Member Article

Shopping centre giant intu collaborates with MBNA

intu – owner of some of the UK’s largest and most popular shopping centres incuding the intu Trafford Centre – has worked with MBNA to create a new, pioneering credit card.

The new credit card forms an integral part of intu’s strategy to build its national consumer-facing brand by offering intu credit cardholders a range of benefits whenever they spend, including intu gift cards. Cardholders can access exclusive offers with retail and leisure brands in intu centres, from entertainment to leisure and dining.

The deal between intu and MBNA is believed to be the first of its kind between a credit card provider and a shopping centre owner in the UK.

This new collaboration opens up a major new market for Chester-based MBNA, after successfully engaging with a range of leading brands over the years. Consumer insight from MBNA has identified this as a significant market opportunity for pioneering, new financial products that will be beneficial for customers.

Over 35 million customers – equivalent to more than half the nation’s population – visit intu’s UK shopping centres every year, which include intu Trafford Centre (Manchester), intu Lakeside (Essex), intu Metrocentre (Newcastle), and intu Victoria Centre (Nottingham). All in all, intu customers make an incredible 400 million centre visits a year.

“Thanks to intu’s nationwide scale and consumer-facing brand, we’ve been able to team up with the UK’s leading credit card experts, MBNA, to create a sector-first commercial agreement that will form an integral part of our ongoing brand-building strategy and help all our retailers to flourish,” said Trevor Pereira, intu’s digital and commercial director.

“Our combined expertise in retailing, customer experience, payments and rewards has enabled us to create something very special for millions of shoppers around the UK. With the new intu credit card, we’ll be extending our customer-first approach straight to the wallets of our customers, providing them with moments of delight through our value-added benefits and rewards, which we have developed though the relationships we have in retail and leisure.”

Michael Donald, MBNA’s Commercial and Payments executive, commented: “We’re delighted to be the first credit card provider in the UK to collaborate with a market-leading shopping centre owner in a new deal that brings an exciting mix of rewards and benefits to customers. While many other credit card providers have been downgrading their loyalty and reward programmes or exiting this market completely, MBNA has worked with intu to take a completely fresh approach for customers.”

He added: “The result is the new intu credit card, the first of a new breed of reward credit cards – you might say it’s ‘bursting with benefits.’ We have the expertise to deliver compelling financial products, tailored around the things customers have been telling us are important to them. With their help, we’ve put together an exciting range of unique offers and exclusive benefits.”

The new intu credit card is available for eligible new customers to apply for now. Visit https://www.mbna.co.uk/compare-credit-cards/rewards-credit-cards/intu/ for information or full terms and conditions.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by MBNA .