[tejas08]

Originally Posted by Karan_n8

Hey Tejas
You being a master of this craft, please put down an optimal combination of cards to replace the Magnus. I tried going through all of thee cards on the website but can't figure out the best combination. I could look at giving up the Vistara Infinite also in case there's another card that gives me the Gold status an better rewards.

Honestly, its difficult to give a generic response without knowing annual spend levels. And then the further optimization (If someone is looking for) is to check the top 3-5 spend categories.

But putting together a list of Credit Cards and its optimal spend levels

HDFC Infinia - ~15 Lacs (With decent spends via Smartbuy) - Should give a reward rate of 8-10% easily

Axis Atlas - 3 Lacs, 7.5 Lacs or 15 Lacs - There are certain milestone bonuses at these Annual spends that bump up your rewards. ~7% Reward Rate

Amex Platinum Travel - 4 Lacs Spends annually - 8-9% Reward Rate

A combination of these three cards is good for spends upto 35 Lacs annually with an average reward rate of 7+%. That's about Rs. 2.5 Lacs worth savings annually in terms of Travel Rewards.

Cashback Cards are going to limit your returns to max 2-3% annually once you have taken into account exclusions and no major reward multipliers in Cashback cards.

[ar@v1nd]

Hi Folks,

I hold multiple credit cards and I had a pretty decent credit score (800+) till very recently. A few months back, I accidentally delayed the payment for SBI credit card by 5 days. All my other credit cards are from ICICI & Axis bank where I have set up autodebit directly from the respective savings account, so I dont need to worry about paying on time.

On the other hand, SBI wanted me to send a physical signed request letter to some postal address to enable autodebit even though I hold an SBI account as well. SBI credit cards and SBI savings account behave like they are entirely un-related entities. Anyways I never set up the auto-debit and instead depended on reminders to pay the amount.

So somehow I missed they payment by 5 days. SBI charged some 750 or so as late fees which I paid. Anyway it was my mistake and the charges are in their T&C so I paid the charges and moved on. My credit score was impacted however (came down to around 750) and it's now slowly recovering. I called up the helpdesk to ask for a goodwill waiver, but the lady attending the line said she understood, but she said it is not possible to revert the negative entry in my credit history. Unlike private banks who care about customer retention and stuff, this lady didnt seem to give a damn.

From then on, I was wary of using this card (in case I miss payments and then end up with trouble) and stopped using it. Now, due to non-usage of the card, I'm being charged an annual fee as well in the latest statement

Now, to my queries.

1) Is it possible in any way to remove the negative entry in my credit history? Agreed it's my mistake, but it's a genuine oversight and payment got delayed only by 5 days. I'm sure any private bank would have helped to revert the entry, but the response from SBI was an emphatic NO. My credit score is now around 770 and moving up painfully slow.

2) Is it possible to close the card without paying the annual fee? The annual fee is charged in the current statement and due date is by end of the month only. If I call the helpdesk, I'm sure they will just ask me to pay the fee and then cancel whenever I want (pretty sure they dont care).

3) My card is SBI Simply Save for which I need to spend at least 1 L every year for annual fee waiver. Can I convert the card into any lower variant with a lower/zero annual spend requirement? The only reason I'm still thinking of keeping the card is to take advantage of SBI credit card offers on Amazon & Flipkart. There are no life time free SBI cards as far as I can see.

[binand]

Originally Posted by ar@v1nd

SBI credit cards and SBI savings account behave like they are entirely un-related entities.

They ARE different entities (but not unrelated - SBI holds about 70% shares in SBI Cards).

Originally Posted by ar@v1nd

but she said it is not possible to revert the negative entry in my credit history. Unlike private banks who care about customer retention and stuff, this lady didnt seem to give a damn.

1) Is it possible in any way to remove the negative entry in my credit history? I'm sure any private bank would have helped to revert the entry, but the response from SBI was an emphatic NO.

Assuming CIBIL - no entity can remove negative entries from your credit history. The facility to do that negates any utility of the credit score itself. What you can (and only you can. Not the bank - SBI or private) do is to undertake what they call a "credit repair". See: https://www.cibil.com/credit-score-repair

Originally Posted by ar@v1nd

2) Is it possible to close the card without paying the annual fee? The annual fee is charged in the current statement and due date is by end of the month only. If I call the helpdesk, I'm sure they will just ask me to pay the fee and then cancel whenever I want (pretty sure they dont care).

If your statement has been generated, you have to pay it. Again, no difference here between SBI and private banks.

[TheRajput]

Originally Posted by ar@v1nd

2) Is it possible to close the card without paying the annual fee? The annual fee is charged in the current statement and due date is by end of the month only. If I call the helpdesk, I'm sure they will just ask me to pay the fee and then cancel whenever I want (pretty sure they dont care).

You can call them up and they will waive off your annual charges. This is what happened in my case when I wanted to cancel an SBI credit card since I was not using it much and the annual charges had come up in the statement.
In case of SBI, they cancelled the card without me paying the annual charges, and in case of Kotak, they refunded the previous year's annual charges and gave me an LTF card.
You can surely try your luck.

[vinu_h]

Originally Posted by UD17

is anybody using ICICI emeralde credit card. The card offers unlimited access to Lounges (national/International)+ unlimited spa service at airports.

I have specific questions on fuel surcharge waiver on this card. Is it a good card for fueling?

+1.

I'm keen to know more about this too. Lounge & Spa aren't a priority for me, and, I'm yet to see 12k worth benefits coming from this card.

[Karan_n8]

Originally Posted by tejas08

Honestly, its difficult to give a generic response without knowing annual spend levels. And then the further optimization (If someone is looking for) is to check the top 3-5 spend categories.

But putting together a list of Credit Cards and its optimal spend levels

HDFC Infinia - ~15 Lacs (With decent spends via Smartbuy) - Should give a reward rate of 8-10% easily

Thank you, this is very helpful. Though I don't qualify for an Infinia card, will try getting the Amex then.

[skanchan95]

Originally Posted by ar@v1nd

1) Is it possible in any way to remove the negative entry in my credit history?

Neither CIBIL nor your bank can remove such entries. But if it was a mistake on the part of the bank where they wrongly reported you as a defaulter( which you must prove), you can either raise a dispute with CIBIL or ask your bank to correct it. If neither works, Banking Ombudsman Zindabad!!

I had a long and bitter feud with Canara Bank recently over two such wrongly reported loan default entries.

Recently while going through my CIBIL report, I found Canara Bank had, in September & October 2020, reported me as a defaulter for 5 days & 36 days respectively towards loan I had with them. Even during CoVid, I was maintaining sufficient balance in my account for the EMIs to be debited. I was sure I had not defaulted on that loan.

Checked the Loan statement & linked SB account statement. The SB account statement clearly revealed that there was enough balance in the Account on the due dates of loan EMI in the months of September & October 2020. However, it was the bank's mistake that they did not auto-debit the EMIs in September & October 2020.

In 2020, there was an order from GoI not to debit EMIs for all loans till August 2020. EMI repayments were supposed to resume from September 2020, however in case of my loan for some reason, Canara bank failed to debit the EMIs in September & October 2020 and wrongly reported me as a defaulter to CIBIL and other credit reporting agencies like Experian, Equifax etc.

In August this year, I asked to the bank to correct it and also raised a dispute with CIBIL to change the Days Past Due (DPD) for the months of September & October 2020 to 0. CIBIL replied that Canara Bank had replied to them that the credit data reported by them was correct and not to changed the DPD to 0.

I took it up with the Bank and even they hesitatingly agreed that it was the bank's mistake that they did not debit the EMIs in September & October 2020. You can sense in this letter below where the bank was unwilling to accept their mistake and by using cleverly twisted words like "next two installments were delayed" (which was because of the bank's mistake of not debiting EMIs on time). I neither received any call or notice from the bank about it at that time. So, I was completely unaware.


After a month of struggles, phone calls and a threat that I will escalate this to the banking Ombudsman, the Bank got it corrected. Immediately after the correction, my CIBIL score shot up from 777 to 792, clearly showing how much of a negative effect those wrongly reported loan defaults had on my CIBIL score.

I would encourage all borrowers to buy a CIBIL subscription to keep a tab on their CIBIL report. These day most of these banks are getting hopelessly careless, unresponsive and keep making such mistakes(wrongly reported defaults, Loans/Cards not reported as closed etc). It is up to us to keep monitoring our financial marks card i.e CIBIL report .

[Toni]

Originally Posted by ar@v1nd

1) Is it possible in any way to remove the negative entry in my credit history? Agreed it's my mistake, but it's a genuine oversight and payment got delayed only by 5 days. I'm sure any private bank would have helped to revert the entry, but the response from SBI was an emphatic NO. My credit score is now around 770 and moving up painfully slow.

2) Is it possible to close the card without paying the annual fee? The annual fee is charged in the current statement and due date is by end of the month only. If I call the helpdesk, I'm sure they will just ask me to pay the fee and then cancel whenever I want (pretty sure they dont care).

3) My card is SBI Simply Save for which I need to spend at least 1 L every year for annual fee waiver. Can I convert the card into any lower variant with a lower/zero annual spend requirement? The only reason I'm still thinking of keeping the card is to take advantage of SBI credit card offers on Amazon & Flipkart. There are no life time free SBI cards as far as I can see.

Even I hold multiple credit cards some with quite good limits and most of them are life time free with no joining or annual charges. I frequently use them but make sure that the amount due is paid in full before the due date.

As regards SBI credit card I have refused many offers from them offering me their credit cards because my wife who was holding one SBI credit card forgot to pay the annual fee for few years. The amount was added with penalty and interest and it nearly got doubled in 3 years. There is no dedicated customer service support on call like other banks have. Further, the payment had to be made through cheque by visiting their office. The staff behavior was very rude with no one interested in explaining the charges, no consideration at all. Closed the card immediately.

Normally other banks sometimes consider and waive off some interest/penalty amount by checking your past records and relationship (may be including CIBIL too). There is a circular from RBI that banks/credit card providers will have to give 3 days extra from the due date in case the customer forgets to pay by the due date. No charges will be applicable if the payment is received within 3 days from the due date.

[VWAllstar]

Is any bhpian using the Bajaj Finserv Insta EMI Card?

They are advertising that we can convert our spends to No Cost EMI for 60 months (ofcourse it will have terms and conditions depending on what we purchase) The card activation charges are Rs. 600 odd however it does not say anything about yearly charges / fees. Experts do go through the below link and suggest if this has any impact (negative) to our credit score or if there are any hidden charges. If the link is broken, search for Bajaj Finserv Insta EMI and you will have the details.

https://https://www.bajajfinserv.in/...aign=grid5_sov

[vkochar]

Just received the AMEX Platinum Card - The amount of offerings in the box and once you download the APP is quite honestly extremely vast

But only for the heavy traveler and Diner and hotel user. Which fortunately for my work profile fits this.

For the non traveler this card is worthless.

However just to put only 1 small example - Taj Epicure Membership today costs 60000 rupees per year including a nights stay - this comes Free with Platinum minus the night.

Adding 4 users to your primary card means you can have this given to 4 people - Am I wrong is that permissible ? I will find out. My sister stays in another town and she is a heavy user of Taj hotels and this deal makes it totally worth it.

I understand paying 70000 Incl GST is quite expensive but having spent the last hour browsing through the benefits and welcome package I am quite honestly amazed at the amount of Dining Discounts in Delhi NCR most of which we use regularly and not to count lounges across the world when we travel and membership tiers to 4-5 large hotel chains including Marriott makes this quite attractive.

Anything current Platinum users have to shed light on ?

Not counting the reward points one accrues during transactions booking travel etc and getting discounts on Premium Economy / Business class flights to Europe.

I shall certainly try these features as sworn by some of my friends. late to join the bandwagon but now that I have should be an interesting ride.

[ar@v1nd]

Originally Posted by binand

They ARE different entities (but not unrelated - SBI holds about 70% shares in SBI Cards).

Assuming CIBIL - no entity can remove negative entries from your credit history.

Thanks for the info. They sure behave like they are unrelated. I dont understand why they cant enable a simple thing such as autodebit from their own savings account without making the customer jump through hoops.

Originally Posted by TheRajput

You can call them up and they will waive off your annual charges. This is what happened in my case when I wanted to cancel an SBI credit card since I was not using it much and the annual charges had come up in the statement.
In case of SBI, they cancelled the card without me paying the annual charges, and in case of Kotak, they refunded the previous year's annual charges and gave me an LTF card.
You can surely try your luck.

Thanks Rajput. Let me try my luck. It's good to see your experience with cancellation. But seeing the response till now and the disinterest with which the SBI customer care responded, I have my doubts. SBI customer care acts as if you are disturbing them by calling them and they are doing some kind of favor by taking time to even listen to your silly queries.

Originally Posted by skanchan95

Neither CIBIL nor your bank can remove such entries. But if it was a mistake on the part of the bank where they wrongly reported you as a defaulter( which you must prove), you can either raise a dispute with CIBIL or ask your bank to correct it. If neither works, Banking Ombudsman Zindabad!!

Thank you so much for all the details, Kanchan. I also once had a wrong entry in my CIBIL a few years back related to a missed loan payment. This was from Union Bank. But it was the bank's mistake and I remember I told the bank manager and he got it corrected pretty quickly. I dont remember the exact steps though. Not sure if he asked me to raise a dispute in CIBIL or if he did it completely from the bank's side but it was not much of a hassle. But if course, that was a mistake from the bank's side so they had to correct it. From that point onwards I started keeping a tab on my credit report to catch any such instances.

But this time it's clearly my mistake, so there is no reason for SBI to budge from their stand. So I think raising a dispute will probably not be of any help.

Originally Posted by Toni

As regards SBI credit card I have refused many offers from them offering me their credit cards because my wife who was holding one SBI credit card forgot to pay the annual fee for few years. The amount was added with penalty and interest and it nearly got doubled in 3 years. There is no dedicated customer service support on call like other banks have. Further, the payment had to be made through cheque by visiting their office. The staff behavior was very rude with no one interested in explaining the charges, no consideration at all. Closed the card immediately.

Normally other banks sometimes consider and waive off some interest/penalty amount by checking your past records and relationship (may be including CIBIL too). There is a circular from RBI that banks/credit card providers will have to give 3 days extra from the due date in case the customer forgets to pay by the due date. No charges will be applicable if the payment is received within 3 days from the due date.

Yeah SBI's customer care is more like customer "don't-care". I will also probably get the card cancelled. Just let me see if I can get a waiver on the annual fee and then get it cancelled. My payment was delayed by 5 days (not 3) so unfortunately I wont get the 3 days exception. But at least they could have sent a message/called/emailed to remind me. But there was absolute silence till the point they already charged the late fee and screwed my CIBIL score and then they send an SMS. I guess it's an easy way to make money so this must be intentional.

I had a similar experience with SBI car insurance as well. My pre-owned A star had SBI car insurance (taken by the previous owner) . I had to go through a lot of struggle to get it transferred to my name. Even visiting their main branch didnt help. The guys there were clueless about how to transfer car insurance. Finally I got it done through their website.

[Everlearner]

Originally Posted by ar@v1nd

Just let me see if I can get a waiver on the annual fee and then get it cancelled

I had taken SBI Elite card a few years back which had a joining/annual fee of Rs.5k. After 1st year, the annual charge got added and statement generated. I called customer care and told them that I don't use this card regularly and wish to cancel this card. The did reverse the annual fees charged and closed my card without any issues. A very positive experience for me.

What I have also seen is that the customer care have different teams handling different categories of card customers. So, if you have a premium card like SBI Elite, HDFC Infinia etc., your calls get routed to a different team who are generally more polite and better trained to handle requests.

[gupta_chd]

Originally Posted by ar@v1nd

Thanks for the info. They sure behave like they are unrelated. I dont understand why they cant enable a simple thing such as autodebit from their own savings account without making the customer jump through hoops.

SBI Card and SBI are totally different companies although SBI has controlling stake in SBI Card. It is something like Volkswagen and Audi. Volks folks can't do anything about your Audi although they own the brand.

[deep_bang]

Originally Posted by gupta_chd

SBI Card and SBI are totally different companies although SBI has controlling stake in SBI Card. It is something like Volkswagen and Audi. Volks folks can't do anything about your Audi although they own the brand.

Correct. They are both listed companies (SBIN and SBICARD on NSE).

[adimicra]

Originally Posted by tejas08

Honestly, its difficult to give a generic response without knowing annual spend levels. And then the further optimization (If someone is looking for) is to check the top 3-5 spend categories.

But putting together a list of Credit Cards and its optimal spend levels

HDFC Infinia - ~15 Lacs (With decent spends via Smartbuy) - Should give a reward rate of 8-10% easily

Axis Atlas - 3 Lacs, 7.5 Lacs or 15 Lacs - There are certain milestone bonuses at these Annual spends that bump up your rewards. ~7% Reward Rate

Amex Platinum Travel - 4 Lacs Spends annually - 8-9% Reward Rate

A combination of these three cards is good for spends upto 35 Lacs annually with an average reward rate of 7+%. That's about Rs. 2.5 Lacs worth savings annually in terms of Travel Rewards.

Cashback Cards are going to limit your returns to max 2-3% annually once you have taken into account exclusions and no major reward multipliers in Cashback cards.

Excellent advice here... though I am very happy with Infinia and it will be continue to be primary card, the Axis Atlas and Amex Platinum seems good secondary cards to have.