American Express ties up with Travelmate Forex, HDFC Bank

American Express Bank has tied up with Travelmate Forex Services India Pvt Ltd to offer American Express Travellers Cheques to consumers.

Travelmate Forex Services is a 100 per cent subsidiary of Kuoni Travel India Pvt Ltd. American Express Travellers Cheques are also available at 160 HDFC Bank branches through a marketing alliance between American Express and HDFC Bank.

"With more and more people wanting to travel overseas, there is a huge potential for Travellers Cheques in India. American Express is happy to collaborate with Kuoni Travel as it has an extensive regional network of travel agents who sell SOTC-Kuoni tours. This alliance reinforces American Express' commitment to significantly invest in Travellers Cheques in India and will help develop the market to the fullest by extending our reach to even larger number of consumers by providing them with newer channels to purchase American Express Travellers Cheques," said Rajan Bhatt, vice president, global travellers cheques and prepaid services, India and area countries.

The total size of the travellers' cheque market is estimated over $1 billion a year and the category has been growing at about 2-3 per cent a year whereas American Express sales have been growing at over 7 per cent a year over the last two years.

"We estimate that now over 50 per cent of Indian leisure travellers carry travellers' cheques and over 70 per cent of the market in India is dominated by American Express," said Bhat.

Kuoni Travel offers leisure tours from over 3500 travel agents who sell SOTC-Kuoni tours to their customers.

"American Express Travellers Cheques is a leading brand and have a dominant market share worldwide. In India, the American Express Travellers Cheque has traditionally been the market leader. In recent years, Amex TCs have rapidly gained market share," said Bhatt.

American Express has recently launched initiatives to fulfil needs of defined customer categories like student program and scratch and win for outbound leisure travellers.

Currently, American Express is offering a special promotion for all international travellers. Those who purchase American Express Travellers Cheques equivalent to $1500 or more are entitled to a special gift from American Express.

They are automatically eligible to enter the 'creative signature contest' and stand a chance to win a holiday to Switzerland or from 150 pieces of premium soft luggage from VIP.

This offer is available till June 15 this year at leading banks and moneychangers in select cities of India.