Loyalty points get i-mint flavour

ICICI Bank has teamed up with telecom services provider Bharti Airtel, fuel retailer Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd (HPCL) and Indian Airlines to offer a combined loyalty rewards programme called "i-mint", which will rival the Tata Card's proposed "earn and burn" programme.

The programme was launched under a new company, Loyalty Solutions and Research (LSRL), promoted by ICICI Ventures.

"The idea behind i-mint is to make it easier for the customer to redeem the points, so minimum points for redemption would be as low as about 200 points. " said Vijay Bobba , CEO of LSRL

The other firms which have joined the LSRL platform are retailer Lifestyle and online tour operator MakeMyTrip.com.

The rewards points earned by the customers of the partners on the LSRL platform will get credited to the i-mint card and the points accumulated can be redeemed for purchases.

"Online redeeming of the rewards points would start after a couple of months as the customers first need to accumulate some points," said Bobba.

There would only be a small one-time charge of Rs 100-Rs 200 on the i-mint card after the initial free offer for the first month. There would be no annual fees charged, but only a few rewards points would be deducted for meeting operational expenses.

ICICI Ventures has put in Rs 5 lakh of equity capital in LSRL and invested Rs 18 crore in debentures issued by LSRL.