Ng: A discount card that might work for you

THE other week, I got an invitation from a friend to attend the launch of Enjoy Discount Card. I had reservations about going.

First, I had a dinner appointment that night. But foremost was that I am not very enthusiastic about discount cards.

Over the years, discount or privilege cards on multiple merchants have come and go, and most have not been able to sustain their operations. But I did promise to drop by and I was glad I did.

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This discount card is part of an international chain, and it showed its class and prestige with the way the launch was done.

The brochures, maps and the event were tastefully done.

There was the usual fare – it had over 43,000 members already, mostly from Manila, and cardholders could avail themselves of discounts in a few hundred establishments in Manila, Cebu and Boracay.

You could get a discount or free treat two ways. For your membership, you would be able to get a booklet of vouchers for the discounts, which you tear and present to the merchants.

The organizers said the booklets contained over P250,000 worth of discounts and treats which you could use. You can also have an Enjoy Card, which entitles you to discounts, although the discounts would be slightly less than the one-time coupon you get when you sign up for membership.

But I guess what makes this discount card different is how they tie it up with technology.

The card is tied up to the website (www.enjoythebest.ph) so you will know what establishments will give discounts.

However, it also has applications that you can download to your Apple Iphone or Blackberry (they say other smartphone apps will be soon be available as well) that will allow you to query locations of establishments that will accept the card and what benefits you can get. This is especially helpful when you are travelling.

Let us say you have some extra time, and you happen to pass by Greenbelt or Mall of Asia. You may want to do some shopping or eat out. Then you can just run the application in your cell phone and see what establishments will give you what kind of treats.

So for the person who may occasionally forget to bring the voucher coupons, this is very handy.

As they pointed out in their presentation, the two things you should not forget when you go out of the house is your wallet and your cellphone. If you have the card in your wallet and the application in your cellphone, you can always avail of the
discounts whenever you want to.

I understand the annual membership fee for Cebu-based residents is P1,000 cheaper than what Manila residents pay, but this excludes the thick voucher coupons for Manila establishments.

However, they can still use the Enjoy card.

Surely, in one year’s time, most people can probably get discounts worth more than that.

However, I did notice that most Manila establishments give bigger discounts and bigger treats than most shops in Cebu.

Maybe in Cebu, people do not want big discounts and the merchants know all customers want low prices.

At any rate, it’s a great card and you can check it out in the web to see if it works for you.