Indian Railway Minister Piyush Goyal on Tuesday launched SBI-IRCTC credit card that offers a host of benefits to rail passengers. The card is being considered as an expansion of the portfolio on the RuPay network.
During the inauguration, the minister said that he will personally monitor and ensure that the card reaches its target userbase of more than 3 crore customers by December 25.
Notably, IRCTC has a customer base of more than 5 crore users and conducts daily transactions of 8.5 lakh.
“The central government is aiming such that in the coming years, every railway ticket will be booked online through the co-branded credit card,” Goyal said.
He added that “the card offers rail passengers with maximum savings proposition on their travel together with exclusive benefits on retail, dining, and entertainment as well as transaction fee waivers.”
For safe transactions, the IRCTC-SBI RuPay credit card is equipped with Near Field Communication (NFC) technology whereby the users can make transactions at POS machines by just tapping the card on the machines without requiring to swipe it.
He also said that the cardholders will receive up to 10 per cent value back on 1st AC, 2nd AC, 3rd AC, Executive Chair Car and AC Chair Car bookings made on the Indian Rail Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) website.
The card offers an online transaction fee waiver (1 per cent of the transaction amount), 1 per cent fuel surcharge waiver, and 4 premium lounge free access at railway stations in a year (one per quarter).
Cardholders will receive 350 Bonus Reward Points upon activation of the card with a minimum spent.
“The users can redeem the accumulated reward points against the purchase of train tickets on IRCTC’s ticketing website. In addition to savings on rail travel, the IRCTC-SBI card offers several benefits for online shopping portals. Customers can avail discounts while shopping at e-commerce sites,” the ministry said in a statement.