The Bank of Bermuda is doing away with a programme - Compass Points - that rewarded credit cardholders for spending at a certain level with their credit cards.

The announcement that the programme - called Compass Points - would be discontinued as of the New Year has prompted at least one customer to lash out, citing the bank as treating its customers with "disdain".

The bank said the reason for doing away with the incentive programme was customer dissatisfaction.

"Having run Compass Points Rewards Programme for five years, customer feedback has shown that the majority of our cardholders find the programme inflexible and our data shows that the programme is not widely used."

The programme, which was launched in 1997 and is separate from the bank's cash back programme for EasyLink cardholders, gave customers one point for every $1 spent.

After accumulation of 30,000 compass points, cardholders were eligible for an American Airlines certificate for travel anywhere in continental North America.

Upon further questioning, the bank said some consumers had been unhappy with the offer of flights within North America as they wanted to go to other destinations.

But a disgruntled cardholder, who does not wish to be named, wrote a letter to the bank in which he said: "From the outset the Bank of Bermuda made little, if any effort, to promote the programme and I only learnt of it through word of mouth from a family member.

"In any event over the last five years my family and I have benefited from (several)certificates from the Programme."

The customer said the bank's assertion that "cardholders find the programme inflexible" and "is not widely used" did not stand up:"I would like to know the basis of this feedback given the little publicity to the Programme and as there was such little publicity it is little wonder it was not 'widely used'," he said.

He continued: "So because a Programme was 'not widely used' and 'inflexible' you have arbitrarily cancelled it. This is another example of how the Bank treats its average customer - with disdain."

The customer also questioned if Compass Points would be replaced with any other programme. A bank spokesperson told The Royal Gazette however that the bank did not have plans to replace Compass Points.

"Could you advise me of what alternative incentive the bank will offer in the Programme's place? After all the amount of business profit to the bank from cards must outstrip all standard retail banking options," the customer continued in his letter.

Although the bank is discontinuing Compass Points it said it would continue to offer the programme through the end of the year.

In a letter to customers, the bank said: "As we know there are customers who either have 30,000 Compass Points or are very close, we are very pleased to offer a reward for all customers who have 20,000 Compass Points or more prior to the programme end date of 1 January, 2003.

"If you currently have 30,000 or more Compass Points you can redeem your points for an American Airlines certificate. Alternatively, you may choose to have $300 credited to your credit card account instead of the certificate.

"If you have between 20,000 and 29,9999 Compass points as of 1 January, we will extend a credit of 0.8 percent for each point you have earned," the bank wrote.

On that score the unhappy customer asked: "I would also like to know what the bank proposes to do with account holders who have say 10,000 Compass Points? Surely they are entitled to some form of credit," he said. Another customer who had benefited from an airline ticket after accumulation of the requisite Compass Points said he thought it was a good programme and did not understand why the bank said customers found it "inflexible". "How did they get this feedback. I don't see how it was inflexible," he said.