GE grows with Myer Black

Myer Black is winning customers for GE Money, 10 months after the return of what was once an icon of Australia's payment card landscape.
 
GE Money says 125,000 Myer Black accounts have been opened in the first 10 months of operation.
 
Skander Malcolm, managing director retailer solutions at GE Money said "consumers are taking up the card much quicker than our expectations".
 
Not a bad result for the card issuer given GE was dead against the plan by Myer management last year to issue a store card. GE wanted an open card (MasterCard or Visa) but Myer's new owners got their way.
 
GE will get its way, a year later, with the launch of a Myer Visa due in November. GE and Visa are said to be shouldering most of the promotion costs for the card, with Myer only lukewarm about the business case for the extra card program.
 
Malcolm said GE expected a significant customer take-up of the second Myer card.
 
"We run a very rigorous approval process up front and approval rates [on the Black card] have been very strong, the quality of the customer that shops in Myer is very good versus the norm."

Card spend and card receivables on the Black card aren't clear but may be on the low side. Most spending appears to be on purchases tied to the initial application for the card and a second purchase making use of a discount voucher mailed to the card holder. Repeat use of the card may be disappointing to GE and Myer.

Malcolm said the overall GE credit card portfolio has grown at around 2.5 times market for the last 12 months, due to strong growth in the low rate space, and very high rates of growth in the retail segment, where GE markets the Harvey Norman Go MasterCard as well as the Black card.