But Matthews says Wells Fargo differentiates itself on the basis of quality control and reputation

It is just in the beginning it takes time to build a healthy, sustaining community and we really want to build this slow, build it in quality, and attract people in a natural, organic way, explains Matthews.

The Wells Fargo community site also provides links to the bank’s Student Centre for resources that can guide prospective students finance their higher education

The community is a way for us to help customers engage with Wells Fargo providing tools is really a way to augment the discussions and when it is time for them to apply for a student loan, we hope they think about Wells Fargo, says Matthews.

Wells Fargo is, however, tracking a lot thing about the new community from how people are finding the website to what is being said about it.

We are also tracking whether or not they go from the community to WellsFargo and whether they are using any tools that are given in our website, informs Matthews.

From Wells Fargo’s perspective, the community website is a forum with great information where the lender is sharing tools to hep people figure out what they can afford and how that will effect their financial situation

Considering banks don’t generally offer such community services, Wells Fargo’s competition lies beyond the lender space among organsiations that run websites discussing the topic of education financing.

A lot of these organisations often don’t have the names that go alongside it. Because Wells Fargo is reviewing the answers that people provide, we are making sure that the information is accurate. That has increased the level of trust that customers can have in the advice and opinions they get. That is how we vary with other community sites you don’t necessarily have an oversight around the quality of information on them.

The Wells Fargo community has a few moderators and they play different roles, according to Matthews, from reviewing posts to providing additional information and links from useful articles and blogs. Read more