Written by: Kriti Anand
Paytm and Citibank Co-launch Paytm First Card
In another step towards its growth, the Indian digital payment platform, Paytm, has launched its first credit card, Paytm First Card. The card is co-branded and issued by CitiBank India, and will be accepted in India as well as internationally. Paytm has offered a minimum 1% universal cashback on all transactions from this card, “without restrictions, auto-credited every month”. The card comes with an annual fees of INR 500, which would be waived if the spends of the consumer exceed INR 50,000 in a year.
The Paytm app can be used to apply for the card, and track the payments made through it. The customers will also be able to track exclusive offers in real time, both from Paytm and Citi through the Paytm First Card Passbook on the app.
Paytm First Card provides its customers with exclusive offers such as promo codes worth INR 10,000 on spending a minimum of INR 10,000 through the credit card within the first four months of issuance. It also provides benefits such as subjective EMI options, and exclusive offers on shopping, dining, travel and tourism, etcetera apart from those on the Citi Privileges platform.
While the digital interface and distribution will be controlled by Paytm, CitiBank would manage card issuance and underwriting. A selection tool jointly developed by Paytm and CitiBank would be used to assess whether the customer is to be provided the First Card, regardless of the customer’s previous credit history.
After the credit card business, Paytm has plans to venture into the Insurance business, said Paytm Founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma. The entity would function as an insurance brokerage service rather than a core insurance company. “We partnered with some insurance companies and started offering our customers a few products — we want to expand on that. We would ideally like to be an insurance brokerage firm rather than a core insurance agency to increase our selling pool,” Sharma said.
