Credit card issuers target consumers at shopping malls

Issuing co-branded credit cards with shopping centers and malls is becoming a popular way to boost the number of cardholders, a credit-card industry insider said yesterday.

"We have surpassed a million cardholders this year, and about 30 percent of them are customers of Sogo Department Store," said Daniel Tung (董自立), executive vice president of Cathay United Bank (匯通銀行).

According to National Credit Card Center (聯合信用卡中心) statistics, in October Cathay United was the third-largest credit card issuing company in Taiwan, reporting some 1.25 million card members.

Chinatrust Commercial Bank (中國信託銀行) had 3.5 million members and Taishin International Bank (台新銀行) had 2 million.

Cathay United teamed up with Pacific Sogo Department Store (太平洋崇光百貨) in August to issue co-branded cards. Following the alliance, Cathay United gained about 250,000 cardholders via Sogo.

"The number of card registrations doubled last month," Tung said.

Cathay United expects to have over 1.36 million card members by end of this month.

Union Bank of Taiwan (聯邦銀行) also regards shopping centers as good card promoting partners. The bank has allied with the newly opened Breeze Center (微風廣場) in October.

The bank is ranked as the fifth-largest credit card issuing financial institution in Taiwan, according to National Credit Card Center.

"Last month, we approved around 50,000 new card registrations, with 60 percent of them applying for our co-branded card at Breeze," said Chen Yi-jou (陳怡如), an assistant manager at Union Bank.

Union Bank has over one million cardholders, of which about 33 percent have registered for the Breeze card.

Prompting cardholders to spend

In addition to expanding cardholders quickly, aligning with shopping centers is also regarded an efficient way to gain customers with large amounts of disposable income.

"Normally, some cardholders might just register for freebies rather than actually activating their new cards," Chen said.

"But in order to enjoy the discounts we offer with shopping centers, customers have to use our card."

Another credit-card company said that consumers who shop at department stores usually have deep pockets.

"Sogo department store had NT$16.8 billion in sales last year, making it the leading revenue earner in Taiwan among such retail outlets. We have therefore surmised that people making purchases there are willing to spend more," Tung said.

Cosmos Bank (萬泰銀行) also adopted a co-branded card model in July when it began cooperating with another recently opened shopping mall in Taipei -- Core Pacific City (京華城).

According to Huang Shih-yi (黃時宜), marketing manager at Cosmos Bank, the company has issued over 300,000 credit cards, of which about 200,000 users have registered through Core Pacific City.