TBank’s special offer to FLASH Plus clients
THANACHART BANK (TBank) has launched a campaign offering a one-month debt-repayment waiver, interest free, to FLASH Plus cash-card holders who demonstrate good financial discipline for at least six months, in a move that it hopes will increase brand aware
First vice president Thiranard Puangmaha said yesterday that TBank had introduced the campaign to encourage more customers to apply for its FLASH Plus cash card, as such cards were one of the main products offered by both banks and non-bank financial institutions, making it a segment in which consumers have a wide range of choice – and one in which they can be customers of several brands.
“As a medium-sized bank, we have to have attractive features to increase interest in our cash card. Quick approval and pricing are not the [main] demands of customers, according to our research. Customers want [to be able] to skip debt repayment in the event that they are unable to pay, so we have developed this campaign to accommodate this requirement,” she explained.
“We have conducted a study of the behaviour of new FLASH Plus customers, which [on average] use 60 per cent of the credit line that we approved. Yet, we have to maintain our existing customers, which use personal loans more frequently,” she added.
TBank is the first bank to allow personal-loan customers to request a suspension of their debt repayment for one month, with the bank not charging interest during the period and their credit worthiness remaining unchanged, the executive said.
Apart from increasing awareness of the FLASH Plus product, she said the bank wanted to help reduce the burden on customers who perhaps faced a temporary shortage of cash flow.
However, it is only offering the waiver deal to those who have demonstrated good discipline in repaying debt for at least six months with TBank, she stressed.
The bank will send a short message directly to targeted customers each month, telling them that they can select the month in which they can suspend their debt repayment.
The campaign covers about 60 per cent of the bank’s FLASH Plus customers, of which there are around 400,000, she said.
It is aimed at attracting new customers in the 25-40 age bracket, with those at the higher end of the range being the chief focus for TBank as it is expanding its customer base among those who prefer to use the online channel and offer the greatest potential for FLASH Plus usage, she added.
The one-month-waiver campaign is available to customers until the end of this year.
