While browsing SMH, I spotted National Australia Bank‘s new credit card – Visa Mini Card. It boasts 43% smaller than a regular credit card, comes in 5 different shining metal colours, and have a list of accessories that lets you hang your mini Visa card around your neck or together with your mobile. NAB is definitely trying to sell their new credit card as something more than a piece of plastic – it is a gadget!!

What a brilliant idea! NOT!! Why someone wants to hang credit card around one’s neck is beyond me. Moreover, it actually comes in two cards – the smaller card for magnetic strip reader, and a normal size card for ATM and other non-swipe devices. That means, whenever you go out and shop, you not only have to embarrass yourself by hang that shining plastic on your neck, you have to carry yet another card in your wallet just in case you need to access the ATM.

Smart!

Yet I still went and applied one for myself. Why?

• No annual fee for the first year. AUD$19 for subsequent years.
• 1% cash back for up to AUD$120 a year. That means you only need to spend $1,900 to weave the annual fee, and anything above that is purely reward.
• You don’t even need to claim the reward yourself – it gets rebated to you automatically.

And you get cash back reward, not useless shopping vouchers or overpriced gadgets. That is actually a pretty good credit card reward program in Australia. One reason I am still hanging onto my ANZ Reward Card is its reward program, and now I am thinking of ditching that…

Update: An interesting article on Visa Mini at Footpath Zeitgeist.