Yesterday Twitter founder Jack Dorsey garnered a $200M valuation for his newest venture, Square, which aims to transform how people and merchants take payments. In lieu of this, we couldn’t pass up the opportunity to highlight some consumer payment data sent our way from Boston-based PerkStreet Financial. The data is the result of a recent survey they conducted — and the company is using it to acquire more customers in 2011.
PerkStreet is an online-only bank, providing checking accounts and debit cards. The virtual nature of PerkStreet means they have lower overhead, and can thereby pass on better rewards to their customers. (Think ING, but for checking accounts instead of savings accounts.) They’re also operating in a growing space, with debit capturing a larger share of wallet – a shift happening well before the recession hit.
In their survey, PerkStreet asked 500 respondents about their New Year’s resolutions. Coming in as the most mentioned resolution (respondents could mention more than one) with over half of respondents noting it, was to “get out of debt or save more money.” Boston-based Fidelity Investments echoed this data point in mid-December, noting an increase in Americans considering financial resolutions this year (42 percent vs. 35 percent last year).
These stats alone bode great for PerkStreet’s outlook in 2011, but they didn’t let the #2 and #3 most mentioned resolutions fall deaf on ear. In fact, they’re tailoring rewards exactly to these resolutions – resolutions to “exercise more” (41 percent) and “spend time relaxing or having fun with family and friends” (29 percent).
“We’ve begun offering rolling 5% PowerPerk categories each month to our customers at PerkStreet Financial. Next month, we’re offering PowerPerks on gym memberships, popular weight loss programs and tax preparation services,” shared CEO Dan O’Malley in a press release last night. “Based on the data from this survey and the fact that PerkStreet offers a debit card that helps people battle debt and save money, PerkStreet will be catering to the goals of over 80 percent of the Americans during January. These PowerPerks are available to all of our current customers each and every month.”
Other stats from the survey PerkStreet conducted include that a majority (83 percent) expect their financial situations to be the same or better in 2011. And as far as PerkStreet’s market, the survey revealed that of the 45 percent of people who plan to switch their primary payment method, 85 percent plan to switch away from credit to debit cards.
Do you have a PerkStreet account? Will these rewards help you keep your New Years resolution?
