Consumers are seeing far fewer credit card offers in their mailboxes, and the offers are far less attractive than they've been in recent years, according to Mintel Comperemedia.

Credit card issuers sent out just 391 million pieces of direct mail to consumers in this year's third quarter -- a 71% drop from last year's 1.3 billion, the direct marketing competitive intelligence service reports.

"Since the economy has started to unwind, issuers have tried to pull back," Andrew Davidson, SVP of Mintel Comperemedia, tells Marketing Daily. "In addition to adjusting their direct marketing strategy by sending less mail, they're raising rates and fees on existing and new cards."

Mintel reports that credit card companies are also less inclined to offer credit cards with fixed interest rates, because of the passage of the CARD Act, which mandates a 45-day notice for changes in terms of credit cards. In Q3 2009, only 6% of direct mail offers were for fixed-rate cards, compared with 27% of offers for the same period in 2008.

"The offers that American households are receiving tend to be less attractive than they were," Davidson confirms. "For consumers looking for new cards, the terms aren't nearly as good as they were a year ago."

The issuers are also making it less enticing to switch balances between cards. In the third quarter, 16% of card offers carried a balance transfer rate of 4% or 5%, whereas previous fees had hung around 3% for years, according to Davidson.

The overall rates on the cards have also been increasing. In the third quarter, the average rate promoted was 12.53%; in this year's first quarter, the average rate was 11.43%. "Even though the prime rate has stayed low, the mean APR has been edging up," Davidson says.

While the recession may account for the drop-off in direct mail, Davidson says the main factor driving these changes is the CARD Act, although it doesn't go into full effect until February 2010. "We're seeing card issuers testing various things," he says. "There's an understanding that [the new laws] will eat into revenue dollars, and issuers are looking to whatever means they can to recoup that revenue."

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