[theredliner]

I have never used credit cards in my life. I have been thinking about applying for Amazon Pay ICICI card as they've opened it again.

Would the holders of the card recommend it? Are there any hidden fees/penalties? Is there any hidden limit on the cashback or usage? TIA!

[vvijay]

Originally Posted by theredliner

I have never used credit cards in my life. I have been thinking about applying for Amazon Pay ICICI card as they've opened it again.

Would the holders of the card recommend it? Are there any hidden fees/penalties? Is there any hidden limit on the cashback or usage? TIA!

I would advise to go for it blindly. It is a good one for starters without any hidden annual fees / convenience charges unless you default your payments. Many including me use this card typically for amazon purchases / amazon pay transactions for which the cashback is 5% and 2% respectively provided you are a Prime member. The accrued reward points get credited automatically as amazon pay balance to your amazon account at the end of each billing cycle which is actually a point of convenience for us unlike other bank credit card holders.

Cheers,
Vijay

[Aroy]

Originally Posted by theredliner

I have never used credit cards in my life. I have been thinking about applying for Amazon Pay ICICI card as they've opened it again.

Would the holders of the card recommend it? Are there any hidden fees/penalties? Is there any hidden limit on the cashback or usage? TIA!

1. Except a few "Lifetime Free" cards, every card (including most debit cards) carry an annual fee So please read the fine print carefully.

2. Some cards waive the annual fee if you send more than the threshold set by them, this varies from card to card.

3. As long as you pay by the due date, there is no interest. But if you pay later then not only is there a hefty late charge, the interest is charged for the whole period.

As long as you spend carefully and pay in time, a credit card is an excellent financial instrument. Where people go wrong and pile up debt is in thinking that the spends on credit card are free money and paying just minimum balance is free loan.

[kavensri]

Originally Posted by theredliner

I have never used credit cards in my life. I have been thinking about applying for Amazon Pay ICICI card as they've opened it again.

Would the holders of the card recommend it? Are there any hidden fees/penalties? Is there any hidden limit on the cashback or usage? TIA!

I have been using this CC since last 4+ months. There are no hidden/annual charges for this card. There is no upper limit for cash back as well. Even before buying this card, I used to shop a lot from Amazon, so it was a straight forward decision for me to go for this card. Apart from regular shopping, I do bill payments like Electricity, Mobile Recharge, Gas, Landline, etc through Amazon Pay, which gives 5% cashback on the bill amount. So, my suggestion is to go for this card.

[tejas08]

Lot of Diners Club Black Credit Card holders here.

I hope everybody is keeping themselves updated with the changes on the DCB. New benefits addition, removal of 5000 Bonus points against 5000 Rs. annual fee, increase of annual fee from 5000 Rs. to 10,000 Rs., multiple 10X Reward Points earning avenues.

This card just keeps making me greedy for more.

[Nonstop-driver]

Originally Posted by deovrat

The FX markup on DCB is 2% + GST.

If you are going to use the DCB for many int'l spends, I recommend signing up for HDFC's Global Value scheme.

Thank you, this was really helpful, I've signed up.

Originally Posted by tejas08

Lot of Diners Club Black Credit Card holders here.

I hope everybody is keeping themselves updated with the changes on the DCB. New benefits addition, removal of 5000 Bonus points against 5000 Rs. annual fee, increase of annual fee from 5000 Rs. to 10,000 Rs., multiple 10X Reward Points earning avenues.

This card just keeps making me greedy for more.

I know, it's been crazy how they're updating things every month. Do you have the update for December?

[tejas08]

Originally Posted by Nonstop-driver

I know, it's been crazy how they're updating things every month. Do you have the update for December?

As of now, its just the Annual Fees increase and the extension of 10X on Smartbuy. The next key update will be the 10X Diners Partners post 31-Dec-19.

If we keep aside the acceptability part, DCB is better than Infinia currently.

[Ithaca]

Paid for fuel using Citibank Credit Card in November 2019 - was charged 1.03% as surcharge.
Today paid using Citibank Debit Card - Will update in case a surcharge was charged.

Originally Posted by vvijay

I would advise to go for it blindly. It is a good one for starters without any hidden annual fees / convenience charges unless you default your payments. Cheers,
Vijay

Originally Posted by kavensri

I have been using this CC since last 4+ months.

One question regarding this card, Vijay & Kavensri,
Can it be linked to an Amazon account that belongs to my mother or does the amazon account have to be in my name for the Amazon spends benefits of 5% cashback.
Have scheduled an appointment for kyc.
Thanks in advance.

[Guite]

Originally Posted by Aroy

3. As long as you pay by the due date, there is no interest. But if you pay later then not only is there a hefty late charge, the interest is charged for the whole period.

For the first time in my life I forgot to pay my credit card bill by due date three months back. The following are the aftermath:
1. EMI processing got blocked (EMI transaction at POS machine)
2. Late payment penalty
3. Interest @3% per month

Since I rarely used it, the pending bill was also just a few thousand. So total damage was not much.

When I called the bank about the EMI conversion, they explained the problem. They also offered me a Visa Signature card. So I now use their card more often.

[diyguy]

Originally Posted by Guite

the pending bill was also just a few thousand. So total damage was not much.

Usually the bank will waive off the first time mistake especially with your track record. Has happened once with me too when I was traveling abroad and the late charges were reversed for me.

[deovrat]

Originally Posted by tejas08

Lot of Diners Club Black Credit Card holders here.

I hope everybody is keeping themselves updated with the changes on the DCB. New benefits addition, removal of 5000 Bonus points against 5000 Rs. annual fee, increase of annual fee from 5000 Rs. to 10,000 Rs., multiple 10X Reward Points earning avenues.

This card just keeps making me greedy for more.

Yes, one of the best earning cards. I have earned about 400k+ worth of points on it over the course of time. Lifetime free member of DCB here and have no inclination towards starting to pay annual fees since I don't need all the freebies.

Originally Posted by tejas08

If we keep aside the acceptability part, DCB is better than Infinia currently.

I tend to disagree here. The monthly SmartBuy 10x reward points cap on the Infinia is higher at 25,000 points than the 15,000 points currently on DCB.

[tejas08]

Originally Posted by deovrat

Yes, one of the best earning cards. I have earned about 400k+ worth of points on it over the course of time. Lifetime free member of DCB here and have no inclination towards starting to pay annual fees since I don't need all the freebies.

Too bad I could get my hands on the DCB just recently (May-2019), but I made full use of it in the last six months. Gathered (Or should I say looted) Reward Points in 6 figures already.

Originally Posted by deovrat

I tend to disagree here. The monthly SmartBuy 10x reward points cap on the Infinia is higher at 25,000 points than the 15,000 points currently on DCB.

I am surprised you say this after having used DCB. DCB has its own 10X Partners which itself offer additional 25,000 points monthly. And these include lot of merchants not available to Infinia but useful in day to day life. Ola, Swiggy, Myntra, First Cry, Bookmyshow, Godrej Nature's Basket. This makes the total 10X bonus points capping on DCB at 40,000 Points as against 25,000 Points.

Now Infinia has a spend waiver at 8 Lacs, DCB has it at 5 Lacs.

If you were to spend 8 Lacs on both cards, Infinia gets you nothing. DCB gets you Amazon Prime, Times Prime, MMT Double Black, Zomato Gold, Club Marriott & Forbes Digital Subscription.

Additionally, on monthly spends above 80,000 Rs. DCB gets you 500 Rs. voucher for Bookmyshow, Ola select or Tata CliQ.

[deovrat]

Originally Posted by tejas08

Gathered (Or should I say looted) Reward Points in 6 figures already.

The future generations are going to curse us for killing the goose that laid the golden egg.

Originally Posted by tejas08

I am surprised you say this after having used DCB. DCB has its own 10X Partners which itself offer additional 25,000 points monthly.

All valid points from your end. I guess this difference of opinions ultimately boils down to spend pattern.

I have travel as my biggest expense, so after INR 45000 spend in a month, I quickly hit the cap with smartbuy. Many times my monthly travel expenses exceed 100k. So this is when I could be earning 10k more miles per month with Infinia.
On the other hand, I don't spend any significant amount on 10x partners which are exclusive to Diners, hence they hold relatively less appeal for me. The 8L spend on Diners gets one all the freebies only if they were new card holders like you who pay annual fees. This offer is not valid for us grandpas unless we upgrade to a new card and start paying the annual fees, so I gave that a pass too.

[tejas08]

Originally Posted by deovrat

The future generations are going to curse us for killing the goose that laid the golden egg.

But the Credit Card Industry is just starting to scale up big time. So still lot of opportunity for everyone.

Originally Posted by deovrat

I have travel as my biggest expense, so after INR 45000 spend in a month, I quickly hit the cap with smartbuy. Many times my monthly travel expenses exceed 100k. So this is when I could be earning 10k more miles per month with Infinia.

My to cents:
Get a Co-Branded Airline Credit Card or a Citi Premier Miles card. Post usage of 45K on the DCB, switch over to the Citi PremierMiles or the co-branded Airline card.

Originally Posted by deovrat

The 8L spend on Diners gets one all the freebies only if they were new card holders like you who pay annual fees. This offer is not valid for us grandpas unless we upgrade to a new card and start paying the annual fees, so I gave that a pass too.

Correction.

The new benefits are applicable to all DCB card Holders. Just that for existing card holders, these benefits will be available in the card anniversary month only if the annual spends cross 8 Lacs.

[deovrat]

Originally Posted by tejas08

Get a Co-Branded Airline Credit Card or a Citi Premier Miles card. Post usage of 45K on the DCB, switch over to the Citi PremierMiles or the co-branded Airline card.

Already there Have Citi PM as well as AI-SBI Signature card. Thinking of giving the latter up if AI goes away and then switch to the new SBI Vistara card.

Originally Posted by tejas08

Correction.

The new benefits are applicable to all DCB card Holders. Just that for existing card holders, these benefits will be available in the card anniversary month only if the annual spends cross 8 Lacs.

Thanks for correcting me, thats a net positive for me then !