Interestingly, 55% of respondents admit to still receiving paper statements even though email is the most preferred channel of communication.

TSYS surveyed more than 1,000 American consumers who owned a debit and/or credit card to investigate “how they prefer to interact with their financial institutions,” better “understand consumer communication preferences” and “effectively engage current and potential future customers.”

The study also addressed consumers’ thoughts on payment preferences, technology adoption and client relationships with financial institutions and advisors.

Email ranked as the most preferred channel of communication in every category across six communication types, including marketing/special offers, availability of new products, changes in account terms (interest rate, fees, etc.) significant account changes (address change, new card request, etc.), potential unauthorized use and purchase transactions.

Mobile, either by text or phone, ranked on the lower end of every communication category, except for any potentially unauthorized use of a financial account. When faced with this potential security risk, 27% of consumers said they would like to be contacted by phone and 20% of consumers would like to be contact by text.

Email still ranks at the most preferred method of contact, however, with 30% of respondents.

Social media is the least preferred method of communication across the board, with no more than 2% to 3% of consumers preferring social media communication at any given time and in any given category.

Almost half of respondents (43%) stated they would prefer to receive special offers and marketing communication from their banks once a month, the most popular frequency of communication. 20% of consumers prefer weekly communication, while 12% of consumers never want to receive a special offer from their bank. 5% of respondents said they’d appreciate to be contacted annually, and an additional 20% of respondents selected “I want the ability to decide how often” they receive notifications from their financial institutions.

60% of respondents said they were open to receiving coupons or special offers based on purchase behavior and data collected by financial institutions, another example of the importance of personalization in email marketing.