In order to guard the cardholders against the risk of card fraud, private banks in the industry are offering card protection plan to their customers. This is a new phenomenon in India but it is rather common in the developed nations of the world.

Card protection plan offers allows customers the option to block all financial and non-financial cards including credit, debit, loyalty and membership cards with fraud protection up to Rs 20 lakh, emergency hotel and travel assistance of Rs 1.2 lakh and emergency cash assistance of another Rs 60,000.

Banks such as Kotak Mahindra, Citibank, Standard Chartered and HSBC have launched a card protection plan in association with CPP Assistance Services. The banks are offering this service at less than Rs 3 per day.

The banks are offering card protection for theft and loss that can occur anywhere across the world. Moreover there is no cap on the number of cards that can be protected under one membership. It is valid for one year and thereafter renewed. The protection starts from seven days before the loss report and extends to any period after that.

Kotak Credit Cards was amongst the first to offer this service to the customers in the industry. Even though the market is flooded with card insurance products, this service more helpful says Subrat Pani, head of Kotak Credit Cards.

"There are insurance plans available that help the customers in case of card fraud but each card company has its own insurance plan. As such, for a multiple cardholder, there are numerous policies to keep track of and numerous numbers to remember to block cards in case of a mishap," said Pani.

HSBC India has also recently launched this scheme on February 16th, for protecting its cardholders against frauds.