How Not to Digitally Onboard Customers

Like so many other investors in today’s low interest rate environment, I recently went in search of a higher yield savings account — one that would offer me a higher annual percentage rate than I can achieve with my otherwise satisfying large bank relationship. I quickly developed a list of important attributes the account must offer:

• Competitive rates.
• A good digital CX.
• Compatibility with Mint, my PFM instrument of choice.

Simple enough. I wasn’t exactly looking for a needle in a haystack, so I expected that my quest would be easily satisfied. As you’d expect, I found a bevy of accounts from which to choose — from neobanks to established players, with a few basis points separating their rates. “Great!” I thought, as I mused over the options. Granted, while these rates represented an order of magnitude of rate advantage over my large-bank savings account, I didn’t have all that much cash to stash. That meant the tangible income I could reasonably expect wouldn’t be compelling. Yet I persisted.

Another account attribute I didn’t have on my original list then came to mind: ease of onboarding. Of course that's important to me, particularly since the effort wouldn’t result in thousands of dollars of incremental over the short term. That’s when one option came into razor-sharp focus. It was the banking arm of a major credit card company. Alas, that was the account for me! I thusly reasoned the following:

• I’ve been a credit card customer with them for decades, so onboarding will be a snap.
• Said company offers a killer mobile app, so it should nail my “good digital CX” quest.
• I know Mint compatibility is a given, since I’ve pulled the card accounts into Mint for years.
• Even better, since I’m already enrolled in said firm’s digital channels, I wouldn’t have to expose myself to yet another user name and password combination to manage. This seemed particularly attractive since passwords suck.

I was sold! So off I went, with the eager anticipation of a child at Christmas .. .