First National Bank (FNB) has scrapped its annual credit-card eBucks linkage fee and has simplified the way in which customers earn eBucks.
eBucks retains its key benefits enabling a member to spend well-earned eBucks at a wide range of partners, whether it is a flight anywhere in South Africa, shopping at retail partners such as Makro or by shopping online at the eBucks shop.
From Thursday, customers earn eBucks by focusing on the most commonly used banking products such as credit cards, cheque accounts or the bank’s innovative One Account.
“Transactions lie at the heart of the eBucks rewards programme. By focusing on everyday banking, we have ensured that people benefit from doing day-to-day transactional banking via their most frequently used accounts,” says FNB Core Banking Solutions CEO Galia Durbach.
She says the bank is now emphasising those areas where the customers have control and the greatest potential to earn eBucks.
With the FNB Earn Booster, customers can now boost their credit-card and/or cheque-account eBucks earn by 25% if they also hold a home loan or One Account with FNB. This means that the bank rewards customers for holding more than one product.
The scrapping of the annual credit-card eBucks linkage fee will potentially open the door for more customers to join South Africa’s best rewards programme in the financial-services sector (World Wide Worx Survey of South African loyalty and rewards programmes).
The bank paid out about R170-million-worth of eBucks last year. With the expected increase in transaction volumes — buoyed by the revised earn model and access to the eBucks programme at no charge — customers can look forward to about another R180-million on top of the R170-million payout in 2007.
Durbach says the bank is setting out to ensure that its eBucks programme, which set new benchmarks for innovation and loyalty in its launch in 2000, remains highly attractive.
Lezanne Human, CEO of eBucks, says “eBucks has always led the way in the rewards industry by offering attainable, relevant rewards. Now the programme is even simpler and easier to understand and, most importantly, it is at no charge.”
eBucks never expire; they can be spent in the online eBucks shop (via the website Ebucks.com or call centre), through eBucks travel, at eBucks auctions, with eBucks’s internet partners or at its retail partners with the eBucks card.
Customers are also not limited to just one type of reward. Having the widest range of spend options enables even those with low balances to get something for free.
The earn rules of the other eBucks partners (such as Rand Merchant Bank, Wesbank, Makro and other retailers) are unchanged and members can continue to earn from these partners at the same rate.