Following are some of the better emails we’ve seen from financial providers in recent months. Because we only see those from financial institutions where we have established relationships, we would appreciate seeing others you’ve received. Send them to: info@onlinebankingreport.com .

Wells Fargo/ShareBuilder

This is our favorite holiday email. It was marketing NetStock’s ShareBuilder on behalf of co-branding partner Wells Fargo. It was sent the week after Thanksgiving (Nov. 28) and featured a engaging graphic of a young child and just 32 words of text (not including the mousetype fine print).

The pitch was for starting ShareBuilder accounts for children, with a $25 bonus for accounts opened prior to Dec. 31. A unique, if somewhat complicated, holiday gift idea for parents and grandparents.

First USA

This is a good example of a simple old-fashioned holiday greeting. FirstUSA punched it out on Christmas Eve and included a well-crafted P.S., “Maximize your holiday time by managing your accounts online at: Cardmemberservices.firstusa.com.

PayPal

PayPal sent several emails during the holiday period promoting a usage sweepstakes that rewarded users for shopping with PayPal. Taking a page from Visa’s annual holiday promotion , winners received their PayPal purchase free of charge. This message kicked off the program on Nov. 30.

PayPal also provided shopping ideas and a link to a directory of PayPal shops (right-hand side of the screen). The look of the emails was crisp and clean like the company’s Web site, but we would have preferred a bit more holiday cheer in the graphics.

DeepGreen Bank

DeepGreen Bank sent this message on Dec. 10 promoting holiday usage of its Home Equity Line of Credit. The message was pretty straightforward and was signed by DeepGreen CEO Jerome Selitto.

It’s a good email overall, but it’s a bit boring. The usual, great rates, great convenience, yada, yada, yada. To increase readership, it would be better to put some of the info into eye-catching graphics.

The company made a serious error by not putting DeepGreen in either the email subject or sender field. Unless you know the CEO, it looks a lot like a SPAM until you open it.

Intuit’s Quicken.com

We received our first holiday email from Intuit on Nov. 15, with a message entitled, “Holiday Gift and Sending Guide.”  The message had the usual format of Intuit’s monthly Money Matters email letter, with no holiday graphics. Beside the spending and gift advice, it featured a fifth anniversary sweeps for NetBank.

Although much of the advice is boilerplate, we like how it positions Quicken.com as a provider of thorough and timely advice about all aspects of your financial situation.

Normally, we don’t like to see outside advertising, but the NetBank sweeps added interest to the message.

NextCard

The December installment of NextCard’s monthly email newsletter was full of shopping discounts. The full newsletter was a bit cluttered taking up about four screens (at 800x600 on a 19-inch monitor).

The newsletter also promoted the Visa Magic Moments sweepstakes that awarded cardholders free purchases at a randomly selected second every day (box on the right).

To help differentiate its message from in-box SPAM, NextCard incorporates the cardholder’s first name in the email subject field.

Cardholders at First USA (Wilmington, DE; $69.5 billion; 59.1 million cards) are encouraged to visit the account access section of its Web with a $1,000,000 instant-win sweepstakes. After logging in to the password-protected site, users click on the “instant win” button to receive a Java-based “game piece.” Using their mouse, users “scratch” the moneybags (left screenshot) to reveal the prizes underneath (right screenshot). The Java applet simulates real scratching complete with sound. It’s very cool. Matching three of the six values wins a prize ranging from a $5 card credit to $1,000,000. Only one card can be played each day. Cardholders were notified of the sweeps through a postcard mailing.

Before: Users get a game piece once per day.

After: Scratch off the moneybags to reveal prizes.

Possibly an interactive marketing first:
First USA card ad runs on the file download dialogue box on AOL (top left corner).

FirstUSA is an important part of FreeMac’s business model. The Silicon Valley start-up plans to give away one million iMacs (value approximately $1,000 each) to users who agree to buy Net access from Mindspring for 3 years and who apply for and qualify for a First USA credit card. We estimate that First USA is underwriting 10% to 15% of the cost of the iMacs, probably in exchange for an equity position. Given, the exposure this company will generate, it’s not a bad way to spend $100 million. We also expect many (all?) of the FreeMac-generated accounts to go into the Wingspanbank.com portfolio creating a good portion of its first one million customers.

First USA/Lending Tree

www.lendingtree.com

Lending Tree’s clever credit card promotion
with First USA pays up to $500.

First USA (Wilmington, DE; $69.5 billion; 46.1 million accounts with 59.1 million cards), the credit card division of Bank One, has teamed with privately held loan marketplace, Lending Tree (OBR 6/98), to offer a clever promotion. Lending Tree loan applicants earn up to $500 when their loan closes if they agree to take a credit card from First USA. To request the card, applicants simply check a box on their loan application. The card is a no-fee, 9.99% fixed rate (with 4-5 month 3.9% teaser) Platinum product similar to that used with Yahoo! (OBR 2/98), WingspanBank, and its own e-Card (OBR 11/98).

Loan Bonus Program

Source: Online Banking Report estimates, 7/99

1) Bonus on closed loans only; to claim, user sends credit card number, closing loan statement, and Lending Tree password to First USA.

2) Assumes First USA pays an estimated $125 per card acquired whether the bonus is claimed or not.

3) Estimated Lending Tree promotional cost per closed loan.

The program appears to be a real winner for both companies. From Lending Tree’s standpoint, it gets to advertise a $500 bonus with little out-of-pocket expense. We don’t know how much First USA is paying for the cards, but we would guess it’s in the $100 to $150 range, given the quality of the applicants, and the fact that First USA gets to evaluate an entire mortgage application when underwriting the loan. Since only closed loans can earn the rebate, and applicants must jump through hoops to claim it, we would estimate only half of the new cardholders actually are paid a bonus. That means the actual cost to Lending Tree is only $125 or so per booked mortgage, zero for home equity loans, and a small profit for each auto loan (see table above). Any way you cut it, it’s a whole lot less expensive than the $900 PC systems Microsoft HomeAdvisor was offering most of the summer (OBR 3/99).

It’s also a good arrangement for First USA as well. The card company picks up a few quality credit cards, but more importantly gets valuable marketing data on what type of customers are using Lending Tree, how they respond to the offer, and whether they end up using the card. All this info can be put to profitable use at First USA, and at its sister companies, WingspanBank and Bank One. Certainly, First USA and company must be weighing the pros and cons of getting into the loan marketplace business themselves.

Given the investments Bank One has made on portal deals, we are surprised they let Providian outbid them for GetSmart and its 750,000 visitors per month earlier this year (sold for a reported $30 million, OBR 2/99). Maybe they have their sites set on Lending Tree instead.

Contact: Douglas Lebda is Founder, (704) 541-5351.

First USA/Yahoo!

www.firstusa.com

FirstUSA banner ad on Yahoo! (2/4/99).

FirstUSA (Wilmington, DE; $65 billion; 61 million customers), the card unit of Bank One (Columbus, OH; $260 billion), is featuring the instant credit capabilities of its Yahoo! co-branded card in banner ads running on the popular portal.

Yahoo’s new tax center features a tax-form finder.
In our test, the tax center was sponsored 50% of the time by SecureTax and 50% of the time by World Wide Web Tax, another tax prep site at www.wwwebtax.com .

First USA & Yahoo!

www.firstusa.com

Cardholders can pay their First USA bill at its Web.

First USA (Wilmington, DE; 15.9 million credit cards) now owned by Banc One (Columbus, OH; $114 billion; 4.2 million ATM cards) has pioneered several innovations in recent months. First, the card issuer now allows you to pay your bill on its Web using National City Processing’s Virtual Pay.

Second, the long anticipated Yahoo! co-branded card made its debut on the Yahoo! Web in late February (see banner below.)

First USA’s banner in Yahoo’s 411 Directory, yahoo.four11.com.

Clicking on the banner takes users to a
co-branded site on First USA’s Web
www.firstusa.com/fin_solc_cards/Yahoo!/index.htm.

The First USA/Yahoo! platinum card is one of the lowest priced cards in the country with a rate of 9.9% (not an introductory rate). And it comes with a clear fraud-protection (shopping) guarantee sure to make the card more marketable to the online-savvy crowd.

First USA/Yahoo! Shopping Guarantee

Yahoo! and First USA are confident in the security of online shopping. You pay nothing if unauthorized charges are made to your Yahoo! Visa Card.

First USA/Yahoo! Platinum Card Features

•  no annual fee
•  24-hour online statement access
•  risk-free online shopping guarantee
•  email customer service
•  reward points at online merchants: CD Now, Amazon.com, Sharper Image, Toys.com, Garden Escape, Cyberian Outpost, Mother Nature’s General Store, Yahoo! Style
•  9.9% fixed APR (not an introductory rate)

First USA ($22.4 billion; 16 million cards) invited users to apply for its newest affinity cards, PGA TOUR and Senior PGA TOUR MasterCards, online at either <www.firstusa.com> or <www.pgatour.com>. We would have been more impressed had the January 24 dated press release not said the online applications would be available “later this spring.” Leo McCullagh is VP Mkt. PGA TOUR. William Nutting is SVP Affinity Marketing at First USA, 302.594.4000.