People's Bank makes festive season profitable with 'Pay back Shopping'

Vishmi Wijeratne

Deputy General Manager Domestic Credit, K. B. Rakapakse

People's Bank PLC who caters to the best interests of their merchants, have come up with yet another service that would make shopping during the festive season much easier and profitable for anyone holding a People's Bank Visa Credit Card or a People's Bank Visa International Debit Card as the People's Bank is prepared to pay the merchants back up to Rs. 25 000.

"By introducing our latest concept of financial services, 'Pay back Shopping,' people would be able to purchase goods from anywhere around the country and would be eligible to be a lucky prize winner. However, merchants would only be eligible to win if they shop from three places," Deputy General Manager Domestic Credit, K. B. Rakapakse said.

Furthermore, 25 winners each week, would be awarded Rs.25,000 of their shopping back. This service would continue until the end of December. Thus, producing 100 winners.

"However, the merchants would only be awarded based on their expenditure.

Thus, a winner who has spent only Rs.5,000 on his shopping, would only be paid back that amount. While a person who has spent more than Rs.25,000 would be paid back up to Rs.25,000 if chosen a winner," Rajapakse said.

At present, People's Bank has awarded the first 25 winning merchants their payback and hopes to continue it throughout the month of December.

Commenting further about the services offered during the festive season, Rajapakse said that credit cards issued during the last 2 weeks of December would be exempted of the membership cost.

"Festive season is the time when people tend to do extra spending and we hope to make their shopping experience a bit lighter on their pockets, while making their financial experience more efficient," he said.

Speaking about People's Bank and its other services offered, the bank provides its merchants online banking, SMS banking and palmtop banking, thus, moving with time catering to all its merchants' needs. People's Bank has 747 branches, 408 Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) all around the country.

"People selected our banks due to the efficiency we provide each of our merchants.

"At present, electronic banking is growing fast and people could access financial services from banks around the clock," Rajapakse said. People's Bank is in the process of replacing their debit cards with their new People's Bank VISA International Debit Card and requests their clients to change their debt card with no additional cost.