Choosing the right credit card among the plethora of them out there can be difficult. Going with a credit card issuer you can trust is a good place to start. Which are the most trusted credit card companies?
A recent survey that Investor's Business Daily conducted with polling partner TechnoMetrica Market Intelligence uncovered the 25 Most Trusted Financial Companies based on their customers' ratings. Credit card companies were one business category covered by the research, and the top three earn special recognition.
Discover (DFS) walked away with top honors among credit card issuers, with a trust rating of 91.6. Based on participant responses, the survey identified the six most important trust attributes and weighted them by importance to compute the overall Trust Index. The six trust traits are the quality of products and services, commitment to protecting privacy and security, ethical practices and values, fair pricing and fees, customer service, and customer treatment.
Most Trusted Financial Companies: See The Full Report
Discover swept all six trust components. American Express (AXP) was a close second, and on most of the trust components as well. Chase (JPM) was third among the most trusted credit card companies.
Most Trusted Credit Card Companies
| Company | Overall Trust Rating | Privacy | Quality | Ethics | Price | Customer Service | Customer Treatment |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Discover | 91.6 | 93.7 | 93.7 | 89.1 | 84.8 | 94.1 | 92.5 |
| American Express | 86.2 | 92.1 | 90.4 | 88.7 | 64.4 | 89.3 | 88.6 |
| Chase | 78.4 | 84.4 | 82.8 | 77.1 | 63.2 | 79.6 | 79.3 |
Fair Credit Card Pricing
One area in which Discover distinguished itself was fair pricing and fees. In that area, Discover rated 84.8, while its nearest competitor, Capital One (COF), rated 66.4. Credit cards often have numerous fees that issuers can charge, such as annual fees, finance charges, cash advance fees, balance transfer fees, late payment fees and over-limit fees. Consumers want a credit card issuer that has a simple fee structure and isn't going to charge them every time they make a mistake.
"I rated them highly due to their cash-back rewards program," said Mathew Coatney of Missouri, a Discover card customer. "And if I lose my card, they ship me another card that arrives the next day. Their incentives program and their customer service are what separates them from the other credit card companies."
A number of data breaches have affected the credit card industry. Most of those breaches were from the data processing companies, not the credit card companies themselves. Still, the episodes reflect back on the credit card issuers. The largest such breach was in 2005 by CardSystems Solutions Inc., which affected 40 million credit cards, 14 million of which were issued by Mastercard.
To be included in the analysis, at least 100 of a company's customers had to participate in the survey. Among the other qualified companies, Capital One ranked fourth in overall trust ranking, Bank of America ranked fifth, Citibank sixth and Wells Fargo seventh.
This article was originally published on Oct. 12, 2020, and was updated on June 9, 2021.
The Most Trusted Financial Companies logo and accolades are available for licensing through Investor's Business Daily's partner, The YGS Group, by email at [emailprotected] or at 800-290-5460.
Follow Michael Molinski on Twitter@IBD_mmolinski
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