iStock illustration
American bank customers feel like their financial situation is getting more and more precarious according to a new survey by consultancy J.D. Power.
The survey’s authors argue the results mean retail banks “need to start addressing how to help customers navigate their current troubles without compromising their future financial goals.”
Nearly half of respondents to J.D. Power’s monthly customer sentiment survey reported that they felt financially “vulnerable” in September, up from only 34 percent one year ago. Meanwhile, the share of customers who reported feeling financially “healthy” fell from 42 percent to 29 percent.
A total of 10 percent of respondents in September’s survey said they don’t have an emergency savings account, including 21 percent of those who felt financially “vulnerable” and 12 percent of those who felt “stressed,” a significant difference from the 2 percent of those who felt financially “healthy” and the 3 percent of respondents who felt “overextended.”
At the same time, J.D. Power’s survey found that customer satisfaction with their current financial condition is at its lowest point in the last 12 months, having fallen steadily from a peak in mid-April.
In a report about the findings, J.D. Power called these customer confidence levels “troublingly low” and note that they come at a time when 28 percent of survey respondents said they had withdrawn money from their emergency savings account in the last 90 days to pay basic expenses like gas, food and rent, and another 12 percent said they had withdrawn money for non-emergency expenses like a vacation, suggesting that bank customers don’t view these accounts as long-term savings vehicles.
At the same time, 36 percent said they had transferred money into their emergency savings account in the past 90 days and 30 percent had checked the interest earned on the account.
With 44 percent of respondents saying they keep their savings in a savings or high-yield account at their primary bank, J.D. Power argued that banks have an opportunity to market high-yield products to customers with emergency savings accounts to help them build their balances and stave off further rate-shopping. The survey found that 23 percent of respondents said they kept their savings with a secondary bank or an online-only bank.
Banks have another opportunity to ingratiate themselves with customers by offering tools and advice for their retail customers’ short- and long-term financial futures, J.D. Power’s authors wrote.
“This month’s data illustrate how harsh economic conditions can linger for months long after the initial crisis is over. While most analysts see inflation and its corresponding complications as an issue of the past, many banking customers in the U.S. are still grappling with the aftereffects,” the report’s authors wrote. “As customers look to move forward and try to find ways to safeguard against another bout of turbulence in the future, they are turning their eyes towards savings and how to best optimize these funds when they’re still trying to dig themselves out of a hole.”
