People love their Discover cards. For the 18th year in a row, Discover card shared the top ranking in the 2014 Brand Keys Customer Loyalty Engagement Index.
The Brand Keys Index asked 32,000 people between the ages of 18 and 65 about many different brands including everything from banks and credit cards to breakfast cereals and airlines. The wide-ranging survey covered 555 brands in 64 different categories.
This year, Discover shared the top credit card loyalty ranking with American Express, followed by Capital One in second place. Chase took third and Visa, MasterCard, Citibank and Wells Fargo sat in the middle of the pack. Bank of America and Barclaycard filled out the bottom two rankings.
JP Morgan Chase takes top banking spot
Judging by the Brand Keys survey, people don’t necessarily hold the same loyalty for their credit cards as they do for their banking services—even if the same companies issue them. The rankings for banks came out rather differently than for credit cards.
For banking services, customers were loyal to Chase first and foremost. Citi came in better for banking than for credit cards as well, achieving a number two ranking. US Bancorp was in third place and PNC, Wells Fargo and Bank of America finished the list, in that order.
Airlines and car rentals
People’s credit card preference often goes hand-in-hand with their favorite airline, due to the popularity of frequent flyer programs linked to credit cards. JetBlue took the top spot in customer loyalty among the traveling set, with Southwest, Delta, US Airways, American, and United trailing behind.
Car rental insurance often comes free with credit cards, something that can increase customers’ loyalty to their particular brand of credit card. But when it comes time to choose a car rental place, Avis is the preferred brand. In second place, there was a tie between Enterprise and Hertz. Budget took third place and National was in fourth, with Alamo and Dollar vying for last in customer loyalty.
Hotels of all types
Hotels were separated into four categories—economy, midscale, luxury and upscale. The top customer favorites of each type were: Super 8 (economy), Holiday Inn (midscale), Ritz-Carlton (luxury), and Hyatt (upscale).
Full findings of this year’s Brand Key survey can be found here.