CTBC Bank (中信銀行) on Tuesday announced that starting next year, it is halving the rewards for cobranded Line Pay credit cards, with cardholders earning 1 credit point for every NT$100 (US$3.25) spent, instead of 2 points.
It is the second time that the bank is cutting Line Pay card’s rewards, which started with 3 points for every NT$100 spent when the card was launched in 2016.
However, the bank also announced new partners in hopes of expanding its client base.
Cardholders who use Line Pay at Hotels.com or Showtime’s movie theaters (秀泰影城) would earn 15 and 10 points respectively for every NT$100 spent, it said.
They would earn 5 points for payments at designated fitness stores, cosmetics and beauty shops, gas stations, and Line TV and the Line store run by Line Taiwan Ltd (台灣連線), it said.
The credit points are also known as “Line points,” with each Line point equivalent to NT$1, the bank said.
The bank’s move is likely to affect the number of Line Pay cards issued next year, as many cardholders were attracted to the card because of its lucrative rewards, one female cardholder told the Taipei Times yesterday, adding that she would not use the credit card as frequently as before.
With 1.83 million issued since its launch in December 2016 to September this year, Line Pay card is the bank’s fastest-growing credit card, data from parent company CTBC Financial Holding Co (中國信託金控) showed.
The bank did not explain why it was cutting its reward program, but its third-quarter fee income declined 1.5 percent annually due to the high cost of providing rewards for Line Pay credit cards, CTBC Financial said at an investors’ conference last month.
“The bank is reviewing its rewards policy and plans to set up a different strategy,” CTBC Financial president Daniel Wu (吳一揆) said at the time.
The bank last month said it expects the number of Line Pay cards issued to hit 2 million by the end of this year, with total card spending reaching NT$200 billion.
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