The rapidly growing Credit Card landscape in India achieved another milestone when it crossed the 50 million mark in mid-2019. To cater to the largest diversified consumer base across India, we have seen the launch of customised Credit Cards, Charge Cards, and Loan Cards in the last couple of years.
The trend of launching Co-branded Credit Cards in India was started by e-commerce majors such as Amazon, Flipkart, and Snapdeal. Now other major online platforms like Paytm, Ola Money & Goibibo have also joined the bandwagon. Each of these cards has been launched in collaboration with a financial institution.
For instance, Paytm has collaborated with Citibank, Ola Money has partnered with State Bank of India, and Goibibo ventured with ICICI Bank to launch Co-branded Credit Cards.
Another interesting tie-up is between RBL Bank and Bajaj Finserv, and they launched Bajaj Finserv RBL Bank SuperCard. The USP of this Bajaj Finserv Credit Card is it can be used as a Credit Card and as a Cash Card, Loan Card, and an EMI card.
Why apply for a Co-branded Credit Card?
While you can find an exhaustive list of Credit Cards from each of the bank and financial institutions such as SBI Credit Cards, HSBC Credit Cards, Axis Bank, and many more and choose the one according to your lifestyle. It is recommended to opt for a Co-Branded Credit Card when you are specifically searching for benefits from preferred service providers, such as taxi booking, railway tickets, online shopping, etc.
The features can be listed as:
Banks issue Co-branded Credit Cards in association with the leading payment processing gateways like Visa and MasterCard. Thus they are accepted worldwide.
Co-branded Credit Cards are exclusively designed, keeping in mind a particular category of customers. They provide a lot of great offers, discounts, and benefits on various lifestyle transactions to the target users.
Some Co-branded Cards also provide an added benefit of no processing charge on EMIs as well as additional discounts on select platforms.
These cards offer excellent reward points program which can be used by the cardholder for future bookings on hotels and flight or for other uses.
Latest Co-branded Credit Cards on the block
1. Paytm First Credit Card
Paytm First Credit Card has been launched in collaboration with Citibank. This card is offered exclusively for Paytm customers, and the application for this Credit Card can be submitted directly on the Paytm app. The key features of the Paytm First Credit card are:
Exclusive Paytm First membership which comes with a lot of offers for different apps and brands. You will enjoy enhanced benefits on shopping, travelling, lifestyle, grocery buying, tickets, movies, and a lot of other things.
Paytm provides 1% cashback on all transactions through PayTm Credit Card. The cashback is credited to the account at the end of the billing cycle.
Along with Paytm exclusive offers, this Credit Card also comes with benefits of a Citibank Credit Card.
There is a 15% discount at all the partner restaurants of Citibank.
Each Friday on booking a movie ticket via Paytm movies, the cardholder gets the benefit of obtaining 2 movie tickets at the price of Re 1.
The Paytm First Credit Card comes with an annual fee of Rs. 500. This fee is waived off if the annual spending against the card is more than Rs. 50,000.
Users who are already Paytm First members, get a 100% discount voucher for Paytm First membership with this Credit Card. This voucher can be shared with family and friends.
2. Ola Money Credit Card
Ola Money SBI Card is a multipurpose Credit Card and can be used by the cardholder for not only taking Ola ride benefits but also for flight and hotel bookings. Some of the key benefits are:
15% cashback on all Ola rides for the first year and 7% cashback after one year.
The card is approved instantly, and there is no joining fee.
For every rupee spent using the Ola Money Credit Card, Ola gives a cashback of 1%.
There is a cashback of 5% on flight bookings and a 20% cashback on hotel bookings through Ola Money Credit Card.
There is also a 20% cashback on drinks and buffets across more than 10,000 restaurants.
On joining, the cardholder gets an instant joining offer which is a Rs. 300 vouchers for flight bookings.
New cardholders also get the benefit of 1+1 on drinks and food.
There is an annual fee of Rs, 499, which is reversed if the annual spending through the card crosses Rs. 1 Lakh.
3. Goibibo Travel Card
Goibibo launched a Travel Credit Card in collaboration with ICICI Bank and provides the convenience of using one card in multiple countries while also enjoying the discounts on flights and hotel bookings. Some of the noteworthy benefits are:
Users get Rs. 15,000 worth of Goibibo vouchers.
Complimentary card protection plan from OneAssist worth Rs. 1600.
500 discount on shopping at any Croma outlet.
Flat 15% discount at dining in more than 100 Indian restaurants in 6 different countries.
If the cardholder loads 1000 USD in the card, there is a 40 paise discount on the currency conversion rate.
There is a joining fee of Rs. 499 + GST.
All in all, Co-branded Credit Cards are useful tools to tap exclusive benefits and offers, which are not available otherwise. By picking up the right card, you can save each month substantially and enjoy the add-on benefits.
Written By Reshma RawatAssistant Content ManagerCredit Cards, Credit Score, Personal Loan, Home Loan, etc.
Reshma Rawat is a passionate writer with a decade of experience in writing for a variety of domains (finance, technology, lifestyle, e-commerce, real estate, etc.). Currently, she is working as Assistant Manager - Content @MyMoneyMantra and writes blogs & webpages on financial products (loans, credit cards, insurance, government financial policies, mutual funds, etc.).
