Author |Li Lanqing.
Editor丨Zhou Yanyan.
Source丨Visual China.
Once on the card forum, the platinum card of a bank is known as the god card, and it is rumored that some users have to do it 80 times before they get it, but this card has also gone down the altar in recent years. A senior credit card user told reporters.
In the past, the rights and interests of the "God Card" were cut, which is a microcosm of the shrinkage of credit card rights and interests in recent years.
At the end of 2023, various banks have successively issued announcements on the adjustment of credit card service rights and interests in 2024. On major social platforms, many users find that the threshold for redeeming credit card miles or points is increasing, resulting in a shrinking of the actual benefits of credit cards. According to the incomplete statistics of the 21st Century Business Herald reporter, since the beginning of this year, many banks such as Industrial Bank, Huaxia Bank, Minsheng Bank, Postal Savings Bank, Bank of Communications, CITIC Bank, and Shanghai Pudong Development Bank have announced that they will adjust the rights and interests of some of their credit cards from 2024.
When credit cards enter the era of stock or even shrinkage, cardholders' consumption concepts and bank card product strategies are changing. On the one hand, credit card users are becoming more rational, and users who are not "wool party" need products that suit them more than rights and interests; On the other hand, banks are also turning to differentiated product development to impress users' minds with refined services and achieve value transformation.
Some high-end credit cards have "stepped down from the altar".
For a long time, for high-net-worth customers, the bank's high-end credit card rights and interests have mainly focused on high-frequency consumption scenarios such as air travel, exchanging miles for points on the basis of full consumption, and providing high-end user rights and interests such as airport pick-up, hotel discounts, fitness services, etc.
Although there is a certain threshold to apply for a high-end credit card, "cardholders" are happy to do so because of the rich benefits.
Taking the former Internet celebrity card Pufa AE White (i.e., Pufa American Express Platinum Credit Card) as an example, this high-end credit card was once called the "god card" of the year by credit card players.
At that time, SPD AE Bai announced that as long as you apply and get off the card before April 30, 2016, you can waive the annual fee of 3,600 yuan for the first year, and the annual fee for the second year can be redeemed with 200,000 points. Cardholders can enjoy more than 800 airport VIP lounges around the world, 3 airport pick-up and drop-off services per year, 50,000 points for one night in a five-star hotel twice a year, luxury buffet in star-rated hotels, all-you-can-play golf, 12:1 points for airline mileage, 1% cash rebate for overseas consumption, and a series of rights and benefits.
However, in the following years, the rights and interests of this god card have been gradually adjusted, and the threshold for multi-level consumption has been increased. For example, if you want to redeem miles for points on a 12:1 basis, cardholders need to spend a total of 180,000 yuan from January to June, and set a redemption limit of 20,000 miles. In the latest announcement of Shanghai Pudong Development Bank, in 2024, the 20,000 mileage exchange quota activity and the "Reliable Fly" delay insurance will be cancelled, and the number of rights and interests of some life services will be halved.
The high-end credit cards that have stepped down from the altar are not only AE white.
The 21st Century Business Herald reporter noticed that at the beginning of this year, many banks such as Industrial Bank, Bank of Communications, and Agricultural Bank of China announced that they had lowered the proportion of credit card mileage exchange. In the recent announcement of the 2024 rights adjustment, the China CITIC Bank Marriott Bonvoy co-branded credit card has increased the monthly limit of online transaction point accumulation, and some credit cards under Postal Savings Bank, Minsheng Bank and Huaxia Bank have cancelled sports rights, unlimited roadside assistance services, airport VIP lounge services and other lifestyle rights.
User consumption behavior tends to be rational
I just cancelled a platinum credit card from a major bank. ”
Xiao Ye, born in the 90s, told the 21st Century Business Herald reporter that he opened a credit card for young high-end consumers under a joint-stock bank at the end of 2021, with no annual fee for the first year, and 800 yuan for annual consumption of 80,000 yuan or more, with 300 selected hotels VIP price for 2 nights, 199 points to exchange for entertainment members and other rights. However, when he went to Disney to book a nearby hotel this year, he found that the actual room rate of the U300 selected hotel included in the rights and interests exceeded 400 yuan, which was not much lower than the market price of other software, and the popular ** hotel room types that were sold out on the platform were still available, and there were still vacant room reservations on other software platforms.
Some of the core rights and interests are not used, and I often miss the points for members, and I have to bear the psychological pressure of brushing up to 80,000 yuan every year, so it is better to cancel this card. Xiao Ye said frankly that he compared the average monthly amount of card swiping before and after opening the card, and swiping 80,000 yuan per year means that the average monthly consumption is about 6,666 yuan, but his previous average monthly consumption amount is actually about 5,500 yuan. "When I opened the card, I thought that some large purchases could be filled every year, and I could also enjoy all kinds of exchange rights, and after opening the first payment option of all payment software, I linked this card, now I think about it, maybe I am not suitable for this high-end credit card, and after canceling the card, it is still open source and throttling. ”
From "Kanu" to "Kamin", it is not only Xiaoye that has produced a similar change in consumption concepts.
The rights and interests are not used up, the consumption amount is not up to standard, and the rigid annual fee of some bank credit cards is wasted. On social platforms, some cardholders said that they worry about points all day long after applying for a card, and may consider canceling their cards.
I do not encourage regular cardholders to open more than 3 credit cards. As a veteran cardholder for more than 20 years, Dong Zheng, an expert in credit card business, told reportersOn the one hand, it is difficult to manage the card, and the repayment time and repayment amount of credit cards of different banks are different, which is easy to cause overdue. On the other hand, cardholders should still start from their own needs when using credit cards, and should not open cards for the sake of rights.
Changes in the operational strategy of bank credit card products
Looking at the above-mentioned shrinkage of bank credit card rights, it mainly focuses on the "inflation" of points and the increase in the consumption threshold for enjoying rights.
Regarding the problem of "less and less valuable" points, Dong Zheng pointed out that the root cause is that credit card points are linked to bank income. In the past, the handling fee rate of offline card transactions was higher than that of third-party payment card swiping fees, and in the context of today's credit card binding Internet payment, this income has shrunk and led to the depreciation of points.
The increase in the consumption threshold for enjoying rights and interests is the result of the dual changes in the operation indicators and product strategies of bank credit cards.
In the face of increasingly stringent credit card business policies and the declining scale of credit cards in the stock era, activating the stickiness of existing users to bring about value transformation is a problem that bank credit card centers are more concerned about.
The person in charge of the credit card center of a leading bank once mentioned to reporters that the essential difference between credit cards and retail loans is overdraft, but if users do not have the Xi of spending in advance and do not need to spend in advance, how to reflect the significance of credit cards? His answer is "creating value". "Credit card is the integration of resources and a platform, which can create value for users and bring users a better consumption experience and lower **. On the other hand, it can also bring greater customer flow and higher transaction value to partners. ”
High-end credit cards based on annual fees and carried interest are the mainstream attempts of banks.
Among the credit card products, whether it is a product with relatively stable rights and interests, most of them are high-end cards that charge high annual fees, and because of their stable annual fee income and customer resources, their loyalty to the products is higher than that of some free products that attract users by relying on rights and interests. Dong Zheng believes that credit card products should pay attention to the direction of users' rigid consumption needs, which are usually due to the fact that this type of credit card products can meet some of their rigid consumption needs, and at the same time bring returns higher than the annual fee expenditure, the sensitivity to the annual fee is weak, and the churn rate is relatively low.
"The scale of the credit card market has entered a relatively saturated state, and the form has also shifted from a seller's market to a buyer's market, which puts forward higher requirements for whether credit card products can be accurately positioned in the market segment. ”Dong Zheng said that in order to achieve the sustainable development of the credit card business, it is necessary to adopt clear and accurate marketing strategies in different product life cycles.
sfc
Editor of this issue: Li Yutong, Xi, Xiao Nan.
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