Despite tough economic conditions, eBucks, the reward of choice, reported its best festive period ever with members spending over R70 million.

"Our members clearly see us as a powerful rewards currency that they can use to stretch their wallets in these recessionary times," said Lezanne Human, CEO of eBucks. "eBucks Discounts, which we launched towards the end of last year, proved to be incredibly popular." eBucks Discounts enables qualifying members to access discounts of up to 50%.

Members are now able to pay with rands in the online eBucks shop, which was voted the country's top online retailer in 2008, and this contributed to the impressive festive results.

Both the eBucks card and eBucks travel also experienced strong growth. Of particular interest was that many members only made their travel arrangements at the last minute as they waited to clock up enough eBucks to fly for free.

The eBucks shop also saw a last minute rush with 10% year on year increase in the number of unique shoppers in December. Makro gift vouchers were the most popular choice, further evidence of the trend towards value.

"The programme continues to grow in popularity. We saw an abnormally high number of registrations over the festive period, which we attribute to word of mouth.;With people discussing the current 'hard times', our members are able to give a good news story and share with their friends how they got stuff for free with their eBucks," added Human.

eBucks is an aspirational brand that gives its members endless choice. The programme offers South Africa's widest choice of spend opportunities as well as an extensive range of spend channels. eBucks can be spent in the eBucks shop, at eBucks auctions, through eBucks travel, with eBucks' online partners or at eBucks' in-store partners with the eBucks card.

About eBucks:

eBucks, the rewards programme offered by First National Bank (FNB) and RMB Private Bank, is acknowledged as one of South Africa's leading rewards programmes with highly active members spending in excess of 80% of the eBucks earned in any given month.