Bank SinoPac (永豐銀行) yesterday introduced its “Sport Card,” the nation’s first credit card to use calories burned to determine the reward points multiplier, as it targets sports lovers to expand its credit card base.
Cardholders can triple their reward points by burning more than 3,000 calories per month, the bank said, adding that the multiplier rises to five or seven times if they burn more than 5,000 or 7,000 calories respectively.
“We set 3,000 calories as the minimum for rewards, as we want to encourage consumers to exercise. People can easily burn 2,000 calories per month commuting to work on foot,” Bank SinoPac consumer banking division head Jerry Wu (吳建毅) told a news conference in Taipei.
However, cardholders cannot earn reward points by only burning calories, as the bank said it would still encourage them to spend.
The bank, in cooperation with electronic device maker Garmin Ltd and wearable device supplier Fitbit Inc, requires cardholders to wear one of the two firms’ smartwatches to authenticate caloric data.
“Our testing found that if cardholders tie the watch to their pets, the smartwatches know not to count steps taken or calories burned,” Wu said.
Bank SinoPac has spent the past year preparing for the new card, particularly on a system to automatically access cardholders’ data from the two device suppliers, whose data centers are in the US and Germany, he said.
The bank said that it would also use Google Fit or Apple Inc’s Health app in the first quarter of next year, and is even considering working with Xiaomi Corp (小米).
With an eye on Taiwan’s NT$120 billion (US$3.9 billion) sports market, the bank said that it aims to add sports lovers as new clients.
Bank SinoPac plans to develop related financial and health products, such as spillover insurance, Wu said.
While there are many co-branded cards featuring renowned athletes or basketball teams, Bank SinoPac is focused on its cardholders by providing incentives to exercise, MasterCard Taiwan president Eva Chen (陳懿文) said, adding that the bank plans to promote the reward scheme in other nations.
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