Discover edges out AmEx in satisfaction survey

The other kind of card that got the most attention by users in the South, balance transfer cards, “are appealing to people with a good amount of debt on existing credit cards”, Jasthi said.

When it comes to swiping plastic, consumers are the most satisfied with their Discover cards.

According to J.D. Power, Discover’s focus on the customer and effort to enhance its reward redemption process resulted in the issuer performing well across the study’s six factors.

It’s the first year in the nine-year history of the study that Discover ranked alone as best, last year sharing the top spot with American Express, at 819.

Discover has overtaken American Express as the highest-rated credit card issuer for customer satisfaction, pushed to the top spot by its rewards and benefits, according to a J.D. Power study released Thursday.

The study focused on six factors: interaction, credit card terms, billing and payment, rewards, benefits and services and problem resolution.

That’s important for issuers because customers who rate their rewards as attractive spend more per month, $1,132 on average, than those who consider their rewards unattractive, averaging $744, J.D. Power said.

A little over half of respondents (52 percent) said the reason they selected their new credit card was due to the rewards program offered, while 24 percent made their selection based on increased benefits.

In Colorado, the most popular type of credit card is the travel rewards card, which allows holders to redeem rewards with airlines and hotel chains based on how much they buy.

For the first time in about a decade, Discover Financial Services has beaten out American Express in a credit card customer-satisfaction survey from J.D. Power, in another setback for AmEx (NYSE: AXP), which has recently lost deals with major partners.

The annual report, which is in its ninth year, pulls data from surveys of 20,000 U.S. credit card customers fielded between September 2014 and May 2015. “Discover has all of its call centers here in the United States, and our employees pride themselves on creating the best possible experience for our cardmembers”.