Hero Honda, State Bank launch branded card

Hero Honda, in association with SBI Cards, on Wednesday launched the Hero Honda SBI Credit Card for members of the automobile company's passport programme in Gujarat.

"The Hero Honda SBI Credit Card is being offered to our passport programme users in Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Bhavnagar and Anand to begin with. We will shortly introduce the scheme to all major cities and towns of Gujarat," said Narendra Deshpande, area manager, Gujarat, of Hero Honda Motors Ltd.

Application forms for the card will be available at all Hero Honda dealerships in the state and the card will be issued by SBI.

The card was launched in the four metropolitan cities earlier. "We have already distributed over 7000 cards in the pilot project and now this scheme is being launched in 60 cities of the country, beginning with Gujarat," said Deshpande.

There are around 1.50 lakh passport members in Gujarat and all these will be eligible to apply for the Hero Honda SBI Credit Card. However, it will be SBI's discretion to issue cards to them, Deshpande stated.

The card will be free for the first year without there being any application fee. The first such card was handed over to a Hero Honda Passport programme member in Ahmedabad on Wednesday.

The Hero Honda Passport programme is a customer relationship exercise which was initiated by Hero Honda in 2001 to build relationships with its customers.

The programme, with over 15 lakh members nationwide, has unique features where every rupee spent by the member translates into a reward point, which can be redeemed for gifts.

Besides, the passport programme entitles customers to several other benefits like a one-year accident insurance worth Rs one lakh. Besides winner of each month's draw gets either a Hero Honda Splendor motorcycle free or Rs 40,000 in cash.

The points accumulated by customers can also be redeemed for discounts in servicing and purchase of spares. However, Hero Honda has still not put into place facilities where card holders could service their vehicles or purchase spares using the credit cards.