UBS Wealth Management US last week launched a new payments-card package for its brokerage customers that among other things cleverly turns an ordinary American Express card into what amounts to a debit card. The program was created for UBS by Barclay’s PLC’s Juniper Bank unit.

The whole idea is to bind its customers to the U.S. brokerage unit of Zurich-based UBS by giving them a payments-card package that the firm hopes will be their primary spending vehicle, says Peter Stanton, executive director of the UBS unit’s Banking Strategy Group. It’s not an effort to enter the very tight U.S. credit card business

“It’s definitely not our intention to be another credit card provider,” he says. “This is a consolidation strategy; it’s all connected to our role as their primary wealth-management advisor, and ties them closer to us because of the services we provide.”

On the surface, the package is an ordinary Visa credit card and an ordinary American Express charge card, bundled with a very extravagant rewards program that offers cardholders enticements like jet fighter rides or a sleepover at FAO Schwartz. Rewards run from one point to 1.5 points per dollar spent, depending on whether the customer chooses the basic “Select” Visa card or one of the more elite Visa cards that carry annual membership fees of up to $1,500. UBS says it has about 15,000 such accounts.

By offering its brokerage customers such payment packages, UBS joins a widening club of brokerage companies trying to retain customers whose loyalty is mercurial at best. “With acquisition costs so high, and turnover very high also, the emphasis has been to keep the customers they already paid for, happy,” says Ariana-Michele Moore, a senior analyst with Celent Communications.

The Amex card allowed UBS and Juniper to create a vehicle that functions like a debit card from the user’s perspective—UBS calls the card a “delayed debit card,” though Amex insists that the cards are ordinary Amex cards—while earning the issuer the much higher American Express interchange fees.

It does this by an interesting sleight of hand that seems to be built around the fact that none of the parties to the deal care what the card is called, as long as they get what they want from it. Cardholders use the Amex card like an ordinary debit card, including being able to use it to withdraw surcharge-free cash at ATMs that accept Amex cards. At the end of the month, their central brokerage account, or RMA (resource management account), is automatically debited, and no bill is sent to the customer. Purchases are limited to the funds available.

This way, UBS gets what amounts to a debit card for its customers, while Amex and Juniper get full price for an Amex card. And as an added bonus, Juniper gets a piece of the debit card market, which is quickly overtaking credit cards as the payment vehicle of choice in the United States.

How the parties came up with this deal is unknown. UBS’ Stanton says his shop approached Juniper around August of 2004 as part of a typical RFP process, and went to contract last April. Juniper refused any comment on the matter, referring all questions to UBS.

“It has in-between functionality,” says Stanton. “It functions as a debit in the sense that it accesses your available funds; it functions as a charge card because the charges accrue, and instead of having to make some sort of payment, the payment is automatic.” The idea, he adds, was to allow purchases to be made without interfering with a client’s trading accounts.

All in all, it’s a smart deal, says Celent's Moore—among other things, because people with brokerage accounts are typically wealthier, and travel overseas, so that the package gives UBS clients a secure spending vehicle.

“It’s all about providing flexibility to their brokerage customers, but it could also be enticement for people considering opening a UBS account—it could be the thing that tips the scale,” she says. (Contact: UBS Wealth Management US, 212-882-5698; Celent Communications, Ariana-Michele Moore, 503-617-6112)

Juniper Spins a Card Web

Home Page

Home page. The design and layout are excellent, but it’s slow loading and a bit busy for our taste. The page is dominated by the big HELLO and photo of Sherry, the “customer champion.” Normally, we think home page photos are a waste of your customer’s time, but Juniper makes it work with the “now you have a champion” theme.

There are three choices to move forward: apply, register (if you’ve already received an invitation in the mail), or login.

Ever since we first heard about Juniper earlier this year, we figured they’d be a Best of the Web winner. We were right, although they are not as far in front of the pack as we expected, especially given their talent and funding. But if they can execute on just half of Dick Vague’s vision, they should be a leader for a long time.

 

The Company: Juniper Bank is a privately funded Net-only bank based in Wilmington, Delaware. Although it calls itself a bank, the company is more like NextCard than NetBank. The founders, Dick Vague and Jim Stewart, are veterans of Bank One’s First USA unit and were key figures in First USA’s high-profile WingspanBank venture, a previous OBR Best of the Web winner. The 250-person company launched its bank on Oct. 24. They are focusing first and foremost on credit cards, and will cross sell checking, bill payment, and other services to card customers (during the first five weeks, only 20% of Juniper card customers added an additional service).

Key Strategies (per Dick Vague interview and presentation at Retail Delivery 11/30/00):

• Minimize the time consumers spend on the bank’s Web¹
• Alert customers when financial matters need their attention rather than forcing users to remember themselves (via Message Center and email messages)
• Focus on Net delivery and be known as THE provider in cyberspace (Vague says the specialist will beat the generalist)
• Exceed customer expectations to gain referrals

¹This is the opposite strategy of most banks and Web companies and is in sharp contrast to those advocating a portal strategy.

The First 55 Days: On Dec. 18, less than two months after launch, the bank says it has 50,000 customers and more than $100 million in card receivables. Doing the math, that’s an average of $2,000 per customer. Not bad. It took NetBank more than 3 years to bag its first 50,000 accounts (only 1.5 years to get $100 million in deposits).

Vague told us on Nov. 30 that 80% of the first month’s customers were single-service credit card customers. He also expected to have 50,000 to 100,000 customers by yearend, of which 90% would be credit card customers. Based on those conversations, we estimate Juniper had no more than ten thousand checking accounts at yearend. But given the confusing initial funding process, few of the accounts have money in them.

Investors Juniper has received more than $114 million in venture capital in two rounds in 2000. Investors include:

• Aether Systems (provider of Juniper’s wireless offerings)
• Benchmark Capital (provided first round funding of $20 million; partner Bill Gurley is on board)
• Fifth Third Bancorp ($45 billion bank headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio)
• J. & W. Seligman & Co. Incorporated (New York and Palo Alto) 
• Kemper Ventures (venture capital firm backed by the Kemper Insurance Companies)
• Kingdon Capital (New York)
• Maverick Capital (Dallas, TX)
• Sonera Corporation (Finland)
• Total Technology Ventures, LLC (headquartered in Atlanta, GA and affiliated with Synovus, provider of Juniper’s bank and credit card products)

Management Team:

The four execs listed on Juniper’s Web are all from First USA: Richard Vague, CEO; Jim Stewart, President; Clint Walker, General Counsel; and Ben Brake, Director of Marketing.

Partners: Juniper doesn’t have a banking charter itself. Banking services are delivered through Columbus Bank and Trust ($3.6 billion; Columbus, GA), a division of Synovus Financial. Credit cards are issued through Total System Services, another division of Synovus. Insurance is from Answer Financial, loans are from E-Loan, and bill payment services are from Checkfree. Aether Systems handles wireless service development, eProfile from Sanchez provides outsourced bank operations technologies and account processing for deposit accounts, and Loudcloud provides software infrastructure services.

Productss: Juniper’s focus is credit cards, credit cards and credit cards. It also hopes to attract checking account and bill payment users. The bank rounds out its product line with insurance and loans offered through partners.

Juniper offers a simple deposit product line just three choices: interest-bearing checking, savings, and a 3-month CD. The bank doesn’t offer a money-market deposit account or the popular 6- and 12-month CDs. Deposits carry modest interest rates, considerably lower than most Net-only banks. For example, 1% interest on checking balances below $10,000 along with a fee of $6.95 per month if balances fall below $1,000. Savings pays only 3.5% up to $10,000, then 5% on higher balances .

On its Web site, product information is presented in a clear manner, but there is little depth to the information, and no way to compare Juniper prices to others.

 

Juniper Product Line

Source: Juniper Bank, 12/15/00

 

Marketing Vague outlined the following marketing budget to us on 11/30/00:

• 70% direct mail
• 30% pay-for-performance online advertising and/or sponsorships

Initially, 80% to 90% of DM will be feature rates. Juniper is testing 15 to 20 other promotional offers such as, free subscriptions, to see how they compare with rate offers.

Features:

Core features revolve around the credit card:

• competitive rates
• no overlimit fees
• no credit life insurance (until something of value to the consumer is available)
• fewer late fees because the bank will help customers avoid them by emailing reminders to pay, complete with a link to an ACH (electronic) payment function
• wireless access
• superior customer service, especially via email and Web chat

Coming in early 2001 (per Vague, 11/30/00):

• account alerts (already featured prominently in Web copy)
• personalized customer service: users will have a designated team supporting them, inquiries will be routed to the team
• account aggregation: although Vague doesn’t think it will be used much in 2001, he wants to have it on the menu so the bank is proficient in its delivery when it does take off
• more robust Message Center functions

 

Analysis

Web Site

Juniper decided not to use an experienced Web designer to build its Web site, instead turning to an industrial design firm experienced in the production of tangible products. The overall design is good: the Web site is graphically intriguing, navigation is intuitive, and the casual photographs of company employees do an excellent job of giving users the impression that real, live approachable people are behind the Web site. Juniper does a great job of funneling prospects towards its account application, although they need to get away from the notion that users must “apply” for the opportunity to send the bank money.

The total home page word count is approximately 125, a little higher than we like but well within the tolerance level of most Web users. Until recently, there were several serious design flaws. First, as we mentioned last month, the bank required 128-bit encryption (Netscape 4.5 or higher, IE 4.0 or higher) before you were even allowed on its home page. So the first time you visited, you were forced through a “browser check” to determine if you pass muster. We won’t belabor the point, especially since it’s been fixed, but this was a terrible first impression to make with new visitors.

More troublesome is the slowness of the Web site. After losing our cable modem for a few days, we used Juniper’s Web in 56k mode and it was painfully S…L…O…W, at least from our Seattle vantage point (logging in through a Netcom dial-up service). The brochure part of the Web site is better now that it’s not running in encrypted mode, but the online banking functions just crawl along. It’s like having your credit card authorized with every click of the button. Even though the layout is superb, routine tasks, like paying a bill, simply take too long. For example, to pay a bill to a merchant you’ve already set up takes 2.5 to 3 minutes¹ if you include the time to login to the site. Even if you are already logged in it still takes up to 2 minutes,¹ especially if you accidentally schedule the payment for a weekend day, causing the payment to be rejected. In comparison, you can write a paper check in less than 45 seconds (not including finding your checkbook and stamps or dropping it in the mail).

Grades

Layout/navigation: B

Graphics/typography: A

Speed: C-

¹Even after learning the system, it took us 3 minutes and 12 seconds to make a single payment to an established merchant, 45 seconds of the total was the login time. We could also have shaved 30 to 45 seconds off if we hadn’t inadvertently chosen a payment date that fell on a weekend, although the bank doesn’t provide any assistance in avoiding that mistake.

  

The Demo

Juniper has a great Flash demo and an HTML version for dial-up modem users. But even the HTML demo is too slow for dial-up users, taking 30 to 60 seconds to draw each page¹, and it’s dozens of pages long, although you can skip around by using the a drop-down navigation box.

Grades

For fast Web connections: A-

For dial-up users: C

¹Tested on a 56k modem on a Dell 350 MHz desktop connected to Netcom in Seattle.

Demo Screen for Wireless Access

The first screen of the wireless part of the demo really hammers home the potential convenience. But we doubt more than a handful of customers actively use it.

 

Application Process

We submitted two checking/savings/bill pay applications. Both applications were seriously bungled in completely opposite ways. The first application, on Dec. 11, 2000, was not approved online and received a “we’ll get back to you” response. Presumably, underwriting choked on the mailing address we used. We wanted our statements to come to our business address, a relatively common request. If the bank’s risk policy doesn’t allow that (which is understandable), the bank should say so, rather than reject a solid application. More than three weeks after submitting our original application we finally received a cryptic 1-page letter (via snail mail) telling us to call the credit department within 14 days or our application would be voided.

The second application, submitted four days later (Dec. 15) under a different name, was approved in less than 10 seconds; however, our browser crashed during the middle of step three. We logged back in, reentered much of the data and submitted the application less than 10 minutes later. This time we were approved in less than 7 seconds. We later discovered the bank treated this as two separate applications and set up two checking, savings, and overdraft protection accounts. We then received two pin mailers, two ATM cards, and two boxes of checks.

A consistent omission through all three applications was the bank’s utter lack of contact via email or any other method to welcome me to the bank or ask if I had questions. Also, the duplicate application and address verification should have triggered emails from customer service. There is no excuse for leaving the customer hanging.

Grades

Application form/process/disclosures/help: A-

Handling of simple applicants (with name/address match): B

Handling of difficult applicants (without name/address match): F

¹On day 19, we emailed the bank to find out what had happened to the application. They told us that an address verification letter would be sent soon.

 

Putting a Clock on It¹

Time			Activity
Begin	End	Elapsed
0:00	0:13	0:13	Type URL, download homepage (does not include approximately 20 seconds for browser check on first access)
0:13	0:19	0:06	Choose Apply, download first page of application
0:19	2:15	1:56	Complete first page of application, press enter
2:15	2:23	0:08	Download second page of application
2:23	3:45	1:22	Complete second page of application, press enter
3:45	3:52	0:07	Receive message, “Sorry we need more time to review your application”, press Next2
3:52	4:00	0:08	Returned to home page with no further instructions3

Source: Online Banking Report test, 4:59 PM PST, Friday, 12/11/00; time recorded in minutes:seconds

¹Using a Dell P400 desktop computer hooked to cable modem

²In a later test, we received application approval in less than 10 seconds, then went on to setup accounts.

³24days later we finally received a one-page letter telling us to call within 14 days to verify some of the information on the application

Juniper tells customers that it will take five minutes to apply, with approval in as little as 10 seconds. Our tests show these statements to be accurate. We completed the application in four minutes and received answers in 7 to 10 seconds.

 

Step 1: Application (bottom)

 

The first page of the application includes personal information and username and password selection (not shown).

Disclosures are displayed on the bottom of the first page, a good way to ensure that mandatory disclosures are viewed. The disclosures themselves are nicely laid out and not in frames, so they are easy to print.

 

Step 2: Application (top)

The user interface is consistent throughout the application.

 

Step 2: Application (bottom)

 

Juniper requires household income even though we are only “applying” for a checking and savings account. This will cause some applicants to drop out. The help button on the right doesn’t provide much clarification, it just says, “minimum income levels are required to qualify for certain products and vary by product.” The bank should consider making the “Employment and Finances” questions optional, but with an incentive to get users to volunteer the information.

 

Step 3: Approval / Rejection

Thwarted again). After inputting all my personal information, all I get is a 2-sentence rejection saying:¹

“We’re sorry, but we’ll need more time to review your information. Please do not reapply. Click below and we’ll notify you by email as soon as possible.”

After clicking the Next button as instructed, we were dumped back to the home page, with no information on what to do next. The “please don’t reapply” is especially galling, a don’t-call-us-we’ll-call-you brush-off. More than 3 weeks after hitting submit, I still haven’t heard a word from the bank; not even an autoresponse email. I am able to log in with my username and password, but no accounts have been established and there is no indication that I have an application in process.

 

Step 3: Approval (2nd try)

¹At least Wingspan thanked me for applying. Have the First USA veterans forgotten their manners?

 Since we hadn’t heard back on our original application, we submitted a new one using a different name (5 PM PST, 12/15/00). This time our information must have synched with their database, not only did we get approval for a deposit account in just 9.7 seconds (using Navigator 4.6 and a dial-up 56k connection), we were also offered a preapproved MasterCard, even though we hadn’t asked for one. We accepted the offer even though the credit limit was unspecified (later we would find out that it was the largest unsecured line we’d ever been granted, $25,000; apparently Juniper isn’t shy about granting substantial credit lines.)

Unfortunately, as we reviewed the terms of the MasterCard offer, our browser crashed. We logged back into our application and completed the process, but we ended up with two of every account except the credit card .

 

Credit Card Cross Sell

Flaw in the popup. When you ask for more details on the credit card offer, a new browser window pops up. Unfortunately, in both IE 5 and Netscape 4.6 you can’t read all the text, and it’s not scrollable. A small but frustrating bug that probably cuts their cross-sale rate by a third or more. We accepted the MasterCard to see how it worked. After checking the box, the terms and conditions were presented. The applicant could still cancel at that point. The terms stated that an appropriate credit limit would be chosen after reviewing the applicant’s credit bureau information. No credit limit was communicated during this initial session.

 

 

Summary of Application Problems

Appli-cation	Date Submitted	Problem	Resolution
# 1	12/11/00	The bank said it needed more time to review the application; in a subsequent communication we learned that the problem was that we used our business address instead of home address)	None, 16 days later we still hadn’t heard from the bank so we emailed customer service (Dec. 27); we were told an address verification form had recently been sent; on Jan. 4, 24 days after our application we finally received a one-page letter (postmarked Dec. 29) telling us to call the credit department within 14 days or our application would be voided; not much of a welcome.
# 2	12/15/00	Our application was instantly approved, but our browser crashed during the initial signup process while we were looking over the details of the credit card offer. We logged back in to our application and resubmitted it. Only later did we find out that we had been setup with 2 checking accounts, 2 ATM cards, 2 credit lines, and 2 savings accounts (but just a single credit card because the crash came before we accepted the card). Evidently Juniper’s servers took our activity as two separate account applications even though we’d never fully completed the first one. If you get two identical applications within a couple minutes, your system should be smart enough to suspect a mistake. We weren’t even asked if we wanted two accounts, and since Juniper doesn’t provide any type of purchase confirmation, we had no idea that duplicate accounts had been created until we logged in for the first time.	None, when we questioned the bank about why we had two of everything, they simply told us that’s what we had requested, they made no offer to rectify the duplication.

Source: Online Banking Report tests, 12/11/00 and 12/15/00

Immediate Post-Application Experience

Juniper made one of the worst mistakes a company can make, they took our order for granted, not even bothering to send a simple email thank-you. Our application was essentially rejected, apparently because I used my business address instead of my personal one. The post-application experience was non-existent. The only communication was a 1-page letter 24 days later telling me to call the credit¹ department.

The second application resulted in a steady stream of snail mail, but it was slow coming (see left). There was no email confirmation, no email thank-you, no welcome messages in the Message Center, no telephone calls, no welcoming letter, and no help getting money transferred into our account. After several weeks of trying, we still have been unable to get a non-Juniper account set up to fund our account. Even worse, two emails inquiring about the status have gone completely unanswered .

The first post-application contact was a one-page, black-and-white PIN mailer received 11 days after submitting our application (see table left). We still haven’t received the promised “welcome kit” more than 3 weeks later. It was a total failure in getting our relationship off to a good start. Was the Juniper team asleep in during the Marketing 101 lecture about the importance of creating a good first impression?

One thing done very well, at least from the perspective of the bank, was the automated credit card upsell. But again there were no communications after we accepted the offer. We didn’t even know they had given us a generous $25,000 line until we logged back in and looked it up ourselves.

 

New Account Fulfillment
date each piece received (in Seattle)¹

Item	App 1	App 2*
Applied	Dec. 11	Dec. 15
Email confirmation	none	none
ATM card PIN mailer --- account #1 -- account #2		12/26 12/26 12/27
Paper checks -- account #1 -- account #2		12/27 12/27
ATM card -- account #1 -- account #2		1/03
Credit card PIN mailer		1/03
Verification letter	1/04	n/a
Credit card		1/06
NSF letter from Checkfree3		1/06
Welcome kit
1st statement

Source: OBR, 12/00

¹Only items received through 1/6/01 are included

²Application #2 resulted in two accounts being established due to a browser crash during the process, see p. 19

³Our first bill payment, initiated from our new Juniper account on 12/21/00, resulted in an NSF notice from Checkfree, even though we had a sufficient overdraft line of credit (see p. 26)

 

Grade

D

¹This will make no sense to the average consumer, who will think, “Why the credit department? I wasn’t applying for anything, I just wanted to send you my money!”

Setup Accounts

Account setup was a mess. Approved applicants are given the impression they can begin using their Juniper accounts right away. In fact, the bank provides a list of eight items that they recommend doing right away. The problem is, only six of the eight can be accomplished in the initial session (see screenshot, next page). A few other problems we encountered: (1) After more than 3 weeks we still have been unable to get a non-Juniper account added so that we can electronically fund our account; (2) Our first bill payment was mailed promptly to our payee, but evidently the bank’s overdraft protection doesn’t kick in on ACH debits, so Checkfree sent us a letter explaining that Juniper had rejected the ACH debit to offset the check that had been sent on our behalf, Checkfree even warned us of possible fees from our bank; (3) New customers face blank screens when they log in, no transactions, no statements, no messages in the Message Center, and no way to check the status of their new account fulfillment process, which appears to take nearly a month.

Grade

C-

 

 

Step 4: Setup Accounts  

After being approved for our account, we were presented with a list of 8 items that we were told to do now. But other than setting marketing preferences and bookmarking the site, you can’t do any of the tasks because the bank hadn’t yet created the necessary account numbers (see Table below). A frustrating way for new customers to be greeted, akin to buying 8 CDs at Virgin Records, taking them home and finding that six won’t play until you receive snail mail confirmation from the record companies. What type of referral business do you suppose that will generate?

 

Juniper’s Flawed To Do List for New Customers

Task	Juniper Description	What You Can Really Do Your First Visit
Activate Credit Card	When you receive your card, activate it immediately through Chat or call 1-877-408-8866.	Nothing, because you must have card first.
Create Account Nicknames	VacationAcct, My Money -- Call them whatever you want, so you can easily tell them apart.	Nothing, because you don’t have an account yet.
Activate your ATM/Check Card	To activate your ATM/Check Card, contact Customer Service at 1-888-232-0780.	Nothing, because you have to have the plastic first.
Set Up Bill Pay	Enter your recurring bills once, and never write checks again.	Nothing, error message below.
Fund Your Account	Putting money in your Checking, Saving or CD account activates it for your use.	You can get started, but you can’t complete it electronically, because you must wait 24 hours to have a non-Juniper account verified.
Set Up Direct Deposit	Automatically deposits your paycheck in the account of your choice.	Nothing, because you must have a Juniper check or deposit slip to attach to form.
Privacy Options	How and whether we contact you is entirely your choice.	Works, see screenshot below.
Bookmark Juniper	Click here to add www.Juniper.com  to your Favorites list.	Works.

Source: Online Banking Report test, 12/15/00

Account Set-up Glitch

This nasty message was displayed when clicking on “Set Up Bill Pay,” one of eight things Juniper suggests new users do right away.

 

Move Money: Account Funding & Interbank Transfer

Funding your new account electronically is confusing. We had to click around for a few minutes before we figured it out. You must first select the “options” drop-down menu, then choose “Add a Non-Juniper account.”

Once we found the right page, the setup was pretty simple; at least it looked that way. No paper must be exchanged, although the Web site said there was a 24-hour wait period. In our test, it’s been 24 DAYS, and its still not set up, despite two emails to customer service (which have gone unanswered).

Juniper should also offer a credit card funding option so users can get started right away (many Net-only banks have offered this option for years including CompuBank, USAccessBank, and X.com/PayPal).

 

Your Accounts: Main Page

The main page after login is well done, although the layout takes a little getting used to. It’s divided into four parts:

1.    Top: main navigation bar

2.    Upper left: online banking navigation

3.    Lower left: account navigation

4.    Middle: the active screen, at login it’s the Message Center which has been empty during our first three weeks as a customer. Also, customer service responses to user questions are NOT delivered to the Message Center, another confusing aspect of Juniper’s interface.

 

Privacy Option Setup

A nice touch: Users can set their privacy options choosing to opt in or out of marketing messages. The default is YES for email and snail mail marketing messages; NO for phone solicitations (will anyone change that to YES?).

 

Products

Juniper is betting the farm that credit cards are what online customers will buy. But so far it is doing little to differentiate its card from the myriad of offline competitors.¹ Juniper needs to put its unique benefits in front of customers on the main screen. NextCard, on the other hand, has always stressed its online benefits in a few choice words on its home page.

¹The credit card is made of a unique translucent material; now we understand the bank’s cute graphic at right, but this isn’t going to drive any sales.

Deposit Rates

Balance Level	Checking (APR)	Savings (APR)	3-Month CD*
<$2,500	0.50%	1%	6.00%
$2,500 to $10,000	1%	3.5%	6.00%
$10,000+	3%	5%	6.00%

Source: Juniper Bank, 1/5/01    *$1,000 minimum deposit required on CDs

On the deposit side, it’s clear they are not using high rates to attract accounts. But if the bank hopes to manage more than the payment portion of a household’s finances, they will need to add investment options such as: money market account, indexed equity fund, bond fund, and so on. X.com’s investment products would have been a nice fit. Too bad Juniper didn’t buy those accounts before X.com closed down its banking business and refunded all deposits and investments to customers in early December. 

Grades

Sales Presentation: B-

Credit Card Value Proposition: B

Deposit Value Proposition: C-

Product Information

Product details are delivered through mouseovers. It’s a little unwieldy with this much information. If you accidentally move the mouse, the information goes away. Another problem, in the Checking section, the graphic subtitle, “Banking without a Net,” pops up after a second and blocks some of the text (see upper right). The bank would be better off creating unique pages for each product.

Main Credit Card Page

The credit card page stresses rate, with a 2.9% start rate and 13.99%
go-to rate. But, the company does little to stress its Net-only focus.

 

eWallet

Juniper offers an ewallet, but it’s not well integrated. Clicking on ewallet opens a screen (lower right) explaining the feature. Clicking “Download” opens another screen (upper left), which is primarily branded BizRate.com. Few users will have the patience to sift through this mess to download and use the wallet.

Bill Payment: Juniper aspires to be a bill payment player, perhaps using it to differentiate its card offering. The bill payment program is well designed, but its slow and confusing for beginners. For example, users must figure out the difference between “your e-billers” (electronic bill presentment) and “payees” (anyone receiving a payment). They need to program a setup wizard that walks users through the process much like they have for the new account application process. Juniper also needs to integrate bill payment with email. Currently, they don’t send email confirmations when new payees are added, payments are sent, or payments are cleared. They also don’t offer the option of sending an email to the recipient of the bill payment.

Grades

For new users: C-

Once you get the hang of it: B+

 

Bill Pay Center: Home Page

Initially, the Bill Payment Center is intimidating for novice and experienced users alike. You are thrown into this blank page and must figure out what to do next by trial and error. In order to get started, users must choose between “Your e-Billers” and “Add Payee.” The e-Biller option is the likely first choice, but it dumps you into a slow loading, but short list of Checkfree’s electronic bill presentment vendors (see below).

 

Bill Pay Center: Bill Presentment

A popup screen lists “merchants offering the convenience of e-bills.” While we recognized this as a list of billers supporting bill presentment via Checkfree, the average consumer would likely figure this was the total universe of billers he/she could pay.

 

Bill Pay Center: Making a Payment

 

Juniper’s payment interface is excellent. We like how it displays the full information on the payee and the account the payment is coming from, making users feel more comfortable they are not making errors.

 

Bill Pay Center: Viewing a Previous Bill

 

Another excellent usability feature: when viewing a previously paid bill, all payee and payment information is summarized on a single page. It makes the payment look more “tangible” and should cut down on customer service queries.

Tools and Calculators

Here’s an area where Jupiter shines. Although, the calculators are similar to other banks (outsourced from FinanCenter), the tools section sets it apart. Users have an ATM locator to find a place to make a deposit or withdraw cash; a UPS drop-box locator to find a more convenient place to make a deposit; and a Mail Boxes Etc. locator to find a human-run deposit location. The bank has also created a Forms Center where users can find forms for common tasks, such as direct deposit setup or making a deposit at Mail Boxes Etc. This is much better than forcing the user to search all over your Web for the right form. It should also cut down on customer service forms requests.

Grade

A-

 

Popup Calculator

Calculators powered by FinanCenter.

 

ATM, UPS, MBE Locators

The bank has differentiated itself by building an unprecedented network of deposit-taking outlets: 30,000 ATMs, 60,000 UPS boxes, and 4,000 Mail Boxes Etc. stores. But with an anemic deposit product line, we’re not sure why so much emphasis has been placed on brick-based deposit outlets.

 

Message Center

One of the more interesting things Juniper is trying to do is change how users go about doing their banking. Instead of dumping massive amounts of information on the user, Juniper has created a Message Center to tell users which things need attention, for example, a message to remind you to pay a bill or renew a CD. In our three weeks as a customer, the Message Center has been blank, save for a few generic marketing messages. So it’s hard to say if and when Juniper will deliver on this part of the vision. It’s surprising that they haven’t had one of its 250 employees pencil a two-sentence welcome message. It makes you wonder how customer-focused the bank truly is.

Grades

Concept/idea: A

Implementation (at least for new users): F

 

Message Center

Empty message center. Even though I’ve been a customer for 3 weeks, I’ve yet to receive a message.

 

 

Customized Alerts

Juniper has placed Customized Alerts on its main navigation bar. This is a good move, helping differentiate its service. Unfortunately, the service is not active yet. Our customer service “champion” told us it would be available early next year. Why Juniper would choose to focus attention on an innovative feature, without admitting it wasn’t available, is beyond us.

 

Grade

Concept: A

Execution: incomplete

 

 

Message Center

Account Summary and Online Statements

Here is another confusing aspect of Juniper’s interface; users can easily view transaction information by clicking on an account from the account list (lower left-hand corner). But new users will probably click on View Statements instead. View Statements is a clunky PDF file of the user’s actual paper statement, a slow and inconvenient process. The bank needs to redesign its navigation to help users avoid the PDF option. Speed is they key to satisfied users.

Grade

C- (but could easily be an A with better navigation)

 

Transaction Detail

To view transaction details, users select an account from the list in the lower left. Account detail is then displayed in the large window in the right

 Account alerts have yet to go live, so we couldn’t test them in action. But from the promotional material in the demo and sprinkled about its Web, they look to be one of the most advanced implementations on the Net. But the bank is negligent in not disclosing that the alerts are not yet available. 

two-thirds of the screen. Users can select how many months of transaction detail they want displayed.

 

 

 

Customer Service Options

Juniper leaves no stone unturned in customer service. Users are invited to interact with the bank via phone, email, private (online) chat, call me (Juniper calls the number you leave at the time you request), and mail (just to fill up the page).

 

 

Customer Service

Customer service options are thorough with phone, email, chat, and call-me options. Email responses are promised within 24 hours – not particularly impressive, but at least they dare to make a service guarantee. In our tests, only 5 of 7 questions received an answer, a 71% answer rate. Of the five that were answered, the average response time was about 3.5 hours. The quickest response was 1.1 hours, the longest was just under 7 hours (see Table on next page). Account-related emails are driven through a form with drop-down boxes for message topic and account reference. All answers are sent via Internet email and are not being posted on the Juniper site. While email service is adequate, it could be improved with the following changes:

• Send an autoresponse on Web-form submissions: The bank sends an autoresponse on non-account-related questions sent via Internet email, but Juniper should also send an autoresponse to account-related questions sent via the Web form, the cost is trivial.
• Provide an archive of all customer questions and answers: Once you press submit on the account-related query form, you have no record or confirmation of your question (installing an autoresponse would help greatly). The bank does include a copy of your question when they respond, but until that time you have no way of referring back to what you asked. The bank should archive questions sent to customer service and the answers. The Message Center, which currently has no integration with customer service, would seem the logical place to store questions.
• Encourage service reps to probe further: Juniper should encourage service reps to solve customer problems rather than just diagnosing them. It’s like going to the doctor and finding out the reason for the chest pains is a constricted artery, but then being shooed out the door without discussing what to do about it.
• Improve email response time: Committing to a 24-hour turnaround time is a good start, but it’s far too long for a cutting-edge bank. Juniper should be thinking in terms of minutes (at least during normal business hours) rather than hours. It doesn’t have to be guaranteed, but the bank could say for example, “We’ll usually get back to you within 90 minutes for questions submitted between the hours of 7 AM to 7 PM and within 12 hours for questions coming in after hours. If we can’t find an answer within those time frames, we’ll let you know exactly when you should expect an answer.”

Grade

Options: A

Email Tests: B

 

Results of Test Customer Service Inquiries

Source: Online Banking Report tests, 12/00

 

Customer Service: Call Me Option

Call Me option includes choice for a call back in 5 minutes, 20 minutes, or 1 hour.

 

Sample Customer Service Email Answer

response to message #4, a followup to an earlier question

Subject:   Re: Application Status (KMM14432C0KM)

   Date:    Wed, 27 Dec 2000 21:37:54 -0500

   From:   Juniper Customer Service  Correspondence@mail.juniper.com

     To:     Jim Bruene  jim@netbanker.com

Dear Mr. Bruene,

Thank you for your recent e-mail.

Our Credit Department has left for the evening, they would be able to advise on the verification process for using a business address.  The Credit Departments hours are 8:00am to 6:00pm Eastern Monday - Friday; their number is 1-866-408-4064. 

Your patience has been greatly appreciated.

Sincerely,

Susan Neal

Relationship Manager

Juniper Bank.  Now you have a champion.

Juniper Bank, a Division of Columbus Bank & Trust Company, Member FDIC

Original Message Follows:

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

I might have used my business address when I signed up. If so can I send some other type of address verification (other than mortgage or utility statement)? I prefer to have the banking statement going there.

Jim Bruene

___________________________________________

Juniper Bank.  Now you have a champion.

Visit us at www.Juniper.com  and apply today!

 

Source: Juniper Bank, 12/27/00

This response to my question (see bottom of message) is typical. The response was prompt and helped me move forward, but why didn’t they simply forward my question to the appropriate department for an answer? Even though I had approached Juniper via email, I was instructed to make a phone call to learn about Juniper’s rules for address verification. You would have to be an unusually motivated prospective customer to do this much work to set up an account.

Summary

Despite numerous flaws, Juniper earns our final Best of the Web 2000 because we like Juniper’s strategy – a lot. It comes closest to our vision of a truly virtual bank by focusing on the credit card as the core account vehicle instead of checking . The way they slipped a $25,000 credit card into our hands when we didn’t even ask for one, was very slick. Listening to Dick Vague, we get the sense that Juniper will be the ultimate consumer company, along the lines of AT&T Universal Card with its wildly popular free-for-life card in the late 80’s.

However, when you peek under the covers, Juniper is making many of the same mistakes we’ve seen over the years at other online banks. Because the bank is new, a glitch or two can be overlooked, but given our account hassles, we really wonder if the bank was ready to open. From our anecdotal experience, we’d say they are still in a late-stage beta mode. Their customers would be much more tolerant if Juniper admitted this up front. 

The bank is probably trying to do too many things too quickly. For example, it could have held off on Wireless Access and eWallets that can be a nightmare to setup and appeal to only a small subset of techies. Also, the emphasis on Mail Boxes Etc./UPS deposit taking seems misguided. If the bank is concentrating on credit cards and bill payment, why does it make such a big fuss about taking deposits at Mail Boxes Etc.? Why not hold off on these expensive deposit-acceptance options until they’ve got the kinks worked out of their system?

The bank probably felt pressure to drop a credit card mailing into the pre-holiday, credit card buying frenzy, so they went live a bit prematurely. Given the size of their employee base and funding, we expect they’ll be able to fix many of the glitches rather quickly. But if they are counting on their first wave of customers to spread the Juniper gospel, they may be disappointed. Even more troubling, there seems to be an underlying lack of attention to what customers really want from their online bank: a speedy Web site, good email support, and simple navigation.

Here is the opening screen at Juniper Bank, a browser check. A strange way to use $100+ million of venture capital.

 

After months of buildup, Juniper Financial (Wilmington, DE) launched pretty much on schedule, Oct. 31. Although its Web site is unpolished in a number of respects, our initial review rates it one of the best efforts in cyberspace. We especially like the ATM finder that helps users find a nearby ATM that accepts Juniper deposits. In our North Seattle neighborhood, several choices came up, all within a few blocks. The UPS connection for overnight deposits is also done well.

Deposit locator buttons
on home page.

On the downside, the site launched with an extremely odd and undesirable feature: a browser check before “allowing” users access to the home page which runs in secure mode. This gatekeeping is an extremely non-user-friendly feature, and it makes one question the overall Web-savviness of the company. We’ll have a full review in an upcoming issue.

Table 8

Launch Monitor

number of Net-only brands launched by year

Year	Number	Cumulative
2000 YTD	19	43
1999	17	24
1998	3	7
1997	1	4
1996	2	3
1995	1	1
Total Launched	43
Merged/Shuttered	1
Active	42
Announced, not launched	8
Active + Announced	50

Source: Online Banking Report, 11/20/00

 

X.com drops banking but begins paying interest on PayPal deposits

Last month we reported on X.com’s decision to drop banking services to focus fully on its popular PayPal payment service . It turns out X.com isn’t totally turning its back on banking. At the same time it announced the closure of its full-service banking operation, the company added a money market option that paying 5.2% interest on balances held in PayPal accounts. To begin earning interest, users simply have to provide their social security number to X.com to meet IRS withholding rules.

Since X.com offers payment capabilities and interest on deposits (sounds a lot like a checking account), we’ll continue to classify the company as a Net-only bank, albeit a specialized one. OneCore is the other Net-only “bank” on our list that doesn’t actually have a bank charter.¹

¹Also, NextCard has a credit-card-only charter; Juniper Bank doesn’t have its own charter, its using Columbus Bank and Trust for banking services.

 

Table 9
Web Traffic at the Nine Busiest Net-Only Banks

thousands of unique users¹ by month

Source: PC Data Online <pcdataonline.com>, 11/15/00

n.m. – not measured

¹Unique users as measured by PC Data’s 100,000+ member panel

²Includes PayPal.com

³Includes some duplicate (non-unique) users across different companies

⁴Only 9 Net-only banks had more than 108,000 unique visitors in October, the minimum traffic level to be measured by PC Data that month

 

Web Traffic

October traffic at the nine busiest Net-only banks increased 11% to 19.2 million (see Table 9 above). X.com and NextCard continued to battle for the top position, with X.com hitting number one again with growth of 1.9 million unique users in October.  X.com/PayPal was the 55th most popular Web site in October reaching 9.7% of U.S. Internet users. During the month, each user viewed 47.2 pages and spent just under 32 minutes at the site. Total page views were 407 million.

NextCard increased its user base by 1.4 million in October to 6.6 million users, the 76th busiest Web site. However, its users were less active, viewing 12 pages on average, and spending only 6.5 minutes at the site.

BankDirect was the big loser of the month dropping 78% to 150,000 unique users, its lowest total since May. NetBank also declined by almost a half-million unique users (27%), but still drew more than 1.2 million, double its May-to-August average.

PayPal announces that users now have the option of receiving money-market returns on balances held in any PayPal account.