SBI partners with Thomas Cook to offer holiday saving scheme

Country's largest lender State Bank of India today partnered with travel firm Thomas Cook to offer a recurring deposit to bank's customers to save for their future holidays.
The product is exclusive for online customers.
With the scheme, called as Thomas Cook Holiday Savings Account (HSA), a bank customer will be able to pre-select a holiday from the travel company and save for it through a recurring deposit with the bank.
The customer will have to pay 12 instalments and at the end of the period the travel firm will pay the 13th instalment.
"We find that people don't plan their holidays in advance and end up taking last minute loans to finance the same. Also, they could have saved on the cost of the holiday had they booked early. This partnership will encourage customers for a planned savings and an advance booking," bank's Managing Director (National Banking Group) Rajnish Kumar told reporters here today.

The scheme will offer an inflation-proof holiday as customers pay for a future holiday at today's prices while earning interest on the linked e-recurring deposit, he said.
"It is volume-driven exercise. We believe that this product has a capability of carrying in 40,000-50,000 passengers a year," Thomas Cook Chairman and Managing Director Madhavan Menon said.
If a customer changes his mind due to a change in circumstances, he can opt out of the holiday package at any stage, at zero cost.