Do customers use online calculators?

Most bank sites have one or more calculators--some have dozens. Using vendor support like TValue, it's easy to plug these things into a site, but do customers acutally use them? Does useage justify the costs involved?

We have two simple calculators on our site, one for loans one for deposits. They don't use the deposit one much but the loan one gets some good activity.

There are some calculators out there that are very complex and require knowing things like the inflation rate that I don't think many would use so we're shying away from them for our next generation site. But, calculators like buy vs. lease or rent vs. own may be beneficial. And, from my days in lending I can tell you I got asked for amortization schedules on a regular basis, so that type of calculator might be helpful too.

I've seen one bank (and I'm sure there are several others) that builds a calculator function right into their cd rate sheet. Each listing has a field where you enter the amount of your deposit, hit the button, and it calculates the balance of the cd at maturity. I would imagine that this approach sees more use, as the customer doesn't have to drill down to get to the calculator, and it's readily available on (I assume) one of the most frequently visited pages on the bank's site.

Acting as a bank customer, I have utilized these calculators several times in determining what difference the rates and terms make for mortgages, car loans and recreational vehicles. I find it helpful and I'm glad the calculators are there. The bank I do the majority of my banking with does not offer the calculators on line, so I visit the website of the bank I work for, which does provide them.

Ours is like the one Jac referred to, customers seem to use it and like it. It's used for both deposit and loan products. But I think ours came as part of the web package with our service provider.

I forgot to mention in my last post that our EMPLOYEES use the calculators on ANOTHER bank's site on a regular basis.

We created our own calculator that will determine your cost associated with a commercial deposit account. The business customers love it.

We have both deposit and loan calculators on our web site. I honestly don't know how often the deposit calculators are used, but the loan calculators are used by customers, applicants, and mortgage department employees alike. In my opinion, they're well worth the $75 a month we pay for them.