In a bid to get the best deal for its credit-cum-debit card business, the Life Insurance Corporation of India has entered into talks with SBI Cards, the nations largest credit card company.

Till sometime back LIC was only talking to Corporation Bank and Capital One, a Fortune 500 diversified financial company, for its cards venture.

"We have entered into talks with all these three parties and will tie up with the one giving us the best deal," said LIC Chairman S B Mathur.

Officials from LIC said that the corporation has been bargaining with the three parties for getting the best deal out of them.

"We have a very large customer base and they will have to agree to our riders if they have to access our customer base," said the official.

Charges for services availed through the card will have to be either lower or for free. LIC would like these companies to waive fees payable by customers.

These included joining fees as well as annual fees charged by credit card companies at present.

Another major rider LIC has asked for was lower interest rate, between 0.9 per cent and 1 per cent per month, against the present rates of 1.9 per cent to 2.2 per cent per month.

The credit card also has to provide for some value addition to LIC customers. "The company agreeing to all these criteria will be the one with which LIC will tie-up," officials said.

Market sources said LIC was also talking to Citigroup and Bank of Punjab for providing the banking service required for launching the card.

Capital One till now does not have a presence in India, so the tie up could provide the US giant a foothold. LIC was negotiating with Masters and Visa as well for the best deal.

A card with SBI will have to be a co-branded card. SBI may have to re-think the profile of its own card if the joint card was launched as the LIC-SBI card could upset the dynamics of the card market in India.