As we mentioned in our Bank Monitor Update (Corporate Insight subscription required) last week, Citizens Bank repackaged its fee-free Student Checking account into a new $3.99-per month Student Money Bundle. The new Student Money Bundle includes a basic checking account, as well as the chance to receive coupons on popular student items by registering through an external sitelet.

The bundle consists of the following new features:

·         Discounts on items such as food, books, electronics and entertainment. Students must create a profile at a Money Savings Discount Site to receive coupons – very convenient for discounts!

·         Coverage of up to $250 in cash to cover theft or damage to a cell phone if the cell phone bill is paid by the account’s debit card.

Student Banking is a crucial topic of discussion this time of year as every parent hopes that their child is financially responsible to be on their own and to handle a credit card.  A few other firms with notable package highlights for Students are:

·         Bank of America Student Banking Accounts 

o   Bank of America Debit Card with Total Security Protection package including the Photo Security Feature

o   Free Online Banking Service with Mobile Banking

·         Chase Student Center

o    Chase offers a free checking account to college student for up to 5 years

o   Free Debit Card with Zero Liability protection

o   Free Online Banking and Bill Pay

·         Wells Fargo College Combo

o   Interest rate discount on select student and automobile loans

o   Monthly service fee waived when the account is linked to Wells Fargo PMA Package or Wells Fargo Campus ATM or Campus Debit Card

o   Minimum opening deposit

As was recently reported on Bank System &Technology’s website, Bank of America is looking to introduce a new checking account that is fee-free to users, but fails to include teller access or hardcopy statements. Instead, holders of the new account will be expected to do their banking at ATMs and online, and to rely completely on electronic statements and other private site details for account information. For those users that open the account and then visit a teller or request a paper statement, an $8.95 maintenance fee is applied for that month. While this new B of A product can be seen as an example of banks trying to generate new revenue from account holders in the wake of coming restrictions on overdrafts and other fees, it might be better viewed as an account analogous to a Direct Savings Account. Continue Reading »

Firms have been hard at work through a blistering hot summer. A number of firms recently announced forthcoming site revamps and a number of credit card issuers revamped their rewards sites.

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PassWindow Inventor Matt Walker was recently quoted in the Wall Street Journal making a bold claim - that his new PassWindow card “essentially solves the Internet-fraud problem.” PassWindow looks like a credit card, but has a transparent window with a series of lines that can combine with fields displayed online to form numeric security codes. If implemented on financial services websites, the simple, award-winning device can verify both the user’s identity as well as the bona fides of the website, ensuring it is not a “spoof” set up by fraudsters to steal clients’ personal information and login credentials.

In the latest issue of our Consulting Insights newsletter, we discussed several emerging trends in combating online fraud. Continue Reading »

Summer is finally here, and credit card firms have added some new rewards programs to help defray the flight costs of summer travel. New retirement themed marketing campaigns were also introduced this June, and Merrill Lynch introduced a new site (Merrill Edge) with a focus on self-directed investing.

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“Mobile” has been on the minds of many this May, as a number of firms across our different Monitor coverage groups introduced or improved mobile features. 

Wells Fargo introduced a new set of account alerts that notify clients via SMS when an alert is triggered. Six new alerts were added, including alerts that inform customers if transactions occur outside the U.S., if charges were made at a gas pump, if a transaction exceeds a designated amount, if a transaction was declined. The new alert service is available only to customers who are enrolled in Online Banking. Similarly, Bank of America now allows customers to request their account balance, transaction history and customer service phone numbers via SMS. Chase and KeyBank provide similar text command capabilities. Continue Reading »

With financial issues on the minds of many investors during tax season, firms utilized the opportunity to promote new online retirement-focused ideas. April also brought with it Earth Day, and a few firms highlighted their various environmental incentives, especially electronic document delivery. Mobile was also once again a hot topic with Apple’s iPad taking center stage with one e-Monitor firm rolling out an iPad app. Continue Reading »

March was a busy month for the Corporate Insight tracked firms. Perhaps the most notable changes this month took place in the credit card space, as every firm in our Credit Card Monitor coverage group made announcements about changes relating to the CARD Act. Every firm posted notices alerting customers that their statements had been made available online. Additionally, several firms, including American Express, HSBC and U.S. Bank, either updated or announced updates to their monthly statements. HSBC also removed its Rush Payment service, which allowed customers to post same-day payments for a fee of $15. Prior to eliminating Rush Payment, HSBC had been the only Credit Card Monitor firm to charge customers for same-day online payments. Continue Reading »

For nearly a year and half, most Wachovia customers have been waiting patiently to see when and how the merger with Wells Fargo would affect them. For some customers, this process has been too slow, as seen in the comments sections of the Wells Fargo – Wachovia Blog. That said, it appears that there’s finally a light at the end of the tunnel.

Last week, Wachovia removed all its branded credit cards on the public site, and replaced them with Wells Fargo cards. As for existing card customers, on April 10, 2010, all Wachovia credit card accounts will officially be integrated into Wells Fargo, and aside from a site outage from April 9-11, service should be uninterrupted, as card numbers and rates will stay the same. It’s currently unclear if Wells Fargo will mail clients newly branded cards after the conversion, but clients can still use their old cards in the interim.  Continue Reading »

Following several months of new product releases, tools, and web promotions, the pace slowed across the industry this February. A few firms revamped their sites this month, and as the athletes took to the slopes in Vancouver, one firm promoted its 2010 Winter Olympics sponsorship online.

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