Businesses are becoming increasingly dissatisfied with their banks but are choosing to stick with the ones they have rather than test the competition, a report suggests.

The findings were in banking research firm East & Partners’s latest business banking customer satisfaction monitor.

It found the proportion of businesses intending to change banks in the next three to six months had more than halved to 16.5 per cent in September, compared with a year ago.

But at the same time, the customer satisfaction rating fell to 4.79 in September 2009, well down from the 5.50 recorded a year earlier.
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Small business’s frustration with their banks has grown in the past year, with the high cost of credit and the lack of dedicated managers assigned to look after them their two biggest concerns, a report says.

The report by banking research firm East & Partners found satisfaction among firms with turover between $5 million and $25 million with their banks had fallen 14 per cent in the 2009/09 year.

Small to medium enterprises (SMEs) gave the banks an overall satisfaction rating of 4.60 in June this year, compared with a reading of 5.31 in June 2008.

A reading of zero indicates very dissatisfied and 10 very satisfied.
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Debit cards are set to become the most popular form of payment by the end of the year, as it saves consumers from clocking up debt, a report says.

Consumers have increasingly turned to debit cards as their preferred payment method, shunning credit cards whenever possible due to hefty surcharges and reluctance to go further into debt in tough economic times.

The report by banking research firm East & Partners found 28.9 per cent of all merchant sales were paid with a debit card in the six months to June, up from about 24 per cent in the previous six months.

East & Partners financial markets analyst Zoran Knezevic said after a gradual shift towards debit cards over the past few years, the pace had accelerated quite rapidly over the past six months.
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