Paytm Aims To Issue 2 Mn Credit Card To Democratise Access To Credit System

Noida-based digital payments giant Paytm, on Monday (October 19), unveiled its plans to launch a co-branded credit card in partnership with card issuers in India.

With this, the company aims to enable “new to credit” users to join the digital economy and democratise the access to formal credit systems for the people. The Vijay Shekhar Sharma-led company targets to issue 2 Mn credit cards in the upcoming 12-18 months.

Bhavesh Gupta, CEO of Paytm Lending, said, “In our country, credit cards are still considered a product for the affluent sections of the society and not everyone can avail of its benefits. At Paytm, our aim is to provide credit cards that benefit India’s aspiring youth and evolved professionals. These cards are designed to help them lead a healthier financial life through managing and analysing the spends to make well-informed decisions.”

Paytm, in its press statement, said that the credit card will be equipped with instant one-touch services such as change of the security pin number, updating the address, blocking the card in case of loss or fraud prevention, issuance of a duplicate card and viewing outstanding credit-limit.

Moreover, it will also have options to safeguard users against fraud by switching off the card for contactless payments or international transactions when not required.

The company also noted that the credit card will provide insurance protection against fraudulent transactions as well. Paytm has also decided to include a personalised spending analyser to help the customers in assessing expenses and planning future spends smartly.

Paytm has also digitised the entire credit card application process on its digital payments app to make the process smoother for the audience.

The users can keep tabs on the entire application process on their app. The platform also offers flexibility of choosing a convenient time on the app itself for the collection of documents. The company claims that the seamless application process will reduce the rate of application rejections.

Last year, Paytm had also launched Paytm First Credit Card in partnership with Citibank, powered by VISA Payment service. The card offers 1% universal unlimited cashback and has no restrictions on rewards for any transaction.

Besides this, other companies like Amazon Pay too offer a co-branded credit card in collaboration with ICICI Bank. The card offers rewards and earnings for every purchase, both on and off Amazon.in, in the form of Amazon Pay balance.

Flipkart’s parent Walmart and Snapdeal too offer such co-branded credit cards. Walmart had partnered with HDFC Bank to launch a co-branded credit card exclusively for members of its Best Price Modern Wholesale “B2B Cash and Carry” stores, in 2019. However, the company shut down its operations in India after the reverse acquisition by Flipkart.

Snapdeal also launched its co-branded ecommerce credit card, back in 2015, jointly with the private sector bank HDFC Bank in partnership with VISA. Besides this, even Indian food delivery unicorn Zomato stepped into this space last year after partnering with RBL Bank to launch two co-branded credit cards, Edition Classic and Edition Card, for Zomato users.

Note: We at Inc42 take our ethics very seriously. More information about it can be found here.