As a professional in the consumer banking space, customer retention is something that should be keeping you up at night. It is extremely difficult to solve for but critically important to success. Banking has become somewhat of a commodity in today’s world with most banks and credit unions offering very similar core products and services distinguished simply by who offers the lowest rate or best rewards.. That means differentiation has to come from offering something of value beyond core products & services. Credit score-related solutions are an often undervalued and overlooked strategy when it comes to customer experience and digital engagement.
Let’s start with the obvious – there are many benefits to the consumer when it comes to consistently monitoring credit.
The most prevalent reason is fraud detection. According to the Federal Trade Commission, American consumers lost more than $5.8 billion to fraud in 2021, which was a 70% increase over 2020. Consumers who monitor their credit are more likely to uncover and recover more quickly. Another, maybe less obvious reason to monitor credit scores is that errors are not as uncommon as consumers think when it comes to credit reports. According to a 2021 Consumer Report investigation, more than a third of consumers who participated in a voluntary credit report check found errors. And of course actively monitoring credit scores can lead directly to cost savings.
Additionally, active monitoring can lead to significant improvements in score. Research conducted by credit score solutions provider SavvyMoney found that consumers who monitor their credit data see strong improvements in their credit scores. Across all score ranges (except the 750-850 range), there was a 30% improvement in six months and a 39% improvement in 12 months. In the 300-649 score range, the improvements were even more dramatic: 32% in six months and 41% in 12 months. Score improvements lead directly to cost savings. According to a study from LendingTree,* borrowers in the “fair” credit range (scores between 580 and 669), could end up paying over twice as much interest on personal, auto, and student loans, and 97% more on their credit cards than those in higher ranges.
Despite these clear benefits, not all consumers monitor their credit scores. In fact, only ⅓ of Americans actually do. A big reason for this is that many consumers are hesitant to provide personal information to an unfamiliar third-party. That’s why 75% of consumers indicated they want to be able to check their credit score from inside their trusted financial institution, according to a SavvyMoney survey done among its bank and credit union partners.
Now comes the interesting part. While real-time credit score access meets a growing demand from the market and offers clear benefits for consumers, delivering this access creates significant value to the financial institution itself. Let’s dig in.
- Real-time access to credit scores enable consumers to better their financial well-being, making them more valuable to you as customers.
- Personalized offers and content build trust with your customers and make digital interactions more meaningful. Plus, choosing a partner like SavvyMoney that offers more than just a credit score product; a proven partnership can lead to even greater results.
- Credit data and customer share of wallet insights surface low hanging opportunities to drive cross-sell and achieve profitable loan growth.
- Well-integrated marketing and digital engagement tools seamlessly transform data and insights into personalized offers that will engage your customers.
- Adding a real-time credit score to the digital banking experience will drive engagement, leading directly to an uptick in a wide variety of products and services.
Offering credit score access and monitoring as part of your digital experience is a win for your customers, a win for your lending team, and a win for your financial institution. That means if you have not solved for this yet, you should definitely start looking into a solution. Consider partnering with SavvyMoney, the trusted leader in credit score solutions. Its robust credit-score solutions — backed by our hands-on service — empower banks and credit unions with the interactive digital experiences, marketing tools, and real-time analytics to strengthen and deepen their customer relationships.