Credit Card Mailings to Fall 20%: Synovate
US households will have received approximately 4.2 billion direct mail offers for new credit cards during all of 2008, a 20% decrease from 5.2 billion offers last year, projected market research company Synovate.
Households with incomes under $50,000 will receive about 700,000 fewer offers in 2008 compared to 2007. These households account for the majority of the cutback and clearly indicate a major change in strategy by card issuers, Synovate noted.
“The souring economy and industry consolidation have driven volumes down to levels not seen since 2003,” said Andrew Davidson, vice president of competitive tracking services for Synovate’s financial services group. “Card issuers are taking a more cautious approach, with lower income and high risk households receiving fewer offers or no offers at all.”
The card issuers that cut back solicitations the most in the third quarter were HSBC (-70%), Bank of America (-44%) and Citibank (-40%), according to Synovate.
Despite this decline, household credit lines across all cards edged up to an average of $27,626 per household so far this year, from $26,902 in 2007 despite evidence that issuers are cutting credit lines on certain customers, continued Synovate.
“Much has been reported about issuers reducing credit lines for certain customers but this is not the case for the majority of people,” noted Davidson. “Across the industry as a whole, we continue to see credit access and usage at record high levels.”
