Citi, Taj Hotels Tie Up For Credit Card

Citibank has tied up with Taj Hotels Resorts and Palaces to launch the Taj Epicure Diners Club Card -- a two-in-one charge-cum-smart card. The tie-up through its Diners Club will help the customer redeem the loyalty points anytime.

According to Citibank's consumer bank head Sarvesh Sarup, the bank is looking at a customer base of 20,000 in the first year. This will be through converts from the Taj Epicure Card.

The Taj Epicure card is part of the loyalty programme of the Taj aimed primarily at the foods and beverages (F&B) section and has an excess of 40,000 card holders.

 

The customers will get 10 per cent of F&B spends at the participating Taj properties in the form of Epicure points. Points will also be earned on spends on room charges, telecommunication, laundry and business centre facilities.

Adds Taj Group of Hotels senior vice-president sales and marketing, Ajoy Misra: "The card will be targeted at that segment of the market which dines out specially the corporate sector and the frequent diners. We will request the Taj Inner Circle customer to convert as it will be a value added benefit for the customer. We hope that it will grow our F& B loyalty programme."

The joining fees for the Taj Epicure Diners Club Card is at Rs 2000. According to Misra this is at a discount if the customer had gone in separately for a Diners Club card and Taj Epicure Club which would costs Rs 2500 and Rs 2000 respectively.

Citibank has a credit card base of 1.6 million with the premium card base which is made up of the Gold card, Platinum and Diners Card make up to around 3,50,000 cards.

The net additions on an yearly basis is 2,00,000 cards. According to Sarup the bank is concentrating on the premium segment which contributes annually to 20 per cent of the net growth.