Savings banks and Payback seal cooperation - launch 2025
From 2025, savings bank customers will be able to collect Payback bonus points directly when paying with their Girocard. The Sparkassen-Finanzgruppe and the bonus system have now sealed their cooperation, as a spokeswoman for Deutscher Sparkassen Verlag (DSV) announced on request.
"With Payback, we have now gained a cooperation partner to offer customers of the savings banks a national bonus program with a wide reach," said the spokesperson. "The Sparkasse Card will play an important role in this, allowing users to collect Payback points when paying at participating partners. The launch is planned for 2025."
DSV conducted the negotiations with Payback as a service provider for the Sparkassen-Finanzgruppe. After months of negotiations, it became clear at the beginning of October that the two partners would come together.
Payback users can collect bonus points when shopping at around 700 partner companies such as petrol stations, drugstores and supermarkets, which they can later exchange for rewards or vouchers. The so-called Deutschlandcard works in a similar way. In future, savings bank customers will not need to carry a separate card from the bonus system to collect Payback points: The points will be credited automatically when they pay with their Girocard.
Two heavyweights in the market join forces
For Payback, which according to the company has around 31 million users in Germany, the cooperation with the savings banks is the first partnership in the girocard sector. With 47 million cards issued, the savings banks are the largest issuer of the Girocard, which many people still refer to as the "EC card".
Bonus systems such as Payback and Deutschlandcard are not uncontroversial: consumer advocates regularly warn against disclosing too much personal data in return for a discount and thus becoming a "transparent customer".
The DSV spokesperson emphasized the voluntary nature of the new offer: "Customers only use the service if they expressly wish to do so and activate it themselves. Each savings bank decides for itself whether to participate in the program." According to information from the beginning of October, between 250 and 300 of the 353 savings banks in Germany have signaled that they want to offer their customers the Payback function.
Source: www.dpa.com
