WESTBURY, N.Y.—(BUSINESS WIRE)—Auriemma Consulting Group, recently conducted a consumer poll regarding favored attributes of credit card statements. This survey was conducted as part of Cardbeat^®, the firm’s monthly syndicated market research report.

Issuers can take heart that overall, cardholders nationwide appreciate their statements.

However, consumers younger than 25 are challenged to get information from their credit card statements. As age of the respondent increases, so does satisfaction with card statements. Retirees find the information on their credit card statements to be more accessible, on average, than younger consumers. For instance, 44.7 percent of respondents under the age of 25 said their credit card statements describe APR well vs. 75.8 percent of retirees.

“The greatest opportunity for statement improvement is in communicating the APR,” says Megan Bramlette, Cardbeat’s managing editor. “While consumers generally feel that their credit card statements are easy to read and provide them with critical account information, our survey showed that many feel that their APR is not clearly stated in their statements.“

Among the survey’s other findings:

• Those without college degrees find their statements more user friendly than those with more education.
• 72.4 percent of consumers who had not transferred a balance in the preceding 12 months rated statements as very easy to read whereas only 62.3 percent of those who had transferred balances said the same.
• Card users making four or more purchases a month rated summaries of monthly or annual usage lower than light users, with 67.1 percent of the former saying their statements provide clear summaries vs. 74.2 percent of the latter.
• Overall, respondents with non-prime credit profiles felt better served by statement communications than those with prime credit. For some attributes, the satisfaction difference between these groups was as much as 15 percentage points: 81.8 percent of non-prime cardholders rated their issuers high on statement summaries while 66.8 percent of prime cardholders said the same of their issuers.

The information in this release was generated from a survey of 536 consumers in September 2006 regarding their answer to: “Think about the monthly statements you receive for your most frequently used credit card. How well does each of the following characteristics describe that card’s monthly statements?”

These surveys were conducted for publication in Cardbeat, a syndicated market research study published monthly by ACG that provides insights into how consumer perceptions impact credit card acquisition and usage. ACG is a management consulting firm, specializing in the payments and lending industry. For further information, contact Megan Bramlette at 516.333.4800 or Cardbeat@auriemmaconsulting.com.

Monthly Statements Attributes Average Describes   Describes  Does Not
                               Value    Well        (4-7)    Describe
                                       (8-10)                  (1-3)

My statement is easy to read.   8.18     70%          28%        2%

My statement provides a
 summary of my monthly and/or
 annual usage.                  8.06     68%          27%        5%

My statement clearly states
 my APR.                        7.60     58%          34%        8%

My statement clearly states
 my credit line and/or
 available credit.              8.31     71%          27%        2%

I can easily find specific
 transactions on my statement.  8.28     70%          28%        2%