A loyalty card scheme which rewards customers for shopping at a host of member stores across Bermuda will be wound up at the end of next month.

Organisers of the Payback! Programme, which was launched five years ago with between 50 and 60 participating merchants at the height of its success, including retailers, service providers and restaurants on the Island, have notified holders of non-expired branded cards with funds left on them to spend the balance before it ceases operation on October 31 and they become invalid.

Among the stores where the balance of the card can still be redeemed are: All Wrapped Up, AS Cooper Express, AS Cooper Harbourside, C Travel, Causeway Shell, G&M Beauty & Barber, House of Flowers, It's a Plus, Just Shirts, Mailboxes Unlimited, Pulp & Circumstance, Upscale Fashions, Warwick Shell and Winner's Edge Bike Shop.

But there are plans to start a new Payback! Programme before Christmas, according to Richard Simon, senior vice-president of sales and marketing at Incentis Ltd.

Mr. Simon said the concept of the Payback! scheme was a reward card available to anyone in Bermuda which could be used to get a percentage of cash back (usually ranging between half a percent to 10 percent) for purchases made from a participating shop.

"It was like a debit card attached to your purchase," he said.

"At its height there were about 50 to 60 merchants in the programme.

"But it started to fade because we didn't have the marketing support from various joint venture partners and ultimately it made no sense to carry on.

"However a new programme is planned, although the exact form it is going to take is still in development and we are talking to interested parties about doing it.

"The plan is to have something in place for the pre-Christmas sales and to start with a clean slate."

For more information contact Incentis on 292-7232 or visit the website at www.payback.bm