Welcome back to another series of Battle of the Challengers US!
We are thrilled to be back with Episode 2 of Battle of the Challengers US. Last time we talked about digital onboarding and pitched our 13 contestants against each other for the Challenger that offers the best user journey for that. The winners of our first battle were Dave and SoFi. If you missed the inaugural episode take a look at how every Challenger did here.
In episode 2 we move from KYC to Card capabilities. The 13 Challengers will fight it out for the best user journey for blocking a card, reissuing a new one and using a virtual card which can immediately be added into Apple Wallet and used to pay.
Why cards?
With the pandemic, contactless card payments reached an all time high. The closed stores and shops drove customers online skyrocketing e-commerce shopping and inevitably increasing the security and fraud risk. More than ever, customers now need to be able to feel safe about their card use. They need to be able to get rid of a compromised debit card and protect themselves.
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However, deactivating a compromised or stolen card should not stop them from continuing to pay for their necessities the very same day they blocked the card. It is a pressing and necessary customer need that should be catered. This ultimately influenced us to select this topic as the second battle between the Challenger banks.
This scenario was examined through 
, where canceling and reordering a debit card and adding a virtual card to a mobile wallet is just one of many digital offerings analyzed in our platform offers. We cover all features and user journeys, captured in video and fleshed out in flowcharts across all channels that banks or fintechs offer them.
The Contestants
As with the first battle and all future installments the contestants are 13 US Challenger banks examined over their iOS channel. These are:
Out of these Challengers, however, 8 of them were excluded from the battle as they did not complete the full scenario.
- Acorns and Betterment do not offer the Cancel and Reorder feature or a virtual card.
- Envel, SoFi, Stash, N26 and Varo while they allow their customers to Cancel and Reorder their debit Card, they do not offer virtual cards to pay in the meantime.
- Daylight is still in its alpha testing version.
The remaining then battling Challengers are Aspiration, Chime, Dave, MoneyLion and Revolut.
Here’s how these 5 banks complete this scenario:
Get set, go!
Challengers user journeys
Aspiration
Chime
Dave
MoneyLion
Revolut
What impressed us
- Dave and Chime (not a bank) allows their customers to edit their address so customers can receive their new debit card anywhere they want.
- Chime also offers customers a temporary virtual debit card which they can both use to pay online and add to Apple Wallet and pay anywhere the same day. This is extremely convenient for customers.
- Revolut customers can change the delivery address of their re-issued debit card and receive it in a new one. Additionally they offer both a virtual card to pay and add to Apple Wallet and a one-time disposable card. The second is a debit card that customers can use once to pay and then the details of that card (e.g., number, CVV) will change for the next payment.
Which Challenger takes the crown?
Having looked at the 5 remaining contestants user journeys for Canceling, Issuing a new debit card and using virtual card to pay through Apple Wallet, we can announce the winner to be:
Aspiration!
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What?
But how can Aspiration be first when Dave has a slightly higher UX score?
While Dave has the best UX score for their journey overall 870 out of 1000 according to our Perfect 1000 scoring system, Aspiration has one final step that gives it a slight edge. What’s that? Users of Aspiration can once they have their virtual card be immediately transferred through the digital banking app to Apple Wallet and automatically add their card. Dave customers, however, have to navigate themselves to Apple Wallet and manually choose to add their new virtual card.
A big congratulations is in order here to all 5 Challengers which offer this extremely useful user journey to their customers. ' data illustrated not only that, but also that they have designed convenient and easy-to-follow and complete user journeys. Customers need to have a fairly easy and swift process for this scenario as discovering their card has been stolen, lost or compromised can be very stressful and scary.
When their bank offers them a quick and simple way to feel safe and secure and continue on with their daily finances, it sure makes for a step towards building trust. Nothing says “You can trust us” more than providing protection and safety in times of need. All banks need to consider incorporating such user journeys into their digital offerings especially today in most-things digital era that leave people feeling more vulnerable and needing protection.
This concludes our second Battle of the Challengers in the US!
Congratulations again to all our contestants and the winner, Aspiration!
Don’t forget to tune in, next month for the third installment of the series. We will be looking into your wealth management.
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