By Peter Egwuatu

Diamond Bank is set to reward its customers with N605 million in its season 4 SavingsXtra, as 20 winners emerged last weekend, in the first draw held in Lagos.

Speaking at the first draw of the season 4, Senior Adviser, Retail Banking, Diamond Bank, Plc, Mr. Garry Mash, said, “As a Bank we rely on our customers being loyal to us and we think it is right that we repay that loyalty – which is the very reason we introduced and launched Savings Xtra.

“We want our Savings Xtra balances to grow; it helps our business and also helps the overall economy. A culture of high savings in any country is a good thing. We think that Savings Xtra helps to drive that culture but with some fun as well.

This has given us the opportunity to reward loyalty and return back to the society. It has been extremely gratifying to listen to the voices and see the faces of our loyal customers when they are told that they have won – a TV, a car, N1 million N10 million and N50 million and so many other fantastic prizes.”

He disclosed that the Bank would sustain the Savings Xtra promo provided it will continue to benefit its customers as well as the Bank.

According to him, Diamond SavinXtra customers also have change of winning N100,000 salary for life for 20 years.

Mash, noted that what makes Season 4 different is the addition of a star prize of N1, 000,000 to the weekly draw. “It could not be easier – you only need to save N5, 000 in a Diamond SavingsXtra Account to stand a chance in any of our monthly & weekly draws.

If you already have that balance, you are automatically qualified. But remember, for every extra N5, 000 in your account, you get one additional chance to win. So the more you save, the more you are likely to win” he added.

While commenting on the Bank’s newly credit card, Mash said, Diamond Bank introduces Savings Xtra credit card, the first credit card linked to a savings account.

According to him “SavingsXtra credit card is a combination of the best savings account (Savings Xtra) and the best credit card in Nigeria (Diamond Bank Visa Credit Card). It is a secure credit card which means that we can make it the least expensive in the market, with fees of only N300 per month and an interest rate of only 2per cent per month.

It is available to anyone who has, at least, NI 40,000 on their Savings Xtra account – no minimum salary required – and like all of our credit cards, it is naira denominated, meaning you do not have to source foreign currency when paying your monthly bill. The great news is that the Savings Xtra credit balances will continue to qualify for the monthly prize draws, whilst card holders go ahead and use their cards.”

It will be recalled that Diamond Bank introduced the SavingsXtra rewards over three years ago (in June 2008), with the intention of encouraging a savings culture and as an opportunity to reward customers for their loyalty.

The Bank gave away N200 million in prizes in Season 1 (June 2008 to July 2009); N400 million worth of prizes in Season 2 (September 2009 to August 2010), N500 million in Season 3 (September 2010 to August 2011) and it we will be giving away N605.5million in Season 4 (September 2011 to August 2012).

Chidinma Lawanson, Head of Small Medium Scale Industry, Diamond Bank said, “About 30,000 new savings Xtra accounts are opened in Diamond Bank monthly since the introduction of the incentive for savings account holders. So across the country, we are getting 30,000 customers joining us every month. We hope that season 4 will be greater.”