New co-branded card from Thomas Cook

MUMBAI, SEPT 15: Tour and travel major Thomas Cook India Ltd TCIL has launched a co-branded global credit card in association with St...

MUMBAI, SEPT 15: Tour and travel major Thomas Cook India Ltd TCIL has launched a co-branded global credit card in association with Standard Chartered Bank targeted at large corporates, frequent fliers and high-end leisure travellers.

The co-branded corporate card launched in association with Visa will command a primary annual fee of Rs 3,600 for a gold card and Rs 1,300 for a classic card. The card provides free ATamp;T calling card for making call from anywhere in the world.

The card offers optional membership to Thomas Cook8217;s global emergency services as well as International Airline Passengers8217; Association IAPA, which makes available up to 50 per cent discount at over 13,000 hotels and as much as 30 per cent off on car rentals anywhere on the globe, TCIL managing director Ashwini Kakkar said here today.

He said the credit card is the first of its kind that has been specially designed to provide a travel and entertainment expense management solution.

Kakkar said the foreign exchange inflow fromthe travel agency, which at present is higher than the software industry, would continue to contribute to the national kitty 8211; provided the government gives the correct incentives. TCIL has targeted to attract at least five lakh international travellers to buy its credit card from a total of over three million annually.

8220;Thomas Cook will perform far better than last year despite a lot of cancellations due to Kargil conflict,8221; he said. The first three months of the current calendar year will also contribute to high profitability, he added.

The growing popularity of credit card in India coupled with the increasing liberalisation of exchange control regulations by the government has made the market conducive for Thomas Cook to enter this field, TCIL chairman Pradip Madhavji said.

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Visa International Asia Pacific8217;s director 8212; corporate and business cards Martyn Selman said Thomas Cook card is India8217;s first co-branded corporate card and will offer companies the robust expense management solution that isinherent in Visa corporate.

The launch of the cards will be effected across the nine cities of Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, New Delhi, Calcutta, Ahmedabad, Pune and Baroda. The card will provide access to over 17 million Visa locations and 5.31 lakh Visa/Plus automatic teller machines.

Stanchart8217;s head-consumer banking India, Harpal Duggal, said: 8220;StanChart has been keenly focussing and getting into alliances with institutions with the objective of bringing more value to the consumers.8221;