Free checking? How about free cab, subway and bus rides?

• Position: Marketing News - Brief Article

For two months recently, a New York bank offered free cab, subway and bus rides in Manhattan as part of a promotion for its free checking service.

The program was sponsored by HSBC Bank USA, N.A., which has 400 branches in New York state. The event was an expansion of an earlier program, held in 2003, in which commuters were offered free taxi rides (See ABA Bank Marketing, November 2003, p. 10). In the recent campaign, commuters earned a free ride by correctly answering a trivia question about New York posed by red-and-white attired BankCab teams stationed throughout Manhattan.

Correct answers earned each commuter a $2 transit card good for subways and buses or in two...