Thursday, September 12, 2013

Citigroup Upping Ante On Charge Card Mail Deals

Citigroup Upping Ante On Charge Card Mail Deals

By Cornelius Nunev


Not to be beaten by the rivalry, Citigroup is blasting out credit card offers by mail in the 3rd quarter, as reported by the Wall Street Journal. Over 346 million credit card solicitations with be dispersed in North The United States, as reported by figures by industry research company Synovate. It will cost $240 million for Citigroup to get to every single person in the U.S., more than once.

Offers from Citi already abound

After the third quarter figures are tabulated, Citigroup will probably take the lead from Chase as it is already one of probably the most active mailers for charge card promotions. During the financial crisis, the company lost hundreds of millions of dollars, which is why executives think it is money well spent to send out postal mail.

As the Nilson Report confirms that Citigroup currently ranks fourth in dollars spent on credit cards by United States customers - behind American Express, J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. and Bank of America Corp. - the ground to make up is considera-ble.

After the storm there's a rainbow

Continued reduction in non-collectable charge card debt across the U.S. has confident the powers at Citigroup that the darkest clouds of re-cession have passed. This must be true since the company, when compared to the second quarter of 2010 where it made $154 million, made $584 million in 2011's second quarter.

This can be a good opportuni-ty with the opposition slowing down with mailings, according to Citigroup executive Jud Linville. Last quarter, there were less mailing from Bank of America, Discover and American Express.

"This is a business where you look for vacuums," Linville said. "Are there players moving out of certain categories?"

Cash lost due to law

The Durbin Amendment of the Dodd-Frank Act, which will go into effect in October, will cap the amount of fees banks can collect from merchants per debit card swipe. This makes debit cards substantially less profitable for issuing banks, which in turn has caused many issuers to drop costly rewards programs.

Citigroup plans to get customers into its charge card programs by bridging this gap. To grease the wheels, Citi has offered credit cards with simplified fee structures this summer, some with no annual fee or late charges, others with zero percent balance trans-fers. Customers that take advantage of the deals will end up making Citi some cash. It will be worth it in the end.




About the Author:



Share This

No comments:

Post a Comment

Designed By Blogger Templates