By Martin Vedris
MELBOURNE: Despite recent media speculation of GE Money Australia scaling back its interest free credit terms for retailers, the company has laid the foundation for a strong Christmas this year by saying it has no plans to hold back on retailers.
GE Money Australia media relations manager Australia and NZ, Tristan Everett, today told Current.com.au that there has been a bit of misunderstanding in some sections of the media recently.
“We have no plans to be pulling back on that retailer solutions side of our business,” Everett said today.
“There has been a little bit of misunderstanding in few articles recently …. essentially the retail side of our business is continuing to operate as normal. We have ceased home loans, business loans and motor vehicle finance.”
Interest free finance is not only a powerful sales tool for retailers like Harvey Norman and Bing Lee, Everett said that retail finance part of GE Money dwarfs the three discontinued areas of the business.
“Overwhelmingly largest area of our business is retailer solutions,” he said. “To give you an idea of the scope, we have 12,000 retailers across the country in these types of schemes. We have three million customers in Australia and New Zealand. The discontinued areas of the business only applies to 35,000 customers, so that gives you an idea of how much bigger retailers solutions, insurance and money direct are.
“So for interest free finance, we are continuing to operate as normal and we se it as a key part of the ongoing business.”