Secured Credit Cards in India – Great Product to Build Credit History for Students, Housewives etc

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Today I’d like to educate our Readers on what a Secured Credit Card means, its availability in India and who can avail the same.

Like any other industry, Credit Cards vertical of the banking industry had a bumpy ride since its off-take in 2005 and subsequent bust in 2008-09. Credit Cards by nature are classified as unsecured loans to consumers. The Issuing Banks Guarantees the Merchant on behalf of the credit card holders and settles with the merchant hoping the consumer will pay his credit card bill. Blame it on negligence or circumstances or willfully, many people defaulted for example ICICI Bank had to drastically re-structure its Credit Card Portfolio. Thus this gave rise to a new stream of credit cards known as Secured Credit Cards.

So what Exactly is a Secured Credit Card ? It is a normal Credit Card in all respects except that it is issued only against a Fixed Deposit with the Bank. For Example, we chose

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Thomas Cook India Launches International Forex Travel Card from MasterCard

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Thomas Cook India Ltd in association with MasterCard international has launched an International Pre-paid travel card for Indians traveling abroad. This borderless card enables customers to load with 8 different currencies – AUD, CAD, USD, Euro, Singapore Dollar, Japanese Yen and British Pound.

The Minimum denomination to purchase the card is USD 250 with a validity of 5 years. It comes with an embedded chip and PIN to avoid credit card frauds like skimming. Probably because of the in-built security, they are not providing any Insurance on this card.

What are the Advantages of Carrying ThomasCook International Forex MasterCard ?

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OneAssist’s WalletAssist Protecting you Against Credit Card Frauds, Emergency Bill Payments, etc

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OneAssist founded by Gagan Maini and Subrat Pani wants to Help and simplify a common man’s worries. Gagan and Subrat have been in the service industry for almost 20 years (each) and have often pondered upon the fact that a few essentials that form a part of our everyday life also significantly increases their dependency on them – mobile phone, credit and debit cards, KYC / financial documents, passport, etc. Loss of any of these could be disruptive and leaves a person stranded & helpless. The core proposition is to offer assistance in times of these emergencies, helping people helping people to lead an uninterrupted life, despite losing his mobile or a wallet or travel documents etc. All this just on one call. One particular product that is of our interest is the WalletAssist.

WalletAssist, as the name suggests, is most relevant for people who carry Credit Cards / Debit Cards. WalletAssist member- on event of loss of a wallet will be able to call the helpline from anywhere in the world and ALL the cards in the wallet will be blocked immediately.

What Benefits WalletAssist Members Get in the unfortunate event of Loss of their Wallet or Credit / Debit Card ?

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Regulatory Support for CIBIL / Experian and How CIBIL Helped Shape Retail Assets of Banks ?

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One should not hesitate to extend credit when it is due, yes we are talking about the Government of India and RBI which needs to be given its due share of credit who were instrumental in pushing banks to give more data to CIBIL and keep cleaning the data time and again. The Credit Information Companies Act passed in 2005 has made it mandatory for banks to check with any one credit bureau for any loan application they receive.

Earlier data used to be given on a quarterly basis by PSU banks whereas now banks give data on a monthly basis. So the frequency has increased. Secondly, the regulators have allowed the bureau to capture even positive data i.e. even well performing customers/records. There are many countries where law allows

Read moreRegulatory Support for CIBIL / Experian and How CIBIL Helped Shape Retail Assets of Banks ?

Can CIBIL Data be used for Marketing? Does CIBIL Track Telephone / Utility Bill Payment, Insurance Records ?

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Many readers have posed Authentic Questions to Us being the leading publication on Credit Bureau and Card industry in India. One of the readers asked me – Can CIBIL data be used for marketing ? Does CIBIL produce some information reports ?

By law [Credit Information Companies Act, 2005 2006] neither CIBIL nor any other Credit Bureau operating in India cannot use their data repository for soliciting business or for marketing purposes.

However, CIBIL, based on its significant database, has been helping banks profile customers in several new geographies. For eg, if a bank wants to do retail business in a certain region, CIBIL can generate

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