Charter One Bank, the fourth-largest bank in Greater Cleveland, is launching a new rewards program that pays customers 10 cents for each transaction done electronically -- meaning not with paper.
The bank's GreenSense is aimed at helping the environment and attracting and retaining customers.
The initiative is similar to other banks' rewards programs and Charter One's existing program. The big difference is that GreenSense pays cash directly into customers' accounts, and it's aimed at promoting only electronic transactions. The program is voluntary.
Charter One plans to offset the expense of paying customers cash rewards by reducing paper statements it mails out, said spokeswoman Carrie Carpenter. Only about 10 percent of Charter One's customers with checking, savings or money market accounts currently receive statements electronically.
Most banks with rewards limit cash perks to debit card transactions only, or award points that can be redeemed for merchandise or gift cards.
National City, for example, in early 2006 launched a groundbreaking program that rewarded customers with points every time they wrote a check, made an online payment, used a small-business credit line or did other routine business with the bank. Citibank also awards points for having multiple types of accounts or services, such as direct deposit or online bill payment.
Charter One rolled out its first rewards program in 2000, before online banking took off, and revamped it in early 2007. Charter One caps rewards at $10 per month, or $120 per year. The money is deposited into customer accounts monthly.
Transactions that qualify are debit card purchases, online bill payments and recurring payments scheduled through the bank. Customers aren't rewarded for writing checks because "that's not saving the environment," Carpenter said.
Charter One estimates that a million customers will enroll. If each normally makes 10 transactions a month and does them electronically instead of with paper, that would save 700,000 pounds of paper and 7 million gallons of water in one year, Carpenter said.
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