Bank and Credit Card Apps and Websites Struggle to Stand Out

With consumers conducting more and more of their financial affairs electronically, most banks and credit card companies are earning solid scores for the quality of their mobile apps and websites. At the same time, new J.D. Power studies have found that those apps and websites have become so similar in their functionality as to be virtually indistinguishable, leaving little reason for people to choose one provider over another.

Satisfaction Is Up, But the Gap Narrows 

J.D. Power’s 2025 U.S. Banking and Credit Card Digital Experience Studies measured satisfaction based on four factors: navigation, speed, visual appeal, and information/content. Among the key findings: Overall satisfaction with both bank and credit card apps rose in 2025 compared with 2024.

However, there was very little difference between the highest-scoring financial institutions and those at the bottom. For example, Bank of America earned the top score among national banks for its mobile app—678 points out of a possible 1,000. Last-place finisher TD Bank was only 30 points behind, at 648.

Similarly, Capital One topped the national list for online banking, with a score of 684, but Truist, at the bottom, still scored 647. 

Security Measures Become Less Annoying, More Popular 

Consumers appear to have embraced multifactor authentication, even though it has added an extra step to the log-in process. One survey found that satisfaction levels with national banks’ apps were 16 points higher when consumers used multifactor authentication. J.D. Power speculates that ” this is likely the result of increased focus on security among customers and improvements in the authentication process, which have made it easier to log in using multifactor authentication.” 

Virtual Assistants Need Help of Their Own, and AI May Provide It

On the downside, J.D. Power reported that consumers were less satisfied than before with their providers’ robotic virtual assistants and were also using them less—despite the fact that banks are increasingly resorting to them. The company attributes that dissatisfaction to the assistants’ “limited conversational capabilities and narrow functionality” and suggests that coming advances in artificial intelligence may improve matters.

The Bottom Line 

Most banks and credit card companies are doing a good job of making financial services available to their consumers through digital channels. But their offerings have homogenized to the point that the difference between the highest performers and the lowest is now nearly negligible. Financial institutions that want to gain an edge over their competitors going forward may need to innovate more rapidly, with both their own bottom lines and consumers’ ever-rising expectations in mind.