Hitwise Credit Card Report

Credit Cards: How the Credit Crisis Has Changed
the Way Consumers Search for Credit Cards
©2009 Experian Information Solutions, Inc. All rights reserved.Experian and the marks used herein are service marks or registered trademarks of Experian Information Solutions, Inc.
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or distributed in any form or manner without the prior written permission of Experian Information Solutions, Inc.Introduction
?Credit card companies have been amassing customers at a rapid rate over the past few
years. The credit crisis and recession forced firms to rethink their approach to customer
acq uisition.
?Several credit card issuers have recently changed policies regarding the types of
customers they will accept -looking for safer clients who are more able to pay off debt.
?Wit h the industry's customer acqu isition efforts in turmoil, Experian Hitwisedata provide
a timely source to help credit card companies and affiliates respond to these market
forc es. This presentation will help answer the following questions:

?What is the state of credit card comparison websites?
?What type of consumers are shopping around for credit cards?

?How do consumers search for credit cards and how is that changing?

?With credit markets tightening are more consumers seeking out store cards or

specialty cards?

©2009 Experian Information Solutions, Inc. All rights reserved.
2Credit Card Comparison
?Visits to a custom category of Credit Card Comparison websites* have been
declining steadily over the past two years, as illustrated in the chart below. Share of
US visits to Credit Card Comparison websites was down 41% year over year in
January and down 109% over the past two years.
?This may reflect a decrease in
demand for new cards as consumers
wat ch spending more closely.
?Hitwisedata also indicate a 41%
decrease in the rate of paid clicks to
Cre dit Card C omparison websites
comparing the four weeks to 2/13/10
to 2/14/09. This may indicate that
marketing spend decreased,
contributing to a category slowdown.
*Custom category includes 21 Credit Card Comparison
websites, including Credit Cards.com, Credit Card 321,
Credit.com, Bad Credit Offers, and CreditcardExpo.
©2009 Experian Information Solutions, Inc. All rights reserved.
3Younger Adults Shopping Around
?For those looking to acquire new customers, Hitwisedata indicate younger internet
users are more likely to be shopping around. There has been a 101% year over year
incr ease in the share of visits from 25-35 year olds to Cred it Card Comparison
websites (four weeks to 02/14/2009).
?25 to 34 year olds made up the largest share of visits to CreditCard Comparison
websites in the four weeks to 02/13/2010 with 26% of all visits to the category.


©2009 Experian Information Solutions, Inc. All rights reserved.
4Younger Adults Shopping Around
?Understanding the profile of visitors to credit card comparison websites provides a
window into the profile of those looking for credit cards but also helps firms make
mo re informed decisions about potential affiliate partners.
?Hitwisehas created a mini panel of wealthy
young consumers (those between the ages of 25
and 34 earni ng a household income of over
$100K).
?Analysis of search terms for this panel sending
visits to Business and Finance websites reveals
tha t the top non-branded credit card related
terms for this group were "secured credit cards"
and "apply for credit card"in the 22 weeks to
10/31/2009.

?Drilling down on the behaviorso f desirable
audience segments can help marketers fine tune
cam paigns and identify potential affiliate
partners.

©2009 Experian Information Solutions, Inc. All rights reserved.
5Rise in branded searches
?Hitwiseanalysis of credit card search queries reveals a steady increase in cred... [download for more]