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Priya Nair

Mumbai , March 16

BANKS are offering co-branded cards that are tailored to meet spending patterns and lifestyle of their customers.

Benefits from these cards range from earning frequent flyer miles and free talktime, to a waiver of fuel surcharge and gift vouchers.

Those offering such benefits include ICICI Bank, HSBC Bank, Citibank, HDFC Bank and Standard Chartered Bank.

ICICI Bank offers cards depending on locality of customers. Says Mr B. Madhivanan, Joint General Manager, ICICI Bank: "To create a new product, we identify a cluster of customers and offer them credit cards that suit them. For instance, for people staying in Parel, we offer Big Bazaar credit cards, as it is in their locality. Every time we find a niche, we launch a product."

HSBC Bank targets products that find the fancy of the clientele. Mr Puneet Chaddha, Senior Vice-President and Head, Cards and Retail Assets, HSBC Bank, says, "Consumers prefer credit cards based on the category where they spend most. Frequent fliers prefer cards that give them benefits on air travel, car owners prefer credit cards with benefit on fuel purchase, women prefer credit cards offering benefits on supermarket purchases and so on."

Citibank has tie-ups with Jet Airways, Indian Oil and Hutch, among others. On the Indian Oil-Citibank Gold card, the customer gets as much as five per cent cash back on fuel purchases. Similarly, on the Jet Airways-Citibank card, customer earns frequent flyer miles every time the card is used.

Mr T.R. Ramachandran, Business Manager, Cards, Citibank says, "The trend is clearly towards co-branded cards. Over a period of time we have created a wide range of products each with loyalty features that address the needs of different segments of consumers. Old customers who use plain vanilla cards are graduating towards co-branded cards."

For those interested in sports, there are cards that allow them to indulge in their preferred pursuits. Standard Chartered has a cricket card, a soccer card, the 2004 Olympic games card and the Marathon Card. The Marathon Card offers free Rebook shoes and the chance to win Reebok treadmills.

"The concept of such niche or co-branded cards will grow," says Mr Murali M. Natrajan, Head-Consumer, Banking, Standard Chartered Bank, India and Nepal. "No two customers are alike and each needs to be treated differently, in a customised manner. The credit card is the first step towards this customisation."

The popular cards from ICICI Bank are the ones with HPCL, which offer fuel surcharge waiver, with Big Bazaar, which offer gift voucher and with Airtel, which offer free talktime, says Mr Madhivanan.

Customers can also get insurance benefit, if they use HDFC Bank's Health Plus Credit Card, which is in partnership with National Insurance. Says Mr Parag Rao, Head, Products and Portfolio - Cards, HDFC Bank, "This is India's first credit card with a mediclaim built in. It is a popular card as it offers insurance benefit to the customer. It is currently around 7-8 per cent of the vanilla card segment."

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