Sure, the interest rate on your credit cards is important, but so is the service. Kiplinger’s Personal Finance magazine has ranked credit card issuers on their service and digital tools. Here are the medalists:
Gold
Discover scored more highly than any other card issuer in our survey, and the number of complaints about Discover in the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau database was reasonably low in comparison to Discover’s share of the credit card market.
Discover doled out great service for potential new customers, too. When we contacted the company to ask a few questions about card features, we reached a human on the phone almost immediately, and the reps were thorough and knowledgeable with their responses.
And thanks to a strong rating by customers in our survey for digital capabilities, combined with a user-friendly mobile app, Discover is the winner in our digital ranking. The app is simple to navigate, and the home screen summarizes recent transactions, your balance, the amount of credit available to you and your cash-back bonus balance. The app also packs in several useful features: You can set up activity alerts to, say, notify you when a payment is due; freeze your card so that no one can use it if you lose it (you can unfreeze it if you later find the card); and order a replacement card.
Silver
American Express, landing in second place, also rose in our rankings thanks to a solid all-around performance. Our survey respondents gave it high scores, and complaints to the CFPB were fairly low relative to Amex’s share of the market.
Like Discover, American Express was one of the few issuers that were friendly and responsive when we posed as a potential new customer with questions; phone wait times to reach knowledgeable representatives were short. Amex’s mobile app is capable, and then some. You can view statements and balances, make payments, receive activity alerts, see your FICO score, switch your account off or on in case you lose your card, and order a replacement card. A couple of other nice features: You can split purchases with users of peer-to-peer payment apps PayPal or Venmo through the app, and it’s easy to find customer service contact information by tapping a box that appears in the upper-right corner of the app no matter what page you’re on.
Bronze
Chase takes third place, with a strong survey score and an especially low number of complaints compared with its share of the market among our credit card finalists. As with our other winners, complaints about purchases shown on a statement were common. Customers also had problems with closing an account and with other features and terms.
Chase lost some points because we were unable to contact a customer representative when acting as a potential new customer. But its mobile app has some appealing features. As with apps of many other major issuers, you can check your card balances and recent transactions on the go, set up activity alerts, manage payments, order a replacement card and switch your card off and on. Plus, you can see a free VantageScore credit score.
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