IRCTC partners with HDFC Bank after SBI, BoB to launch travel credit card, know benefits

Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation Ltd (IRCTC) and HDFC Bank on Wednesday announced a partnership to launch a co-branded travel credit card. The co-branded card, known as the IRCTC HDFC Bank Credit Card, is offered on the Rupay network of NPCI and comes in a single type.

This is the third tie-up of IRCTC after the State Bank of India and Bank of Baroda.

The card will provide exclusive benefits and maximum savings on bookings of train tickets booked through the IRCTC's ticketing website and through the IRCTC Rail Connect app, HDFC Bank Group Head (Payments, Consumer Finance, Digital Banking and IT) Parag Rao told reporters here.

Additionally, he said, IRCTC HDFC Bank Credit cardholders will enjoy an attractive joining bonus, discounts on bookings and access to the several executive lounges at railway stations across the country.

Commenting on the association, IRCTC chairman and managing director Rajni Hasija said the co-branded card offers exclusive access to newly opened lounges available at most of the major railway stations.

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The credit card will help to streamline online transactions and at the same time offer benefits as well as experience to customers, she added.

Meanwhile, HDFC Bank's internet banking site and mobile app faced an outage on Tuesday leaving customers clueless for a few hours. This happened on a day when most customers were supposed to receive their salaries.

Taking to Twitter, many users said they were unable to carry out any transactions for over two hours, while others complained of being logged out of the app repeatedly.

The RBI prohibited HDFC Bank, the industry leader in credit cards, from launching new digital projects and issuing new cards in December 2020 as a result of a pattern of technological failures at the institution.

Following several occurrences of breakdowns in Internet banking, mobile banking, and payment utilities over the previous two years, the RBI took action. Competitors SBI Cards and ICICI Bank grasped the chance to close the gap with HDFC Bank.

Due to their disregard for the requirements for data localization, Mastercard and American Express immediately banned the issuance of new cards after taking action against HDFC Bank.

(with inputs from PTI)