According to an article in creditcards.com, Citi is testing a program that consolidates charges and rewards from two rewards cards that draw from the same line of credit into a single monthly statement. "For instance, a consumer could use the American Express version of the Citi AAdvantage card at Costco, which doesn’t accept Visa or MasterCard, and then use the Visa or MasterCard version at a retailer that doesn’t take American Express—and have both charges reflected on the same billing statement."
The article quotes COLLOQUY’s own Kelly Hlavinka, who points to the need for consumer choice—and the differentiation that it can lead to—in the face of the ubiquity of loyalty programs. As our most recent loyalty census reveals, the average American household has memberships in 14 different loyalty programs.
The creditcards.com site writes, "Hlavinka credits Citi’s effort at making its new program ’seamless and automatic for the customer,’ because it has consolidated statements and appears easy to manage, with no downsides such as additional fees or negative effects on credit ratings. She says offering a consolidated billing statement sounds similar to what the company has done with its ThankYou Rewards program, which allows consumers to accumulate rewards points in one rewards account by using different cards and other financial products. But because the additional card is similar to the original, she wonders if the offer is compelling enough to keep customers from adding cards from competitors."
URL: http://www.colloquy.com/breaking_view.asp?xd=7964
No comments:
Post a Comment