Chocolate Finance Issues Linked To Miles Reward Option: CEO

The firm disabled AXS payment option for Chocolate Visa Card as it was unsustainable, he says

- Sheila Chiang

The high demand for instant withdrawals from Chocolate Finance was linked to a miles reward programme which debit card holders were maximising by making huge payments on AXS machines, said the financial services firm on March 11.

Its founder and chief executive Walter de Oude, speaking to The Straits Times, said this made the option unsustainable, and the firm disabled the option to make AXS payments with the Chocolate Visa Card on March 5 while keeping the two-miles-per-dollar reward for other categories.

When Chocolate Finance launched its partnership with HeyMax on Feb 11, customers could earn two miles per dollar on virtually everything, even on transactions commonly excluded in similar reward programmes, such as charitable donations, education, insurance premiums, utilities and AXS transactions.

"Singaporean customers were very, very smart and managed to maximise the system, which kind of skewed the programme and, therefore, we had to correct and stop the AXS piece," said Mr de Oude.

He had said via LinkedIn on March 10 that the programme worked brilliantly for customer acquisition. However, bill payments, especially through AXS, surged far beyond expectations, making the programme unsustainable.