One is bound to get lost in the labyrinth, with so many issuing banks (like ICICI , HDFC, ABN AMRO, HSBC, to name a few ) offering cards in India. These banks, have tie ups with Visa or Mastercard and offer different categories of cards to people belonging to different walks of life, with different lifestyles and different needs.
With almost all issuing banks waiving off the annual fees or offering life time free cards, the battle is intense out there to rope in more subscribers. What follows is a plethora of services and features offered on a credit card to woo customers. We look at a few cards and the features they offer.
Citibank cards are available in a range of flexible and personalized credit. A few types of Citibank Credit Cards in India are MTV Citibank Card, Indian Oil Citibank Card, Citibank Silver International Card, CRY Card, WWF Card, Times Card, Citibank Cricket Visa Card etc. The Citi Dividend Paltinum select card deserves special mention here as it earns 2% cash back at supermarkets, drugstores etc and 1% cash back on all other purchases. Moreover, there is a 0% APR on balance transfers for 12 months.
American Express Card division is also in the upper league among credit card issuer. American Express Credit Cards in India are of two types, namely: International Gold Amex Card and International Green Amex Card. The American Express India Card Members enjoy discounts of 3% to 7% on airline tickets, convenience of booking tickets over the phone and 40% discounts on overseas hotels rates.
Deutsche Bank has launched a special edition of Sunil Gavaskar and Sania Mirza Credit Cards aimed at fans of the two sports stars as well as cricket and tennis enthusiasts. Moreover, customers also have the option of choosing their billing cycles to better manage and control their finances.
ICICI Bank, which has become the market leader in issuing credit cards, has an ICICI Bank American Express card wherein the subscribers can redeem towards free air tickets or holidays that befits their discerning lifestyle. Other superlative benefits include 5 I-miles for every Rs. 100 spent on the card, which can be redeemed for a range of exciting rewards such as air-tickets, holidays, shopping vouchers, electronics and more. Discount of 3% on basic airfares and 5% on holiday packages from makemytrip.com are available. The card is Life time Free; free Add-On card is also available
HSBC Gold credit card offers 0% fuel surcharge, loan on phone facility, zero % balance transfer and travel discounts which are realy lucrative. Travel bookings made on MakeMyTrip.com using the HSBC Credit Card can get the subscriber 3% cashback on domestic airlines, 5% cashback on international airlines and 10% cashback on hotels and holiday packages.
The Value plus credit card from HDFC Bank brings the subscriber, double the usual cashback on all his spends. Moreover, HDFC Bank Value Plus Credit Card also comes with a comprehensive House Hold Insurance Policy that covers damage caused to household contents by fire and burglary up to a value of Rs 1 Lakh. Additionally, the happiness and the Well-being of the children of the subscriber is the banks responsibility. HDFC Bank has designed a comprehensive insurance package of Rs. 1 Lakh enabling the customer’s children to continue their education in the unfortunate event of loss of life.
Remember, there is no free lunch in this world. When you use a credit card, it comes at a cost. So deciding on choosing the right card should be a trade off between the cost involved in holding a card and the benefits enjoyed from it. Regarding features and benefits, it is the prospective cardholders responsibility to differentiate between the nice and the desired ones.
Post new comment