The Worst Credit Cards in America

By Paul Ausick Updated Apr 28, 7:37AM EDT · Published Aug 28, 12:05PM EDT

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The abundance of rewards programs for U.S. credit card users might lead one to conclude that the best credit cards offer the best rewards. Not even close.

According to J.D. Power’s latest credit card satisfaction survey, the key drivers are outstanding personal service when customers call with a problem or question and the easy online account management, either from a desktop PC or a mobile device. By these measures, as well as the others in the J.D. Power survey, American Express Co. (NYSE: AXP) and Discover Financial Services (NYSE: DFS) top the list with score of 819 out of a possible 1,000. The two cards are rated “among the best” in all seven J.D. Power categories.

The industry average score is a record-high 778, and six other banks were rated as “average” in the survey. But there were two banks that finished with overall satisfaction scores of “the rest,” which we might translate to “below average.” Those two are Citigroup Inc. (NYSE: C) and GE Capital Retail Bank, which has just been spun-off as Synchrony Financial (NYSE: SYF). The credit cards offered by the two banks posted scores of 756 and 739, respectively.

Citi gets knocked down on its credit card terms, its rewards, its benefits and services, and its customer interaction. GE Capital/Synchrony gets hit on terms, benefits and services, billing and payment, customer interaction, and problem resolution. Neither bank received a component score higher than “about average” and GE Capital/Synchrony only received one of those (for rewards) and Citi received only two (billing and payment, and problem resolution).

J.D. Power noted that while customer satisfaction in the 2014 survey of nearly 20,000 credit card customers was at a record high, some 10% of customers changed their primary card and 42% did so to become part of a better rewards program. Another interesting finding is that satisfaction is 76 points higher among customers who get service alerts by email and 54 points higher among customers who use the card’s mobile apps.

About 21% of all problems experienced by credit card customers are attributable to fraudulent use of a credit card, and J.D. Power noted that card issuers that notify a customer of the fraud and replace the card quickly score much higher (788) than an issuer that does not issue a new card (734). If the card is replaced within seven days, the score jumps to 801, and when the card is replaced and email alerts are sent, the score leaps to 835. Something for the folks at Citi and Synchrony to consider perhaps?

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About the Author Paul Ausick →

Paul Ausick has been writing for a673b.bigscoots-temp.com for more than a decade. He has written extensively on investing in the energy, defense, and technology sectors. In a previous life, he wrote technical documentation and managed a marketing communications group in Silicon Valley.

He has a bachelor's degree in English from the University of Chicago and now lives in Montana, where he fishes for trout in the summer and stays inside during the winter.