Banking App Dealbreakers: Missing Functionality and Intolerable UX Errors

A recent study found that 23% of consumers worldwide plan to switch banks in the coming year. That number is even higher in the United States, where more than one-third of respondents stated they were likely to change banks in that timeframe. For banks to keep customers in this competitive market, they must make sure to deliver the functionality account holders want and make sure apps work smoothly every time.

A 2023 J.D. Powers study found that leading banking and credit card apps have been improving customer satisfaction for basic transactional tools, such as transfers, bill pay, mobile check deposit and peer-to-peer (P2P) lending. It’s no longer enough for banks to deliver the core functionality customers care about most; apps must consistently provide an intuitive user experience. If your app has friction in any of the following areas, you’re doing your customers — and your business — a disservice.

1. Anything less than instant account access
The most common reason people log into mobile banking apps: to check balances. Viewing recent transactions comes in at a close second. While security is important, convenience and ease of use are high priorities as well. Simplifying the login process to keep information safe while allowing account holders to quickly access the information they need is crucial for offering a seamless customer experience. Whether customers are using passwords, PINS, or biometric logins, they expect to be able to check account balances and transactions easily. Make sure your app puts that info at their fingertips – maybe even literally if you’re letting customers use fingerprints to log in.

2. Clunky card management
Tasks like checking available balances, making payments, and redeeming rewards all need to be simple and straightforward. Can customers easily set travel alerts, report lost or stolen cards, and request replacement cards? Do they have the same options and functionality across all devices? A common complaint is that certain tasks are difficult or unavailable on a bank’s mobile app – don’t make cardholders have to wait until they can get to your website.

3. Glitchy remote check deposit
Remote check deposit promises convenience — but only when the service actually works. When problems with image capture prevent account holders from being able to take advantage of this offering, they get frustrated… sometimes to the point of looking for another bank.

Beyond functionally ensuring that your app can capture and process images of both sides of a check, you need to train it to reject images that aren’t checks or checks that fall outside a valid date range, such as those that are post-dated or more than 120 days old. To train your app to recognize check images, you need a wide array of training data: checks of different sizes, colors, and backgrounds, made out in different fonts and handwriting. You also need to include various styles of numbers and date formats – think about the number zero with or without slashes, or a date that could be written as May 22 versus 5/22 or 5.22 or 5-22 or even 22/5.

Another often-overlooked concern: is it easy for customers with multiple accounts to choose where the deposit lands? Make sure it’s clear where and how customers can select the correct account when depositing funds.

4. Ugly online bill pay
One 2023 survey found that 43% of Americans who paid bills online last year used their bank’s online portal to make payments… but only 15% cite their bank’s online bill payment option as their preferred payment method. Most consumers would rather pay using credit or debit cards. Ironically, when I went to check my own bank’s online bill pay functionality while writing this post, I got an error message that it was unavailable.
Difficulty setting up payments is a common complaint — is it easy for customers to find the businesses they want to pay online, such as local utilities? Does the information your bank needs to process the payment correspond with details customers can easily find on their invoices or statements? Can customers choose payment dates that work with billing cycles?

5. Automated transfers without the options customers want
There are different approaches to cash flow. For some people, setting aside a certain amount every paycheck for bills or savings makes the most sense. But many banks don’t offer recurring transfers at intervals that align with all the most common pay periods. Someone who gets paid twice a month may be irritated if they have to set up two recurring transfers – and then remember to edit both whenever something changes.

Customers may also get frustrated when banks have unclear rules: for example, someone may have a checking account, debit card, and home equity loan all through the same bank. The account holder might decide to set up a recurring transfer to the loan from checking in an attempt to pay the loan off faster and reduce interest. In the customer’s mind, the transaction is a transfer. The bank, however, may classify the transaction as a payment – and refuse to accept partial payments on loans. When the customer gets an error message saying the transfer has failed (possibly with no information about the cause of the failure) they may lose trust in the bank.

6. Poor peer-to-peer payment and mobile wallet experiences
This is another area where banks need to balance security, ease and efficiency. One 2023 study found that 72% of respondents believe it’s important, extremely important, or critical to be able to send P2P payments through their bank’s service or app, yet most P2P payments are made through services outside the bank. With the P2P payment market predicted to grow at a CAGR of 18% by 2032, banks need to ensure they’re cashing in on the trend.

A recent survey by Forbes found that 53% of consumers use digital wallets more often than they use traditional payment methods. Banks that streamline the process of linking cards and accounts have a competitive advantage over those relying on more complicated methods to verify accounts.

7. Unclear product differentiation and specifications
When someone is shopping for a loan or trying to decide what type of account best meets their needs, they want to be able to quickly understand the differences between products. Make sure that information is presented in a way that shows the overlap and variations between offerings so users can identify which best meets their needs.

Account holders often don’t understand rules about penalties or ways that online transactions may vary from those conducted at a branch. For example, I recently did a bank-to-bank transfer through a credit union product called shared banking. When I initiated the transfer in person at a branch, the transaction was instantaneous. When I did it online, the transfer took five days and caused a lot of problems because I needed access to that money and didn’t have it. Make sure you’re communicating timelines, costs, and potential penalties up front so customers can make informed decisions.

8. Uninformed staff and unhelpful support
When customers run into issues with your app, they want resolution FAST. Provide online support options or tutorials that walk through each step of the process for different tasks, such as opening a new account or setting up online bill pay. Make sure that bank staff know how to use the app and can guide customers through how to complete a specific transaction online. You may want to offer an app day where people can come in and get a demo or help configuring an app for ease of use.

Validate that your digital banking experiences live up to customer expectations with a comprehensive testing process. Go beyond validating functionality across common devices and get insight into the user experience and customer preferences. Crowdtesting with Applause can quickly deliver the insights you need to make sure your app isn’t serving up any of these deal-breakers.