General Card Services, which provides management services to Central Credit Card, anticipates that total credit-card spending will surge by 12-15 per cent this year, thanks to big improvements in the country's political and economic problems.
However, the recent flooding, if it persists longer than a month, may have a significant impact on spending behaviour and credit-card use, as many people will purchase only necessary products and avoid shopping for luxury goods.
"The political unrest impacted our customers' credit-card spending, which dropped by almost 30 per cent year on year in April and May," said Montri Sitthiyavanich, managing director of General Card Services, a wholly owned subsidiary of Krungsri Group.
Montri said consumers had higher discipline than in the past when spending money via credit cards, especially at times of uncertainty.
"The level of non-performing loans on our credit cards has declined gradually from 3 per cent in 2008 to only 1.1 per cent nowadays," he said.
The Bank of Thailand has reported that overall outstanding loans on credit cards dropped from Bt196 billion last December to Bt188 billion in July.
"However, encouraged by significant improvement in both political and economic problems, we believe that the overall outstanding loans on credit cards will start to increase for the rest of this year," Montri said.
General Card Services manages credit cards for Central Retail Corporation, including Central Card and personal loan services, Robinson Card and Power Buy Card.
Montri said there were currently 840,000 Central Credit Card holders, 90,000 holders of Robinson Cards and 300,000 holders of Power Buy Cards. About 30,000 accounts had also applied to Central's personal loan service.
He said the number of new members had increased 10 per cent year on year.
"Between 6,000 and 7,000 people apply for Central Credit Cards every month. About 50 per cent of them apply for the new Central White Gold Card, which was launched last month."
He said the White Gold Card, targeting consumers with a modern lifestyle, would replace the Central Red Card, which would be terminated soon.
"We expect the number of applicants for Central Credit Cards to increase significantly, to 950,000 holders by the end of next year," Montri said.
He said there were four classifications of Central Card - Classic, Gold, White Gold, and Platinum - targeting different needs and income levels.
About 70 per cent of Central Card holders have Gold Cards, while 20 per cent use a Classic or Red Card, and another 10 per cent the Platinum Card.
General Card Services yesterday announced the launch of its latest campaign, "Central Credit Card Cash Back Nationwide", which will give as much as 8 per cent cash back as a special gift for card members to cerebrate the coming year-end festival.
Under the campaign, Montri said, Central Credit Card members would receive up to 8 per cent cash back on instalment payments through the Central Payment Plan programme nationwide, 3 per cent cash back on spending at Bangkok Hospital, BNH Hospital and Bumrungrad Hospital, 3 per cent cash back on spending at Tops Super and Tops Market, and 2 per cent cash back on overseas spending.
In addition, White Gold members would enjoy 5 per cent cash back on spending at petrol stations nationwide.