Bank of Nova Scotia Jamaica, which already has some 100,000 credit-card clients on its books, is looking to leverage new business from the retail trade by collaborating on an 'advantage' card with PriceSmart.

Potentially, the deal offers BNS access to a market of 30,000 customers, who, by virtue of membership at PriceSmart, an international warehouse super-market with one store in Kingston, can apply for the new Scotiabank/ PriceSmart Diamond MasterCard.

Its holders must have a minimum pre-tax salary of $44,000 per month or $528,000 per year to qualify for the card.

Scotiabank Jamaica says this is the bank's first partnership of its kind involving a retail store. Still, the PriceSmart card is not the typical store card given that it can be used wherever MasterCards are accepted locally.

At the Red Hills road location in Jamaica, PriceSmart clients pay US$30 plus tax for diamond membership and US$50 plus tax for business membership.

Credit card cost

The new credit card will cost members an additional J$3,305, plus $1,650 per person added to the card.

And the credit card remains valid as long as its holder renews his/her PriceSmart membership.

Similar cards have already been launched in the Dominican Republic, Trinidad and Tobago and Barbados.

"We are looking to do a roll-out in other Caribbean locations," said Pedro Vera, vice-president of operations for PriceSmart Inc.

The new card, offered at a 49 per cent interest rate, was launched Tuesday at the Knutsford Court Hotel in New Kingston, with the promises of a two to three per cent cash-back reward to users.

The minimum credit allowed is $40,000 for which a qualifying salary of $44,000 monthly before tax is needed.

According to Villafana Sylvester, the new card can be used at any other merchant locally or internationally.

Consumers will earn two per cent on total purchases up to J$89,000 and three per cent on the total purchases above that figure.

Rebates, however, are capped at $40,000 per annum.

Rebate and cash back

The rebate and cash back earned on the Scotiabank/PriceSmart Diamond MasterCard will be issued to card users as a diamond cash certificate for use at PriceSmart.

The programme imitates, for example, the Lovebird Keycard issued by National Commercial Bank, which is tenable nationally but which racks up reward points for travel on Air Jamaica only.

Vice-president Vera - while he would not disclose figures on the earnings of the Jamaican store - said that PriceSmart has been doing well in its almost six years in Jamaica with its best performance in foods, including fresh produce and meats.

Plans to expand to Montego Bay, he said, had not been shelved, but remain under consideration.

Elena Villafana Sylvester, vice-president of retail banking at Scotiabank Jamaica, said the new card, on which the holder's photograph will appear, will function both as a membership and identity card for PriceSmart clientele.

The membership number is also imprinted on the back of the credit card.

Offerings

Holders of the Diamond Master-Card will therefore have no need for an additional PriceSmart membership card, nor proof of identity for card purchases inside the wholesale supermarket.

The new card also offers a maximum of US$250,000 in MasterTravel accident insurance and US$50,000 for car rental in the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico when full rental cost is paid with the card.

But only PriceSmart members will be able to access these benefits. PriceSmart Inc, headquartered in San Diego, United States, operates 25 warehouse clubs in 12 countries: four each in Panama and Costa Rica, three each in Guatemala and Trinidad, two each in Dominican Republic, El Salvador and Honduras; and one each in Aruba, Barbados, Jamaica, Nicaragua and the US Virgin Islands. The number of clubs has not increased over the past year.

avia.ustanny@gleanerjm.com

Lesley Gordon shows the new look credit card at the Scotiabank/PriceSmart Diamond MasterCard launch at Knutsford Court Hotel in New Kingston on Tuesday, March 24. - photos by Rudolph Brown/Chief Photographer