Indonesians rated most extravagant

Indonesians rated most extravagant

JAKARTA (JP): Indonesian holders of American Express cards rank first in Asia in terms the amount of money spent using the cards, an executive said yesterday.

Roy Tan Hardy, director of marketing and sales at American Express Travel Related Services Indonesia, said Indonesians spend an average of more than US$10,000 per card per annum.

"That's an average. If you pinpoint individual cardholders, you will see a wide range of spending levels. Some spend more than US$200 million, others less than $10 million," Hardy said after singing an agreement with Bank Jaya for marketing the cards.

Hardy said the number of American Express cards issued in Indonesia currently stands at 40,000, as compared with 36.3 million cards held worldwide.

"We measure our business growth, not on the basis of the number of new cards, but on the total amount of spending on each card. The greater the spending, the higher our growth is," Hardy said.

Hardy said that only 1.3 million payment cards, ranging from credit cards to charge cards from various issuers, are in use in Indonesia. At the same time, money spent using the cards constitutes between 3 and 4 four percent of total consumer spending in the country. (rid)