India has been one of the world’s fastest growing economies
with banking & financial services companies experiencing significant growth
both in size & profitability. The number of credit cards in India has
declined over few years and that of debit cards has grown. As of end March 2012,
there were 17.65 million credit cards and 268 million debit cards in Indian
market.
With these changes in card market size, there has been lot
of pitfalls as incidents of fraud, card lost, and card stolen. Currently, the
total industry lost, stolen & counterfeit card fraud is Rs. 13 crore.
From Sushmita Sen, Shriya Sharan to aam aadmi, there have
been all sorts of victims. Everyday lot of people loses their wallet, debit
card, credit card, pan card, loyalty cards, mobile, driving license etc. These
cards could go in wrong hands and leave the owner distressed.
There has been lot of companies in developed economies which
provide card protection services to people. All card protection companies help
consumers block their cards by giving free call to customer service team.
In India, banks started
providing these services to consumers since end of 2008 using CPP Assistance Services,India.CPP has 30 years of experience in assistance services and is headquartered
in United Kingdom.
Recently, Sequoia Capital India & Lightspeed Venture invested
$3.5 M into Mumbai based OneAssist Consumer Solutions Pvt. Ltd. This company
offers personalized mobile & financial security services via its various
products Wallet Assist, Mobile Assist, Everyday assist and Trip Assist.
This market seems to be still in its early stage in India
and mostly consumers from upper middle class & above will avail these
services.
Success of these companies in Indian market will depend on
how well they price their product, how many features they offer in their
product, how well they educate consumers about these products, how easy they
make purchase of their products and how well they service their customers.
Moreover, it will also depend on the growth of plastic in the wallets of
consumers.
CPP already have tied-up with most of the banks such as
ICICI, HSBC, Citi Bank, SBI, Axis Bank etc. for various card protection memberships
(Classic, Premium, and Platinum). Rates at which these banks & CPP provide
these services:
|
|
CPP
|
HSBC
|
ICICI
|
Citi Bank
|
SBI
|
Axis
|
|
Classic
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Single
|
1145
|
1287
|
|
1287
|
1145
|
1145
|
|
Joint
|
1745
|
1961
|
|
1961
|
1745
|
1745
|
|
Premium
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Single
|
1495
|
1680
|
1495
|
1680
|
1495
|
1495
|
|
Joint
|
2245
|
2522
|
2245
|
2522
|
2245
|
2245
|
|
Platinum
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Single
|
1745
|
1961
|
|
1961
|
1745
|
1745
|
|
Joint
|
2645
|
2972
|
|
2972
|
2645
|
2645
|
One Assist not only provides card protection service, but also
others too as mentioned below:
|
|
Wallet
Assist Power
|
Wallet
Assist
Privilege
|
Mobile Assist
Power
|
Mobile Assist
Privilege
|
Everyday Assist Power
|
Trip Assist Power
|
||||||
|
|
Single
|
Joint
|
Single
|
Joint
|
Single
|
Joint
|
Single
|
Joint
|
Single
|
Joint
|
Single
|
Joint
|
|
One Assist
|
1099
|
1699
|
1599
|
2499
|
1099
|
N/A
|
1499
|
2499
|
2199
|
3299
|
599
|
899
|
It will be
interesting to watch how these companies perform in Indian market.
