Credit Card Deals In The Mail Drying Up

For many American consumers, one of the most annoying facts of life that they have to deal with is the large amount of unwanted mail that they get almost daily. Well, according to Mintel Comperemedia, one particular group of mail is fast drying up: credit card offers.

Mintel Comperemedia is a company that has been providing insight into worldwide trends for more than 35 years by tracking activities such as consumer targeted direct marketing. The company provides perspective on trends such as banking and credit card statistics. According to their recent research, it seems that credit card offers in the mail are fast drying up. Not only are consumers getting fewer credit card offers in the mail, the ones that they are getting are becoming less and less desirable as well, says Mintel.

For consumers, this is very worrying news. With lesser credit card offers, consumers have fewer options for what credit cards to get. Given the current economy and the state of the credit card industry, the loss of credit flexibility can be very damaging for the financial stability of consumers. With bad credit card offers filling up the mail, when consumers choose one credit card line, chances are the deal they are getting isn’t very advantageous either.

Mintel Comperemedia SVP Andrew Davidson said, “Credit card issuers are cautiously navigating CARD regulations. In addition to adjusting their direct marketing strategy by sending less mail, they’re raising rates and fees on existing and new cards. The credit card offers we see today are undeniably less attractive than they were one year or even six months ago”.

Mintel Comperemedia’s figures show that, for the third quarter of this year, 2009, credit card companies sent 391 million direct mail marketing offers to American consumers. The figures are a bit misleading. Consider that, during the same quarter last 2008, direct mail marketing offers numbered at 1.3 billion. That’s a difference of 71% in direct mail marketing offers in a span of one year. The estimated quarterly volume of direct mail also fell by 7% for the second wartier of 2009. A relatively low figure which may mean that the number of direct mail marketing offers credit card companies are sending have finally hit bottom.

According to Davidson, “The upcoming CARD Act regulations will eat into the credit card issuers’ revenue stream, so they’re looking for any legitimate means possible to recoup that income. This has led to whirlwind changes as issuers adapt and test new ways to bring in revenue. The CARD Act’s implementation in February will truly change the structure of the credit card industry for 2010 and beyond”.