JD Power’s recent survey indicates that Discover Card is back in the U.S. market in a large way. The issuer’s website compares the Discover it® Business Credit Card to Capital One’s Spark Cash Select for Business, Chase’s Ink Business Unlimited Card, Bank of America Cash’s Rewards for Business Mastercard, and U.S. Bank’s Business Edge Cash Rewards Card.
A comparative chart at the issuer’s side indicates on par performance for the five cards in several categories: No annual fee, Unlimited Cash Back, $0 fraud liability, Non-expiring points, and integration with QuickBooks, Quicken, or Excel.
Discover cites several features that are not commonly offered by the four other cards in their comparison. This includes first-year reward match, any-time point redemption, first-time late fee waiver, and free FICO credit score.
Other features, which some in the comparison group share, are no redemption minimum, Account Freeze, free overnight card replacement, and no negative impact on APR if the account falls delinquent.
The recent J.D. Power 2019 U.S. Small Business Credit Card Satisfaction Study shows “business customers are twice as likely as their consumer counterparts to switch to another brand of card. They also give issuers relatively low marks for rewards, benefits, and services.
The survey uses six parameters:
- Channel activities
- Benefits and services
- Credit card management
- Credit card terms
- Rewards
- Key moments
Key findings, according to the press release, are:
Small business credit cards get high marks for customer satisfaction: Overall satisfaction among small business credit card customers is 849 (on a 1,000-point scale), which is 43 points higher than among the general consumer credit card population. Small business cards also earn significantly higher Net Promoter Scores® than their consumer counterparts.
High rates of digital and mobile interaction among business customers: More than three-fourths (80%) of small business customers have interacted with their business credit card issuer’s website in the past three months, and 69% have interacted via mobile, both of which are significantly more frequent than interactions by consumer credit card customers. Small business customers also have high satisfaction with their website and mobile experiences (876 and 869, respectively). By contrast, satisfaction with phone-based customer service is 851.
Room for improvement on benefits and services: The areas where business credit card issuers are falling short are credit card terms; rewards, and benefits and services. While credit card terms—the factor associated with rates, fees, and credit limits—might be expected to draw less consumer attention, a lack of interest in rewards and benefits should be cause for concern. Small business credit card customers are twice as likely as consumer credit card customers to switch cards (8.3% vs. 3.1%, respectively, saying they “definitely will” switch), making retention and new customer acquisition essential ingredients in the small business credit card mix.
In the survey, Discover landed at the top of the pack:
Discover ranks highest in customer satisfaction among national issuers, with a score of 878. American Express (862) ranks second and Bank of America (853) ranks third.
Overview provided by Brian Riley, Director, Credit Advisory Service, Mercator Advisory Group
