We are seeing growth of credit, debit cards: Bankbazaar.com

The online marketplace to manage personal finance, Bankbazaar.com has seen significant growth for paperless credit cards, debit cards, savings accounts and personal loans post demonetisation. 

In an interview, Adhil Shetty, CEO and Co- founder Bankbazaar.com, said, that the company is "technology" ready to go face the Digital era in the country. 

However, post the ban on high denomination currency, the online financial portal said that due to postpone in purchases in automobile and realty sector, there has been a slowdown in home loan and car loans.

Below is excerpts of the interview:

Has bankbazaar.com seen growth post demonetisation? If yes, which financial product people are most looking at?

We have seen a strong rebound post demonetisation and are seeing growth for paperless credit cards, debit cards, savings accounts and personal loans. We have a slowdown in home loan and car loan as those purchases are being postponed.

How well bankbazaar.com is placed to face the "digital" era?

The vision with which we started bankbazaar in 2008 was to make the purchase of personal finance as easy as shopping ONLINE. Today, we are very proud to share that the entire purchase process on bankbazaar is paperless for a lot of personal finance products like credit cards and personal loans. So we have the technology ready to use and with recent regulatory developments for digitization, we are confident that the entire personal finance category, including home loans, etc. will be paperless as well as presence-less on bankbazaar.com.
 
How you are promoting the company post demonetisation? Has your Ad spends gone up?

We are going ahead with the plan which was finalized at the beginning of the financial year. Fortunately, for the financial year, the marketing plan was rear loaded and the last two quarters were already planned for heavier promotions.
 
How much have you spend towards IT/technology to make digital transactions more safe and secured?

We take information security and privacy very seriously. BankBazaar has invested in a dedicated Information Security Team which monitors latest developments globally in the infotech security space. We have been ISO 27001 ISMS (information security management system) certified for 3+ years and have successfully retained this certification through multiple audits. We have outsourced VA/PT auditors who constantly monitor and test our security infrastructure. Management has strong focus on information security practices and adopts global best practices across platforms and processes. We cannot share an % exact of budget for this item.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley yesterday had talked about 'Discount on Insurance premiums applicable only for new policies'. Do you think it is the right step?

I think from the implementation point of view, this is a right step.
 
Advice to people who are looking for getting home loans considering banks are reducing MCLR?

Rates have reduced a lot in the last one year making it comparatively affordable to go for home loan right now. Also our banking system allows users to change the interest rate or switch the lender in case there are further reductions in the interest rates. 
 
Post demonetization, credit card and debit cards usage have gone up. As in case of credit cards, you have to pay back within a month or two, how people should manage their finances to pay back the debts?

Considering that more and more new customers will use credit cards, awareness about how to spend is very important. So, for a newbie with Credit Cards, chances are that he/she may not be fully aware about how his/her card’s monthly billing process works. 

The most risky habit for a Credit Card users would be swiping more than what they can pay for because if they will not able to settle the Credit Card bill within the payment time frame, they will carry forward the balance to the next cycle where it is subjected to high interest rates. Thus, end up paying hefty interest amounts on the average balance.