A credit/debit card that offered in-statement rewards and money-saving recommendations can attract 94 percent of online bankers over a card that did not, according to BillShrink, the creator of the popular money-saving search engine. More than 76 percent of consumers would consider applying for a new card or bank if their current provider did not offer loyalty rewards in their statements, the survey finds.

 “Online banking is the new frontier for merchant loyalty programs, particularly as more people begin to manage their accounts online,” said Ron Shevlin, senior analyst at Aite, a financial advisor. “We see considerable momentum from banks adopting in-statement, merchant-funded rewards in an effort to retain customers and to increase spend through the bank’s own channels.”

“BillShrink continually develops new ways to save people money,” said Schwark Satyavolu (News - Alert), co-founder and CEO of BillShrink.  “We addressed the consumer demand for daily deals and improved upon the experience by delivering in-statement personalized savings and rewards based upon where people already shop.”

Launched in October 2010, StatementRewards is an extension of BillShrink's (News - Alert) platform that can be incorporated directly into the online bank statements of more than 200 million U.S. bank accounts and cardholders. StatementRewards, which is expected to boost customer loyalty and can be a new revenue source for banks, is gaining appeal with bank customers, financial institutions and merchants supplying loyalty rewards.

With personalized bill analysis that examines users’ wireless, TV service and gas payments, StatementRewards’ users can gain an average of $1000 in savings annually by right sizing their bills, company officials said. Banks can benefit an average of $5000 in additional spend from customers who shift their bill payments to their debit or credit cards.