The Scotiabank PriceSmart Diamond MasterCard will be offered at a 49 per cent interest rate to PriceSmart's mainly middle to upper income Kingston and St Andrew-based clients. The product is to be launched on Tuesday, March 24, in Kingston.

New type of value

Elena Villafana Sylvester, vice-president of retail banking at Scotiabank, downplaying the significance of PriceSmart's sizeable up market clientele,said the bank and the local arm of the international franchise were looking to "provide a new type of value for retail customers".

As with other credit cards, spending limits on the PriceSmart card, she said, would be determined by individuals' income and assessed debt-servicing ability.

"As usual, if they pay within the month, no interest will apply," Villafana Sylvester reminded.

Talking up the benefits of the card, she said it would offer "the biggest reward ever issued on a credit card in Jamaica".

Noting that such retail partnerships are common in Europe and the United States, Villafana Sylvester said PriceSmart represents for Scotia, a "matching of our corporate footprint throughout the Caribbean".

Int'l warehouse clubs

PriceSmart, headquartered in San Diego, United States, operates 25 warehouse clubs in 12 countries: four each in Panama and Costa Rica, three each in Guatemala and Trinidad, two each in Dominican Republic, El Salvador and Honduras; and one each in Aruba, Barbados, Jamaica, Nicaragua and the US Virgin Islands. The number of clubs has not increased over the past year.

PriceSmart Jamaica has around 30,000 clients who pay US$30 plus sales tax each year for diamond membership and US$50 plus GCT for a business membership.

avia.ustanny@gleanerjm.com