Meet your new BFF: HSBC Red MasterCard redux

When it comes to shopping, your BFF is your partner in crime, right? You can share your guilty pleasures, she can approve or veto a potential purchase … but can she give you a 30-percent discount when you go wild with your credit card?

That’s the concept behind the HSBC Red MasterCard, which is getting a second life by partnering with Rustan’s and all its premium brands that women love.

“We present a very good product that is designed to be a lady’s best friend,” said Anton Huang, executive vice president of Rustan Commercial Corporation and Stores Specialists, Inc. “We have close to 30 Rustan’s brands offering perks and privileges to Red cardholders as they embark on their shopping and pampering adventures.”

HSBC Red MasterCard redux offers “Red Hot Deals” — exclusive discounts and free items from Rustan’ Beauty Source brands such as Tory Burch, Banana Republic, Baylis & Harding, Bobbi Brown, Cath Kidston, Clarins, Clinique, Compagnie de Provence, Dermalogica, Elizabeth Arden, Estee Lauder, Grace Cole, Heathecote & Ivory, Inno Sotto, Kenzo, La Prairie, Laura Mercier, Deborah Lippmann, L’Occitane, MAC, Mario Badescu, Murad, NARS, OPI, Perricone MD, Phyto, Sisley, Stila, and T. LeClerc.

Whew, quite a lengthy list of treats!

When HSBC first launched the Red MasterCard 12 years ago, the idea of a credit card tailor-made to meet women’s needs might have seemed quaint in First World countries that fight for gender equality, but it makes perfect sense in matriarchal societies like the Philippines.

“It’s a card for women because it’s women who hold the purse strings,” observed Wick Veloso, CEO of HSBC Philippines. “We’re targeting the same kind of customers that Rustan’s is actually targeting: the Rustan’s Group has a lot of brands covering beauty, wellness and fashion — the three things that women enjoy the most.”

After the HSBC Red MasterCard was originally launched in 2001, it became so popular and enduring that it’s actually entered MasterCard’s hall of fame.

“Clearly, what we’d like to have are very good products and services for women,” Veloso affirmed. “As they say, buying the perfect dress at Rustan’s with your HSBC Red MasterCard: worth thousands. But being a lady: priceless.”

Another priceless feature of the Red card is zero-percent-interest installment plans. Say, you buy jewelry at Tiffany or get a spa package at Clarins, you can pay in monthly installments for up to 36 months with no interest whatsoever.

“The Rewards Program gives them more than what they ask for: four times the rewards points on all their shopping purchases,” added Jose Rene “Poch” Villa-Real, country manager of MasterCard Philippines. “They can earn four times faster with four times the bonus points for every P10 spent in shopping merchants.”

Other Red perks include a 30-percent discount on all items and zero-percent interest for up to six months on installment at Miladay; a 15-percent discount at Topshop, Dorothy Perkins and Miss Selfridge; zero-percent installment on Brow Resurrection 2.4 at Browhaus; 20 percent off on IPL packages and zero-percent interest on 12-month installments at Strip; 35 percent off L’Oreal Color Service and Powerdose Treatment at David’s Salon; and 50 percent off on facial services at Shiseido.

These rewards sweeten the privileges that HSBC credit cardholders already enjoy: a three-percent rebate plus bonus points at Caltex; one Reward/Bonus Point for every P10 spend that can be used to claim rewards items; and waived annual and joining fees for primary and supplementary cardholders for the first year.

If this is your first time to apply for the Red card, you’ll get a one-of-a-kind gift from your new BFF. Upon reaching a minimum P2,000 spend with your HSBC Red MasterCard, you’ll receive a travel kit from leading makeup brand Benefit: either Bronze of Champions, Primping with the Stars, or Do the Bright Thing.

Considering the Red card’s many appealing benefits, can men and metrosexuals apply for it as well?

“We still believe that the female market drives that brand loyalty in the household but in terms of spending, it’s close to a 50-50 split,” Veloso said.  “Though the HSBC Red MasterCard is still predominantly a ladies’ card, we have a few men wanting the card for the perks and privileges it gives cardholders.”

Always a step ahead, Villa-Real says that credit cards as we know them today may not last much longer, so we should enjoy our Red cards while we can.

“We’re looking at M2M, or machine-to-machine transactions, from your watch or smartphone to the gas pump or cash register,” he predicts. “In the near future, your refrigerator will actually be able to call the grocery and order the things you need.”

M2M is also more secure, since the smart chip inside your device that will contain all your credit card information is immune to hackers.

The challenge for companies like MasterCard is expanding their reach to the rest of the Philippines — people in the provinces who are not likely to ever wield that piece of plastic, or whose candy-bar phones don’t contain the chip that smartphones do to conduct such transactions.

“The question people always ask me is how many cards do we have in the Philippines?” Villa-Real says. “If I say a million, that’s nothing compared to a population of 100 million.”

For those of us who are extremely familiar and friendly with our credit cards, however, the long wait before M2M becomes a reality can be spent — literally! — very pleasantly.

And because it is powered by MasterCard, the HSBC Red MasterCard is accepted in more than 210 countries and territories all over the world.

I’m looking forward to getting to know my new BFF better.

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To apply for the HSBC Red MasterCard, visit http://www.hsbc.com.ph/.

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