A Pure-Play Credit Card is a card issued by a company whose primary business is providing credit card services, without diversifying into other financial products or services
A pure-play credit card is a term often used in business and finance to describe a credit card issued by a company that specializes solely in the credit card business, meaning that their primary line of business or revenue comes from issuing credit cards and managing credit card transactions. This can be contrasted with credit cards issued by banks or other financial institutions, which often have multiple lines of business such as mortgages, personal loans, commercial lending, and investment services.
Pure-play credit card companies typically make their money from transaction fees charged to merchants, interest on balances carried by cardholders, and various fees charged to cardholders such as annual fees, late fees, and foreign transaction fees.
Examples
Examples of such companies may include credit card issuers like American Express, Capital One, and Discover, though it should be noted that many of these companies have diversified their offerings over time and may not strictly be considered “pure-play” anymore.
- A Pure-Play Credit Card is a credit card that is issued by a company that specializes only in credit card services and does not offer any other financial products or services.
Which is the largest pure-play credit card company in India?
For example, SBI Card is India’s largest pure-play credit card issuer.
It was launched in 1998 by the State Bank of India and GE Capital, and became the first pure play credit card company to list on the stock exchanges in India in March 202012.
It offers a wide range of world-class, value-added payment products and services to Indian consumers.
3 Features of Pure-Play Credit Card
Some of the possible features of a Pure-Play Credit Card are:
- Exclusive benefits from the co-brand partner, such as discounts, free tickets, vouchers, etc. For example, the BookMyShow RBL Bank Play Credit Card offers a discount of up to Rs. 500 on movie/non-movie ticket bookings via BookMyShow as a welcome benefit and 2 complimentary movie/non-movie tickets every month on spending a minimum of Rs. 5,000 in a month.
- Spend-based waiver of the annual membership fee. For example, the SBI Card charges an annual fee of Rs. 500, which is waived off if the cardholder spends Rs. 1.5 lakhs or more in the previous year3. The BookMyShow RBL Bank Play Credit Card is free for the BookMyShow Super Star members.
- Fuel surcharge waiver on all fuel transactions. For example, both the SBI Card and the BookMyShow RBL Bank Play Credit Card offer a 1% fuel surcharge waiver on all fuel purchases.
