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Huntington Offers Choice with 'Voice' MasterCard
YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio -- After an absence of 13 years, Huntington Bank has re-entered the credit-card business by introducing Voice MasterCard. Voice gives customers the choice of earning rewards or paying a lower rate of interest, 3% lower if they forgo bonus points, on unpaid balances.
Based on the cardholder’s credit score, the annual rate the bank would charge on unpaid balances ranges from 6.99% to 20.99%, says Mark Sheehan, Huntington’s director of payments and channels, if he chooses to forgo the bonus points.
The bank charges no annual or transaction fees to use Voice outside the United States, nor will it raise the interest rate should a customer fail to make the minimum payment by the due date, (although there could be a late payment penalty of as much as $35) and it allows a one-day “Late Fee Grace” period for payments received after the due date, Huntington said in its press release announcing the card.
It’s a continuation of Huntington’s “Fair Play Banking” initiative, says Mary Navarro, director of retail and business banking at Huntington, based in Columbus. “The Voice credit card is another initiative aimed at doing the right thing for the customer by giving them a voice in their banking needs and allowing them to choose the card that is best for their financial needs,” she said in a prepared statement.
The card will be offered to Huntington’s current consumer banking customers, Sheehan said Thursday in a telephone interview. Those who are not customers are welcome to visit a branch or go online to apply, he said, and learn through Voice the benefits of becoming a Huntington customer.
Those who hold the card can earn “triple rewards,” that is, three points for every dollar spent in the category they select, up to $2,000 per quarter. They have their choice of 13 categories, and earn one point per dollar spent in all other categories, no limit on earning single points.
Once the cardholder has spent $2,000 in the triple-points category, he earns only a single point per dollar the remainder of the quarter, Sheehan said.
Points can be redeemed for merchandise, airline travel, gift cards and cash, Sheehan said. The cardholder visits the Huntington website and goes to the catalog page to redeem points earned. Earning 5,000 points could be redeemed for $50 in cash, Sheehan said, “a penny a point.”
The holder can change the triple-rewards category as often as he wants but the one that counts is the one at the end of any given quarter, Sheehan said.
A cardholder can change the triple-points category online or at a Huntington branch.
Among the 13 categories are restaurants, utilities, groceries, pharmacy, apparel, gasoline, travel and entertainment.
Deciding to reintroduce credit cards was an easy decision, Sheehan said. Structuring it to meet customers’ needs and preferences and making it unique in the marketplace was the challenge. Huntington believes Voice is “the only credit card of its kind in the country,” the bank said in its release. Through focus groups, Huntington learned half of its customers use a credit card more than a debit card and this persuaded the bank to re-enter the credit card market.
The Voice credit card is Huntington’s third agreement with MasterCard, the bank says, and it follows the conversion of the bank’s debit card program to MasterCard in fall 2011. Because of the partnership with MasterCard, Huntington Voice customers have zero liability for unauthorized transactions, worldwide acceptance everywhere MasterCard is accepted (including no foreign transaction fees for Voice cardholders) and 60-day price protection.