Americans have never been more satisfied with their credit cards, according to a new survey. That could explain why millions of more Americans signed up for one in the last year.
Overall credit card satisfaction rose to the highest level in the history of J.D. Power’s survey, now in its 10th year. For the third year in a row, Discover topped the customer satisfaction list, followed by American Express and Capital One. Those were the only cards to score higher than the industry average.
The ranking comes on the heels of a TransUnion report that shows that the number of credit card holders grew by 10 million in the second quarter to 133 million. Half of the new card-carrying Americans were Millennials, aged 20 to 29, who have been slow to warm to credit over debit and prepaid cards.
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“Credit card usage continues to increase at levels in line with consumer confidence and likely due to a relatively strong employment market,” said Paul Siegfried, senior vice president and credit card business leader for TransUnion, in a statement. “Consumers tend to apply for more credit cards and use them more frequently when they are gainfully employed.”
Americans’ satisfaction with credit cards has been on the rise since hitting a low in 2009 during the depths of the Great Recession, according to the survey. The company asked over 20,000 credit cardholders to consider the following factors about 10 credit card issuers: interaction; credit card terms; billing and payment; rewards; benefits and services; and problem resolution.
Interestingly, the Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility and Disclosure Act of 2009 went into effect in 2010, which is the same time the survey began detecting rising satisfaction among credit cardholders. The act curbed certain aggressive pricing and penalty practices among card issuers and help roll out easy-to-understand disclosure forms for consumers.
