Taylor Swift presale offer sparks credit card boom

The frenzy for Taylor Swift tickets saw credit card applications for Singapore’s United Overseas Bank (UOB) soar, as fans clamoured to gain access to an exclusive presale for cardholders.

Bloomberg reports that daily average credit card applications across Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia and Vietnam jumped 45% last month in the week Swift announced her 2024 tour dates.

Applications for debit cards in Singapore and Vietnam skyrocketed 130% according to UOB, the official bank and presale partner for the singer’s record-equalling six nights at Singapore’s National Stadium.

Swift’s Eras Tour will visit the 55,000-cap stadium from 2-4 and 7-9 March next year – matching the national record set by Coldplay’s Music of the Spheres tour – with tickets selling out in little over eight hours in July’s general sale. UOB cardmembers in the five markets were given early access to tickets 48 hours before the public onsale.

More than half of the new credit card holders are female, while a third of new customers are aged between 30 and 40.

UOB, which is Singapore’s third largest bank, says more than half of the new credit card holders are female, while a third of new customers are aged between 30 and 40.

Ticket prices for Swift’s National Stadium tour dates – her sole stop in Southeast Asia – ranged from S$108 to $348 (€74 to €237). The 33-year-old’s only other concerts announced for Asia in 2024 are set for Japan’s Tokyo Dome from 7-10 February.

The Eras Tour is on target to become both the biggest concert tour in history and the first to gross more than US$1 billion. The current benchmark was set by Elton John’s Farewell Yellow Brick Road Tour, which ended with a total gross of US$939.1 million (€837m), according to Billboard Boxscore.

Eras was comfortably the highest-grossing tour of H1 2023, based on Pollstar data. It generated $300.8m in revenue from its first 22 nights on total ticket sales of 1,186,314 and an average ticket price of $253.56.

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