Banks are driven to make a profit. Some might say at any cost. But when your brand position is to help New Zealanders be good with money, sometimes you need to find a balance.

One way to make profit is through credit cards: interest on unpaid balances, annual card fees and through interchange (clipping the ticket on payments made using the card at a retailer’s). While a great model for years, this changed with the shift of considerable budget to acquiring new customers with 0% balances transfers deals. Without interest, these deals were making the bank little money and not driving loyalty, with many newly acquired customers bounced right out the door on another balance transfer.

BNZ realised it was time to do things differently. They wanted to acquire new cardholders who’d stay, but more than that, understanding the stress debt brings, they genuinely wanted to help these new customers be good with money. The solution: a behaviour change programme that offers tips, tools and motivation designed to help customers get their balance to zero and never pay another cent in interest again.

Part way through, behaviours are changing, targets are exceeded and BNZ has already saved cardholders $1.512 million in interest.