BANK FIRST

There’s a lot to love about customer-owned banks, which typically focus on reinvesting profits to the benefit of customers rather than shareholders. Bank First has followed this philosophy, and in doing so has shunned the option of providing a vast menu of credit cards, instead narrowing the choice to two value-packed offerings.

Bank First’s Visa Classic card charges zero annual fees and comes with a low standard variable rate of 12.54%. Cardholders have the benefit of 55 days interest-free, with a minimum credit limit of $2000. While this card doesn’t come with a dedicated Bank First rewards program, a range of deals on food, travel and entertainment are available through Visa’s own Offers and Perks scheme.

If you’re looking for a card with a higher credit limit, Bank First’s Visa Platinum card has a minimum of $6000. The annual fee is $99. However, the purchase rate of 9.59% is lower than the rate for the Visa Classic card. This makes it worth crunching the numbers to know which of the two is best suited to your style of credit card use.

The Platinum Visa card also comes with complimentary travel insurance plus access to Visa’s rewards program, which can include discounts on airport lounges, car rentals, hotels and a 24/7 concierge service.

Bank First sets its minimum monthly card repayments at 5% of the outstanding balance (or $20, whichever is greater).

Other finalists in this category also focus on a limited choice of credit cards. You may not get all the bells and whistles, but the upside is low card rates.

Unity Bank has just one option – its low-rate Visa credit card, which offers an introductory rate of 8.24% for purchases and balance transfers for the first six months, plus no annual fee in the first year – a saving of $60. The revert rate is 10.24%. The card can be linked to Apple Pay, Google Pay and Samsung Pay.

MOVE Bank, the winner of Money’s Customer-owned Personal Lender of the Year award (see page 47), has also kept things simple on the credit card front, with just one product.

MOVE’s low-rate credit card comes with a purchase rate of 8.99%, and the annual fee of $59 is waived for the first year. A balance transfer deal (for 80% of your approved credit limit) comes with 0% interest for the first six months, and on an ongoing basis the interest-free period is 45 days.

MOVE Bank’s low-rate credit card has a minimum credit limit of $1000, so this could be a useful choice for anyone just starting out with a credit card.

‘ Customer-owned banks typically focus on reinvesting profits to the benefit of customers rather than shareholders.