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Mobile banking applications have become indispensable, serving a wide array of consumer financial needs. Yet, a new generation of credit card tools, exemplified by platforms like Capital One Shopping, is emerging with a singular focus: stimulating increased purchasing.
A recent study by Keynova Group highlights how credit card issuers are strategically enhancing their apps. This involves a dual approach: integrating sophisticated digital shopping tools on the front end to boost consumer spending and usage, while simultaneously streamlining backend processes such as billing dispute management.
According to Beth Robertson, managing director at Keynova Group, “Issuers are strengthening the mobile credit card experience on all fronts — expanding digital shopping tools that enrich rewards and serve as powerful marketing and retention agents, while adding deepened transaction details that reduce resource-intensive disputes.” Keynova’s analysis reviewed the offerings of ten leading credit card issuers.
Key Trends Driving Mobile Credit Card Innovation
- Ultimately, the core of the credit card business for both merchants and issuers revolves around increasing sales volume. Programs designed to connect consumers with deals are gaining significant traction and growing in popularity.
- Modern credit card tools are effectively linking promotional efforts and card usage on the front end with more efficient backend functions, particularly in dispute management.
- A major focus is on alleviating consumer pain points, especially as more and more digital shopping activities migrate to mobile devices.
Digital Shopping Tools Propel Card Transaction Volume
In its Q4 2025 Mobile Credit Card Scorecard report, Keynova Group details the rise of digital shopping tools. Initially, these tools appeared as independent programs such as Rakuten Rewards, PayPal Honey, and Wikibuy (which Capital One later acquired in 2018, rebranding it as Capital One Shopping). The report notes a significant surge in the popularity of these platforms during the pandemic.
Card issuers are now integrating various programs that partner with merchants. Keynova specifically examined digital browser extensions and mobile apps designed to automatically deliver coupons and discounts to consumers while they shop online.
Once a consumer opts in and grants permission for the service to monitor shopping patterns and seek out deals, the process becomes largely passive. The shopper no longer needs to actively search for individual savings opportunities.
“Other than installing the extension, once you go out to a site to shop, the extension generally lets you know if there is an opportunity to either use a code to get rewards or to activate particular rewards,” Robertson explains.
Stackable Rewards: A significant benefit of these programs is the ability to offer “stackable rewards.” This means that beyond the immediate savings identified, cardholders can often still earn cashback or other benefits associated with their card usage.
In contrast, another type of program, less extensively covered in the report, involves direct merchant offers typically presented on an issuer’s digital platform, like Chase Offers. With these, cardholders must manually review and activate each desired offer. Generally, these activations are valid for about 30 days and require renewal, according to Robertson. Four out of five large issuers reviewed by Keynova offer such programs.
Capital One’s Broad Reach vs. Card-Specific Offerings
Maintaining “Front of Mind”: Capital One Shopping, which collaborates with over 100,000 merchants, is unique in that it’s not restricted to Capital One customers or cardholders. The bank earns commissions from merchant sales, but also gains significant goodwill and brand exposure from operating the service. Some shopping data may even lead to pre-approved card offers.
“Capital One’s brand continues to pop up in front of you,” says Robertson.
Conversely, other banks offering similar digital shopping services typically tie them directly to the usage of their own credit cards. Citibank’s Citi Shop, for example, is available to qualifying cardholders who must register their card to access deals from over 5,000 merchants. U.S. Bank offers U.S. Bank Shopping Deals, partnering with more than 1,000 merchants, which not only provides savings but also opportunities to earn additional rewards like points or cashback.
Enhanced Transaction Details Reduce Costly Disputes
Who hasn’t encountered a mysterious charge on their credit card statement? While some may indicate fraud, often the cardholder has simply forgotten the purchase, or perhaps a joint cardholder made the transaction without their immediate knowledge.
Keynova’s report notes that several years ago, a few issuers added functionality allowing cardholders to upload physical receipt images and digitally link them to corresponding card transactions.
A Good Concept, Flawed Execution: “The concept was designed both to facilitate expense reporting for business users and to reduce the number of transaction disputes,” the report states. However, customers often found this two-step process cumbersome.
The Burden of Disputes: Disputes are time-consuming and expensive for issuers, merchants, and even card users. Many seemingly unrecognized transactions are, in fact, legitimate but simply forgotten, or arise from joint account holders losing track of each other’s spending.
Today, over half of the issuers studied by Keynova have refined this concept digitally. They now provide digital receipts that leverage merchant transaction data to clearly identify what a charge was for and where it was incurred.
Advanced Capabilities: Less than half of these issuers offering such assistance can distinguish between users on joint card accounts. “This is another useful capability that can assist cardholders in identifying transactions to reduce potential dispute activity,” the report emphasizes.
When an actual issue arises, nine out of ten issuers now allow users to file disputes directly through their mobile devices, with transaction details automatically pre-filled. Furthermore, two-thirds of these issuers enable users to track the status of their disputes within the app.
Robertson also points to other helpful practices gaining traction. Most issuers now provide detailed merchant addresses and phone numbers for transactions. Some even offer the merchant’s location via a mapping function, which can significantly aid in recalling a specific purchase from a busy week of spending.
Capital One takes this a step further by, where possible, directing the inquiring user to the merchant’s own website, allowing them to log in and review transaction specifics directly.
“These features can be really helpful to jog your memory and can help when reaching out to the merchant first,” Robertson explains, noting that issuers typically ask if a cardholder has contacted the merchant before processing a dispute.
Citing separate research, Robertson adds that this practice of providing detailed purchase information is also growing among debit card issuers. As of Q3 2025, Bank of America is currently the only one providing actual digital receipts, but Keynova anticipates this trend to expand.
Source: Thefinancialbrand.com