Change Sciences Research Shows Who Makes It Easy to Apply for a Credit Card Online.

Business Editors

IRVINGTON, N.Y.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 5, 2003

Change Sciences Group, Inc. released its new report covering the online credit card industry today showing who's making it easy to apply online and who's not. Consumers are looking for a good card deal and a painless application process. Some sites do better than others at making it easy to get both.

Over nine million U.S. consumers have applied for credit cards online. Recent forecasts indicate that more than 50 percent of all credit cards will be obtained exclusively through an online channel in the next year. As customers use the Web to shop and apply for credit cards, credit card providers face the challenge of presenting options clearly and making the application process simple. "Making it easy for consumers to learn about card options and choose a card that meets their needs is key. Some sites are good at this, and some are very poor," said Steve Ellis, Change Sciences founder and partner, and one of the authors of the report.

If you're thinking about shopping around for a card, and don't want spend a lot of time on a poorly designed web site, Discover is your best bet overall. The sites from best to worst follow:

    1. Discover
    2. National City
    3. Chase
    4. Fleet
    5. Bank of America
    6. First USA
    7. Capital One
    8. MBNA
    9. Citibank
   10. American Express

For more information on this and other Change Sciences research please visit: http://www.changesciences.com/research.html

Change Sciences Usability Benchmarks are based on its Typifi(TM) benchmarking process. Typifi allows for the empirical comparison of sites across more than 30 usability metrics. Using the Typifi process, site owners can see how their site compares with competitors, as a customer would use it, thought-by-thought and keystroke-by-keystroke. Sites that are easy to use attract and retain more customers and project a positive brand image.

Change Sciences was founded in January of 2000 with the idea that companies can optimize key business processes by basing decisions about technological change in how people use technology while they live, work and play.