Early next year, SBI Cards Pvt. Ltd. plans to send customized statements to help its credit cardholders to control their card-spending patterns by having more information.
The bank also plans to offer financial counseling based on the analysis, a spokesperson for the bank tells PaymentsSource.
The customized statement would tell cardholders where they tend to spend their money. For example, it could break down an average female customer’s spending on groceries, apparel, cosmetics and health care, he says.
The issuer plans to offer customized discounts on items a cardholder may spend the most on and also offer counseling if it deems any particular trends as excessive and harmful, the spokesperson adds.
SBI Cards, a joint venture of Mumbai-based State Bank of India Ltd. and GE Capital, has issued 2 million credit cards. Of those, nearly 60% receive online card statements, according to the issuer.
The move by SBI Cards is not unusual in India, as some other foreign banks operating in the country offer the same service, according to Mrinalini Manral, a Mumbai-based independent banking analyst tells PaymentsSource.
“What this launch by SBI Cards really indicates is how hard the card issuers are striving to provide better customer experience,” she says. “The card offerings are almost the same across issuers, so better customer service could be that crucial differentiating factor amongst them.”
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