The more the merrier … the bank is pushing the ‘family construct’ especially hard this year. Image: Moneyweb
FNB has announced annual tweaks to its eBucks rewards programme, which paid out a total of R2.4 billion in rewards in the last 12 months. This is a sharp increase on the R1.86 billion paid out over the same period a year ago.
The bank has always contended that eBucks doesn’t just offer rewards for rewards’ sake, like a traditional loyalty scheme. Rather, it uses the programme to drive behaviour change among its clients.
Johan Moolman, CEO of eBucks, points to the fact that more than half of its customers (56%) now do all of their pharmacy spend at Clicks since the retailer became a partner in April. Previously, only 27% did all their pharmacy spend there.
The popular fuel rewards via Engen (including quarterly double-up rewards, where up to R8 a litre is paid back) remain the same, as do discounts of up to 15% at partners Checkers/Shoprite and Clicks.
The basic construct of the programme doesn’t change either. Customers collect reward points for certain behaviours. These then determine their eBucks reward level at the end of every month (for the following month). Their rewards – effectively discounts paid back as eBucks – are based on the reward level achieved. So, for example, an FNB Private Clients customer on level five can earn 2.5% back on qualifying in-store spend on their Fusion or credit card. That same customer on level 3 would only earn 1.2%.
Moolman says the bank has responded to feedback from some customers who said understanding how to move up eBucks levels could be confusing.
It has added a ‘Track my rewards’ tab on the app which shows how many points a customer has collected, with shortcuts to actions that will net additional points.
The four big changes from July 1:
Beyond these major changes, on Premier and Private Clients, thresholds for transaction activity have been adjusted.
Customers now need to do at least six and eight transactions per month on the FNB App respectively to net 2 000 points (instead of four). There are other new ways to collect points, such as doing two transactions a month on FNB Pay (500 points) and maintaining a “healthy” credit status (up to 2 000 points).
It has also reduced the qualifying monthly deposit requirements for Premier customers (from R16 500 to R13 500) and created a way for customers to earn their cheque account fees back in eBucks by either holding certain minimum balances in the bank’s investment products or meeting certain requirements with personal loans products.
The bottom line, however, is that it will be tough to remain on eBucks reward level five if you do not hold an:
Alternatively, you would need a linked spousal or child (FNBy) account, with the bank pushing the “family construct” especially hard this year.
You’ll need to likely use at least one of these (or be an all-FNB family) to comfortably be at the maximum reward level.
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