OREANDA-NEWS. October 12, 2011. All bankcards issued by Swedbank to private individuals will start earning reward points from October and cardholders can use these points for discounts on banking services or gifts. Only the credit cards issued by Swedbank collected reward points before, reported the press-centre of Swedbank.

Swedbank’s Director of Retail Banking Ulla Ilisson says that all clients can now participate in the bank’s new reward programme, which allows them to collect valuable points in the their accounts. “Clients don’t have to do anything to join the programme,” said Ilisson. “They will earn these valuable reward points simply by continuing to make card payments. It is obvious that the amount of reward points collected in the account in a month or two is not very big, but after six months or a year it may be large enough to allow the client to choose a free gift or banking service. We keep broadening the selection of gifts and services, as choosing a reward has been difficult when the amount of points is small. It is also possible to donate the points to charity.”

The bank transfers one reward point to the client’s reward point account for every EUR 20 spent on a debit card. Clients can view the first debit card points earned in October from 8 November when they log into the Internet Bank. If a client also uses a credit card in addition to the debit card, the points earned with both cards are added up to create a single reward account. There will be no changes in the manner in which credit card points are earned.

Ilisson says that clients can select a variety of gifts for the points they earn. “Gifts include food, gift vouchers and also discounts on banking services – we will be offering more of these than before,” she explained. “For example, you can use your points for the option to make free domestic payments for six months. The selection of gifts and services in the programme will certainly broaden in the future.

“We would like our clients to check their contact details and update them if necessary to make sure that important information about banking services and offers reaches them in time,” added Ilisson. “This allows us to inform clients about the expiry dates of the reward points and gifts, or about new banking services.”