• by Jack Loechner , Staff Writer @mp_research, September 24, 2007

Half of Online Financial Applicants Had No Intention of Completing Forms

comScore, Inc. announced the results of a new study conducted with Forrester Research which revealed that 54 percent of online financial product applicants abandon applications prior to submitting.

Based on behavioral data from comScore's panel of more than 2 million people worldwide, and an email survey of 568 applicants who had abandoned an application for a financial product online, the study reports that of those who initiated an online financial application but did not submit it, 49 percent said that they had no intention of completing the application. 

This percentage was higher for deposit product applicants (58 percent) and substantially lower for credit card applicants (32 percent).  The top reasons cited by those who did not intend to complete the application:

• 23% said they wanted more product information
• 19% were not ready to apply
• 14% just wanted to see if they qualified

Those who started an application with the intention of completing it, but who ended up abandoning the application cited the following reasons for not completing the application:

• 12% changed their mind about applying online
• 11% had privacy/security concerns
• 11% wanted to speak to a sales person

Forrester Research Senior Analyst, Brad Strothkamp, concludes that "...the importance of understanding application abandonment will increase, ...(but) financial services sites have a ways to go at both understanding and solving this important issue."

To see the release, please go here, or to access purchase information for the complete report, visit here.