New
Study on Service Fees for Banks and Credit Unions Reveals How to
Balance Consumer Preferences with Price Sensitivity and Competitive
Offerings.
SAN
ANSELMO, Calif. (April 24, 2012) – Consumers are demanding more
value in exchange for service fees. Banks and credit unions need to
reduce the risks associated with fee choices and balance those
factors against the need for incremental income from services. In
response, Market Rates Insight, Inc. (MRI,
http://www.marketratesinsight.com),
a leader in pricing intelligence for deposits, personal loans,
mortgages, and fees, has created a unique research study designed to
reduce risks and uncertainty and help financial services avoid a
repeat of the failed debit-fee attempt, and to uncover value-added
services consumers want and are willing to pay for.
Traditionally,
decisions on service fees were based on a survey of the competitive
landscape. Such an approach is no longer valid due to the increased
risk associated with the uncertainty about consumers’ reaction to
changes in service fees. The newly designed Integrated Study by MRI
combines consumers’ preference and price sensitivity with
competitive landscape information for a more balanced approach to
decisions on service fees. This first-ever Integrated
Study helps financial executives reduce the risk of
poor decisions and increases the probability of generating
incremental income from services.
This
twice-annual Integrated Study is specifically designed to identify
new and innovative services that consumers value and are willing to
pay for. It is scheduled for release in the second quarter of this
year, and will specifically assess consumer preference and perceived
value for services such as credit score monitoring, identity theft
alerts, mobile banking services, personalized couponing services,
person-to-person payments, and other services. The Study will gauge
likelihood to use and willingness to buy mapped against demographic
data such as age, income, and gender. And the Study includes a review
of the same service categories compared to the top five U.S. banks
for competitive analyses.
“Financial
institutions can no longer afford the risk of arbitrarily deciding on
new services or fees,” said Dan Geller, Ph.D. Executive Vice
President of Market Rates Insight. “Poor service fee decisions can
be very costly in loss of customers, damage to reputation and now
involvement of the newly established Consumer Financial Protection
Bureau.”
The
first Integrated Study on Service Fees is scheduled for release in
May 2012. It is being offered as an integrated study across all seven
services, or as individual
studies on each of the seven service areas.
Individual studies will be available on credit score services,
identify theft protection, personalized couponing, prepaid reloadable
cards, overdraft protection, personal money transfer, and mobile
remote deposit capture. Each study features consumer research on
preferences and perceived value, as well as demographic segmentation.
For
more information, contact Market Rates Insight at
info@marketratesinsight.com.
About
Market Rates Insight
For
more than two decades, Market Rates Insight (MRI) has been helping
clients price with precision by providing banks, thrifts, credit
unions, and other financial institutions with comprehensive market
intelligence on deposits, loans, and fees. MRI uses deposit surveys,
mortgage and consumer loan surveys, fees and features studies, new
product alerts, benchmarking and market share analysis to give
subscribers the intelligence needed to strategically position
products, optimize pricing and react to emerging trends. MRI’s
products include web-enabled, customizable report programming,
proprietary product research tools, searchable databases, market
alerts, and online dashboards that aggregate key client data to
provide real-time interactive views on how they rank against their
specific competitors.
Market
Rates Insight is located in San Anselmo, California. For more
information, see http://www.marketratesinsight.com.
Photos
available upon request
For
additional information contact:
Tom
Woolf
Market
Rates Insight
(415)
259-5638
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