[Akshay1234]

Originally Posted by Sahil

HDFC has offered me their Infinia Card which is their top tier card with no spend limits, concierge service,taj epicure gold membership, free unlimited priority pass etc. However there is an annual fee of 30k which is only waived off if you spend 10 lakhs a year. Has anyone got this card without having this condition or a lower spend condition?

If I remember correctly this was offered to us, but we wanted to have a limit hence got the Regalia, which I think has the same benefits minus the no limit.

Citibank too was adamant on a 20k per year fee for their Prestige card, but they've waived that off now too.

Frankly Sahil I find Citi's cards much better, with many more benefits and discounts at a lot more places.


Guys who are using Citibank Rewards cards, please note that from Jan 15 - 100 points = Rs30 as compared to Rs40 now.

[Sahil]

Originally Posted by akshay1234

Frankly Sahil I find Citi's cards much better, with many more benefits and discounts at a lot more places.

True that. The card I use most is Citi Premier Miles, infact I was thinking of getting an add-on card for my driver to use it to fill fuel everytime however this card has fuel surcharge waiver only for IOC pumps whereas I fill from HP and BP. I am going to continue to keep this as my primary card. Hence I do not want to commit to the 10 lakh spend mandatory for fee waiver on the Infinia.
If they do not agree for removing the waiver restriction then I will get upgrade my signature hdfc card to Regalia instead.

Is this change in point applicable on the Citi Premier miles too? Currently I believe their point system is 4 miles for every 100rs spent. Only thing I wish Citi did was waive of the annual fee, inspite of having a decent amount of billing over the past year they refuse to waive my annual fee recently.

[Akshay1234]

Originally Posted by Sahil

True that. The card I use most is Citi Premier Miles, infact I was thinking of getting an add-on card for my driver to use it to fill fuel everytime however this card has fuel surcharge waiver only for IOC pumps whereas I fill from HP and BP. I am going to continue to keep this as my primary card. Hence I do not want to commit to the 10 lakh spend mandatory for fee waiver on the Infinia.
If they do not agree for removing the waiver restriction then I will get upgrade my signature hdfc card to Regalia instead.

Is this change in point applicable on the Citi Premier miles too? Currently I believe their point system is 4 miles for every 100rs spent. Only thing I wish Citi did was waive of the annual fee, inspite of having a decent amount of billing over the past year they refuse to waive my annual fee recently.

They should waive the fee. If not the Regalia is good too, you still get the Inner Circle Gold membership, and all of that.

I'm not sure about the points for Premier Miles, I got an email from Citi regarding the points changing on the Rewards card. Actually this is the 2nd time they've done this to me. I had the Platinum, but when changing to a chip card they discontinued the Platinum which had much higher lower points to money ratio.

I'd suggest you check out the Citi Prestige card.

[Sahil]

Originally Posted by akshay1234

I'd suggest you check out the Citi Prestige card.

Does citi waive off the 20k annual fee on this card? If so, how does one go about getting that done?

[sgiitk]

Originally Posted by Sahil

Does citi waive off the 20k annual fee on this card? If so, how does one go about getting that done?

The best time is before you sign on. Then they are all ears. Once you sign on the boot is on your foot.

[Akshay1234]

Originally Posted by Sahil

Does citi waive off the 20k annual fee on this card? If so, how does one go about getting that done?

Well we asked them for it earlier in the year, and they didn't waive it off. We refused to take the card. They came back themselves after a few months offering it with no yearly fee.

[rki2007]

Just curious to know about any credit card which can offer cash back on fuel, utility bills and telephone bills. I know one such card from Standard Chartered. But really do not know whether the same is still prevalent. However having had a bad experience with St. Ch, I really do not want to repeat it again.

I am currently using Citibank Indian Oil credit card which restricts me to fill fuel from IOC (on citibank card machine) to get cash back.

[dmplog]

Originally Posted by rki2007

Just curious to know about any credit card which can offer cash back on fuel, utility bills and telephone bills. I know one such card from Standard Chartered. But really do not know whether the same is still prevalent.

This card still works. I have been using it for many years. However threshold for a transaction becoming eligible is now Rs 750. So, minimum spend for each transaction is Rs 750 be it Fuel, Telecom or Utilities.

[samish_g]

Originally Posted by rki2007

Just curious to know about any credit card which can offer cash back on fuel, utility bills and telephone bills. I know one such card from Standard Chartered. But really do not know whether the same is still prevalent. However having had a bad experience with St. Ch, I really do not want to repeat it again.

I am currently using Citibank Indian Oil credit card which restricts me to fill fuel from IOC (on citibank card machine) to get cash back.

1. For fuel purchases, all cards of HDFC and Axis Bank offer the cash back for the surcharge across all petrol bunks. Also few select cards of SBI offer the same.
2. I am not very sure of utility bills (electricity / water). IIRC, all cards charge 1% for the service.
3. There are no charges for telephone (BSNL, Airtel etc) bill payments.

Regards

Samish

[manduvindupondu]

rki2007,
1) HDFC bank charges no fuel surcharge on petrol at any petrol bunk across India. They even refund the service tax on fuel surcharge. Yes, I mean it. I escalated the issue till the Grievance and Nodal officer. Now they have put a system in place to refund the service tax on fuel surcharge. No other bank does it. I found them most straight forward/transparent
2) Indusind bank platinum Aura offers 1.5% cash back on Telephone bills, Utility. No minimum or maximum limits. No fine print or hidden terms. Pretty nice and transparent
3) Indusind platinum Aura offers 2% cashback on all groceries and departmental store purchases. No hidden charges and there is no upper limit on the cashback.

I am stating the above from first hand experience of using the above cards.

[rki2007]

Originally Posted by manduvindupondu

rki2007,
1) HDFC bank charges no fuel surcharge on petrol at any petrol bunk across India. They even refund the service tax on fuel surcharge. Yes, I mean it. I escalated the issue till the Grievance and Nodal officer. Now they have put a system in place to refund the service tax on fuel surcharge. No other bank does it. I found them most straight forward/transparent
2) Indusind bank platinum Aura offers 1.5% cash back on Telephone bills, Utility. No minimum or maximum limits. No fine print or hidden terms. Pretty nice and transparent
3) Indusind platinum Aura offers 2% cashback on all groceries and departmental store purchases. No hidden charges and there is no upper limit on the cashback.

I am stating the above from first hand experience of using the above cards.

Indus Ind is very interesting. I haven't examined this option at all. Thanks for the information.

[dmplog]

Originally Posted by manduvindupondu

rki2007,
1) HDFC bank charges no fuel surcharge .... ... Now they have put a system in place to refund the service tax on fuel surcharge. No other bank does it.

Service tax reversal is also done on my standard chartered super value cash back card..

[rkg]

Originally Posted by manduvindupondu

rki2007,
1) HDFC bank charges no fuel surcharge on petrol at any petrol bunk across India. They even refund the service tax on fuel surcharge. Yes, I mean it. I escalated the issue till the Grievance and Nodal officer. Now they have put a system in place to refund the service tax on fuel surcharge. No other bank does it. I found them most straight forward/transparent

HDFC is charging service tax for the past three years on platinum plus master card. will you let me know the details

[binand]

Originally Posted by manduvindupondu

1) HDFC bank charges no fuel surcharge on petrol at any petrol bunk across India. They even refund the service tax on fuel surcharge. Yes, I mean it. I escalated the issue till the Grievance and Nodal officer. Now they have put a system in place to refund the service tax on fuel surcharge. No other bank does it. I found them most straight forward/transparent

It is illegal to charge service tax when no "chargeable service" has been rendered. If a bank charges service tax when it refunds service charge, it is operating illegally. HDFC is not doing any favours to us here.

On the other hand, they are quite sneaky. They do it to many of their customers, and quickly reimburse to the ones who complain about it. The rest of the folks pay up, unaware that their bank is taking them for a ride. It is only about 30p per Rs. 100 of fuel filled, so most people don't even miss it.

On the other hand, Citibank does not even go through the charge-refund loop. Pity they deal only with IOCL.

[poloman]

I am losing patience with my Citibank Indian Oil card. I am yet to find a petrol pump where i could convert the points to fuel. Most of the time the server is down,machine not working or attendants are ignorant and above all they seem disinterested in servicing Citibank customers. Since this is a card issued in name of IOC I am totally disappointed since it is not serving its primary purpose.