BNZ sweeps inaugural credit card award

25 January 2019

Bank of New Zealand’s commitment to helping customers get more out of their credit cards has been recognised today, winning Canstar’s inaugural Bank of the Year – Credit Cards award. The award comes on the back of BNZ winning the Bank of the Year – Small Business, Bank of the Year – Online Banking, and Bank of the year – Commercial Credit Cards in 2018.

BNZ Chief Customer Office Consumer and Wealth, Paul Carter, says “New Zealanders are getting much savvier with the way they manage their debt, and people are using credit cards in a variety of different ways now.

“Our BNZ Low Rate Mastercard is great for people who don’t pay their balance off in full each month and who want low fees. If you plan to do your everyday spending on a card and then pay it back each month, a BNZ Advantage Visa card is worth looking at, as it gives you the choice between earning Cash Rewards, which can be saved towards a future goal, or a Fly Buys points, which is brilliant for travellers as they can be used to fly almost anywhere in the world,” says Mr. Carter.

Carter believes credit cards and their features are an important part of payments in a digital world.

“Mobile payments and shopping online are trends that you simply cannot ignore – more and more of our transactions are happening online and through new payment technologies like Apple and Google Pay. A BNZ credit card lets you make the most of all of it.

“A Flexi Debit Visa is a great partner to a credit card too, allowing you to get the benefits of a credit card, such as increased security and the contactless payment technologies, but using your own money instead,” says Mr. Carter.

Balance transfer deals can make switching banks for a new credit card a good deal, but customers should double-check the details of the transfer.

“Right now, you can transfer a credit card balance from any other bank onto a BNZ Low Rate Mastercard and enjoy 12 months interest free,” says Mr. Carter, “But not all balance transfers are created equally,” he warns.

“It’s worth checking the order your repayments apply to your card. When you transfer a balance to a BNZ credit card your repayments go toward the highest interest balances first. This means new spending is paid off first and you can pay your transferred balance off over time without any unpleasant surprises,” says Mr. Carter.

ENDS

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