[blorebuddy]

Originally Posted by TorqueyTechie

Seeing my usage (probably) , bank has offered to upgrade to Yes First preferred credit card which is lifetime free.



Is that a good one? Anybody using it? Quick search tells me that it provides better reward points and also complimentary lounge access.

Yes, you get domestic and international lounge access. Please check fine prints for exact numbers. I vaguely remember it as 3 domestic per quarter and 3or 4 international per year. I use it for non Indian Oil fuel transactions as there is no surcharge. I did not find the reward points as a great one. I use CIti Indian Oil which I think has better rewards.

Originally Posted by strawhat

The Citibank IndianOil card has gotten better. No longer do we need to ask for Citibank EDC machine to accrue reward points (4 points for 150/- spent) at IndianOil bunks. We can now earn points by swiping on any banks machine.

This is not on all IOC outlets, only on approved outlets which are listed in their website. Please check before using.

[Saanil]

Hello,

I have been using a CitiBank Rewards credit card for the past 7 years. I never evaluated my spending patterns or looked for ways to extract maximum value from my card spending. Most of the rewards points accrued on my card are redeemed on Bookmyshow for buying movie tickets. Regarding travel related offers, I have used my Citibank card to book flight tickets on Makemytrip where I have received 10% cashback on the booking amount.

I was wondering if people can suggest any good upgrade from my current CitiBank Rewards credit card? My online shopping needs are minimal and I try to avoid eating at restaurants. So I would prefer a card which focuses on things other than dining/movie tickets. I guess that leaves travel focused cards. Any suggestions?

[SilentEngine]

Originally Posted by Saanil

I was wondering if people can suggest any good upgrade from my current CitiBank Rewards credit card? My online shopping needs are minimal and I try to avoid eating at restaurants. So I would prefer a card which focuses on things other than dining/movie tickets. I guess that leaves travel focused cards. Any suggestions?

Within Citibank, Premier Miles - if you are a frequent flier. It's not free, so it may not be justifiable spending 3k+GST each year on card fee if your spending patterns are not aligned. However, it will be worth having if you fly regularly and require benefits such as airport lounge access.

Amex MRCC is also a good general purpose card which most people can get for LTF, but need to be aware of limited acceptability of Amex.

[dmplog]

Originally Posted by haridsv

I have a couple of questions for those who already use it:
- Typically how long does it take for the cashback to show up?
- Do ISP bills (specifically ACT Fibernet) qualify for 5% cashback? Will it come under Utility or Telecom?

It takes 3-4 days for cashback to appear. Please note, the cashback doesn't automatically appear on CC statement. But it goes to Rewards section. You have to explicitly say 'Get Cash' to get real cash reflecting in your CC Bill.

I pay my You Broadband bills and I get cashback. I guess it should fall under utility. There is minimum 750 threshold for any bill payments to qualify for cashback.

[haridsv]

Originally Posted by dmplog

It takes 3-4 days for cashback to appear. Please note, the cashback doesn't automatically appear on CC statement. But it goes to Rewards section. You have to explicitly say 'Get Cash' to get real cash reflecting in your CC Bill.

That is a great tip! I never would have guessed this (I don't think I came across any SC page that tells us this). I just checked and see cashback, though txn list doesn't indicate for what.

Originally Posted by dmplog

I pay my You Broadband bills and I get cashback. I guess it should fall under utility. There is minimum 750 threshold for any bill payments to qualify for cashback.

Yep, just made the payment today and will watch for cashback after a couple of days.

[digitalnirvana]

For credit card users who buy fuel, is the SBI BPCL card better or is the Indian Oil Citibank card better in terms of benefits / reward points / cashback? Alternatively is the SCB titanium cashback card better? I generally top up full tank and for two cars it is 6k + worth of purchases per month.

I was using the SCB card earlier and then moved to SBI. Yesterday by mistake I had gone to an IOCL pump instead of BPCL and the pump owner said that the Citibank card gives double the points of SBI. To his credit, he asked me to read the documents online myself before applying for the card.

[strawhat]

Originally Posted by digitalnirvana

For credit card users who buy fuel, is the SBI BPCL card better or is the Indian Oil Citibank card better in terms of benefits

Dunno about SBI, I own a Citi IOCL card. We accrue 4 reward points for every 150/- spent at authorised IOC bunks. So if you are spending 6000/-, you will be making 160 reward points; 1 point equals 1/- fuel. I found their rewards program to be one of the better in this class of cards. Also Annual fee will be rolled back if annual spends are above 30k (based on your spend pattern, looks like you will reach this milestone much sooner ). The only problem you might encounter is finding reliable authorised IOC bunks outside cities. In Bangalore there are a few good ones though.

[turbospooler]

Originally Posted by digitalnirvana

For credit card users who buy fuel, is the SBI BPCL card better or is the Indian Oil Citibank card better in terms of benefits / reward points / cashback? Alternatively is the SCB titanium cashback card better? I generally top up full tank and for two cars it is 6k + worth of purchases per month.

I was using the SCB card earlier and then moved to SBI. Yesterday by mistake I had gone to an IOCL pump instead of BPCL and the pump owner said that the Citibank card gives double the points of SBI. To his credit, he asked me to read the documents online myself before applying for the card.

I have all the 3 cards: SCB SVT, SBI BPCL, CITI IOC.

The best card was SCB SVT which has now limited cashback to transactions below ₹2050 inclusive of surcharge. (4% cashback and 1% surcharge refund). Best part is this card is brand agnostic so even Shell refuelling earns cashback.

2nd best is SBI BPCL (13 points per ₹100. 1 point = ₹0.25, surcharge refund included)

3rd best is Citi IOC (4 points per ₹@150. 1 point = ₹1).
Axis and HDFC have also launched IOC co-branded cards with similar benefits as Citi IOC.
Hope this summary helps devise your fuel card strategy.

[digitalnirvana]

Thanks gents. @turbospooler if I always refill more than rs2050, would SCB SVT be better than SBI BPCL?

Also, yesterday when I refilled at IOCL, the pump owner gave me a leaflet which says max 10% (minimum rs50 worth of points) of the transaction amount will be repaid as points in IOCL rewards card if the customer uses debit / credit cards and sends the transaction ID to a number via SMS. This is over and above the Citi or any other cards rewards.

Considering this, does IOCL sound better than BPCL? If so I'll apply for the Citi IOCL card.

[haridsv]

Originally Posted by turbospooler

2nd best is SBI BPCL (13 points per ₹100. 1 point = ₹0.25, surcharge refund included)

Does it make it 4.25% worth of points + 1% surcharge reversal? Or is it 4.25% worth of points on total transaction value including surcharge (with no additional surcharge reversal)?

Originally Posted by digitalnirvana

Thanks gents. @turbospooler if I always refill more than rs2050, would SCB SVT be better than SBI BPCL?

If you refill more than Rs.2050 (including surcharge), then your effective cashback goes down below 5%. In any case, your max cashback per transaction is Rs.100, so if you fill for Rs.3000, then you still get only Rs.100 and on top of that you lose out on the surcharge reversal. On my very first transaction after receiving the card I habitually did a full refill with auto-shutoff which was about Rs.2700 and I can see right now that there was no surcharge reversal at all that corresponds to this. If this is their rule, then your Rs.3000 transactions would still earn you only Rs.100 cashbacks, effectively making it only 3.33% cashback.

The best value out of SC card comes when your total total fuel spend per month doesn't exceed Rs.4000 and then you can limit a single fuel refill to Rs.2000. In your case, based on what @turbospooler is saying above, I think the SBI card is better as it gives at least 4.25% worth of points on each transaction (compared to 3.33% in case of SC as calculated by me above).

[turbospooler]

Originally Posted by digitalnirvana

Thanks gents. @turbospooler if I always refill more than rs2050, would SCB SVT be better than SBI BPCL?

Also, yesterday when I refilled at IOCL, the pump owner gave me a leaflet which says max 10% (minimum rs50 worth of points) of the transaction amount will be repaid as points in IOCL rewards card if the customer uses debit / credit cards and sends the transaction ID to a number via SMS. This is over and above the Citi or any other cards rewards.

Considering this, does IOCL sound better than BPCL? If so I'll apply for the Citi IOCL card.

Is the ₹50 limit monthly or per transaction? If per transaction, this appears to be a better saving. Go for IOCL

[Mr. Nobody]

Originally Posted by haridsv

The best value out of SC card comes when your total total fuel spend per month doesn't exceed Rs.4000 and then you can limit a single fuel refill to Rs.2000. In your case, based on what @turbospooler is saying above, I think the SBI card is better as it gives at least 4.25% worth of points on each transaction (compared to 3.33% in case of SC as calculated by me above).

I am waiting for the SCB TCC to arrive this week for using it only as a fuel card. I did read we have to limit transaction to 2000 to get the cashback. But if we fill fuel worth say 3000 and do 2 transactions of 2000 and 1000 at the same time, will we still get the full cashback ?

[digitalnirvana]

Originally Posted by turbospooler

Is the ₹50 limit monthly or per transaction? If per transaction, this appears to be a better saving. Go for IOCL

Unfortunately I didn't get any cashback. Maybe I entered the transaction number wrong. It's supposed to be 50 rupees per transaction.

[ruzbehxyz]

Which is currently the best fuel cash back credit card or the credit card best for fuel ?

[haridsv]

Originally Posted by Mr. Nobody

I am waiting for the SCB TCC to arrive this week for using it only as a fuel card. I did read we have to limit transaction to 2000 to get the cashback. But if we fill fuel worth say 3000 and do 2 transactions of 2000 and 1000 at the same time, will we still get the full cashback ?

Yes, that should work as the credit card company has no way of knowing that both txns originated from a single filling. Most attenders will be OK to swipe twice, but you may occasionally come across some who are grumpy and throw a fit or look at you in a weird way. I used to do this with Amex Rewards card as I had to make 4 txns of Rs.1000 each per month to get bonus points. In a particular month, if I ended up using other cards more because of the offers on those cards, I would just use Amex and get the fuel bill split into multiple txns of a minimum Rs.1000. Now a days, I just recharge a wallet with Rs.1000 each to meet this goal.