Russians turn down cash back due to fine print

Almost a third of Russians do not use cash back cards because of non-transparent conditions or lack of information, Raiffeisenbank survey showed. Among those who use the product, one in ten indicated a large number of exclusions from loyalty programs and fine print. At the same time, interest in cash back cards grows together with the client’s income, and families with children try to increase bonuses by making additional purchases.

Who uses cash back

Almost 70% of Russians surveyed use cash back cards. Most often these are people aged 26–35 with high incomes. In the group with an income of over 90 thousand roubles per month, 90% of respondents get cash back, while with an income of up to 30 thousand roubles per month, only 58%.

Almost a third of all respondents (over 27%) said that they do not use cash back cards. The main reason (42% of the answers) is non-transparent conditions for the card. Another 24% admitted that they simply did not know about such a banking product. The respondents in Ufa, Rostov, Nizhny Novgorod and Krasnodar are least aware of the existence of cash back cards. Residents of St. Petersburg, Yekaterinburg and Moscow are most familiar with cash back.

A fairly large proportion of respondents do not use cash back card for other reasons. It is usually the lack of the service on the salary card, unwillingness to apply for a new product and examine its conditions.

«Any financial product should be simple and clear for the client. A bank card is a tool for everyday purchases, and cash back is an additional bonus that makes cashless payments more profitable for the client. Clients have a request for lifestyle services that help easy solve traditional financial tasks," Maksim Stepochkin, the Head of Non-Credit Based Products at Raiffeisenbank explained.

Almost 13% of those who do not use cash back cards have used the product before, but refused it. They named the lack of the necessary categories and too many conditions for calculating cash back as the main reasons.

Among those who use cash back cards, 88% stated that, in general, they understand the terms of their loyalty programs. However, almost every tenth (9%) complains about a large number of restrictions and conditions in fine print. The rest said that they no longer tried to figure out the conditions under which they get cash back or loyalty points.

How many cards you need

The majority of Russians use one cash back card — this is what 68% of respondents answered. This is most common among young people with low incomes, the survey found. Higher income respondents prefer to have several cards and use them for different spending categories.

33% of Russians use 2–3 cash back cards and pay using them in different categories to increase loyalty points. Most often, residents of Moscow and St. Petersburg open several cards.

The respondents receive the largest cash back in the food categories. At the same time, women spend more in clothing stores and restaurants, while the main expenses of men are gadgets and gas stations.

The majority of respondents (27%) do not make additional purchases to get more loyalty points. About 20% almost always do this, and 23% only when they are saving up for something.

However, families with children are significantly more likely to make additional purchases to increase the number of loyalty points when they are saving up for something.

The survey was conducted in February 2020. The survey involved more than 2,00 Rissians over 18 years old from Moscow, St. Petersburg, Voronezh, Yekaterinburg, Kazan, Krasnodar, Nizhny Novgorod, Novosibirsk, Omsk, Rostov-on-Don, Samara, Ufa and other large cities.