The
British bank, Abbey, is offering its customers
the opportunity to personalise their payment
cards with an image of their choice. Abbey launched
on 31 January 2004 its "Photocard service"
which allows cardholders to illustrate their
Visa debit, Visa Electron or 11-16 Cash Card
with their own photo, or a photo of a close
friend, their last holidays or a family pet.
Interested customers can also download images
from the bank's online gallery (landscapes,
historical monuments, flowers, etc.). For copyright
reasons, the photos have to be personal and
photos of artists, celebrities and sports stars,
for example, cannot be used. Access to the Internet
"Photocard" service is open to all
the bank's customers, even those who are not
registered for Internet banking. Customers will
be able to manipulate their image behind a banking
card template on the screens. They will also
be able to see how their personalised card will
look when cut to the standard size of a card,
which means that they will be able to start
again if they are not happy with the image.
The bank will charge £5 (7,26 euros) for
the service. According to a preliminary customer
survey conducted by the firm NOP on behalf of
Abbey, 56% of the people interviewed were in
favour of personalising their payment card and
26% said that it would influence their choice
of bank.
At the same time Abbey announced that it was
adding a new online service, namely a monthly
personalised summary page showing all the payments
made by the customer: cash withdrawals from
the counter or via an ATM, card purchases grouped
by shops, payments made by cheque, direct debit,
standing order, etc.
