Each bank currently has at least three card types for different customers with diverse features, increasing technology applications. And at the end of this month, the market will have a new type of cards from Vietnam International Joint Stock Commercial Bank (VIB) with the feature revealed to be unprecedented in Vietnam market.
At the end of 2018, VIB resonated when launching five credit card lines at the same time to five groups of customers, in which there are many card lines with the first features on the market that cardholders are entitled to incentives: Happy Drive card reimburses 30 percent of service fee at car maintenance centres or workshops and donates up to 500 litters of gasoline per year to car owners; Travel Elite card has foreign currency transaction fee of only 1.75 percent for customers who regularly travel or work abroad; Cashback cards are up to 12 million dong per year; Rewards Unlimited cards give unlimited points up to five times for all transactions for those who like shopping; and Financial Free card with unlimited cash withdrawal to 100 percent of annual limit and free annual fee.
Meeting most of the actual needs of each target customer group and is very competitive with superior features and incentives first available on the market, this series of products has always been positively marketed since its launch. Within five months from the launch of five new card lines in November 2018, the number of credit cards issued at this bank increased by 83 percent over the same period. The strategy of attracting new customers and promoting credit card products that the company set up since the beginning of last year recorded positive results.
The VIB’s strategy of developing and promoting credit card business with a focus on thorough research of customers’ usage behaviour and forecasts of trends is also recognised by international organisations, most recently the reward named Vietnam’s best credit card issuer 2018 from Global Banking & Finance Review.
Tran Thu Huongdirector of VIB Retail Banking, said that one of the bank’s strengths was to always explore and to take the lead in finding unsatisfactory customers’ needs, thereby offering card products with the best features, giving customers the utmost satisfaction in spending and managing personal finance. She also shared that VIB would launch a new line of credit cards on April 25 and believed this would be a special attraction card line that no card line in the market can meet now, satisfying the biggest and most anticipated demand of consumers.
The reaction of the market to the bank’s new line of cards was focusing on credit card interest rates, and she said that VIB might take a bold step with no interest for longer than the usual terms in the market from 45 to 55 and even 60 days. Even, would there be a line of VIB cards that customers do not need to pay attention to?
The feature of the card is also rapidly developing, from just a non-cash payment vehicle, applying high interest rates, high fees, to many lines of cards that are exempt from annual fee, refund and bonuses. The features are more specific and cater to each user’s different needs.
Business and customer care consultant Nguyen Duong stated that the continuous improvement and creation of new products and services to help the banking industry was one of the most dynamic areas in raising high customer experience, playing an important role in tightening relationships between customers and credit institutions.
In the context of the credit card market is unable to meet the demand of managing the optimal spending of consumers today, if a new card line appears, the focus is on demand for interest exemption or reduction in Vietnam. In addition to other unique cards that VIB has launched to the market recently, this will be a bold step to help mark VIB as a pioneer in the credit card market in Vietnam.
