Ethoca, a Mastercard company, has announced the release of new research that reveals cardholders have an elevated desire for digital solutions which provide greater insight into their transactions.
The research emphasised 72% of consumers engage with their financial service providers’ website or mobile application at least once a month. It underlines that the digital channel remains a critical avenue between them and their issuer – one that cardholders expect more from when it comes to information available on-demand.
These digital solutions will improve the customer experience as well as reduce disputes, chargebacks and false claims by delivering in-depth purchase information direct to cardholders through digital channels such as mobile banking applications.
Furthermore, 96% of surveyed consumers expressed a preference for having more detailed transaction information available to provide increased clarity.
Keith Briscoe, Chief Marketing & Product Officer at Ethoca commented: “Ethoca’s collaboration with Aite on this critical research report validates what Ethoca has been hearing from card issuers and merchants for some time – that false claims from confusing or scant transaction information are creating a poor customer experience and driving up dispute processing costs.
“This is the key reason why Ethoca has been laser-focused on solving this problem over the last several years with digital receipts and transaction enrichment products. We are continuing to collaborate closely with the largest digital goods providers, retail brands and card issuers globally to ensure every consumer has clarity on the purchases they make through their trusted banking relationships.”
With greater digital dependency, having real-time purchase details is critical for consumers, merchants and card issuers alike. These features not only improve the overall experience for cardholders – who no longer need to hunt for this information – but they can effectively reduce incidents of false claims where a cardholder files a dispute unintentionally.
False claims are a significant and growing problem for all stakeholders in the payments ecosystem. For digital goods merchants, rates can reach upwards of 80% and higher. One of the most common reasons: transaction confusion. Cardholders reviewing their online statements often have trouble deciphering the brief, unclear descriptions that accompany each transaction, or they mistake genuine transactions made by other members of their household for fraud. This uncertainty often leads cardholders to contact their card issuer to dispute unrecognised transactions.
Julie Conroy, research director with Aite Group added: “This study provides timely insights for card issuers, since consumers’ reliance on digital channels has dramatically increased in the wake of the pandemic. It is more important than ever for issuers to be able to facilitate user-friendly self-service capabilities. The provision of detailed transaction information in the digital channels and call center is an important underpinning of any digital dispute capability.”
For more details on how consumers can best navigate billing disputes in the COVID-19 era, visit the Mastercard Content Exchange.
