Citibank card for shopping and movie enthusiasts

Instant gratification is becoming the name of the game in the local credit card industry.

In considering what instant benefits appeal most to Filipinos, especially the young upwardly mobile professionals, or “yuppies,” two things come to mind—shopping and movies.

After all, didn’t Filipinos help Henry Sy become the richest man in the land by going to his SM shopping malls?

Citibank, a leading market player, has thus rolled out a new card packed with instant shopping rebates and movie benefits, bringing to the Philippines the 15th variant in its “plastics” portfolio.

Rewards card

The Citibank Rewards Card is aimed at capturing the growing market of Filipino consumers who are drawn to instant gratification offers and prefer simple availment of such benefits. It specifically targets yuppies who regularly allocate budget for shopping and factor in recreation into their lifestyle, such as watching movies.

Bea Tan, head of Citi Philippines’ credit payment products, says in a press briefing that the launch of this new product—alongside other credit card initiatives lined up by Citi for the rest of the year—would help “protect” the bank’s market leadership in the local credit card industry and support plans to grow Citi’s local credit card portfolio by 8-10 percent this year.

As Citi marks its 200 years as global company this year, Citi Philippines consumer business manager Sergio Zanatti says the launch of this new product was a reaffirmation of the bank’s commitment to anticipate the needs of consumers and drive innovation.

“The bar has been raised from the consumers’ point of view. The expectations are very high,” Zanatti says.

Among the exclusive benefits of this new product is that cardholders get a free P100 movie pass for a minimum single-receipt purchase of P2,500 anywhere, including online and international transactions. Unlike the limited promos in the past when they had to collect and present charge slips to get their freebies, the passes are credited to their accounts three business days after the purchase and are valid for 30 days.

Up to two movie passes can be redeemed per day in participating theaters: Cash & Carry Cinema, Eastwood Cinemas, Festival Cinema, Greenhills Promenade, Greenhills Theater Mall, Robinsons Movieworld, SM Cinema and Water Mart Cinemas.

Tan says the list of cinema partners is still growing.

In shopping, this is what cardholders will get:

— 5 percent rebate whenever they shop at selected partner merchants including Aldo, Aldo Accessories, Celio, Charles & Keith, Giordano, Marks & Spencer, Nike Park, Pedro, Runnr, Toby’s, Topshop, Topman, Urban Athletics and Zara.

— 3 percent rebates at The Landmark Department Store, Metro Department Store, Rustan’s Department Store and SM Department Store.

— 1 percent rebate for all other department stores.

Cardholders can use the rebates in denominations of P100 to pay for their next purchase at the participating shops and department stores and they don’t have to worry about any expiration date.

And for those who don’t like paying annual fees, the Citibank Rewards Card waives such fees for primary cardholders (P2,000) who spend at least P20,000 per month or P240,000 within their year of membership. Fees can also be waived for supplementary cardholders (P1,000) as well if they make at least six purchases every membership year.

Known to more than eight out of every 10 Filipino consumers, Citi has close to a million active credit card issuers in the country and a leading market share of 21 percent in sales and 22 percent in outstanding receivables at present. It has about 4,000 partner-merchants nationwide.

“Since 1990 when we issued the first Citibank credit card in the Philippines, we have been focused on providing world-class financial products and services to the Filipino consumer.

This commitment remains true not only for credit cards but also for personal loans, retail banking and wealth management,” says Zanatti.

“Now as the trend shifts more and more towards instant rewards and the market becomes highly competitive, we are bringing out this new card with one-of-a-kind features that offer not just promotions but rewards you can continuously enjoy throughout the year,” Tan says.