KBank plans campaigns to boost credit card use
Kasikornbank will launch attractive campaigns to promote the use of credit cards for revolving credit with the aim of raising their proportion to 60 per cent from 55 per cent within two years.
The bank wants to reduce the proportion of credit cards used only for transactions from 45 per cent to 40 per cent so that it can increase interest income, Chatchai Payuhanaveechai, executive vice president of KBank, said yesterday.
The bank will join with partners and merchants to offer attractive interest rates for instalments.
Teenagers are among the target group.
Campaigns, particularly the rewards programme, are key drivers for increasing revolving card credit as well as attracting new customers and encouraging spending.
Even though the bank spends more than Bt1 billion annually to redeem points, it can still make a profit, especially fee income.
KBank is more selective in acquiring cardholders, as it wants to ensure a lower rate of non-performing loans.
The campaigns for all segments and strong sales staff both at its branches and at its direct-sales unit are drawing quality customers, mostly from other banks, Chatchai said.
KBank has started expanding the campaigns to 14 main provinces in line with the group’s strategy because the credit-card spending of provincial customers is only about 30-40 per cent, lower than the 60-70 per cent of those in Bangkok.
The flooding has not dampened the spending of upcountry customers, he said. Spending next quarter is expected to grow from this quarter because the fourth quarter is the high season for credit-card sales.
The new-card target for this year was 500,000, but the bank has already reached that, so it believes it will end the year with a total of 2.5 million cards, up 700,000 from last year.
Spending on KBank credit cards in the first eight months expanded 30 per cent to Bt119 billion and should approach Bt205 billion for the full year, Chatchai said.
