Mango offers an additional incentive to add direct deposit. Only direct deposit customers are eligible to open a 5.1% APR savings account (first $5,000 only).
2. Mango has a two-page prepaid card application (click to enlarge).

3. For more on online account opening, see our Online Banking Report: Online Account Opening (June 2009).

Who hasn't played this game? "If I give up x, I can justify buying y." At our house, after two decades the game is mostly now limited to big-ticket items. For example, "If we don't replace our 11-year old Toyota, we can take a summer trip to the U.S. Open."

The basic premise is that the extra three grand you DON'T spend on the new car essentially pays for the vacation, making it seemingly "free" and more guilt-free. It's a common and powerful principal of consumer behavior.     

Piggymojo's just-launched service taps into this psychology and gives it a mobile twist. The startup uses text/Tweet-based data input so it's easy to track all the expenses you've avoided during the day. And because it takes just a few seconds to tap out a message, the principal can be used to track even trivial daily savings that can add up over time.

For example, if you decide to start brown bagging lunch instead of hitting your normal lunch spots, you can track the savings by Tweeting/texting to your Piggy Mojo account:

Packed own lunch, saved $5 (or on Twitter, "d piggymojo 5 lunch not out")

Drank free office coffee, saved $2.75

Read office newspaper, saved $1

The service collects all these messages and tracks the total amount "saved." The totals can be applied to various savings goals to measure progress. The site uses a unique photo mosaic to visually represent goal progress. You can choose from dozens of exisiting photos or upload your own. As you build your savings, the photo gradually fills in until it's complete (see screenshot below).

You can add your spouse/partner to the account so both of you can contribute towards the savings. There's also a way to set up "recurring savings" so you don't have to constantly text repetitive items. For example, if you cancelled your cable TV, you can input the amount saved once at the Piggymojo site and it will automatically credit your account each month (see second screenshot).

There's also a social piece, allowing you to bring friends and family into the fold. Piggy Mojo will automatically send them a weekly progress report on your goal, providing that all-important peer pressure to your spending discipline.

Relevance for netbankers
Currently, the site is not hooked to an actual bank/CU savings account. The user is responsible for actually moving these fictitious savings amounts to a real savings account for later use. But this concept would be much more powerful if every time you texted "saved $6 at lunch" that six bucks were actually transferred from checking to savings.

Piggy mojo goal-tracking via completing picture of your goal (1 June 2010)
Note: The arrows point to the color sections that have been completed, visually demonstrating that I'm about 7% of the way to the goal

Recurring savings input form

Notes:
1. HT: Credit Karma blog
2. For more info, see our Online Banking Report, where we wrote about various ways to leverage your online/mobile channel to boost deposits in late 2008 (here).

On April 16, the day after 2009 U.S. income taxes were due, ING Direct emailed customers with a little incentive to establish an automatic savings plan or direct deposit (see first screenshot below).

Any ING Direct savings or checking account customer who has at least $100 automatically deposited into their account is eligible for monthly drawings of $5,000 (April through Sep.). And one grand prize winner takes home $50,000 on October 1st (total prizes awarded = $80,000; full terms and conditions here; FAQs here).

With interest rates so low, it's a good idea to provide extra incentives to keep the savings habit alive. And April 16 is the second best day of the year to make a systematic savings appeal (the first business day after Jan. 1 has to be the best).

The sweeps is not mentioned on the bank's main website or within online banking. This seems odd, given that any account holder can win. Perhaps it's coming to the website.

ING Direct email to existing customers (16 April)

Landing page includes interactive smartphone app graphic (link)
Note: Users can drag and drop icons onto the phone's list to simulate a savings plan

Note: For more ideas on driving deposits online, see our Online Banking Report: Growing Deposits in the Digital Age (Dec. 2008).

If PNC Bank's Virtual Wallet, launched in July 2008 (previous post), worked with any bank account instead of just PNC's, it would have hundreds of thousands of users instead of the 60,000 or so estimated by Compete.

From the outside it's hard to know whether the strategy has paid off for PNC. It depends on the profitability of these customers, how many were new to the bank, and how much was invested in the effort. 

The Virtual Wallet contains several superb products wrapped in an inviting user interface.  No wonder it's won so many awards, including an OBR Best of the Web from us. The eight awards are shown in a scrollbar at the bottom of the homepage (see inset).

One thing the wallet does better than most is try to make savings less painful or even fun (see last week's post about making banking fun). There are three ways users can boost their savings rate (see inset from PNC's demo):

• Establish automated savings transfers at various times of the month
• Set up a savings amount to be transferred every time a bill is paid (same concept as Bank of America's Keep the Change)
• And my favorite, Punch the Pig. Every time you hit the animated pig, a certain amount of cash is transferred to the Growth (savings) account.

Note: For more information on the PFM space, see our Online Banking Report on Personal Finance Features (new report available in April). For more on deposits, see Online Banking Report: Growing Your Deposits in the Digital Age (Dec. 2008).

As a followup to our pre-Thanksgiving post, here's what the ING Direct website looked like on Black Friday (the day after Thanksgiving).

ING Direct Black Friday homepage (27 Nov 2009, 1 PM Pacific)

Black Friday deals landing page <ingdirect.com/blackfriday>
Note: All the "Learn more" links went to the regular product pages

ING Direct wasn't the only one with a Black Friday promotion (yesterday's post).

Portsmouth, NH-based Service Credit Union also took advantage of the U.S. vacation day to promote a special 10% APY 3-month CD ($1,000 max deposit) and 1% off loan rates (promo page). But unlike ING Direct, the CU's special offers were redeemable only in its branches, which opened at 5 AM to mimic giant retailer early-morning specials.

The offer was promoted in a rotating banner on the homepage (see inset and screenshot below). And it had its own landing page (see screenshot below).

I like the creativity, so I'll give them an A for effort. But seriously, opening at 5 AM? Maybe they were hoping for PR exposure, but it's just not right (note 1). I understand (sort of), heading to Best Buy in the middle of the night to save a couple hundred on a TV. But who would go to their bank at 5 AM to make an extra $20 on a CD (note 2) or apply for a car loan (note 3)?

But there was one offer in the fine print that was more valuable for a typical Black Friday shopper, fee-free gift cards until noon. Although, I'm not sure why they limited the number to five per customer. 

Hat tip: Bank Deals blog

Service Credit Union Black Friday promo page (link, 27 Nov. 2009, 9 AM Pacific)

Service Credit Union homepage

Notes:
1. Now if you have in-store branches, it's another matter. Desert Schools FCU opened its 24 WalMart branches at 5 AM along with the retailer.
2. Extra interest on a $1000 CD for 3 months is about $7 per month, or $20 total. And that's before tax.
3. The almost unreadable type on the bottom of the small banner mention great prizes and giveaways, but the landing page makes no mentions of prizes. Now, free stuff would make it worth a trip to the branch, so I wonder why the CU didn't mention that on the promo page? Maybe they didn't want people to show up only for the prizes? 

The ink's barely dry on the news that ING Group will divest its U.S. bank, ING Direct, within the next 48 months (note 1), when someone else has already launched a direct bank with a distinctive orange theme (note 2):

The new brand: Incredible Bank from River Valley Bank, an 18-branch, $900 million (assets) bank headquartered in Wausau, Wisconsin.

The strategy: Like the original orange bank's Electric Orange account, Incredible Bank offers a high-yield checking account, currently paying 2%, that's 100% electronic. No paper checks (note 3), no paper statements. And unlike the hundreds of rewards-checking products, this one comes with no strings attached. The full rate is paid on all balances up to $250,000, then it drops to 1%.

Other account features:

• Debit card
• Free online bill pay
• Unlimited ATM reimbursement
• Overdrafts are $34 each with max 10 per day
• Incoming wires are $5 each, outgoing are $20
• Mobile banking (which is highlighted on the home page, see below and note 4)
• ACH in/out (coming soon)

Analysis
I've always wondered why, other than ING Direct and Kiwi Bank, only the U.K. direct banks seemed capable of a light-hearted brand positioning online (see update below). While we've seen many good social media and microsite efforts using humor, few financial institutions have dared use this approach on their core websites. Leave it to those spirited cheeseheads in Wisconsin to break the mold finally (note 5).

Initially, it's the 2% rate that will bring cash to Incredible Bank. But longer term, for any direct bank to add value to the parent's franchise, it must create loyal customers who won't bolt to the next newcomer offering a 15-basis-point rate advantage. This is a good start for River Valley, but they'll need a lot more than this bare-bones website to create long-lasting relationships.     

Hat tip: Bank Deals blog.

Update 9 Nov: The Financial Brand's Jeffry Pilcher reminded me of two good U.S. examples, GMAC's Ally Bank and (how could I forget?) Redneck Bank.

Incredible Bank homepage (9 Nov 2009)

Notes:
1. In his Retail Delivery presentation, always one of the highlights of the show for me, Second Curve principal Tom Brown said ING Direct would be an attractive acquisition for any number of deposit-seeking large financial institutions; however, he did not name any.
2. Full disclosure: I have a strange weakness for the color orange, perhaps the result of many trips to Florida as a child. So, take anything I say in this post with a huge grain of salt. 
3. Normally, I think paper checks should still be made available, even if they are discouraged with fees. However, in cases where the direct brand will cannibalize deposits at the parent, it can make strategic sense to cripple the direct brand's checking account in this way. That way, fewer River Valley customers will simply move their entire checking account over.
4. The bank has created a mobile site with shorter URL: ib4you.com. 
5. While Incredible Bank is quite different, the main River Valley Bank brand remains typically conservative, at least in its online presence. They don't even dare mention the Incredible brand anywhere on its website.
6. See our Online Banking Report: Growing Deposits in the Digital Age for a dozen more strategies.

Checking account profits are being attacked on several fronts. Near-zero short-term interest rates have destroyed the profitability of the balances. Regulators and activists are putting pressure on penalty fees. And consumers are loath to pay monthly charges for what's been positioned as a free service for so long.

So how is it that Fifth Third Bank is able to bundle a service into its checking account that typically costs consumers $12 or more per month? They are bringing back the monthly fee (see note 1), charging either $7.50 or $15 per month for a so-called package account (see options below). It's a strategy right out of Marketing 101: figure out what customers want, then build the  product, package it right, promote it well, and price it for the value delivered.

I believe Fifth Third has taken the right tack with its checking accounts, though it should go even further (see analysis). The bank offers two non-interest checking account bundles (PDF comparison here), neither of which are free of charge no matter how high the balance (note 2). Instead of offering fee waivers, the bank has bundled full-service three-bureau credit report monitoring and identity theft services powered by Affinion (link to Fifth Third Identity Alerts). And the monitoring is available for BOTH names on a joint checking account (note 3). 

• Secure Checking at $7.50/month, comes with free credit report
  monitoring and identity theft protection (valued at $9.95/month per person)
• Gold Checking at $15/month, comes with the same free ID protection &
  monitoring plus free nationwide ATM access

Analysis of Secure Checking
Now more than ever, customers are craving security and safety in all things financial (see yesterday's post). Bundling identity theft/credit report monitoring in checking accounts is an excellent way to address customer concerns AND differentiate your account in the marketplace. And naming it Secure Checking helps drive home the key benefit.

I like what the bank has done. It would be even better if it highlighted more of its current security features available in mobile and Internet banking (note 4):

• Email alerts
• Mobile text alerts
• Secure storage of estatements
• Transaction monitoring for fraud and error
• Other security protections as outlined on its security page

• Out-of-band authentication via text message
• Disposable credit/debit account numbers
• Long-term (7+ years) secure transaction archives
• Enhanced fraud protection guarantees
• Dedicated security reps on call 24/7 to help out in the case of a suspected problem
• Software and tools to safeguard online banking (e.g., Trusteer, Authentium, Check Point)

Fifth Third Bank non-interest checking accounts (link, 2 Sep 2009)

Secure Checking landing page

Notes:
1. Ref: Is This the End of Free Checking?, SmartMoney Magazine, 31 Aug, by Kelli B. Grant
2. The bank does offer an interest-bearing checking account with its $15 monthly fee waived with a $2,000 average balance in checking or $20,000 across all deposit and investment products. The bank also has a free non-interest checking account option.
3. I'm not sure the bank gets enough mileage out of covering BOTH account holders to justify the additional costs. To improve profits, the bank should consider a modest additional fee (approximately $5/mo) to cover joint account holders. 
4. These benefits are hidden behind a tab that most consumers, including myself on my first two passes, will likely miss (see second screenshot above).
5. For more info on how to package security benefits into your services, refer to the following Online Banking Reports: Marketing Security (June 2005) and New Techniques for Securing Online Banking (Sep 2008).

In June, we reported on USAA's upcoming iPhone app that will support remote check deposits. But it looks like they were beaten to market by tiny WV United FCU headquartered in Charleston, WV. Haven't heard of WV United? They have just six employees, $11 million in assets, and 3,000 members.

But somehow they were able to pull off something that no other financial institution has yet to accomplish, accepting paper check deposits via a native iPhone application (iTunes link, see note 1 and 2). The application was added to the iPhone App Store on July 4, and the CU wasted no time in heralding the innovation with a homepage banner (see screenshot below).

The application could not be simpler. Users take a picture by pressing the button on the left (see inset), verifying that the image is readable, then uploading with the button on the right. WV United uses the member's mobile phone number to apply it to the correct account. The latest iPhone OS 3.0 is required.

The credit union also accepts deposits via in-home scanners using secure file transfers powered by LeapFile (co-branded site here).

It appears both services simply send images to the credit union where an employee manually converts them to ACH items. According to the E-Deposit customer agreement, the first 10 items each month are free; a $1 fee per item for the remainder of the month is charged. This allows for collection of a bit of fee revenue from small business members, while enabling most consumers to use it free of charge.

Certainly, fraud possibilities exist. But the CU's normal deposit-processing controls should mitigate most of the risk (see E-Deposit funds availability policy here). 

Mitek Systems introduced a mobile remote-deposit system last year (post here), but it's not yet in production at any financial institutions. 

Analysis: Although not a feature that will see widespread usage, mobile check deposits will prove convenient for certain customers, especially mobile small businesses. More importantly, it helps differentiate between online and mobile services.

So, for raising the bar in mobile banking, we are awarding WV United with our first OBR Best of the Web award for 2009 (note 3). In the 12 years we've given the award, WV United is by far the smallest financial institution to win. 

WV United FCU homepage with iPhone banner (11 July 2009)

iPhone app landing page (link)

Notes:
1. Sometimes it's nice to be small. WV United has six employees total, according to NCUA data. Most large banks would have a project team larger than that just to do the feasibility study on mobile remote-deposit capture.
2. For more info on the importance of iPhone applications for financial services, see our recent full report: Online Banking Report: Mobile Banking via the iPhone.
3. OBR Best of the Web awards are given periodically to companies that pioneer new online and mobile banking features. It is not an endorsement of the company or product, just recognition for what we believe is an important development. WV United is the 74th recipient of the designation since we began awarding it in 1997.

Maintaining one of the highest rates in the country, currently 2.75% (see note 1), SmartyPig's deposits have grown ten-fold since January (see chart 1, below). And the company plans to continue its aggressive pricing and marketing, hoping to grow another five-fold to a half-billion by year-end (see chart 2, below) or 50x what they started the year with.

Deposits in the United States are held by part owner, Des Moines, Iowa-based West Bank. Australian deposits are held by SmartyPig partner ANZ Bank.

To help fund their growth objectives, SmartyPig announced today that Red McCombs, co-founder of Clear Channel Communications, has invested an undisclosed amount. McComb Enterprises lists one other financial services company in its portfolio, asset-based lender, Propel Financial Services.

Founder Jon Gaskell is pleased with the aspect of goal-based saving at SmartyPig. In an email yesterday he told me:

Of our customers who have reached a goal, more than 80% of them have started a new goal. The average SmartyPig goal length is nearly 4.5 years, and our average user is depositing a little more than $200 per month toward his or her goal. Fifteen months after launch, our data suggests that a vast majority of our customers are staying focused on their predetermined goals, and the deposits are "CD-like" in nature.

The half-billion-dollar question, assuming they meet their 2009 projection, is how sticky are the deposits when rates come down off the top of the chart?   

Chart 1: Actual deposit growth at SmartyPig

Chart 2: Expected deposit growth through Dec. 2009

Source: SmartyPig, 25 June 2009

SmartyPig homepage (24 June 2009)

Notes:
1. In Bank Deals weekly list of highest savings rates, SmartyPig was number one on June 20 at 3.05%. The rate was lowered on June 22 to its current 2.75%.

After viewing my credit card statement (personal and business) I was greeted with the following retirement planning pitch from Bank of America. I've recently seen similar banners on the bank's homepage (though not today).

It's not easy getting consumers interested in looking at their retirement situation when they are in the middle of an Internet session. There's always something more pressing or entertaining to be done than worry about some distant event. 

So it takes extra effort to entice clicks. BofA has a good approach. The "Stop Guessing About the Future" hook is a good way to grab attention. And the colorful slider-based tool is easy to use and, most importantly, takes only a few seconds to deliver some meaningful results.

1. Bank of America logoff screen (2:25 PM, June 16)

2. Landing page of promo (link)

The BofA tool uses a short bit of audio to get your attention and explain how to complete the short, five-step wizard. Users may turn off the audio using the button in the upper right. 

3. Step 1 of 5

4. Results page

• Calculates your "retirement number," the amount you need to have to bring your cash income during retirement to 85% of today's value (similar themes have been used by Wells Fargo (here) and ING (here))
• Shows range of possibilities based on a range of potential investment returns
• Has two handy boxes showing when you'll run out of cash and how much you need to add to your monthly savings to avoid that (also expressed in ranges)
• Action plan in the lower right leads to some suggested courses of action, that the bank can help with, such as rolling over a 401(k)

Note: For more information see our Online Banking Report on Selling Behind the Password, published in April.

Chase Bank is sparing no expense in launching its brand in former WaMu strongholds, particularly Seattle, the previous headquarters of WaMu. The bank is remodeling the branches, hanging new signage, taking full-page ads in the Seattle paper, running radio spots, and bidding for the top spot on Google.

Analysis
The Chase Washington State microsite is gorgeous, really impressive. The graphic design is eye-catching, serene, and uplifting. Chase's logo is superimposed where the sun would be, creating a nice effect and great first impression of the bank, which is new to Washington state (see screenshot 1 below).

While the website designer scores an A+, the online app gets an incomplete (as in, I couldn't get it to work), at least for the checking account I tried to purchase (note 2). 

My first issue with the application, and this is more of a nitpick, is the location of the compare accounts links. Chase lists four main checking choices plus two student-oriented accounts (see screenshot 2 below). Since the account names provide no help in selecting the right one, I looked for a way to compare accounts. But my eyes were drawn to the Get Details and Open now buttons, and I never saw the links in the upper right corner. Since most users will need help selecting the right checking account, the Compare option should be at least as prominent as the Get Details button.

The much bigger issue prompting me to write this article is that online account opening didn't work, at least for the account I selected, Chase Premier Platinum Checking. After completing the first page of the online app (see screenshot 3 below), I was greeted with a cryptic message telling me to visit a branch for help (see note 1). And this is from a bank introducing its name in a new market.

Lessons for financial institutions:

• Make sure you test all the options in your online application (see note 3)
• If there are valid reasons why you cannot open the account online, explain them to your customer in detail (and don't lead them to believe the account can be opened online if it can't)
• Provide more options for help than just "visit your branch;" for example, online chat, telephone numbers, Web-based inquiry form, and a call-me button
• APOLOGIZE and thank the customer for their application attempt. Chase does neither. The bank's entire message (see screenshot 4):

   Unable to Continue: We are unable to open a Premier Checking account
   online. Please visit your local Chase Branch for assistance.

1. Chase Bank's Washington-state transition site main page (1 June 2009)

2. Chase checking account options

3. First page of Chase's online loan application

4. Fail screen displayed after hitting next on previous screen 

Notes:
1. I had selected "not a Chase customer" so I thought perhaps I was having trouble because the bank's cookie's showed me to be a Chase card holder. So I tried it on another machine, with the cookies erased, and the same thing happened.
2. The problem seems to be with Premier Platinum Checking. I was able to start the app process just fine with Chase Checking.
3. Chase isn't the only one with online account-opening problems. I am researching account opening for an upcoming Online Banking Report, and just today I reached a complete dead-end in the online application at a large credit union, and was forced to abandon the app late in the process, after I'd been through credit-bureau validation. 

We are always on the lookout for examples of U.S. financial institutions charging fees for value-added services online (see note 1). In the past seven or eight years, the sightings have been rare. 

But today, we have a great one. And like most brilliant ideas, it seems pretty obvious in retrospect. The new service from Mercantile Bank of Michigan is called Funds Manager (PDF FAQs here) and it's not only a great service innovation, but also promises to bring fees back to online banking.

How it works
Funds Manager is basically a consumer version of positive pay, a standard offering in commercial banking. In the commercial version, clients look at checks and electronic items being presented for payment, and can nix any that are fraudulent.

Mercantile launched similar capabilities for its retail customers, allowing them to peek at their pending checks and ACH items a half-day before they are withdrawn from their account (see note 1).

Between 11 AM and noon, the bank posts the checks that will be processed that evening, giving customers a few hours lead time to make a transfer to avoid an upcoming overdraft. Customers have until 5 PM to make a branch deposit or 7 PM to make an online transfer to cover a shortfall.

Mercantile's online and mobile banking are powered by S1.

Business case
Sure, the service would impact OD/NSF income. But the bank makes up for that by charging a small fee, $4/mo, for the service. Given the type of customer who'd be drawn to this service, $48/yr should more than cover any lost OD income. And it provides a service that improves customer satisfaction and differentiates the bank from others. Business customers pay $30/mo, a potentially lucrative small-business service.

According to an article in Friday's American Banker, the bank has signed up a quarter of its retail online banking customers for the service (558 of 2,361). While the $27,000 in annual revenues to Mercantile barely covers costs, if Bank of America experienced similar penetration, it would be worth more than $250 million per year, a nice boost to the online banking P&L.

Opportunities
Not only is consumer positive pay a nice standalone service, it could be the cornerstone of a premium online banking option that could be priced at $5/mo or more. 

It would be even better if users received email or text-message alerts whenever they had items to review. And it would be a great addition to an iPhone/mobile app where the items could be reviewed, and transfers initiated, right on the phone.

Notes:
1. Please email other examples to me or add them to the comments.
2. The advanced look does not include branch deposits, ATM transactions, wire transfers, or telephone transfers.  

I spent the past few weeks looking at cross-selling efforts from within the secure online banking zone. But unfortunately, I came across the following example too late to be included in our report (see note 1). 

When I logged in to pay my Chase consumer credit card online (note 2), I was greeted with the following interstitial page (aka "splash screen") inserted before the main account-management area (see first screenshot).

Chase is offering a $125 incentive to open a WaMu-branded free checking account (note 3). This offer may have something to do with the fact that I'm located in Seattle, the former headquarters of WaMu. The same creative was used in a statement insert and a banner ad across the main account-management page (see third screenshot).

Lessons:

1. Serving "more info": In this example, Chase handles the info-serving process a bit differently than others I'd looked at recently. When selecting More Info on the splash screen, the bank opened a new tab (in Firefox 3) for the landing page (see second screenshot below). And while the user read the offer details on that page, the original tab automatically loaded the original destination (account management page), and the interstitial ad disappeared.

On the one hand, it's convenient for the user to be able to look at the offer details and then quickly navigate back to the area they were originally logging in to. However, for more experienced users expecting a pop-up screen that can be quickly closed after reading, it can be momentarily confusing. There's a risk the user will inadvertently close the entire browser session by clicking the upper-right "x," necessitating an annoying restart and re-login.  

I'm not sure there's a single right answer, but another variable worth testing - something I'd prefer - is a popup running in a smaller window in front of the original Chase page.

2. Branch-only fulfillment: I was surprised to see the offer can be redeemed only in branch. There is no way to sign up online. The landing page is actually actually a coupon users are encouraged to print with the page-dominating blue "print" button (see second screenshot below).

I can understand the rationale for pushing people into branches where they can be upsold other services. But in this quick-start age, I'm surprised there isn't at least an option to apply online. Perhaps this is a test to see how a branch-only offer compares to online-only ones.

Chase Bank splash screen (interstitial) immediately after login
(30 April 2009, 1:40 PM Pacific)

Landing page/coupon (opens in second tab in Firefox 3)

My Accounts page

Notes:
1. The results are compiled in our latest Online Banking Report: Selling Behind the Password. 
2. Tiny rant: I owed $2.45 left over from some extra finance charge even though I paid my bill in full online last month. It's not so much that Chase didn't earn the $2, that's fine. What's irritating is that they made me pay it right away by setting my min payment to $2.45. Come on Chase, I've had this account since the 1990s, you can float me the $2 until the next time I have a charge.
3. Interestingly, I already have a small business checking account at WaMu. Either the bank's householding algorithm missed it, or Chase is making the offer to everyone in my Zip, or it still wants me to open a personal account to go with my biz one.

We just posted our latest Online Banking Report.
It will be mailed to subscribers tomorrow. It's also available online here. There's no charge for current subscribers; others may access it immediately
for US$395.

---------------------------------------------------------

Selling Behind the Password
Unlocking the marketing potential within
online banking

48 pages (published 21 April, 2009)

In this report (abstract), we go behind the login screen and report on the marketing and cross-selling practices of 15 financial institutions and card issuers.

Even among large banks, there's a huge disparity in the amount of cross-selling efforts within online banking. Wells Fargo is the most prolific, with nine marketing messages and product placements alone on its main account-management page. The bank also uses login and logoff activities to display promotions (see screenshot below). On the other hand, US Bank has just a single link to an "offers page" buried below the fold. Most FIs fall somewhere in between.

We looked at the opportunities within six different areas:

• Interstitial pages (splash screen) inserted after performing any online activity, especially after the initial login.
• Banner and keyword promotions within the secure online banking area
• Product placement within online banking and bill pay
• Transactional upgrades
• Page displayed after an online banking session has concluded (either through logout or inactivity)
• Product/shopping/discount portals and third-party ads

The following financial companies were analyzed by logging in to actual accounts and documenting their sales and marketing efforts:

• American Express business gold
• Bank of America online banking
• Chase credit card
• Citibank business card
• Citibank online banking
• Discover Card
• Everbank
• First Tech Credit Union
• ING Direct
• Jwaala (demo only)
• Mint
• Netflix (non-financial)
• PayPal
• Revolution Money
• US Bank
• WaMu
• Wells Fargo

Wells Fargo promotion displayed after logging out from online banking
(27 March 2009)

Two-and-a-half years after USAA was first to offer remote deposit capture to consumers via standard scanners (post here), it appears the technology has failed to gain much of a following outside business circles (notes 1,2).

Quoted this month in Digital Transactions magazine (PDF here, pp. 58-62), John Leekley, founder of RemoteDepositCapture.com, estimates that only 75,000 consumers (and apparently 1 cat, see inset) use the service, less than 0.001% of all U.S. households.

Some other numbers from the article by Jane Adler:

• After 14 months, EasCorp, a CUSO out of Burlington, MA, has just 24,000 registered users across its 30 credit union installations, or 800 per CU (see previous post)
• Other EasCorp metrics:
  • Average deposited check = $900
  • Average deposits per session = $1,200
  • Total amount deposited in past 14 months = $80 million
  • At $900 per item, that amounts to about 90,000 checks processed, or about 4 per end-user
  • Cost per deposit for CU clients is $0.25 per item for "higher volume" customers
• The initial experience at First Command Bank is more encouraging: Since launching in November, First Command Bank has registered 1,600 users for its Deposits on Command across its online customer base of 65,000, for a 2.5% penetration rate (note 3). First Command has a total of 85,000 customers online and offline, so the overall penetration rate is about 2%.
  • Total remote deposits per month are 1,200; slightly under 1 per registered user per month
  • There is no fee for the service, but you must be an estatement user or have an investment account to qualify. Daily deposit limit = $5,000

First Command Bank homepage (14 April 2009)
Remote deposit capture (Deposit on Command) is one of two items that rotate in the top banner-ad slot 

Notes:
1. We are referring here to CONSUMER remote deposit, not to be confused with the very successful business remote deposit.
2. In the same article, Fiserv was cited as projecting growth to 1 million users by the end of 2009, although there was no indication as to when the prediction was made or whether it included business users.
3. If Bank of America had similar usage, it would be well on its way towards 1 million registered users (625,000).
4. Photo from CheckFree/Fiserv

CD laddering is a great way to increase yield without sacrificing liquidity. Sophisticated savers have used the strategy, often at the suggestion of personal or private bankers. It's not rocket science, but it takes a bit more planning.

It's a trivial bit of logic to program a ladder tool into a computer or website, so it's surprising that it's rarely featured on banking sites (note 1). That may be because most financial institutions have dozens of product lines to nurture, and it's difficult to justify the resources for speciality features.

That's just the kind of thinking that creates market opportunities for startups like MoneyAisle from neoSaej. The Boston-area company, which made its public debut at Finovate 2008 (demo video here), is totally focused on deposits and can justify the investment in advanced features. In fact, their livelihood depends on it.

So it makes sense they'd be first to market with an automated CD-laddering tool. But what makes it especially impressive is that MoneyAisle users can run up to 30 simultaneous auctions placing funds in up to 30 different financial institutions (see note 2).  

In our test of a relatively simple, but typical, four-rung ladder (see below), four different financial institutions won the bidding:

• MetLife paying 2.1% for a $25,000 3-month CD
• First National Bank of Florida paying 2.3% for a $25,000 6-month CD
• Wainwright Bank paying 2.5% for a $25,000 9-month CD
• KeySource Commercial Bank paying 2.93% for a $25,000 12-month CD

And by distributing our funds into four different maturities, 3-month, 6-month, 9-month, and 12-month, we were able to increase the yield by 0.36% compared to putting it all into 3-month certificates. And we are still able to withdraw 25% of our funds every 3 months without penalty. To further increase yield, the shorter-term CDs could be reinvested into longer-term CDs at maturity, e.g., each CD could be rolled into one-year CDs at maturity to create a ladder of four 12-month CDs with one maturing every 3 months.

Advanced option: The advanced ladder is designed for users that want to spread their deposits around. The money designated for each CD maturity can be spread to two or three different banks if desired. Users may also choose up to 10 banks they want excluded from the bidding.

Simple CD ladder tool at MoneyAisle (11 Feb. 2009)

 Results from the above auction: Four $25,000 CDs of varying maturities
(11 Feb. 2009)

MoneyAisle's Advanced laddering tool (11 Feb. 2009)

Notes:
1. Bank of America has a Java-based laddering calculator here as does Citizens Bank (here) and Safe Credit Union (here).

2. The maximum number of simultaneous auctions in the simple ladder program (shown above) is 10.

3. For more information on MoneyAisle and other new lead-gen programs, see our Online Banking Report on Lead Generation and our recent report on Growing Your Deposits Online.

It's so refreshing to have some real numbers to go on, even if they are self reported. Aside from Prosper, Lending Club (here), and most recently SmartyPig (here), few of the startups we track provide meaningful metrics on their operations. That's why we use Compete website traffic estimates as a proxy for success.

Yesterday, MoneyAisle, the reverse-deposit-auction marketplace from neoSaej, released the following results for fourth quarter 2008 (press release): 

• $1.65 billion in auctions run by consumers, up three-fold from Q3 2008 (note 1)
• $100 million in deposits generated

That's not a lot, but we can make a few estimates from that info (note 2):

• Assuming 80 active bank partners, the average take per bank in Q4 was $1.25 million
• But applying the 80/20 rule to those results means that 16 banks generated about $80 million in deposits, or $5 million each
• And conversely, the remaining 64 banks brought in just $300,000 each
• Assuming the average deposit balance auctioned was $20,000, five thousand separate auction winners funded a deposit
• Assuming a commission of $37 per funded auction (note 2), neoSaej would have generated $185,000 in commission income in Q4, this is in addition to license fees and monthly maintenance fees

And for those of you who still want traffic numbers, MoneyAisle's website usage (monthly unique visitors) has been trending upwards after suffering a post-launch dip in November. In December, visitors totaled just under 20,000. 

Bottom line: It's a promising start for the company which earned an OBR Best of the Web this summer, was picked by the audience as Best of Show in October's Finovate (video here), and was recently chosen as a top-10 innovation of the year in our most recent Online Banking Report (here).

When MoneyAisle adds integrated online account opening (powered by Andera), results should be even stronger. 

Notes:
1. Deposit-generated total is 6% of total auctions run, because consumers are not obligated to make the deposit after they run the auction.

2. My speculative estimates, not provided from the company.

3. We outlined the company in a June blog post and in the pages of our Online Banking Report on New Models for Lead Generation and Online Banking Report on Growing Deposits in the Digital Age. 

SmartyPig, which launched its social savings program in March 2008 (previous post) and debuted at Finovate Startup (video here), hit the world stage Dec. 16.

The company, operating out of world headquarters in Des Moines, Iowa, partnered with ANZ Bank to launch SmartyPig in Australia. ANZ was able to lay claim to being the first to offer social savings down under (see note 1).

The site is nearly identical to the stateside version, but ANZ has a smidgen more branding (see screenshot below). Also note the new emphasis on being 100% free, a benefit echoed on the U.S. site as well.

However, unlike U.S. partner and part owner, West Bank (note 2), which has the SmartyPig logo plastered all over its site (see screenshot below), the ANZ site has no mention of the product, it even draws a blank using ANZ site search.

Social savings metrics from SmartyPig
Because SmartyPig's sole emphasis is on goal-based savings, its results provide unique insights into the market. While the company has not released account totals, its partner, West Bank disclosed that total deposit in the program amounted to $5.6 million at the end of Q3.

While that's less than $1 million per month since launch, since many accounts start very small, it could be a healthy number of accounts. And with the requirement of automated savings additions, the growth potential is excellent. Assuming a $1,000 average account balance (note 3), the company would have attracted more than 5,000 total accounts during its first six months.

After the initial launch spike, site traffic has been steadily increasing to 25,000 monthly visitors in December (see chart below).

SmartyPig has made available information on the savings goals made by users. The data is through Oct. 2008 (except total deposit amount) and includes only the totals from the U.S. site. 

Total amount on deposit (30 Sep 2008, per West Bank 10Q): $5.6 million

Primary account holder by age*:

18-25 >>> 30%
26-35 >>> 37%
36-45 >>> 20%
46+ >>>>> 13%

*By law, primary account holders must be 18 or over,
so children’s goals are owned by their parents

Average goal amount across all holders on the following dates:

April 1 >>>  $3,900
May 1 >>>> $7,300
June 1 >>> $7,400
July 1 >>>> $7,400
Aug 1 >>>> $7,900
Sep 1 >>>> $7,700
Oct 1 >>>> $8,600

Goal amount by category:

Travel >>>>>>>>>>>>> 21%  (Avg = $4,400)
Holiday spending >>> 12%   (Avg = $900)
Electronics >>>>>>>> 10%    (Avg = $2,500)
Home improvement >> 6%  (Avg = $12,900)
Unspecified >>>>>>>>> 5%   (Avg =  $9,800)
Weddings >>>>>>>>>>> 5%   (Avg = $7,900)
House down payment or addition >>> 4%  (Avg = $22,200)
Emergency fund >>>>> 3%   (Avg = $6,600)
Babies >>>>>>>>>>>>>> 3%   (Avg = $5,100)
Home furnishings >>>> 2%   (Avg = $3,500)
Car or car expenses >> 2%   (Avg = $6,800)
College >>>>>>>>>>>>> 1%   (Avg = $9,700)
Other >>>>>>>>>>>>>> 26%  (Avg $10,700)

Average projected time until goal met based on savings rate: Just over 4 years

SmartyPig ANZ Version (13 Jan 2009)

USA partner West Bank's homepage (14 Jan 2009)

Traffic chart from Compete (14 Jan 2009)

Notes:
1. See our most recent Online Banking Report: Growing Deposits in the Digital Age, for more info on social savings, along with 16 other strategies.

2. Des Moines, Iowa-based West Bank owns 18% of SmartyPig according to its 30 June 2008 SEC filing.

3. My guess, not a number that has been disclosed.

Remote deposit capture (RDC) via mobile phone has to be the coolest way to make paper checks disappear from your office and reappear in your account. But from a usability standpoint, it leaves something to be desired, limiting its appeal to geeks with a check to deposit every once in a while. 

Businesses with several checks or more every week need something more convenient and easy to use. Proprietary scanners connecting to PC-based software apps work well, but require installation and training, not to mention $30+ per month in service fees.

Enter FAXTellerPLUS, a new solution from Hawthorn, NY-based EFT Network, that uses the common fax machine for the input mechanism. The bank runs the software on its end freeing the user to get back to their business once the fax transmits.

Today's press release says the four banks using the system are processing "thousands of transactions per month."

How it works:

1. Bank sends customers a special sleeve that holds up to 3 checks to be transmitted and includes info on the customer so deposit can be directed to the correct account.
2. Customer transmits the check (front and back) to the bank via standard fax machine.
3. Bank sends confirmation back to customer via fax or email.
4. Funds are deposited in customer's account and images viewable online.

If this works as billed, it could put RDC into the hands of micro- and small-businesses as well as consumers with access to fax machines at home or work. If any readers have used or tested the system, please let me know your experience by commenting here or emailing.

Every banker talks about the importance of core deposits, but in most years it's hardly front-page news: 2008 changed that.

As demonstrated by the shocking downfall of WaMu, Wachovia, and others, a stable deposit base is crucial to your profitability, your brand, and even your viability as an organization.

As a result, deposit product marketing is on the forefront of many bank and credit union marketing plans for 2009 and beyond. With that in mind, we offer the latest issue from Online Banking Report:

Growing Deposits in the Digital Age:
Seventeen smart strategies for gathering core deposits while building your brand

The report includes 72 pages of ideas, tactics, and strategies to expand retail deposits in 2009 and beyond. It was written by guest author Jeffry Pilcher, a branding and marketing guru who recently launched his own brand consultancy, ICONiQ. Pilcher joins OBR Editor Jim Bruene in looking at seventeen promising deposit-building strategies. Many are tried-and-true techniques, such as sweepstakes and rewards, updated with a digital touch. While others, such as bidding on deposits at auction at MoneyAisle, are pure Internet-enabled inventions.

Online Banking Report subscribers may download the report (here) free of charge. Others may purchase (here).

The seventeen strategies explored in Growing Deposits in the Digital Age:

• Customizable accounts
• Debit savings rewards
• DIY online-only accounts
• Deposit auctions
• Gen-Y checking
• Green banking
• High-yield/big rate
• Instant online depositing
• Mobile savings apps & online widgets
• Online savings buzz
• Rewards checking
• Savings automation & incentives
• Social savings contests
• Socially conscious banking
• Sweepstakes & giveaways
• Social "friends & family" savings

I go online at a Tully's coffee shop every few weeks, but I don't recall ever being pitched something outside the usual Costa Rican blend when logging in to its free Internet connection.

But today, Charles Schwab owned the Tully's landing page, with three banners running across the page touting its High Yield Investor Checking among other things (see below). The two on the right have financial questions that, when clicked, take the user to an article on the Schwab.com site (see last screenshot).

The banner lower-left is more interesting. Little squares scroll across the banner in a very Web 2.0 way and, when clicked, additional info is delivered directly within the banner. Users stay on the Tully's page unless they click the Open an Account Today button.

The three scrolling graphics include:

• ATM fee graphic leads to an ATM calculator (see below)
• The High Yield Investor Checking graphic (not shown) leads to a description of that product
• The map leads to a short animated audio visual piece promoting ATM access and the High Yield account

Comment: This type of grassroots marketing can be done by financial institutions of all sizes. Just find a local coffee shop or cafe and see if they'd like a little cash to subsidize that bandwidth each month.

Schwab banner ads on Tully's landing page displayed after logging in to free WiFi at a coffee shop (Seattle, 3 PM, Friday, 5 Dec 2008)

Clicking on How much do ATM fees cost you? in the banner above opens the following tool in the window. >>>

Users can move to the slider to calculate the cost of a foreign ATM.

Schwab landing page after clicking on question in right-hand banners
(link, 5 Dec 2008)

I noticed a new graphic on the ING Direct homepage today, "We, the Savers" in the upper-right corner. It leads to a banking version of the Clue Train Manifesto called The Declaration of Financial Independence operated by the bank at <wethesavers.com>.

At the microsite visitors can read the 10-point declaration and sign the manifesto online. The U.S. map includes orange balls in each state that when moused over reveal the number of signers. So far, more than 5,300 consumers have signed since it went live Oct. 10th. All signers can be viewed at the site, but you have the option of leaving only your last initial for privacy.

When you sign the declaration, a little orange ball bounces over to the map and updates the state count in real time. As a final touch, signers qualify for a free "I save" bumper sticker from the bank's online store.

The effort is well conceived and well executed, as we've come to expect from ING Direct.

Wethesavers.com microsite from ING Direct (28 Oct 2008)

"We, the Savers" link on ING Direct homepage (28 Oct 2008)

Next up is MoneyAisle from NeoSaej. Mukesh Chatter, president & CEO, will demonstrate.

The Burlington, MA-based company launched its auction-based deposit service this summer.

MoneyAisle demonstrated a reverse auction for a CD with a winning bid of 4% APY by Commerce State Bank. The company emphasized that it's fully transparent with no ads, and the consumer can choose at the end whether they want to accept the bid and purchase the deposit.

In the year or so that they've been widely available, so-called reward checking, those high-yielding accounts that require a hefty number of debit card transactions (see note 1), have attracted quite a following.

But besides the number of blog posts and press mentions, we've had few other metrics upon which to gauge their success. Until now. In an email to me yesterday, the company behind many of the accounts, BancVue, laid out the total rewards checking results across its client base:

• 381 financial institutions live
• 610,000 reward checking accounts
• $5.5 billion on deposit in the accounts
• $9,000 average balance
• Opening more than 13,000 accounts per week (700,000 annual run rate)
• Average of more than $14 million in deposits per financial institution
• Average of 1,600 accounts per financial institution

Although $5 billion isn't even the rounding error across the entire $3-trillion U.S. retail deposit market, it's real money to the smaller banks and credit unions offering the program.  

Notes:
1. Most accounts require 10 to 12 debit transactions per month in order to earn the high yield. For more info, see our previous coverage and Finovate Startup video here.
2. Upper-right graphic comes courtesy of First State Bank, Gainesville, TX.

After a solid decade ignoring the financial management features of online banking (see note 1), we now have two banks doing very interesting things melding transaction accounts with personal financial management.

Frost Bank is the latest visionary, launching its Momentum Account this week (press release). The account melds high-yield checking, goal-oriented savings, and financial management into one online offering. Unlike PNC Bank's VirtualWallet, which is clearly aimed at the youth market (see previous coverage), Momentum goes directly to the online sweet spot, 30- and 40-somethings trying to manage their money in a more systematic way.

The account
Basically, it's a fee-free, interest-bearing checking account with the usual freebies: debit card, online banking, bill pay. After the first three months, balances of $15,000+ earn 3% and those under $15,000 earn basically zero. However, the bank has added an interesting twist they call "DIY APY (see screenshot below). For every 10 monthly debit card transactions, they add 5 basis points to the interest rate, up to a maximum gain of 0.25% (for 50 debit card transactions).

That's a piddling amount, earning about a buck a month (pre-tax) for someone with $25,000 in the account typically doing 10 to 19 debit card transactions monthly. Yet most consumers like the feeling of winning the rewards game, so it should be good for marketing and retention.

Like PNC's VirtualWallet, online account opening is powered by Andera.

The innovations
Besides the DIY APY gimmick, the new account is noteworthy because it incorporates goal-oriented savings and transaction tracking into the interface. Users can allocate funds to one or more savings goals and set up automated transfers to the savings sub-accounts.

The interface also includes budget-categorization features using the folders metaphor. And the usual charting and graphing functions are available. Unfortunately, there is no online demo, so I could see only the features in the bank's demo video. 

Is it trendworthy?
I'm not ready to say that two examples make a trend, but given all the interest by investors and the press in online personal finance, I think this is the beginning of an interesting period in online finance product development.

Frost Bank homepage announces "DIY APY" (30 July 2008)

Note:
1. See Online Banking Report: Personal Finance Features for Online Banking for more information on the pros and cons of various personal finance features.

Just when you thought Mint, Wesabe, and Geezeo had a lock on all the headlines for Gen Y personal finance, along comes a truly inspired effort from a major U.S. retail bank. Furthermore, it's not from Wells Fargo, Bank of America, Chase, or even ING Direct.

Pittsburgh, PA-based PNC Bank, the 15th-largest U.S. retail bank with $83 billion in deposits (see note 1), today launched a new online combo account called PNC Virtual Wallet.

The account comes with a checking account, bill payment, and two types of savings accounts. It also features several unique personal financial management features with an emphasis on functions most likely to appeal to a 20-something audience:

• Cash flow: debit card, checking, online bill pay, financial calendar, recent transaction report
• Savings: two types of savings accounts, automated savings options, wish list, and a random video-game-inspired savings tool called "punch the pig" (see below)

Finally, the account is priced well:

• No fees (except $0.50 per written check after the first 3 per month and the usual penalty fees)
• Free overdraft protection among linked accounts
• 3% APY on the growth savings component
• ATM-free rebate (but only if there's a $2000 average monthly balance in the checking account portion)

What's innovative? (note 2)

• Package of three deposit accounts: Spend Account (e.g., checking), Reserve Account (e.g., savings) and Growth Account (e.g., high-yield savings or money market deposit account)
• Ability to move money among the three accounts by moving a slider across the screen, called the Money Bar
• Automated savings function called Savings Engine that allows users to set up time-triggered (e.g., once per week) or event-triggered (e.g., each debit card use) automatic savings transfers
• Savings game called Punch the Pig, a video-game-inspired savings gimmick: Each time the pig appears on screen, users can elect to "punch" it to automatically move money from checking to savings
• Wish List with savings goals and progress reports

What can be improved?
Four areas that are noticeably absent, or at least not mentioned:

• Mobile functionality, especially text banking and alerts
• Online customer support: Customer can apply online through the Andera-powered app; however, there is no link to any online-support options such as chat, IM, text, or even a Web-based input form or old-school email address
• Social aspects: forums, reviews, blogs, or even testimonials (note 4)
• Credit: credit cards, line of credit, auto loans, and so on

The website design is impressive and very un-banklike, yet it lacks some basics:

• No demo: There are several Flash instructional videos that show most of the key features, but there is no all-encompassing demo for users wanting a tryout before buying.
• Lame homepage videos: Granted, I'm not in the Gen Y target market so I could be wrong, but if I think the videos are lame, what do you think a 22-year-old will make of them? I say lose the "man on the street videos" or reshoot them in a less-scripted manner. 
• Extensive FAQs: The FAQs need to be expanded tenfold. Currently, only 16 questions and answers are up, but with so many unique features, that number doesn't come close to answering many basic questions, such as "Are there account alerts?" or "What's the rate of interest on the reserve account" (note 3), or "How long are transactions stored?"

PNC Bank virtual wallet homepage (14 July 2008)

Explanation of "Punch the Pig" savings feature

Notes:
1. Deposits as of 31 Dec 2007; deposits were up 25% compared to $66 billion as of year-end 2006.

2. PNC has applied for a patent on the account and tools.

3. Eventually, I did find a link to interest rates and fees on the "how to apply" page

4. See Online Banking Report on Social Personal Finance for more info

The deposit-auction site MoneyAisle, which we wrote about last week, has reached its first milestone, $1 million in deposits. Assuming $25k per account, that's only 40 customers, but it's a decent start for a novel way to chase rates online. The company also said it had signed 7 new bank participants, bringing the total to 72.

The company has attracted good press coverage, especially in the Boston area, where MoneyAisle Chairman Ray Stata is the well-known co-founder and current Chairman of Analog Devices. There was a good interview with Stata posted at NECN.com last week.

FirstROI, a division of Austin, TX-based BancVue (previous coverage here) launched its CheckingFinder service June 2. FinovateStartup attendees received a sneak peak in April and rewarded it with a Best of Show award (video here). The innovative service helps consumers find the best BancVue-powered rewards checking account based on geographic location, APY, or total return (see second screenshot below).

How it Works
The first challenge is getting customers to the site. FirstROI is investing heavily in Google AdWords to get the word out. For example, a search on "checking accounts" at Google today (note 1), displayed CheckingFinder in second place, trailing only BofA (see screenshot below).

As a relative newcomer to AdWords, the company's bid price would have to be high to score the second slot over such big names as Schwab (#3), HSBCdirect (#4), Key Bank (#5), WaMu (#6), Chase (#10) and Wells Fargo (#11). CheckingFinder may very well be paying more than BofA, depending on how Google's ad-positioning algorithm weighs its relevance.

Clicking the AdWords link results in a list of banks presorted by closest distance to the IP address used to search Google (see next screenshot). Unfortunately, the closest participating BancVue client, Altra Federal Credit Union, is 1043 miles away
(see note 2).

You can also sort the results by rate (APY) or plug in an estimated checking account balance and ATM usage and have the results sorted by highest annual return
(see note 3).

After selecting the account you prefer, users land on a page that lays out the offer in more detail and includes a bright green "open now" bar at the bottom of the page and another open button in the webpage bullseye, the upper-right corner. The online account opening process is powered by Andera.

Summary
Overall, it's a good "micro" search engine, helping users quickly find the best checking account from the company's client base. The big downside from a consumer perspective is that it's currently limited to just 60 participating BancVue reward-checking clients. It will be more effective if they can get more of their 400+ banks and credit unions on board.

While I think most consumers will understand that they are searching a subset of available checking accounts, I think BancVue should disclose a bit more about its relationship with the financial institutions listed. That fact is touched on in the About Us section, but the FAQs don't address this, nor are there any direct links back to BancVue or FirstROI. 

Notes:

1. Google search conducted from Seattle IP address at 1 PM Pacific time, 17 June 2008.

2. Verity Credit Union, which is about 4 miles from my home, is a BancVue client, but their reward-checking account, Velocity Checking, is currently paying a short-term teaser rate of 6.75% to celebrate its 75th anniversary (APY updated 20 June per Shari's comment). When Verity returns to its normal 5% APY, its account will be available through CheckingFinder. There is also a slightly closer California bank participating, Tri Counties Bank, but it is not marketing to Seattle residents, so I don't see it in my CheckingFinder results page.  

3. Jeffry Pilcher, who recently left Weber Marketing to found his own consultancy, ICONiQ, is also blogging at The Financial Brand. He cautions that the days of differentiating your brand with "reward checking" has passed in many markets.

In an interview in the Charlotte Business Journal (here), Wachovia's Savings Director Kathryn Black reveals that the bank has added 650,000 Way2Save accounts since its launch four months ago, and are "well ahead of our goal to have 1 million Way2Save customers by the end of (2008)." She also said they are looking at expanding the service: 

We consider (Way2Save) generation one. We're continuing to think through what's next -- how do we make this product better? How do we add on to this idea for other segments who have different needs?

   -- Kathryn Black, Wachovia's Savings Director, 30 May 2008

The Way2Save account offers up to 15% APY in the first year on a maximum average annual balance of $600, built up through automated savings of up to $100/mo. That works out to a maximum of $90 in interest the first year (not including the golf bonus detailed below), about $70 more before-tax than you can earn on other high-yield accounts. For more details, see our previous coverage here. For small savers, it provides above-average returns and helps them sock away cash without thinking about it.

Way2Save Golf Bonus
In addition to the maximum 15% first-year rate, Wachovia ran a promotion in May tied to this year's PGA tournament Wachovia Championship (see screenshot below). All Way2Save customers, new and existing, will earn a rate of interest in June, July and August pegged to the number of strokes under par scored by the tournament winner. With Anthony Kim beating the course record by 3 strokes, for a 16-under score, Wachovia is now paying 16% interest for the next 3 months. For the savers that started their $100/mo contributions in February, it will be another $15 in extra interest. For those just getting started in May, it's only $5 more before tax. It also means that the first year's blended rate -- (16% x 3 months) + (5% x 9 months) -- is just under 8% (see note 1).

Analysis
So it's no wonder Wachovia has attracted a slew of accounts. It's been live for about four months, so it's adding about 150,000 accounts per month. The most anyone could have amassed in the account so far is $400 plus a buck per electronic transaction. Assuming average balances of $200 per account, the product has attracted approximately $130 million so far.

Whether the new account pans out for the bank is yet to be seen. Assuming it pays out an average of $60 extra to each new Way2Save customer, Wachovia will have invested more than $60 million to attract a million low-balance savings accounts. And that doesn't include the marketing or customer-service expenses or the cost to open 15 new checking accounts for one person so they can open 15 Way2Save accounts (see previous post). It will be years before Wachovia knows if this product has a positive ROI. 

Granted, a bigger strategic issue is at play here: creating awareness of the Wachovia brand. It could be a huge success if the bank opens up hundreds of thousands of new customer relationships due to the promotion.

Note:
1. The 16% rate applies to accounts opened before May 30th.

Change Sciences, publishing under the moniker of its new Kantuit research service, just released its latest financial services website evaluation. The report uses proprietary user-experience modeling to rate, rank and compare 18 leading banking sites on how easy it is to find, select, and open a new deposit account online (see Table 1, inset).

Citibank and WaMu were ranked one and two and scored significantly better than the others. Wachovia was third, scoring about 20% higher (the lower the score, the better). Bank of America, Fifth Third and BB&T were in the next tier, finishing about 50% higher. Among mega-banks, U.S. Bank had the worst score, more than double the leaders. 

The Change Science score includes various components that show how a consumer may struggle with various aspects of the application process. These individual scores are totaled to come up with the final composite score shown in Table 1 right.

For example, Figure 1 below illustrates the scores for "Effort (expended) finding and learning about deposit accounts" with Fifth Third leading the way with a 0.1 score, compared to Peoples United Bank, the worst of the sample, scoring 19x higher at 1.9

Download an abstract of the research results here (registration required). The full report runs $4,000; a significant investment yes, but you could make that up with just a handful of additional good deposit accounts. 

It's been six months since the last direct bank launch, Provident Direct (coverage here). The latest entry is OnBank from M&T Bank, a $66 billion bank based in Buffalo, NY. 

OnBank passes our strict 25-word homepage standard, joining ING Direct, EmigrantDirect on the short list of financial institutions with Google-like clarity on their home page. It takes just a few seconds to know that this is a place to get a high rate of interest on your money, but you should look elsewhere for a commercial loan.

The user has just two main choices of what to do next (screenshots below):

1. Apply...encased in a trendy lime green button
2. More details...which leads to an equally succinct page that answers the important questions (see last screenshot below):
   - fee free
   - minimum balance of $1
   - FDIC insured
   - quick online opening process

The only thing missing is a comparison to other banks. Given that it's one of the highest savings rates available right now, OnBank should be aggressively showing how it compares to key online rivals, including ING Direct's 3%.

Not only is the bank direct and to the point in its copywriting, it also uses simple, effective graphics, including a gimmick sure to gain attention. To reinforce its 24/7 "always on" branding, OnBank takes a page from the iPhone weather forecast interface, showing the current time in reverse lettering in front of a background image that changes to match the time of day. As you can see in the three screenshots below: daylight (4:42 PM), sun setting (8:58 PM), and nighttime (9:02 PM). Presumably they also have a sunrise background. The bank displays the time according to the user's machine, PDT in my case.

We didn't test the Metavante-powered online application all the way through, but it looked relatively straightforward, although graphically not as appealing as the other OnBank pages.

Thanks to Bank Deals for the find.

OnBank homepage during daytime (17 April 2008)

Evening (16 April 2008)

Night (16 April 2008)

"More details page" (17 April 2008)

USAA is no longer the only financial institution offering consumers the ability to deposit paper checks from the comfort of home using standard home scanning technology (see previous coverage here).

Through DepoZip, a new offering from Massachusetts-based corporate credit union, EasCorp, five northeastern credit unions have recently begun offering remote deposit capture services for their members. In addition, Austin, TX-based Randolph-Brooks FCU is slated to launch it later this spring.

According to its published prices, the cost is $15,000 to implement the program ($5,000 for the license and $10,000 for training), then $100/mo plus $0.40 per active user plus $0.01 per its plus applicable image processing fees which range from $0.03 to $0.14 per item. Compared to manually handling deposits at the teller window, that's a bargain. 

The service was piloted beginning in August last year and launched in November at Sharon Credit Union (see inset image) and Hanscom Federal Credit Union. The latest to roll it out is 300,000 member Digital Federal Credit Union. 

Last week, ING Group's U.S. unit (note 1) made a splash with two major promotional efforts:

• Sponsored free access to the Wall St Journal online for an entire day (see screenshot below).
  
• Launched a TV advertising campaign, INGyournumber.com, aimed at the retirement market (press release here, view the spots here). Update 18 March: The company ran a full-page ad for the program in today's Wall Street Journal (p. A7)

INGyournumber <ingyournumber.com> is remarkably similar to Wells Fargo's Retire Secure Index that we looked at last week (here). The financial services giant created a special site with a Flash-based tool designed to help you find your "number." That is, the total amount you need to save to provide your desired level of retirement income.

Financial institutions should draft behind these well-funded efforts, and make sure your retirement tools are prominently positioned within your website.

ING Took Over The Wall Street Journal Online last Thursday (13 March)

INGyournumber.com Microsite

Note:

1. These promotional efforts from the main ING group, not ING Direct; although the direct banking arm did receive a small link on the bottom of the screen.

Update March 6: I added two clarifications pointed out in the comments. First, that normal ACH deposits to your own SmartyPig account are free of charge. Second, that the retailers bonus on withdrawals to their gift cards is UP TO 5% (not a flat 5%). 

How about this recipe? Take a basic FDIC-insured savings account, spice it up with automated electronic transfers and email communications, mix in gift/debit cards, wrap the whole thing up in a social network, and top it with a memorable name. What do you have? SmartyPig, the most innovative financial service we've seen since Prosper launched two years ago.

The site is in the final week of private beta. To register, you still need an invitation code. The company asked me not to publish it, but it's OK if I distribute by request via email. Send a note to info@netbanker with "SmartyPig" in the subject line. Or simply wait until after this weekend when the site goes into public beta.

How it works:

1.  Users create savings accounts at the site. Deposits are held at West Bank, a Des Moines, IA- based financial institution with $1.3 billion in assets. Funding is through ACH (electronic) transfers from outside bank accounts. SmartyPig currently pays a high, 4.3% APY on deposits. 

2. After the account is established, users are encouraged to create savings goals funded through automatic monthly ACH transfers until the goal is met.

3. Now here is where SmartyPig diverges from a typical bank account. The savings goals can be made public or kept private. Public goals can be funded in part, or entirely, by outside contributors. Think of grandma and grandpa contributing birthday money to help junior buy a new bike. Contributions are funded through credit card charges with a maximum charge of $500 and a per transaction processing fee of $4.95. To make sure grandma's $50 doesn't go to a Mario game, the money cannot be withdrawn until the savings goal is met (or canceled by the primary account holder).

4. After goals have been met, the user can elect to take the funds out in the form of a MasterCard debit card or a gift card from a retail partner such as Amazon.com. Participating retailers add up to 5% bonus to the savings goal so that $1000 saved for the plasma TV is worth $1,050 if redeemed via Amazon gift card. That's a great added incentive to use the service.

Gift Cards
SmartyPig also sells gift cards that can be redeemed towards new or existing savings goals. These cards, issued in denominations of $25 to $500, are meant to be given as gifts or employee incentives. They cannot be redeemed outside the SmartyPig system. Physical card are produced and delivered for a processing fee of $4.95 plus delivery fees of $5.95 or more. Or consumers can deliver a virtual card through email to eliminate the delivery charge (but the $4.95 processing fee remains the same). 

Summary of Fees

• Your own deposits: Free (via ACH transfer)
  
• Public contributions: $4.95 flat processing fee for each contribution made by an outside contributor. Contributions can be from $25 to $500 and are funded via credit card.
• Gift cards: Gift cards incur a $4.95 processing fee and an optional $5.95 shipping fee. The shipping fee can be avoided if a virtual gift card is chosen which is fulfilled via email.

Analysis
Although, not everyone is going to want to go through the extra steps to save this way, we are impressed with SmartyPig and are awarding it our first OBR Best of the Web award for 2008 (see note 1). We like how it's part gift registry, part savings account, and potentially a big help in getting users in the habit of saving for larger goals. The look-and-feel is very Web 2.0 and should resonate with teens and twenty-somethings.

There are a few rough edges that need better explanation and/or minor redesign. For instance, there is no way to simply add funds to a savings account without first setting up an automatic funding plan. But the site isn't even officially launched yet, so these issues should be ironed out during the beta period. 

The processing fee for outside contributions of $4.95 per transaction is a bit on the high side (there is no fee for funds transfers from your own bank account). One could argue that it's worth price of a triple mocha for the convenience and benefits of the savings account. But for smaller deposits of $50 to $100, it's a pretty high percentage of the overall deposit.

It would be nice if the company could lower the fee, perhaps by creating an ACH funding option. Another way to reduce costs is to lower the 4.3% APR. I'm not sure the savers attracted to this account really need that high of a rate. A lower interest rate combined with lower fees might make the service more palatable overall.   

The company may have to tweak its business model going forward. But the real lesson here is that savings accounts can be made stickier with automation and incentives. Leave it to the Iowans to show us the way (note 2). 

Screenshots

1. The main account screen: I set up a savings account for my son. Then set a savings goal of $300 for a new bike. SmartyPig requires that the savings goal be funded in equal monthly withdrawals from the linked checking. It would be helpful if you could opt out of the automated savings plan so that the savings goal could be funded manually. 

2. Public goals: If you opted to make your savings goal public, anyone can find it by searching via email address under the "Friends' Goals" tab on the top (you can see this one by searching for jim@netbanker.com). 

Users can publicize their goals with a widget (see inset, and link at bottom of screen above) or by sending email to friends.

After making a contribution, the following screen is displayed.

Note:

1. Online Banking Report (OBR) Best of the Web awards are given for products that "raise the bar" in online financial services, usually for pioneering a new feature. Recent winners are covered here. Five awards were been handed out in 2007: two for Wesabe, and one each for Jwaala, Buxfer and Obopay. In the past 10 years, 67 companies have won the award.

2. Full disclosure: I was born and raised in Iowa and my brother lives within a few miles of the SmartyPig world headquarters.

ING Direct, renowned for its many contests that have created strong brand-buzz, is offering customers the chance to win one of five monthly $1,000 prizes. Any user with a new or existing automatic monthly deposit of at least $100 is entered into the sweepstakes. In addition to the monthly prizes, one grand prize winner will take home $30,000. The contest runs for six months, so the total payout is $60,000.

Low-cost incentives to encourage automated savings are a win-win (see note 1). The bank gets a stable flow of deposits to its savings products, and customers end up "paying themselves first" and developing a savings habit. We recently covered WaMu and Wachovia's efforts in this area (here). 

ING Direct Transfer Money area within online banking (logged in)

Same area showing second part of animated banner 

Note:

1. Unfortunately, the sweeps ended up costing me $700, although it went to a good cause. Since I'm a sucker for a contest, and I didn't have an eligible auto-debit, I went to the bank's Transfer Money page to set up a new one. In the process, I noticed that the auto debit for our son's allowance had ceased working in mid-2005 (note 2). We owed him 31 months of allowance plus interest. Ouch. After taxes, the $1k in prize money will just about get me to breakeven.  

2. The allowance transfer originates from another ING Direct account, which was likely out of funds in July 2005, so the transfer was canceled. It's up to the customer to reinstate the transfer, which evidently I never did. 

If you are a subscriber to our Online Banking Report (see #150), you know how impressed we are with the work of BancVue and FirstROI. They are the team behind the 400+ rewards checking accounts we first discusssed here in early January (see note 1).

The reward-checking phenomena, largely created by these companies, landed as the sixth most important trend of 2007, according to our year-end report. The Wall Street Journal looked at several BancVue clients in an article last weekend (here).

If you are looking for ideas to spice up your Web-based marketing, take a close look at the FirstROI portfolio (note 2). They are doing some of the most creative work I've seen in 12 years of following the space, rivaling the UK banks, which have long set the bar for online bank marketing.

Case in point: Green Reward Checking from Bank of Hiawassee/Blairsville/Blue Ridge, all part of Georgia's $440 million Chatuge Bank Shares is well-explained in a clever Flash animation (see first screenshot below). Wisconsin's $770 million First Banking Center uses similar Flash techniques with a much more "serious" branding (see second screenshot below).

Green Reward Checking from Chatuge Bank Shares Inc. <www.frogreward.com>  
$440 million-asset bank headquartered in Hiawassee, Georgia

First Banking Center Rewards Checking
<firstbankingcenterrewards.com>
$760 million asset bank in southern Wisconsin

Notes:

1. (2) The credit union that first sparked our interest in the subject, Verity Credit Union, was advertising its reward product, Velocity Checking <velocitychecking.com>, on the radio this morning during Seattle's rush hour. The focus was on the 6% APY.
2. (1) First ROI will demo its latest innovations at our FINOVATE Startup conference April 29 in San Francisco.

Earlier this week, Ron Shevlin wrote about the "disingenuous" (see note 1) advertising from person-to-person lenders (here). He took issue with their claims of facilitating loans primarily for the social good, rather than for a profit motive. That criticism might be a little harsh, but he has a point.

Well if Ron doesn't like P2P ads, I wonder what he thinks of this one from Wachovia? The advertisement in question is for the bank's well-named, and well-intentioned new savings account, Way2Save.

I saw it advertised yesterday, above and adjacent to US Today's popular Super Bowl Ad Meter (here, screenshot below, note 2). According to BusinessWeek, the product is being supported with an eight-figure ad buy. 

Wachovia's ad promises an impressive return, a 5% APY plus a 5% bonus. On the face of it, that's a 10% yield. They'd have $100 billion in it tomorrow if it was that simple.

Here's the fine print:

• Must have a Wachovia checking account (but those are free)
• Limit of one Way2Save per checking account (but you can have more than one free checking account, see note 4)
• The only way to fund the savings account is through automated monthly debits from your Wachovia checking account (and those have to be set up in branch or over the phone)
• Maximum monthly transfer amount is $100, so the most you can add to the account in a year is $1200 (see note 4)
• The savings account has a variable rate and it not guaranteed to stay at 5% over the course of the year; and it is already scheduled to decline to 2% in years 2 and 3 (see detailed disclosures here)
• The bonus in year 2 and 3 falls to 2%
• A hard inquiry is posted to your credit bureau when opening a new checking account
• After the first year, the savings account has a $5/mo fee if there are no automated deposits

Analysis
For a small saver who can sock away $1200 over the course of a year, earning a 5% bonus, or $60, is an excellent deal, amounting to 15% return on the average annual balance of $600 ($30 interest @5% plus $60 bonus = 15%). While that's a fantastic APY, the $600 balance limit means the total extra earnings are only $5 per month, before tax, hardly a strong motivation for most savers.

The other part of the account that has created more confusion is the $1 transfer to savings with every debit card purchase, automated debit, and online bill pay. Some consumers, and even a few bloggers, have assumed Wachovia is paying a $1 bonus on each transaction. Now that would be a deal, if it were true. The $1 is simply a transfer from the user's checking account to his/her savings account. Wachovia will apply the 5% bonus to those $1 transfers, but that's only $0.05 per debit, or $1/month pre-tax for an active electronic banking user making 20 transactions per month. Again, not a strong motivator for most savers.

The semi-disingenuous advertising
Overall, we like the account. But we are not so thrilled with some of the advertising. Our main complaint: the landing page overplays the $300 maximum reward amount, which is virtually impossible to reach. Many visitors will initially believe that a $300 maximum payout means they can drop $6,000 in the account. However, that's not the case since it's limited to $100 month contributions, yielding a $60 bonus.  

Where does the other potential $240 come from? (This is the disingenuous part.) Answer: From the $1 funds transfers every time a Wachovia debit card is used. So the average visitor might think, "wow I'd have to make 240 debits to come up with the $240." Wrong again. The $1 is just a funds transfer from checking to savings (note 3). At the 5% bonus level, Wachovia only pays a nickel per transfer.

So how do you get a $240 annual bonus from that? You'd need 400 debit card transactions EVERY MONTH. That's not a typo, 400 transactions per month, or 4800 per year in order to earn the $300 shown in the headline of the Wachovia landing page. And that's in the first year. In the second year, with a 2% bonus, you'd need 1250 transactions per month to reach the $300 mark.

Final verdict
Ignoring the advertising, I say it's a deal for the customer. The product makes sense for beginning savers, a cross between Bank of America's Keep the Change (coverage here) and WaMu's Saving for Success (coverage here). I like the focus on automated savings, and the $1 per debit gimmick seems harmless, so long as it's better disclosed.

However, I'm not sure it's such a deal for the bank, at least not worth a $10-million ad campaign (note 5). Many Wachovia customers drawn in by the advertising will go away disappointed due to the fine print. In addition, thousands and thousands of zero-balance checking accounts will be opened to game the system, then closed at the end of the year, wasting bank resources and putting pressure on 2009 sales. 

Wachovia advertising on USA Today Super Bowl Ad Meter (6 Feb 2008)

Wachovia landing page from USA Today ads

Notes:

1. I knew it wasn't a compliment, but I had to double check that one in the dictionary for the precise meaning: "lacking in candor or sincerity" or "pretending to be unaware."
2. I was disappointed to find that E*Trade's ads finished outside the top-10 (#13 and #14). 
3. Although it's not addressed in the Wachovia's FAQs, apparently the $1 automatic funds transfer will be canceled if there are insufficient funds, so it can't trigger a $30 NSF fee. 
4. The folks posting at FatWallet are sharing account details to game the system. According to several posters, the bank allows up to 5 accounts per person in the household, but only one Way2Save can be linked to a single checking account. One poster says he opened 15 checking accounts and 15 Way2Save accounts and will transfer $100 per month into all 15 accounts, resulting in an $18,000 year-end balance and a $900 bonus. Then he'll close all 15 accounts and move on to next year's hot rate. One poster said, the branch people seemed happy to set up five new checking accounts since they appeared to get a bonus for each one. To avoid the "FatWallet effect," make sure you always have account limits and sales incentive limits.
5. Granted, the $10+ million is more to promote the bank' image than for the product itself. And being associated with savings is good branding these days.

Although, remote deposit capture has captured a significant share of larger businesses, consumers have had fewer options:

• USAA has offered in-home scanning, called Deposit@Home, for more than a year (previous coverage here), but its customer base is limited to current and retired members of the military.
• DepositNow, a unit of BankServ, allows anyone to use remote deposit services, but it's geared towards businesses and costs at least $29/mo, far above what consumers or even smaller businesses will pay.
• A number of banks also make it available to small businesses and the very wealthy, but consumer rollouts have been nonexistent. The cost of a dedicated scanner makes it uneconomical for the mass market.

CheckFree aims to change that with a new service targeted to consumers and very small businesses (press release here). The key is using existing consumer scanners and multi-function printers. USAA has proven that this technology does indeed work, so we expect CheckFree's service will pass technical hurdles.

It's hard to predict consumer demand, but given that around 20% of U.S. households maintain a full- or part-time business endeavor, we expect strong demand if the price is reasonable and technology is extremely easy to use.

Remote deposit services could be used as the cornerstone of a premium online banking offering (note 2) attractive to microbusiness (note 1) owners and consumers who still receive paper checks a few times per month.

Notes:

1. We define a microbusiness as one with $50,000 or less in annual revenue, typically a part-time, home-based business. For more information see Online Banking Report #107/108: Small and Microbusiness Banking Online.
2. See Online Banking Report #109 for ideas on how to create a premium online banking channel.

While not the first bank to experiment with eBay auctions (see note 1), Zions Direct is the first to open a dedicated site within eBay and the first to sell "new-account vouchers" (see screenshots below).

Apparently the vouchers, listed in the gift certificate category, skirt eBay rules against auctioning financial services. The buyer of the certificate can redeem them for a cash deposit into their Zions Direct brokerage account. Zions Direct also auctions CDs every week directly on its website (see previous coverage here).

Bidding starts at $0.99 for the vouchers which range in value from $500 to $1,000. Bidders can pay via PayPal or check. The amount of the voucher is deposited directly into the buyer's Zions Direct account, which is required to redeem the voucher. So not only are buyers receiving cash at a discount, they also can earn frequent flyer miles and a free grace period if their PayPal account is connected to a rewards credit card. There is no requirement that buyers be new customers, nor are their limits on how many certificates can be purchased. In fact, bidder shecdoggy bought 5 of the vouchers totaling $4,000 at a total discount of $72.50.

So far the bank has sold 16 vouchers worth at total of $12,800 to 9 unique bidders for an average of $12.50 less than face, a discount of 1.6%. And there are currently 10 vouchers up for auction (see screenshot below). As more people have caught on, the spread has been reduced to less than 1% on recent auctions (see past and present listings here, Zions Direct eBay store here).   

Analysis
From a marketing perspective, this is brilliant, at least in the short run. For a cost of $15.95/mo for a basic store, and $30 to $40 per voucher (mostly in eBay/PayPal fees), the bank gets its name on eBay, numerous mentions in blog posts and press stories, a cool ad on its homepage (see screenshot below), positions itself as innovative and provides customers a nice little spiff.

Long-term, however, the terms will have to be adjusted or the bank will just be handing over easy money to the "gamers." The certificates will be purchased at face, or slightly over, by existing customers who rack up frequent flier miles and a do a little interest arbitrage during their credit-card grace period. The bank will need to lower the amount of the vouchers to $100 to $200 to reduce the potential for gaming, or if possible, restrict purchases to one per customer. Another cost reduction tactic would be to disallow PayPal payments, but that would reduce the effectiveness of the promotion. 

Zions Direct Auction Listing

Zions Direct eBay Store

Zions Direct Homepage (18 Jan 2008)

Note:

1.  In the late 1990s PNC Bank was the first to try CD auctions. In 2004, WaMu used eBay technology in a market test (see previous article here).

For someone whose job it is to stay on top of innovations in financial services, I hate to admit I'm late to the party on the so-called "reward checking" phenomena. Last year, I'd noticed a number of smaller financial institutions launching high-yield checking accounts, but I hadn't realized it was a national trend primarily powered by a single bank tech supplier, Austin, Texas-based BancVue (see note 1).

According to a November BankRate article, more than 350 U.S. banks and credit unions now offer so-called "reward checking accounts" powered by BancVue with 30 new ones coming on board each month. These checking accounts usually pay high rates of interest, typically 6%, if users meet high levels of electronic banking activity each month.

Typical requirements to earn the high yield:

• 10 to 12 debit card transactions each month
• Electronic statements (no paper)
• Online banking usage

Typically, the following benefits are paid ONLY when the above requirements are met:

• 5% to 6% interest on the first $25,000 to $40,000 in balances
• ATM refunds up to $10 to $15/mo

And most seem to include:

• No monthly fees regardless of activity or balance levels, so the account can be marketed as "free"

Marketing
Another distinguishing characteristic of these accounts is the innovative marketing and website design. With the help of BancVue, smaller banks and credit unions are able to offer a level of design and pizzazz that meets or exceeds the typical megabank high-budget program.

Here are some of the more interesting BancVue-powered programs we've looked at (screenshots follow):

• Velocity Checking <velocitychecking.com> from Seattle's Verity Credit Union
  Earn 6.01% on balances up to $40,000 and receive ATM refunds up to $25 when meeting the following monthly requirements:
  - 12 debit transactions
  - 1 online banking login
  - electronic statement in lieu of paper
  
• Turbo Checking <turbochecking.com> from New Mexico's Charter Bank
  Earn 6.01% on balances up to $25,000 and ATM refunds when meeting the following monthly requirements:
  - 10 debit transactions
  - receipt of 1 direct payroll deposit or other automated ACH deposit
  - 1 login to online banking
  - electronic statement in lieu of paper

And our favorite, which substitutes iTunes downloads for the high-yield benefit:

• FreeTunes Checking <freetuneschecking.com> from Oregon Community Credit Union (see note 2)
  Earns 4 free iTunes downloads each month provided the following are met:
  - 12 debit transactions
  - 1 login to online banking
  - electronic statement in lieu of paper

Screenshots

Velocity Checking from Verity Credit Union

Turbo Checking from Charter Bank

FreeTunes Checking from Oregon Community Credit Union

Notes:

1. I began researching this area after reading Verity Credit Union CMO Shari Storm's recent blog post (here) about how she'd changed her payments behavior to make the 12 monthly debits required for its Velocity Checking.

2. Oregon Community Credit Union also offers a high-yield version, Remarkable Checking, that substitutes a 5.05% APY on all checking account balances instead of the free music. Monthly account requirements are the same. 

A full-page ad in the front section (page A8) in yesterday's Seattle Sunday Times/PI alerted me to WaMu's latest offering called Savings for Success (see note 1).  

It's not a new invention, essentially a 1-year CD funded with automatic monthly deposits instead of a one-time deposit (see note 3), but WaMu uses its marketing prowess to dress it up like a super-high-yield savings account with an attractive 5.5% yield. It also delivers the ultimate marketing coup: turning what is normally a negative, not being able to get your money out for a year, into an account FEATURE, saying that the savings is "out of sight and out of mind" for the one-year CD term.

According to the Bank Deals blog, the savings account has been made available in select markets as far back as July. At that time the rate was higher, 7% in Illinois and Texas and 6% in Washington and Georgia (note 1).

It's great marketing that plays right into the new year's resolution mindset this time of year. Surprisingly, the account is not mentioned on the bank's website, even though the call to action (below) includes the bank's Web address. Also, WaMu has not used search marketing to support the print ad. Google searches do not lead to the the bank and a site search at wamu.com leads nowhere. 

This is a great product and a good fit for online banking users. Assuming it pencils out in the four test markets, look for the account to debut nationwide in 2008.  
 

Notes:

1. Apparently, the same ad has also run in the Houston Chronicle, but with a 6.5% APY. In the disclosures on that ad (reprinted here), the offer was said to be available in Illinois, Georgia, and Texas. The Seattle Times/PI ad says the offer is only available in Washington.

2. Here's the text in the main paragraph of the ad above:

Your checking and savings needs are officially over. To complement our WaMu Free Checking account, we've created Savings for Success. It's simple. You choose the amount you'd like to save each month - by automatically transferring as little as $25 and up to $500 from your WaMu Free Checking account to your Savings for Success account. There it is kept out of sight and out of mind, earning big interest, and helping you save without even having to think about it. After one year, it's yours to access when we sweep the savings into any savings account you choose. So save like never before and still get free checks for life, free ATM cash withdrawals, and all of the other features of our WaMu Free Checking account. It's banking bliss. To learn more stop by a WaMu near you, call 1-866-808-1396 or visit wamu.com.

3. Update Jan 8: The product, with the 6.5% rate, has also been advertised in The Dallas Morning News (link to the ad here). Also, I neglected to mention that the account can ONLY be funded with automatic debits with a miniumum of $25 per month to a maximum of $500 per month, so it's not an account aimed at large depositers. 

Zopa US opened a private beta Saturday morning, emailing selected customers that had previously signed onto its mailing list. Both of our listed email addresses received invites.

We'll look closer at the new service in our upcoming Online Banking Report on P2P lending, but what stands out is the business model: part P2P lender, part deposit-taking financial institutions, part charitable organization, part broker, and part lead-generation site. I'm not positive you can be all of those things at once, but it will be fascinating to see if Zopa and its partner credit unions can pull it off.

How it works
To understand how the Zopa US system works, you must first realize that all loans and all deposits are held at the six partner credit unions (see list below). So in that way, Zopa is a pure lead-generation play.

Zopa "investors" put their money in fixed-rate, 1-year certificates of deposits held by a credit union partner. Borrowers take out 5-year fixed-rate personal loans, again from a credit union partner. This part is pure depository financial institution, with Zopa as a broker. 

Finally, the P2P/social finance aspect comes into play with the requirement that all depositors must choose to "help" at least one borrower by reducing the borrower's loan payment. The depositor has the choice of accepting the highest rate of interest, currently 5.1%, and making a token donation, or sharply reducing the APY on the Zopa CD in order to provide more financial assistance to Zopa borrowers. Depositors select who they want to help from the listed loans. An obvious scenario would be a grandparent investing a substantial sum into low-interest Zopa CDs, so that a child/grandchild could take out a 5-year loan to help with a down payment on a house. But depositors may also help a stranger whose story they find appealing. 

Our preliminary take
Zopa has removed much of the uncertainty from the P2P lending process. But by eliminating the risk, they've also reduced available returns. Marketing Director Wade Lagrone, with whom I spoke Saturday afternoon (as Zopa engineers hammered away on the final tests), believes that U.S. investors overwhelmingly prefer low-risk, fixed-income investments and will prefer this P2P model.

I'm not convinced yet. It seems like a somewhat convoluted path to buy a simple CD. First, you must set your deposit rate, choose one or more borrowers to help, and finally join one of the six credit unions. The website makes the process relatively straightforward, but it's not the same as simply dropping a few grand into an online bank. 

On the other hand, the ability to donate all or part of your deposit's interest-yield could appeal to certain investors, especially the well-heeled looking to help family members obtain below-market-rate loans for defined purposes (home purchase, education, business expansion, etc). And eliminating lender risk removes the huge chore of keeping lenders happy and informed about their book of loans. 

Another potential problem is lack of transparency for borrowers. To obtain a Zopa loan, prospective borrowers fill out a nonbinding "loan quote." Not until after this application is made, and a credit inquiry logged, do borrowers find out if they will receive the lowest rate of 8.75% or the highest of 16.99%. And borrowers have no idea whether they will receive "help" from investors to lower their payment, and effectively reduce the APR of the loan.

Screenshot: Zopa CD setup (1 Dec 2007)
Zopa investors (aka lenders) select the rate of return for their 1-year CD and then choose a borrower to help by offsetting a portion of their Zopa loan payment.

 
Appendix: Credit Union Partners
The six U.S. credit union partners of Zopa US:

• Addison Avenue Federal Credit Union
• Affinity Plus Federal Credit Union
• FirstTech Credit Union
• FORUM Credit Union
• Provident Credit Union
• USA Federal Credit Union

For some time, Bank of America has been offering its credit card customers a cash bonus for opening a new checking account. Today, with $75 dangled in front of me, I decided to take advantage of the offer and went ahead and opened up a free MyAccess Checking account online. Below is a screenshot of the main credit card page with the offer strategically placed in the upper-left quadrant.   

While the online account opening process was relatively smooth, there are a number of things the bank could do better, starting with pre-filling the application with my personal info. Even though I have two Bank of America credit cards and I responded to the offer from within the secure online banking environment, I still had to start the application from scratch.

And taking a queue from online retailers such as Dell, the bank drops a number of cross sells into the application process.  I'll have a full analysis of the account opening process in our upcoming Online Banking Report on online account opening to be published in first quarter. 

According to story in Wednesday's American Banker, Provident Bankshares, a $6 billion Baltimore, MD-based bank, has opened a direct bank to help reduce customer defections to other online banks (see screenshot below). In testing now, the new unit is slated for official launch in 2008. And unlike many other regional programs, Provident intends to market the new bank within its home market. It even plans to advertise to select visitors on its main website, <web.provbank.com>.  

While the bank risks cannibalizing its own deposit base, it feels that the direct bank, combined with the reputation of the parent, will help stem deposit outflows. The new bank will operate at <provident-direct.com>.

Analysis
I'm not convinced slapping a "direct" on your name and boosting savings rates ten-fold is all that compelling of a strategy (note 1). Sure, FNBO was able to add $1.5 billion in deposits, but only by offering a way-above-market 6% rate until just a month ago (see previous post here).

Dueling websites create channel conflict. Depending on how they are compensated, branch staff will either move everyone into the online-deposit account, or keep it a secret and hope never to be confronted by an angry customer wanting to know why they are earning 75% less in the branch than if they moved their money online.   

However, if Provident can keep costs down, operating the unit as more of a "virtual direct bank," with little additional expense other than a small website and a few dedicated sales/support reps, and figure out how to manage channel conflict, it could pencil out. And the bank can also use the unit to test new products and pricing without impacting its larger customer base.   

Note:

1. Actually, the high-yield rate at Provident Direct is 15 times higher than its 0.3% standard savings rates. But for higher balances, at least $25,000, the parent bank already offers a 4.0% APY money market account, just a half-percent under the high-yield rate. 

First National Bank of Omaha has attracted $1.5 billion in deposits through its Internet subsidiary, FNBO Direct, launched in February (previous coverage here). 

The numbers were chronicled in a NY Times article earlier this month (here) about the so-called rate chasers, depositors that move money around online seeking the absolute highest rate, even if it means moving the money many times each year.

Total deposits: $1.5 billion

Total accounts: 36,000

Average per account: $42,000

Number of mega-depositors (with $400,000+): several thousand

Deposits of the mega-depositors: approx $1 billion

Deposit of everyone else: $500 million in 33,000 to 34,000 accounts

Average per "normal" account: $14,000 to $15,000 

Now that the 6% APY has dropped to 5.05% (effective Sep. 28), it will be interesting to see how many deposits the bank retains.