With most Taiwanese using cash-back cards as their primary credit card, Citibank Taiwan Ltd (台灣花旗) yesterday introduced a new credit card with up to 3 percent cash back for new customers.
Citibank Taiwan, which began operations in the nation 55 years ago and has offered credit cards for 30 years, said it launched the Citi Cash Back Plus Card to beef up its offerings amid fierce competition in the domestic market.
Although the bank has offered similar cards for more than 15 years, providing up to 1.5 percent cash back, the latest credit card offers up to 3 percent to attract new clients, it said.
Photo: Kao Shih-ching, Taipei Times
“So far, cash-back rebate is one of the most popular credit card reward pillars for Taiwanese consumers,” Citibank Taiwan consumer business manager Dennis Hussey said.
A survey of 600 credit-card users aged 25 to 55 found that 85.7 percent have cash-back cards, the highest among all types of credit cards, followed by reward-point credit cards at 67.5 percent and other types at 37.5 percent.
The survey found that 72.7 percent of cardholders use cash-back cards as their primary credit card, he added.
While many local banks offer a cash-rebate program, Citibank Taiwan said it is confident that it offers better rewards, as it has higher rebates for everyday spending categories, lifelong rewards points and no minimum spending requirements.
New cardholders can earn NT$3 in cash rebates for every NT$100 they spend at restaurants, supermarkets and gas stations, Citibank Taiwan senior vice president Walkings Lee (李吉彬) said.
They can also earn cash when “autoloading” their EasyCards, which is rarely offered by other banks, as Citibank aims to deliver a superior experience for new cardholders, he said, referring to a process that automatically charges a user’s credit card to add value to an EasyCard.
Cardholders can redeem cash rewards when paying their monthly bills or exchange them to pay for parking at a better rate, Lee said.
Citibank Taiwan said that it pioneered the cash-back reward system and issued the nation’s first cash-back platinum card, which has been immensely popular in the market and set a good example for the industry.
Due to changes in the credit-card market, Citibank Taiwan said that it has once again increased its cash-back reward benefits.
Taiwanese suppliers to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC, 台積電) are expected to follow the contract chipmaker’s step to invest in the US, but their relocation may be seven to eight years away, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) said yesterday. When asked by opposition Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Niu Hsu-ting (牛煦庭) in the legislature about growing concerns that TSMC’s huge investments in the US will prompt its suppliers to follow suit, Kuo said based on the chipmaker’s current limited production volume, it is unlikely to lead its supply chain to go there for now. “Unless TSMC completes its planned six
Power supply and electronic components maker Delta Electronics Inc (台達電) yesterday said second-quarter revenue is expected to surpass the first quarter, which rose 30 percent year-on-year to NT$118.92 billion (US$3.71 billion). Revenue this quarter is likely to grow, as US clients have front-loaded orders ahead of US President Donald Trump’s planned tariffs on Taiwanese goods, Delta chairman Ping Cheng (鄭平) said at an earnings conference in Taipei, referring to the 90-day pause in tariff implementation Trump announced on April 9. While situations in the third and fourth quarters remain unclear, “We will not halt our long-term deployments and do not plan to
‘SHORT TERM’: The local currency would likely remain strong in the near term, driven by anticipated US trade pressure, capital inflows and expectations of a US Fed rate cut The US dollar is expected to fall below NT$30 in the near term, as traders anticipate increased pressure from Washington for Taiwan to allow the New Taiwan dollar to appreciate, Cathay United Bank (國泰世華銀行) chief economist Lin Chi-chao (林啟超) said. Following a sharp drop in the greenback against the NT dollar on Friday, Lin told the Central News Agency that the local currency is likely to remain strong in the short term, driven in part by market psychology surrounding anticipated US policy pressure. On Friday, the US dollar fell NT$0.953, or 3.07 percent, closing at NT$31.064 — its lowest level since Jan.
The New Taiwan dollar and Taiwanese stocks surged on signs that trade tensions between the world’s top two economies might start easing and as US tech earnings boosted the outlook of the nation’s semiconductor exports. The NT dollar strengthened as much as 3.8 percent versus the US dollar to 30.815, the biggest intraday gain since January 2011, closing at NT$31.064. The benchmark TAIEX jumped 2.73 percent to outperform the region’s equity gauges. Outlook for global trade improved after China said it is assessing possible trade talks with the US, providing a boost for the nation’s currency and shares. As the NT dollar
RSS