©Credit Reporting Agency Limited 2012

2012 Banking and Credit Card Survey

©Credit Reporting Agency Limited 2012

About Credit Reporting Agency

Credit Reporting Agency is the UK’s first internet based credit reference agency, aimed firmly at serving

consumers, rather than business users. It leads the UK market in the provision of online credit file based

services and provides consumers with easy access to information on three websites:

checkmyfile was first in the UK:

- to provide consumers with online access to their credit files;

- to offer consumers the ability to check their own credit score for free and to give plain English explanations of

how credit scoring works.

givemecredit was first in the UK:

- to match lenders to consumer credit ratings for free, using credit scores, to help consumers find the

cheapest deals and to reduce the risks of being declined;

- to publish fully independent reviews of credit card and loan lenders based on expert evaluation and

consumer feedback of customer service experience.

annualcreditreport.co.uk was first in the UK:

- to provide free annual credit reports to consumers to encourage more to check the quality of the

information held about them, and to guard against the increasing threat of identity theft;

- to provide free identity theft prevention services.

About this survey

Each year since 2005, Credit Reporting Agency has asked its customers to rate their bank or credit card

company.

Respondents are incentivised by an invitation to enter a prize draw. This year’s randomly selected winner

received an Apple iPad 2.

Credit Reporting Agency uses the results to ensure that when suggesting financial institutions to its customers

on any of its websites, it can give a consumer focussed assessment of the service levels likely to be provided.

By using credit scoring, it also ensures that applicants are matched to lenders who are most likely to say yes, so

the risks of being declined are minimised.

3,325 people took part in this survey. Responses were processed using surveymonkey.com and analysed by

Credit Reporting Agency.

This analysis was published on 12 December 2012.

©Credit Reporting Agency Limited 2012

Summary of Survey Results

Some significant surprises emerged from this year’s survey, which fly in the face of the generally

misunderstood position regarding the ability to get credit in current market conditions and the general feeling

of financial wellbeing.

- Respondents are much more credit active than last year – with 37% making an application for new

credit compared to just 21% last year.

- Of those who applied for credit, fewer were declined. 71% were accepted this year, a figure that has

increased from 59% in 2010 and 68% in 2011.

- 75% of survey respondents said they were in a better or unchanged financial position in 2012, an

increase of 4% on 2011. The number of respondents who feel in a worse position has fallen from 32%

to 20%.

- One third of respondents say that their current goal is to pay off debt, almost one-third have no

particular financial goal set, and of the remaining third, most are looking to save towards a new car or

holiday, or are looking to improve their credit rating. Only 9% say they are looking for new mortgage

or loan finance.

First Direct has been rated the top bank and the top credit card company yet again, for the fifth consecutive

year as a bank, but has a relatively small market share – only 6% of the banking market, according to our

survey, and much less of the credit card market. First Direct and Co-operative Bank are head and shoulders

above all other banks in terms of customer satisfaction, according to our survey respondents, but despite this

our survey shows that many respondents remain with their current bank regardless of the level of customer

service offered.

In credit cards, American Express retains its second position in the customer satisfaction table for the second

year running and is the most consistent performer of all cards throughout the seven years that we have

conducted our surveys. Tesco has now moved up to the third most-used credit card, ranking behind

Barclaycard and Capital One. Cashback and rewards remain amongst the largest drivers for credit card

preference.