While direct mail card offers slid in 2008, more of them were for cards that carry annual fees, according to market research firm Synovate.
Chicago-based Synovate manages Mail Monitor, a program that measures the flow of card offers through the mail as well as responses to those card offers. The program has tracked the steady decline in direct mail card offers, once the card industry's most often used approach to card marketing.
During the first quarter of 2009, U.S. households received 372.4 million offers, representing a 67% drop from the 1,131.6 million offers received during the same period last year, the firm reported. Roughly 27% of the card offers during the first three months of this year carried annual fees, up from 18% one year ago.
"As issuers continue to cut back offers and the mailbox becomes more super-prime we are seeing a proportionately higher number of card offers with an annual fee," said Andrew Davidson, vice president of competitive tracking services for Synovate's Financial Services Group.
Fee-based cards now reflect an increasing proportion of both reward/rebate and nonreward/rebate card solicitations. In addition, 42% of nonreward/rebate offers carried an annual fee versus 19% in the prior year.
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