Absa intros LCD, NFC card
Absa has launched a techno-loaded card called Potentiate, claiming it to be the first of its kind in South Africa, giving customers a Tap and Go, LCD display MasterCard and featuring a host of other digital services.
The Potentiate account targets up-and-coming, tech savvy, business and professional people – and is available to individuals aged 18 years and older; holding a qualification and earning a minimum gross monthly income of R3,000.
The card packaged with the account is a MasterCard Titanium card, which has a button and digital LCD display that provides a one-time PIN for added security when shopping online at participating 3D Secure merchants.
The card includes MasterCard’s PayPass Tap and Go technology, which allows customers to “tap” their cards to pay for low value purchases in selected retailers.
The card allows clients to transact on any of their underlying credit, cheque and savings accounts, Absa said.
Absa Potentiate card
The Potentiate service also offers lifestyle and loyalty benefits to customers, including:
- Exclusive access to fashion shows, concerts, sports events;
- Previews of the latest gadgets, electronic devices;
- Discounted rates at various hotels
- Absa Online accessed through a new Apple iPad with a data bundle.
According to Absa, Potentiate customers can include an Apple iPad in the service deal from R232 per month – or at a 15% discount off the retail price of the New Apple iPads – until Freedom day (27th April 2013). The package comes with a free Vodacom data bundle (1GB for 2 months).
Absa said it will deliver the device free of charge to your door-step.
This is the first of Absa’s device or tablet offerings, which Absa said will later be extended to all customers.
Arrie Rautenbach, Absa head of retail markets, said the Potentiate account will give clients all their basic banking in one monthly fee. According to Absa’s fee brochure for 2012, the Potentiate account is R150 per month.
This includes unlimited free electronic transactions; access to Absa Online; unlimited free NotifyMe alerts; and unlimited debit card point-of-sale purchases and withdrawals.
“Any free unused transactions will be rolled over for use in the next month – and unlike other competing offers in the market, where customers pay a premium for out-of-bundle transactions, Potentiate has no hidden charges,” he said.
Rautenbach added that, if customers exceed the allocated number of transactions on the Potentiate account, normal pay-as-you-transact fee for that particular transaction will apply without penalty.
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