Press Releases

Budapest, November 3, 2003 14:30

On November 3, 2003, Matáv, CIB Bank and MasterCard unveil the product of their joint development effort, the Rubin Shopping Card. The new card developed for Matáv's residential customers is a universal product which functions both as a shopping card and a calling card, and offers holders several other valuable service features.

Rubin Shopping Card with a shopping credit line of HUF 100,000

The Rubin Shopping Card, which customers can apply for without having to present an income statement or open a bank account, provides an unrestricted shopping credit line of HUF 100,000 and can be used in any point of sale in Hungary with MasterCard Electronic card acceptance facilities. The cardholder can also pay his Matáv telephone bill with the card. The holder of the Rubin Shopping Card can shop all month and only settle the balance once a month. The sum spent with the card carries no cost for up to 40 days, provided that the cardholder always pays the card credit on time and in full. The cardholder can choose flexible payment of variable monthly amounts, but the amounts have to be at least 10% of the debt. In this case interest will be charged on the whole amount spent.

In order to increase the security of the purchases, the holder can also apply with his Rubin Shopping Card for the free CIB Mobile Bank monitoring service, which means that CIB Bank will always send an SMS message to the cardholder's mobile phone when a purchase is made with the shopping card, stating the available limit and the due date of reimbursement.
This free of charge service helps control finances, so the cardholder will always know when and how much he spent. The newly introduced Rubin Shopping Card enjoys extensive electronic channel support: CIB Internet Bank, CIB WAP Bank, Rubin Shopping Card Infoline (06 40 525 525).

Dr. Ádám Farkas, CEO of CIB Bank explains: "The success of the CIB Shopping Card, a card product of CIB Bank unique in the market, is shown by the fact that we have already won some 30,000 cardholders and numerous cooperating partners. The program launched in October 2002 reached a new stage when in November this year, in the framework of a cooperation arrangement between CIB and Matáv, a new card product called Rubin Shopping Card was brought out exclusively for Matáv customers."

The Rubin Shopping Card as calling card

The holder of the Rubin Shopping Card also has the possibility to use the card to make telephone calls in Hungary (in Matáv service area) and abroad (from both subscriber and public telephone stations) and have the call charged on his home telephone bill. The condition of ordering the Rubin Shopping Card is that the customer must be a subscriber of the Csevegő or the Sokatmondó package (if he is not a subscriber of either of these packages at the time of making the application, he has to order the Csevegő or the Sokatmondó package). With the Sokatmondó package the customer gets a 30% discount (for a maximum of 60 minutes a month) if he calls his home telephone with the Rubin Shopping Card. The holder of the shopping card can phone at the discount rates of the Csevegő and Sokatmondó tariff packages.

Christopher Mattheisen, chief officer of Matáv said: "This new product combines all the benefits which have ensured the unbroken popularity of the CIB Shopping Card and Matáv's calling cards (Sokatmondó and Ritmus). The annual fee for the Rubin Shopping Card is HUF 3499, and half of the first annual fee - gross HUF 1750 - can be used in calls within the Matáv network within six months.

Tony Fekete, East European regional director for MasterCard Europe said: "We were able to offer our partners extensive professional assistance in developing the Rubin Shopping Card, based on our domestic and international experience in the field of residential co-branded card products. MasterCard International card company has issued bank cards together with telecommunications companies in several places in the world. The customers, the merchants and the banks like the MasterCard Electronic bank cards for their secure use and the nearly 20,000 points of acceptance."