MBNA Europe Bank Ltd., a subsidiary of Bank of America Corp., has launched an online service to enable consumers in the United Kingdom to compare MBNA-branded credit cards, the UK-based issuer announced July 13.
The MBNA Credit Card Selector is free and available for use by anyone in the region, according to an MBNA spokesperson.
The selector enables consumers to compare MBNA’s 28 Visa and MasterCard credit cards and its affinity partner products, which include British football club cards and cards for charities such as the World Wildlife Fund, the spokesperson says.
When consumers visit the website, the service asks various questions, such as whether they prefer a card with a low balance-transfer rate or a low purchase interest rate. From there, it asks whether they would prefer to see MBNA’s most popular cards, rewards-based cards, charitable cards or football-related cards.
If they choose rewards, the service prompts them to pick whether they want a rewards-based card with redeemable points, cash back or travel-related rewards. It asks similar questions if they choose popular, charity or football-related cards.
“I applaud MBNA as the first issuer to start down this path. But at this stage, the selector is relatively simplistic,” Matt Simester, director of Auriemma Consulting Group in the United Kingdom, tells PaymentsSource.
The decision to launch this online service “echoes something that Auriemma has said, which is that generally across the market, issuers will start building cards based on consumer behavior,” he says.
However, many UK issuers will not be able to offer an online selection service like this because they do not have the same scope of cards as MBNA, Simester adds.
The challenge for MBNA is that, while the selector may work to increase customer loyalty, some consumers may look elsewhere, especially if the affinity cards are not with teams or charities they want to support, he surmises.
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