SuperGold Card businesses to double

Senior Citizens Minister Jo Goodhew today announced a new goal to double the number of businesses in the SuperGold scheme to 3,000 by the end of 2014.

“We have seen good progress with 100 new businesses joining the scheme in the last few months and I’m ambitious to see it expand further,” said Mrs Goodhew.

“The ability for cardholders to access discounts when visiting in Australia has been well received. Queensland Rail has also recently come on board offering up to a 15 per cent discount for SuperGold Card holders.”

“The free off-peak transport concessions in New Zealand continue to be very popular with over 28 million trips taken by cardholders in the last three years.”

Since 2008 the SuperGold scheme has grown by 44 per cent. There are now over 1,500 participating businesses representing more than 5,800 outlets nationwide.

“Our focus now is to extend the network outside of the main city centres and keep increasing the value for people living in provincial or rural areas,” said Mrs Goodhew.

“SuperGold Card holders can also help promote the scheme by asking their local businesses why they aren’t signed up.”

The Ministry of Social Development administers the SuperGold scheme and it is free for businesses to join. Businesses interested in finding out how they can join the programme should visit the website www.supergold.govt.nz or email businesspartners@supergold.govt.nz.

Currently there are over 590,000 SuperGold Card holders with around 60,000 new people joining each year.