There are enormous opportunities for issuers to grow credit card portfolios in Latin America and the Caribbean and increase electronic payments penetration in these markets. One of the key ways to capture these opportunities is to focus on converting current debit customers to credit products, which will help mitigate acquisition costs. In addition to the higher direct cost of acquisition, there are additional risks involved with bringing in new credit customers that don’t have an existing relationship with your bank. Many account holders don’t have credit cards with their issuers in Latin America and the Caribbean, and there are 136 percent more debit cards than credit cards in these markets (Visa Quarterly Report, 2016). This demonstrates a great opportunity to cross-sell credit cards to current debit card holders. Your current customers may be good candidates for credit card offers, and offering products to existing account holders may decrease these risks and costs.
Three reasons why issuers should market products to their existing customers:
1. Existing account holders have greater response rates than new ones.
2. Working with known account holders helps mitigate risk.
3. Brand loyalty increases with multiple products, leading to an improved customer experience.
