Allahabad Bank Plan To Prop Up Its Credit Card

Allahabad Bank has taken up an ambitious plan to revitalise its credit card scheme with an offer to the depositors to take advantage of it under a special treatment formula.

Most favoured treatment will enable a depositor to enrol himself under the credit card system without admission fee and with reduced annual fee. As a result, a depositor having an account with at least Rs 25,000 standing in his name will have to pay only an annual fee of Rs 400 to qualify for membership under the scheme.

For others the admission fee of Rs 100 and annual fee of Rs 500 will be asked for. Allahabad Bank credit card will enable a member to buy not only goods from the designated shops but will also allow the cardholder to draw cash from certain identified branches of the bank.

 

In the revised scheme, cash drawal ceiling has been raised two-fold from Rs 5,000 to Rs 10,000. This means that a cardholder will be able to draw upto Rs 10,000 from the identified branches on production of the credit card.

This facility has been given as all the shops do not entertain Allahabad Bank credit card and hence the cardholders have to go in for cash and carry system in these shops. Allahabad Bank has identified some 900 branches out of its total 1800 which will extend this cash drawal facility to the credit card holders. Earlier, only 300 branches were given this authority.

Allahabad Bank introduced credit card scheme way back in 1987 in collaboration with Bank of Baroda. Allahabad Bank found it difficult to operate the system as BoB had proprietary right over it. The collaboration agreement was terminated in 1992.

Allahabad Bank thereafter entered into an agreement with Bank of India which enabled the former to access the facility of Mastercard since Bank of India has an arrangement with Mastercard.

Since January, Allahabad Bank has taken up a new programme to aggressively sell its credit card with its new features.

Against target of one lakh membership the bank hopes to issue at least 25,000 cards in the initial stage.

The marketing wing of the bank has already sent the scheme to 70,000 of its existing depositors.