The best and worst online credit card services

A report released today recognized Discover, American Express and Chase as having the best online customer experience.  Discover earned praise for having high customer satisfaction with rates and fees and for being the easiest card to apply for online.  American Express earned points for being "trustworthy" and Chase was commended for customer service. Click here to download the full PDF report by the Keynote Systems.

Do you agree with these rankings? I am an American Express customer and do enjoy using their simple but effective website. What are the worst internet banking and credit card services out there? Share your picks for the best and worst online banking services in the comments section below.

Comments

[Emma]

Well, we don't have credit cards, but we did choose our bank by their website. It was important for us to have a bank with online banking capabilities and ease-of-use. We currently monitor our checking, savings and my business account online and can make transfers online from one account to the other in a matter of seconds.

I do frequent credit card company sites for rates and benefits as a means of gathering information. While I don't expect to need or apply for a card, I think some sites are nicer than others in regards to user-friendly and intuitive interfaces. But hey, I'm a graphic designer, that's what I do. :)

[LizS]

Capital One disappoints me. You can make payments online but cannot schedule them in the future, like you can with Chase. When you do an online payment, it happens that day or the next day. If I want to schedule it, say, for my payday, I'll have to come back the night before or the day of my payday.

[EmilyPeters]

Thanks for the tip, Liz. Capital One certainly does seem to have a lot of customer service issues. Their policy of not reporting credit card limits really bothers a lot of people.

[LizS]

I was actually going to talk the Capital One available credit disclosure issues on my blog, added together with info on how creditors don't always update your credit report for fear that you'll defect, especially for people with borderline credit. I'll credit you for the find. I even went back to my credit reports to confirm it and sure enough, the Capital One thing has been going on for years.

[G E Englund]

Capital One's business site doesn't let me save more than one checking account. I use it in connection with two business checking accounts and have to retype everything when I pay out of the other account. Very annoying. Bank of America doesn't have that issue. I also like the sitekey for security on Bank of America's site.

[EmilyPeters]

Liz - There's a great article about the Capital One issue online here that you should read - http://www.credit.com/credit_information/credit_cards/The-Case-of-the-Disappearing-Credit-Limits.jsp

GE - I hadn't heard that about their business website. Thanks for the tip!

[MH]

Bank of America is one of the slowest online banking sites I have ever experienced. In fact it is the single slowest site I have ever seen online other than loading up a 10 min clip on Youtube. It takes, on average, about 1 hr and 40 min just to check on my checking account, and even longer after midnight. The backlog appears to be at a website called onlineeast2.bankofamerica.com and I do not live in the East. Why don't they have multiple access sites to account information? It is even worse when they tell you that your account has been locked out because someone has tried multiple times to get into your site or tells you that it cannot recognize you when you enter your site key and have to reconnect to their site and start all over (because you know the site key is correct), or they tell you that you have timed out when you have spent 99% of the hour waiting for their pages to load. When they tell you your account has been locked, they say that you will be sent a security code to enter which will expire in 30 min after they send it to you. Worse yet, it might get sent to you about 4 hours later and you have to guess when they are going to send it to you. Otherwise you have to repeat the whole process and long wait all over again. The shortest time I have spent trying to get to my bank account when they tell me that my account has been locked out, is 6 hours, and of course with dialup (70% of the country is still on this because broadband is not available or is too expensive), you cannot do anything else on the internet while you wait for the pages to load up. This is true for any of their banking services, like transfers, bill-paying, credit card services, etc. It would take far less time for me to do anything with this bank if I were to drive to a branch 26 miles away and talk to the teller, but then I must do this during banker's hours.

[Screwedbycitibank]

I've read many rankings of credit card companies, but they tend not to pay special attention to how credit card companies handle disputes and problems. I used Citibank for years and thought they were great, until I was the victim of an internet scam. I purchased a range for my home that was delivered damaged. The vendor claimed that they would replace it and they had UPS pick it up, but then the new one never seemed to arrive. I was on the phone with the vendor every week for months and they kept promising me that the new item was on its way. A short internet search later confirmed my suspicions. There was a whole website devoted to unmasking the vendor who scoops up broken merchandise, sells it cheap and then makes it money on delivery charges. After two months, I called citibank. At first, they were very nice and put the money back on my card. But after the vendor sent a letter, suggesting that I returned the merchandise because I had changed my mind about the purchase, not because it was broken, Citi changed their ruling and charged me. I tried to appeal the decision by writing a letter. Citibank sent back a terse two sentence reply explaining that their decision was final, but not responding to my concerns or even answering my request for clarification about their dispute policies. I called but found that I had been labelled as a crazy, trouble maker by the customer service people. Nobody I spoke to had the authority or intention of revisiting the decision or explaining their policies on disputes or protecting customers from fraud. Their job was to manage disgruntled customers, mostly through sarcasm. I was out a couple hundred bucks on an item I do not have in my possession. I cancelled my citi card and have been very happy with Chase.