Credit cards: What are EMI options and concierge services? | Mint

If you are planning to apply for a credit card and are exploring a range of services that can take your experience a notch higher, then you may avail a range of premium services. Although these services vary from bank to bank, one can pick them according to their special preferences.

Here we share details of two premium services of credit cards: concierge service and EMI options. Although both are quite distinct from one another, we club them together since both provide convenience and comfort to credit card users.

What are concierge services?

These are personalised services provided by credit card providers to their high-end consumers to help them with personalised tasks such as travel, entertainment and lifestyle needs. These are premium services offered by banks to an elite group of cardholders. 

Typically concierge service is complimentary, but cardholders are meant to pay for any bookings, purchases, or tickets arranged through the service.

These services are offered by high-end cards such as American Express, Mastercard, Visa and other luxury cards.

ICICI Bank

ICICI Bank’s concierge service includes restaurant referral, flower and gift assistance, movie tickets, sourcing of luxury items, golf course referral, car rental and limousine, hotel referral and reservation, and flight referral and reservation.

HDFC Bank

HDFC Bank also offers concierge service through its Regalia Gold Credit Card. The concierge service includes car rentals, assistance with hotel reservations, golf course reservations, flower and gift delivery assistance, courier service assistance, dining reservation assistance and events.

Kotak Mahindra Bank

Kotak Mahindra Bank also offers concierge service through its Kotak White Credit Card. The range of services it offers includes curated travel experience, personal shopping team, fine dining reservations, gifting and exclusive events.

Key features of concierge services

Event ticketing: You get access to exclusive or sold-out events, such as concerts, theatre performances, sports events, among others.

Reservations: The cardholders get assistance with booking tables at the top or hard-to-book restaurants at times when they are fully booked.

Travel assistance: The cardholders receive help to book flights, hotels, and transportation, and create personalised travel itineraries.

Shopping and Gifts: The concierge service also provides assistance in finding rare or exclusive items, personal shopping services, and gift recommendations.

Entertainment: These services may also entail booking special experiences, VIP access to events, and personalised recommendations for entertainment activities.

Lifestyle management: The cardholders get support with making appointments for spa treatments, wellness services, and booking experiences like private tours or golfing sessions.

EMI options

Some credit cards offer a facility to their customers to make the payment in equated monthly instalments (EMIs). The EMI service enables users to break down their lumpsum payment into smaller easily manageable instalments. Some EMIs are interest-free whereas some banks charge interest on these EMIs. The instalments can be of any duration, say spread across three months or 24 months.

So, while credit card EMI options help cardholders manage their finances by breaking down large payments into smaller monthly instalments, concierge services offer cardholders a premium service to handle travel, lifestyle and entertainment needs.