BNZ scoops inaugural Bank of the Year – Credit Cards award

Bank of New Zealand has won the inaugural Canstar’s Bank of the Year – Credit Cards award.

The award recognises the institution that provides the strongest combination of products across a range of spending patterns and preferences.

“New Zealanders are getting much savvier with the way they manage their debt, and people are using credit cards in a variety of different ways now,” BNZ chief customer officer consumer and wealth Paul Carter said.

Carter mentioned some of BNZ’s credit cards and their features. He noted BNZ Low Rate Mastercard is great for people who don’t pay their balance off in full each month and who want low fees, and it also offers 12 months interest free balance transfer deal.  However, Carter warns not all balance transfers are created equally and it is important that clients check the repayments applied to their cards.

“When you transfer a balance to a BNZ credit card your repayments go toward the highest interest balances first,” he explained. “This means new spending is paid off first and you can pay your transferred balance off over time without any unpleasant surprises.”

Meanwhile, a BNZ Advantage Visa card is for people who plan to use cards for everyday spending and then paying it back each month. It gives clients the choice between earning Cash Rewards, which can be saved towards a future goal, or Fly Buys points, which is brilliant for travellers.

“Mobile payments and shopping online are trends that you simply cannot ignore – more and more of our transactions are happening online and through new payment technologies like Apple and Google Pay,” Carter said. “A BNZ credit card lets you make the most of all of it.

“A Flexi Debit Visa is a great partner to a credit card too, allowing you to get the benefits of a credit card, such as increased security and the contactless payment technologies, but using your own money instead,” he added.