Citibank Taiwan Ltd (台灣花旗) has revamped its three credit cards, adding higher reward rates and an improved digital banking app in a bid to attract customers before an expected rebound in credit card spending next year.
The bank has raised the cashback rate of the Citi Cash Back Plus Card to 2 percent on all purchases, domestic and overseas, even insurance premium payments, Citibank told a news conference in Taipei yesterday.
The revamped card offers a higher cashback rate and simpler rules than the previous rate of 0.5 percent on regular purchases, and 1.5 percent on dining, refueling and supermarket spending, as Citibank hopes to encourage people to use the card for all purchases, it said.
Photo: Allen Wu, Taipei Times
As people are embracing mobile payment options, the bank is offering a special cashback rate of 10 percent for new clients who connect their Citi Cash Back Plus Card to one of the 10 most popular electronic wallets in Taiwan, such as Apple Pay, Line Pay Money or Jko Pay (街口支付), within three months of activating the card, it said.
Given that the COVID-19 pandemic has mostly halted international travel, the bank would allow holders of the Citi PremierMiles Card to redeem miles on domestic travel programs, it said, adding that people do not need to worry about miles expiring because they last a lifetime at Citi.
Holders of the Citi Prestige Card can also transfer airport delivery services to domestic travel programs due to the pandemic, it said.
The bank has made the digital banking app more intuitive after receiving complaints from consumers and would continue to improve the app to optimize its digital services, it said.
Credit card spending slowed this year, the bank said, as people canceled overseas travel plans amid the pandemic and did not spend as much on domestic travel as they spend on international travel, Citibank Taiwan country business manager Muge Yuzuak told the Taipei Times at the news conference.
Yuzuak said that she expects spending momentum to remain stable in the first half of next year and to stage a rally in the second half.
“It takes time for a recovery. The virus is unlikely to stop spreading soon, but we expect to have a different story by the end of next year,” Yuzuak said.
Citibank Taiwan, with a total of 2.14 million activated cards, ranks sixth among all of the banks in Taiwan and first among foreign banks, Financial Supervisory Commission data showed.
Asked whether the bank was seeking to improve its ranking, Yuzuak said that the bank concentrates on quality instead of quantity.
Citi aims to build a long-term relationship with customers, she said, adding that customers who feel good about its services would stick with Citi.
Taiwan’s rapidly aging population is fueling a sharp increase in homes occupied solely by elderly people, a trend that is reshaping the nation’s housing market and social fabric, real-estate brokers said yesterday. About 850,000 residences were occupied by elderly people in the first quarter, including 655,000 that housed only one resident, the Ministry of the Interior said. The figures have nearly doubled from a decade earlier, Great Home Realty Co (大家房屋) said, as people aged 65 and older now make up 20.8 percent of the population. “The so-called silver tsunami represents more than just a demographic shift — it could fundamentally redefine the
Businesses across the global semiconductor supply chain are bracing themselves for disruptions from an escalating trade war, after China imposed curbs on rare earth mineral exports and the US responded with additional tariffs and restrictions on software sales to the Asian nation. China’s restrictions, the most targeted move yet to limit supplies of rare earth materials, represent the first major attempt by Beijing to exercise long-arm jurisdiction over foreign companies to target the semiconductor industry, threatening to stall the chips powering the artificial intelligence (AI) boom. They prompted US President Donald Trump on Friday to announce that he would impose an additional
China Airlines Ltd (CAL, 中華航空) said it expects peak season effects in the fourth quarter to continue to boost demand for passenger flights and cargo services, after reporting its second-highest-ever September sales on Monday. The carrier said it posted NT$15.88 billion (US$517 million) in consolidated sales last month, trailing only September last year’s NT$16.01 billion. Last month, CAL generated NT$8.77 billion from its passenger flights and NT$5.37 billion from cargo services, it said. In the first nine months of this year, the carrier posted NT$154.93 billion in cumulative sales, up 2.62 percent from a year earlier, marking the second-highest level for the January-September
Asian e-commerce giant Shein’s (希音) decision to set up shop in a historic Parisian department store has ruffled feathers in the fashion capital. Anger has been boiling since Shein announced last week that it would open its first permanent physical store next month at BHV Marais, an iconic building that has stood across from Paris City Hall since 1856. The move prompted some French brands to announce they would leave BHV Marais, but the department store had already been losing tenants over late payments. Aime cosmetics line cofounder Mathilde Lacombe, whose brand was among those that decided to leave following
RSS