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Citi Hong Kong Brings Credit to Octopus Card Scheme
Citibank has teamed up with Hong Kong’s Octopus Cards reward scheme to launch a combined transit, reward, contactless, and credit card. The Octopus Citibank credit card is co-branded with the established Octopus card which previously offered contactless prepaid, reward and transit.
The stored-value, rechargeable Octopus card has been issued in Hong Kong since 1997. There are now 17 million Octopus cards in circulation and 50,000 installed readers.
The 2,000 service providers which accept the Octopus card include public transport authorities, parking sites, retailers, vending kiosks, schools, and leisure facilities. The cards are also used for access control to residential and commercial buildings.
The Octopus Citibank Credit Card is the first credit card in the market with the Octopus function, Citi says. It comes in a Platinum and a Gold Card version. Automatic reload for the Octopus feature is set up on the card as a default feature.
Cardholders earn a minimum cash rebate of 0.5 percent on eligible credit card spending. This rebate is credited against reloads for the Octopus prepaid feature. The cash back is in addition to the existing Octopus rewards scheme, Citi says.
Separately, Octopus Cards has signed a memorandum of understanding with China UnionPay (CUP) for the issuing of cards with both Octopus and CUP functionality. The two companies will also seek to enhance the acceptance of Octopus in China.