Cathay United Bank (
Holders of the new card -- also called "Aura card" because it is supported by France's Cetelem Bank's Aura Network -- decide how much they want to pay per month when they apply for the card, Joseph Jao (饒世湛), chief senior executive vice president of Cathay United, said at a press conference.
The installment payments can range from from NT$1,000 to NT$10,000.
The interest is calculated by the monthly installment and the annual percentage rate is 19.98 percent.
Aura cards are currently used by 15 million people in 17 countries worldwide, said Olivier Gonzalez, general manager of Cetelem Bank in Taiwan, who also attended yesterday's event.
Like a Visa or Mastercard credit card, an Aura cardholder can make purchases or withdraw cash from ATMs.
The difference is that an Aura cardholder only pays the fixed monthly installment set at application time, Jao said.
"This card is designed for customers who want to buy big-ticket items and pay according to their own budgets, which is a brand new concept for local consumers," Jao said.
The market for buying pricey products, such as electronics, furniture and automobiles, is about NT$300 billion to NT$350 billion annually, and this is also a main sector for consumers to pay by installments, he said.
However, most installment plans are set by the credit card issuers or stores, and not based on the buyers' own budgets, he said.
At present, consumers can use the Aura card at 875 shops, including the UK-based hypermarket Tesco Stores Co Taiwan, MFI International Taiwan Co (
Citibank Taiwan vice president Cheng Cheng-mount (
However, he cautioned that Cathay United needs to ensure its target customers clearly check to see if the card fits their spending habits.
Cash-advance cards, for example, are ideal for providing small loans for students or younger consumers with lower purchasing power who run short of cash every once in a while, Cheng said, adding that this strategy works very well.
Initial interest in the budget card among consumers appears to be mixed.
"The card will only facilitate impulse buying. The fact is, the lower installment payment I choose, the more interest I would have to pay," said Albert Kao (
Wang Mei-yueh (
"Since many stores such as Eastern Home Shopping Network (東森購物) provide interest-free installment plans that are 24-months long at most, why bother to pay interest [on a budget-card plan]?" Wang said.
UNPRECEDENTED PACE: Micron Technology has announced plans to expand manufacturing capabilities with the acquisition of a new chip plant in Miaoli Micron Technology Inc unveiled a newly acquired chip plant in Miaoli County yesterday, as the company expands capacity to meet growing demand for advanced DRAM chips, including high-bandwidth memory chips amid the artificial intelligence boom. The plant in Miaoli County’s Tongluo Township (銅鑼), which Micron acquired from Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp (力積電) for US$1.8 billion, is expected to make a sizeable capacity contribution to the company from fiscal 2028, the company said in a statement. It would be an extended production site of Micron’s large-scale manufacturing hub in Taichung, the company said. As the global semiconductor industry is racing to reach US$1 trillion
Singapore-based ride-hailing and delivery giant Grab Holdings Ltd has applied for regulatory approval to acquire the Taiwan operations of Germany-based Delivery Hero SE's Foodpanda in a deal valued at about US$600 million. Grab submitted the filing to the Fair Trade Commission on Friday last week, with the transaction subject to regulatory review and approval, the company said in a statement yesterday. Its independent governance structure would help foster a healthy and competitive market in Taiwan if the deal is approved, Grab said. Grab, which is listed on the NASDAQ, said in the filing that US-based Uber Technologies Inc holds about 13 percent of
Taiwan’s food delivery market could undergo a major shift if Singapore-based Grab Holdings Ltd completes its planned acquisition of Delivery Hero SE’s Foodpanda business in Taiwan, industry experts said. Grab on Monday last week announced it would acquire Foodpanda’s Taiwan operations for US$600 million. The deal is expected to be finalized in the second half of this year, with Grab aiming to complete user migration to its platform by the first half of next year. A duopoly between Uber Eats and Foodpanda dominates Taiwan’s delivery market, a structure that has remained intact since the Fair Trade Commission (FTC) blocked Uber Technologies Inc’s
Memory chip stocks extended their losses yesterday after Alphabet Inc’s Google publicized research that could allow more efficient use of the storage needed for artificial intelligence (AI) development. SK Hynix Inc and Samsung Electronics Co, South Korean leaders in the market, fell more than 6 percent and about 5 percent respectively in Seoul. In the US, Micron Technology Inc, Western Digital Corp and Sandisk Corp slid more than 2 percent in pre-market trading, after they all closed lower on Wednesday. Memory companies have been on a tear in recent months as the rapid development of AI infrastructure triggered a spike in chip
RSS