by Paul McBeth
They had AJ Hackett leaping off Auckland's Sky Tower to launch the GlobalPlus card....and now there's the GlobalPlus Home Loan.
While the razzmatazz is about to begin, the loan's been quietly available through BNZ branches for a few weeks. It gives GlobalPlus cardholders an extra 10,000 Air New Zealand air points as well as ongoing points calculated on their loan balance.
Mike Hartley of BNZ Cards Marketing told Good Returns that GlobalPlus Home Loan was essentially a regular BNZ home loan with loyalty points added on. It's available to new borrowers as well as existing customers who switch over their BNZ loans, although they will have to wait for any fixed term loans to mature.
Aside from the initial bonus, a floating rate loan will attract 200 air points for every $1,000 outstanding on the loan balance per annum and fixed rate loans 120 points per $1,000. BNZ says that customers can earn enough air points within the first year of taking out a $150,000 loan to fly to Fiji and back.
Across town, ANZ Mortgages Group is running a promotion in conjunction with the Qantas Telstra ANZ Visa (QTAV) card. For loans approved by the end of March, qualifying customers receive 10,000 reward points which the bank says is a third of the points needed for a return trip to Australia.
Applications must be for new lending of at least $100,000 and for an ANZ Home Loan, Residential Investment Loan, ANZ Flexiplus or Equity Loan for personal purposes.