Customer satisfaction with credit card issuers declined this year as card issuers worked to meet consumers’ needs amid continued economic volatility, according to the J.D. Power 2021 Credit Card Satisfaction Study released today. Average satisfaction with national issuers was 805 on a scale of 1,000, down from 811 in 2020. Among midsize issuers, satisfaction declined 17 points to 796.
“While there are some bright spots this year among individual issuers, the pandemic really broke a multi-year trend of improving satisfaction,” said J.D. Power’s John Cabell. “Whether through blunt actions, such as tightening credit limits at the very moment when customers were most reliant on their cards as a source of short-term funding, or through lack of customer service accessibility, credit card issuers experienced declines in overall satisfaction.”
Increased financial stress, lack of responsiveness and misaligned terms and rewards have created a recipe for declining customer satisfaction with credit card issuers, J.D. Power said. On average, satisfaction scores were 141 points lower among customers that said they have an issue with credit limits than with those who said they have no issues.
American Express was the highest-ranked issuer with a score of 838, closely followed by Discover with a score of 837. Meanwhile, Goldman Sachs was the top-rated midsize issuer with a score of 864, followed by Pittsburgh-based PNC, BB&T (now Charlotte, North Carolina-based Truist Bank) and Columbus, Ohio-based Huntington, each with a score of 817.