CardMarketing 2.0

Discover Financial Services has launched two online financial tools that will help cardholders better manage their credit (and most of us, let's face it, need some help in that area): the Paydown Planner and Purchase Planner.

This is all about consumer empowerment, arming customers with data that can positively inform the way they spend, help them make smart financial decisions and prevent them getting into financial deep water. It's a great idea and a symbol of the way issuers are increasingly partnering with customers rather than just offering products to them. Best of all, both of these tools are pre-populated with the cardholder's own account information so it's 100% relevant to the individual.

First up, the Paydown Planner, which helps cardholders find a way to pay down their balances. With this tool, cardholders are presented with two ways that they could reach their pay-down goal: by tapping in a proposed monthly payment figure, and finding out how long it will take to pay down at that level, or by setting a target date and being told what they'll need to pay each month to reach that goal. This is sooooo handy, I need it now (who's doing it in the UK?).

The Purchase Planner, meanwhile, helps the cardholder understand how a payment (especially a bigger one) could affect their monthly payments, i.e. it's there to stop people going out and whacking something on their creddie that they really can't afford.

As with the Paydown Planner, again they have two options: either they can enter in the planned purchase price and get an approximate monthly payment amount that will be required to pay off their balance; or they can input their preferred monthly payment amount and find out how much they can spend on a new purchase without going beyond this.

"The planners are another example of how Discover is strongly committed to helping our cardmembers stay on top of their finances and reach their financial goals," said Mike Boush, vice president of marketing planning and new initiatives at Discover. "We encourage our cardmembers to use these free and practical tools to help them answer relevant questions and engage in good credit management."

A round of applause to Discover, I say.