ICICI Bank has a new product called Instant Credit Card where certain pre-approved customers of the bank will be able to get a virtual credit card much before the physical card is delivered to them. A physical card will be sent to the customer's address in 5-7 days. The bank is issuing these new cards with the upcoming festival season in mind, so that customers can start using the virtual credit card (i.e. the credit card number) on shopping sites. Customer can get a credit card with a credit limit of up to Rs 4 lakh based on pre-checked bureau scores. This is available to Visa, MasterCard and American Express cards. The bank adds that customers can also make in-store purchases through Samsung Pay by linking the virtual credit card. The facility to apply for the virtual card is on the bank's netbanking page. Customers need to enter the following information: Name, email, phone number, and date of birth. Choose which card they want. Enter a postal address. Generate the card which gives them 16 digit number which they can start using for shopping. Implications - Trying to beat rivals: Right now, its rival HDFC Bank has the maximum number of credit cards in circulation with 9.03 million. Meanwhile, ICICI Bank has 4.34 million credit cards. Following the 2008 crisis, ICICI Bank started consolidating its credit card portfolio due to the rising number of frauds, which led to a significant decline in its card base. Our chart from 2011, illustrates the decline in…
