Foreign lender, Citibank has introduced a service whereby cardholders can protect their card against any misuse that is liable to happen in case the credit card is lost or stolen.

The bank launches this scheme with cover plans and the annual fee charged to avail this facility is Rs 995 and Rs 1,295 for the Classic and Premium plan respectively.

The customers can cover themselves against any fraud loss on their cards up to Rs 1,00,000 in case of prior notification and Rs 20,00,000 post notification. Also overseas emergency assistance for payment of hotel expenses of up to Rs 1,20,000 and Rs 60,000 in India and replacement travel ticket advance of Rs 1,20,000 for overseas and Rs 60,000 for India are covered depending on the plan selected by the customer.

This service is launched by the bank in association with CPP Assistance Services Pvt Ltd (CPP), a global leader in assistance services marketing. The facility is seen to be extremely beneficial as it will shield all the cardholders including both debit and credit. Besides the bank said cards of other issuers and even non-financial ones such as store, loyalty and membership cards can be protected.

The card fraud in the industry is consistently rising and a launch like this would prove to be a boon for the society.

Recently credit cardholders have been shocked as banks' are reducing the credit limit of their cardholders following the rising defaults in the segment.