Forty percent of all offers for a new savings account came with an incentive, compared to 32% in 2011 and 24% in 2010, according to new research from Mintel Comperemedia. Cash incentives have been driven by the large national and regional banks, with the majority of banks now offering anywhere from $25 to $250 to new customers.
Most Americans, particularly women, are woefully underprepared for retirement, with four out of 10 women having less than $10,000 saved, and only 21 percent having more than $100,000 in all of their investment accounts, according to research from Mintel.
"Women nearing retirement age believe saving for retirement is very important, and women aged 25-44 are the most likely to rate saving for retirement as their top financial goal over the next year," says Susan Menke, VP and behavioral economist at Mintel. "While it may be too late for older women, research suggests that younger women are starting to save early and may not end up in the same predicament."
Credit card mail volume is down by 42 percent since this time last year, according to new research by Mintel Comperemedia.
Senior Vice President at Mintel Comperemedia Andrew Davidson notes: "The Federal Reserve recently committed to a new round of quantitative easing that will keep mortgage rates low until mid-2015. At the same time, demand for home loans has been improving and housing prices have been stabilizing in various regions across the country. The environment has prompted a number of lenders to ramp up their direct marketing efforts and Discover has entered the market to capitalize on the opportunity."
Chase and Citi, typically the biggest direct mailers in the credit-card industry, have scaled back their loan volume significantly in recent months, according to figures from Mintel Comperemedia, a marketing research firm. Their mail volume declined 85% and 52% year-over-year in August, respectively. At the same time, Discover's volume increased 33%.
Experts say that while issuers still compete for new customers, they remain cautious about the credit they extend and have sharply curbed the number of card offers they send to consumers' mailboxes, according to the market research firm Mintel Comperemedia.
In 2010 alone, Americans received 15.9 million offers for private label gas credit cards and 25.4 million offers for co-branded gas credit cards, according to Mintel Comperemedia, a marketing research firm based in Chicago. Some cards -- such as the Capital One No Hassle Cash Rewards Card and the TrueEarnings Card from Costco and American Express -- offer automatic redemption, while others require cardholders to jump through more hoops, says Lisa Hronek, research supervisor at Mintel Comperemedia.
With baby boomers entering their golden years, Mintel Comperemedia reports that direct mail marketing of SPIAs went through the roof in 2011, comprising 75 percent of all annuity acquisition direct mail to consumers last year, compared to 62 percent in 2007.
For example, banks have substantially cut back on mailing credit card offers to consumers, according to new research from Mintel, reducing the number of offers they send by nearly half since the summer of 2011.
In 2010, cash rewards for new checking account customers averaged $138, a 16% increase over 2009, according to Mintel Comperemedia, market research firm based in Chicago.
Card issuers are also continuing to pull back on the number of card offers they mail to consumers, according to research from Mintel Comperemedia. Credit card mailings dropped for the second month in a row in July, according to the financial services firm Credit Suisse, citing Mintel Comperemedia research, falling 12 percent from the previous month.
According to Mintel Comperemedia, banks have boosted direct mail shipments of “plain vanilla” credit card offers — i.e., cards with no annual fees or rewards. Such offers accounted for 30 percent of acquisition mail volume in Q4 2011, compared to just 13 percent in Q4 2010.
However, during the same period in 2011, the number of offers that consumers received in the second quarter hit 1,301 million, says Andrew Davidson, senior vice president at Mintel Comperemedia. "In 2012, card issuers have adopted a more cautious approach due to an uncertain economic environment," wrote Davidson in an email. "Citi and Chase who dominated the mailbox last year have cut back significantly along with issuers such as Bank of America and American Express."
"The most valuable customers are always the high income, high spend, high usage people," says Lisa Hronek, senior research analyst for Mintel Comperemedia. But issuers aren't just satisfied with getting customers to sign up. Their ideal goal is to become "top of wallet," or the customer's most used credit card, Hronek says.
