Mumbai, Apr 12: Stanchart has received nearly 30,000 applications--all from potentially new cardholders--within two weeks of its global credit card launch. The split up of the response to StanChart so far is as follows: around 40,000 have approached the bank directly, of which nearly half are from existing cardholders whilst another 10,000 or so calls have been made by its sales agents on both retail and corporate customers."We are not going by numbers, but the market has responded to the fulfillment of a need", StanChart's head (card division), Harpal Duggal, said while highlighting the huge response to the bank's latest offering.
The response to StanChart's global card follows its strategy to induce potential customers by stressing on the fact that it will be a common Visa or MasterCard one, priced akin to a normal domestic credit card with an annual fee of Rs 700 per annum. This is unlike similar offerings by others like HSBC, Citibank, and Bank of Baroda where a separate global card is offered at ahigher charge for customers over a certain threshold eligibility limit.
Further, StanChart's association with Cox & Kings presents its cardholders with a one-stop travel-related shoppe. StanChart had in February this year, announced a travel cash-back facility in association with Cox & Kings. The bank's card members now stand to gain a 3.5 per cent discount on domestic basic air fares and a 6.5 per cent on international routes.
The lure for a potential customer is the promise of a higher credit limit on shifting to StanChart's global card coupled with benifits accruing from the Cox & Kings relationship.
"Credit-card holders, normally utilise about 25-30 per cent of their credit limits on domestic-spends, and would get to have only the residual to use on trips abroad. But we hope that other bank's credit card holders will opt for one consolidated card, and shift over to StanChart's global card. This would enable customers to avail of a higher credit limit, and a proportionally higher one in foreigncurrency when they travel abroad," Duggal explained.
StanChart has an existing card-base of around 500,000--with an approximately 55 per cent tilt towards Visa International over MasterCard International. While the bank trails market leader, Citibank, which has over a million cards covering Visa International, MasterCard International, and Diners', StanChart, has in recent years, reportedly been closing the gap with a higher cardholder acquisition rate. StanChart's global card is expected to give a further push in this direction in an industry, which analysts conservatively estimate a growth of around 40 per cent per annum.
Copyright © 1999 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
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