BPI lowers credit card charges

The Bank of The Philippines Islands (BPI) has lowered its finance charge per annum by one percent every quarter, starting on the month which will be reflected in the cardholders’ May statements, and continuing to June and October.

Already offering one of the lowest monthly finance charge rate previously at 2.99 percent, BPI Express Credit Classic cardholders will experience lowered rates as follows: May 1 - 2.9 percent per month; Aug 1 - 2.8 percent per month; Nov 1 - 2.75 percent per month.

The lowering of the rates is in response to the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas’ call for card issuing companies, mostly banks, to follow the drop in the market’s interest rates, now at their lowest levels in decades.

This plan is on top of the zero percent finance charge on new purchases, which has long been a source of savings of all BPI Express Credit cardholders, unlike with other credit cards.

Last year, BPI total card base grew by 21 percent to 817,000 cards issued, representing a 15 percent market share. With its lower interest rates, BPI expects to hit its milestone of one million cards by the end of this year.

"The new campaign lives up to our promise to take our customers farther. This we do by providing our customers with world-class products and services which are reasonably priced," BPI president Aurelio R. Montinola III said in a statement.

In the first half of last year, BPI Express Credit launched the BPI WorldPerks MasterCard, the country’s first airline co-brand, chip-based credit card in partnership with one of the world’s largest airlines, Northwest Airlines.

All BPI Express Credit cards are using the Europay-MasterCard-Visa (EMV) chip technology, which increases protection against identity fraud, one of the biggest problems in the industry today, not just in the Philippines, but worldwide.

BPI is the first and still the only credit card issuer in the country that has migrated its cards from pure magstripe to smart chip technology to provide superior data encryption capability for enhanced information security.

Internationally, there are already 42 EMV-compliant countries in Europe, Middle East, Africa and Asia. This makes the Philippines at par with world-class standards with BPI Express Credit.

"For those who want lower interest payments and fees, there is BPI Express Credit Classic; for those who dream of traveling and want to accumulate as many air miles, there’s BPI WorldPerks MasterCard; for those who want rebates on their fuel expenses, there’s Petron-BPI MasterCard; and for those who want to earn rewards points and exchange them for gifts, there’s BPI Express Credit Blue, Gold and Edge MasterCard," BPI said in the statement.