Beyond free checking: new strategies for differentiating your bank.

How do you differentiate your free-checking product in a market where every competitor also has free checking? One option might be to offer a free credit report monitoring service to go with the checking product, according to a new report from Synergistics Research Corp., Atlanta.

In a national telephone survey conducted earlier this year with 1,000 consumers age 18 or older, researchers tested reactions to a number of innovative and value-added tactics for checking accounts, including affinity programs, reward programs and fraud protection services. The potential for cross-selling was also measured.

The study showed that the majority of respondents would be either "likely" or "very likely" to open a checking package in order to receive free credit reporting monitoring service. Sixty-nine percent of the consumers reported that they did not currently have a credit report service.

"In a time when issues of privacy and account security are very much in the public consciousness, providing free credit report monitoring may very well be an attractive incentive to customers to expand their relationships with their checking provider," says William McCracken, CEO of the research company.

The study is entitled, "Strategies for Differentiating Checking Accounts." www.synergisticresearch.com