Bank and loan comparison sites like Credit Karma and LendingTree took a hit at the beginning of the pandemic as lenders tightened underwriting and sometimes pulled back from these marketplaces.
"In the early days of COVID the issue was that we had no idea what was going on or what the world was going to look like in two weeks. That was scary for lenders," said Rich Franks, head of the technology platform Lightbox for Credit Karma. "We saw pullbacks everywhere."
These online marketplaces have revamped their branding or adapted their strategy over the course of the pandemic to maintain financial institution partnerships and meet new customer needs. Banks and lenders are closely intertwined with such websites. Some pay to appear prominently in roundups of top products or pay a fee once a customer applies for a product. At the same time, these sites compete with banks.
"Consumers, particularly younger ones, are increasingly turning to companies like Credit Karma and NerdWallet to help them manage and understand their credit scores and for financial education more generally," said Ron Shevlin, chief research officer at Cornerstone Advisors. "Most importantly, from a bank's perspective, is that consumers are turning to these sites for content and education in place of their primary banks."
In July, LendingTree debuted a campaign starring "Saturday Night Live" alum Molly Shannon, including
"We have reintroduced ourselves to our consumers where not only will we help you shop and compare for best loan, insurance and credit card, but we will also guide and support you much more than in the past," Singh said in an interview.
That meant becoming a more holistic source of financial information rather than simply matching consumers with loans. LendingTree started a monthly financial education newsletter called The Vine and redesigned its home page to make general information more visible and navigable. For example, if someone clicks on "home purchase" along the ribbon of options near the top of the home page, they can choose to compare rates right away or "learn more." If they choose "compare rates," LendingTree guides them through the process. For instance, if the user is asked to provide a location, LendingTree notes, The city doesn't have to be exact. Close is good enough. Start typing to choose a city. When the user needs to enter the price of the property, LendingTree says, For now, an estimation will work.
"At every stage there are clues to help you answer the questions and why you are doing this," said Singh.
The company also built a feature called Insurance Checkup where homeowners can call a number and compare their rates and policies against what else is available.
The overarching premise is "we are helping our consumers win financially," said Singh. "That is part of our new positioning."
These changes were conceived in the last six months, said Singh, and "more designed for a post-pandemic world."
Working more closely with its financial institution partners to design products for their customers "is a muscle that we were forced to build up in mid-2020," said Franks.
One change Credit Karma made within Lightbox was letting financial institutions test the viability of rates and terms through Credit Karma — say, would raising the annual fee on a credit card be more or less appealing if the issuer made the rewards more valuable at the same time — which the company had historically been hesitant to do.
"We were conscious of the fact we didn't want worse outcomes for our members," said Franks. Credit Karma built in guardrails to prevent this. For example, it does not let lenders extend offers that test whether a Credit Karma would be willing to pay more for a product relative to what they could pay in another channel.
The company redesigned its personal loan marketplace around the third quarter of 2020, letting users dictate the terms of the personal loan they want and tweak the parameters to get updated offers in real time. It is also starting to roll out a Karma Guarantee, where if a customer does not get approved for a so-called guaranteed offer that they found by filtering for this feature in their search, Credit Karma will deposit money in their accounts. Franks says the situations where this could happen are rare, but possible. For example, a lender could pull up fresh data showing a customer made multiple inquiries in a short amount of time and decline the loan application.
Instead of a hard sell, Chime, Simmons First and others are trying to convey the benefits of their products in simple terms and in a conversational tone.
NerdWallet, which is based in San Francisco, did not undergo any pivotal transformations but did adapt its messaging to match consumer needs as they evolved over the course of the pandemic.
For example, the financial product comparison site debuted a "Money Questions" campaign in January 2020 to encourage customers to turn to NerdWallet for clarity on their personal finance questions.
"When the pandemic broke, questions like 'What is the best credit card for traveling?' were no longer relevant," said Alison McGlone, director of brand marketing at NerdWallet. "Questions like 'How do I invest?' became 'Should I invest?' "
For the first five months of 2022, NerdWallet ran a campaign called Compare Your Way that picked up on people's desires to travel again or buy a bigger house than the one their family outgrew during the height of the pandemic.
"It is probably our last campaign that spoke to the consumer sentiment of coming out of pandemic," said McGlone, noting that the newest campaign focuses on inertia when making financial decisions. "We were hearing from consumers that there was more of a desire to take control back and think of ways they could take the next step forward."
McGlone says the mission remained consistent throughout the pandemic. "Our job is to surface the things you need to know," she said. "It was a matter of doubling down and being nimble as consumer questions changed."
