[carzy]

Wow, it does seem that a simple thing like applying for a card can be a big issue....

Mjothi, thanks for the heads up.. i'll check with the agent to make sure they supply me with the slip having the card details - I too doubt that they'll hand it over to me... I've been hearing nightmarish experiences from innocent people duped into buy "no fee" cards... It's really absurd

Phamilyman, are u paying any fees on that SBI card u can't get rid of?

spadival, did ur gold card have any fees attached to it? From ur post I understand that u signed up the forms for a platinum card and then ended up with a gold card. Do they have some sort of credit check system (like the US). I mean if I sign up for a platinum card and land up with a gold card, can I just tell them to close the account stating that they didn't fulfill their commitment?

SOrry if these questions seem dumb, I see that I'm treading dangerous turf signing up with for a credit card and want to be very careful before I put my signature on anything.

Why can't anything come easy in India... When it comes to consumer satisfaction, we sure are way down the grid.

[LLL]

Originally Posted by carzy

Why can't anything come easy in India... When it comes to consumer satisfaction, we sure are way down the grid.

yep completely agree with you there. once you get the credit card, you wont be able to get rid of it. From personal experience, i will never take any credit cards from Stanchart, citibank and ABN Amro.

i would suggest that you call up the bank where you maintain your savings account and have online banking to give you a credit card. Most of cards nowdays are free for life (e.g. ICICI, i think except for signature card, all cards are free for life).

Advantage is you can view online statements, make online payments against your cc, set auto debits and dont have to deal with sending cheques for payments.

Apart from that you can look at features offered by cc...i could only find 1 worthwhile feature which is no fuel surcharge. So i opted for a card which i can use at pumps and not have to pay surcharge. hsbc gold card and icici platinum offer this feature.

[amohit]

Stay away from SBI. Check HSBC, Citibank, StanChart.

[mjothi]

Originally Posted by LLL

i would suggest that you call up the bank where you maintain your savings account and have online banking to give you a credit card. Most of cards nowdays are free for life (e.g. ICICI, i think except for signature card, all cards are free for life).

I completely agree with this. Its so convinient when it comes to online banking. More over banks like HSBC, ICICI (and some others too)have online payment facility for most utility bills like telephone, electricity, Lic, etc. So, you can even pay it using the Credit card and avail one more extended credit time But make sure you pay on time to credit card.

[condor]

I was initially approached by an agent, who promised the moon. Well, almost. It sounded too good to be true, so I went to the neighborhood personal banking branch of SBI & enquired about the offers. It turned out that the offers were from the agent's side & not the bank. Dont know what the agent was up to by giving all those offers.

I did apply for the Gold card - but with the bank directly. Filled the form myself & got the ack note too. Get the usual benefits of e-statements in password protected pdf format, no fuel surcharges, discount offers that are going on all the time. One very convinient feature is being able to drop in your payment at most State Bank branches - any of the group's bank.

Have used Stanchart before, and have heard horror stories about Citi cards.

[spadival]

No annual fee for SBI. Most cards in India dont charge annual fee. Also, they have facility to view your statement online and pay online as well. But, IMHO, the best deal you will get is with ICICI HPCL Gold card - Currently they are running a minimum 1% cash back offer for fuel purchases .

[tsk1979]

ITs a credit card offer. Most probably its a lie. There is some catch somewhere, deep inside the fine print which will say that your soul is sold.

[LLL]

Originally Posted by tsk1979

ITs a credit card offer. Most probably its a lie. There is some catch somewhere, deep inside the fine print which will say that your soul is sold.

true...check out ICICI's credit card rewards program. They have this huge list of items(like 15 or so) that can be redeemed for reward points. when i try to redeem online, it allows me to select from only 5 items and the items are completely useless.

[Zappo]

LLL, ICICI's rewards program is the lousiest amongst all others. Still I keep using their card and accumulate point. For the sole reason that its convenient to pay the dues on that card. The day I find this ease in another card I will shift over simply because the points are all going waste as there is nothing worth redeeming on their site.

Coming to your query carzy, I can only narrate my experience and then back it up with that of a few of my colleagues and say if morning shows the day, stay away from SBI cards.

First and foremost, SBI card is actually GE card for which SBI charges them a royalty (for using the SBI name) AFAIK. Now what happened to me a couple of years back was pathetic. They opened a counter outside my office with huge SBI logo-shogo alongwith our corporate logo next to it. They said that they have tied up with my organization and its a corporate card which is free for life, blah blah blah... They offered me a gold card with earth and moon on offer. I signed up wily-nily although I normally never do so (I have all the cards that I may ever need) simply because they said it was a corporate card.

When the card arrived I was shocked to find that it was a regular SBH card, not even gold, and had a credit limit of some 25000 rupees. Suffice it to say it was less than 1/4th the credit limit on the card with the lowest limit that I had till then. I called them up to enquire whats the deal and was shocked to learn that SBI does not provide free for life card, it was no corporate card, and with my salary (they never even asked for it) they can only offer me that much credit limit!!! I was zapped. I said I wished to cancel. At which I was rudely told that if I can not do so as the rules that I signed clearly said that if I cancelled before 1 year I will need to pay a penalty the amount of which they can check and inform me if I wished.

Thereafter started the painful process. Within the 1st week they sent me an insurance for which they billed the premium to me on the card. I was anyhow adamant on getting rid of the card this incident increased the resolve further. Their contention was that I had asked for it. When I challenged them to show me where I had signed and accepted this insurance they had hazaar alibis. The forms are not available to the end user once submitted, they are not stored locally but sent to mumbai and hence not available.

The circus went on and on. I would not pay them a penny and they went on piling up charges and penalties every month. It went to a pass where the imbeciles had the guts to ask me to come to the GE uppal office to talk to the manager and seek his 'permission' to cancel as they otherwise won't cancel the card. As if everyone from across the country visits their uppal office in hyderabad to cancel their cards! They piled up charges to the tune of over 5000 on that card and then had the cheek to tell me in a gundaish tone "you have enjoyed the card and now you have to pay otherwise we know how to take the money from you".

Somehow in between all this I managed to catch hold of a senior guy from their office (on phone) and told him the whole incident and said that I do not owe them a penny and in fact have never even used the card ever. That I think they duped me royally and I wanted out of this. Either they sort it out honorably or else I will send the matter to the banking ombudsman. Only after this they saw the light of the day. They realized that all the payment dues they were claiming were actually compiled out of thin air as I never ever even used their card. After this all of a sudden one day they sent me a letter saying that the card has been cancelled as per my request. Just like that!

Moral of the story: Credit cards, bad bad. SBI cards, very bad very bad.

[NetfreakBombay]

Originally Posted by spadival

And there is a section in the form to opt for card protection insurance - Dont sign that if you dont need it.

Here is the "Hidden fee" (IMHO)

This protection is free on other cards. It is a MUST on any card. Otherwise if your card is lost you will be liable for ALL transactions till you report the card as lost.

[LLL]

Of all banks, Stay away from ABN AMRO.

ABN AMRO tried a trick with all their cardholders. They automatically enrolled them in some insurance program with the caveat that you have to call the customer service and opt out of it within 20 days, else you would be charged the fees for the insurance. As usual, it became impossible to reach their customer rep and if you could reach them, they would tell you they will transfer you and put you on hold permanently. Incase you are able to speak to the relevant person, they would literally argue with you on keeping the insurance.

[phamilyman]

I'm not paying anything on that card, else would've taken them to court long back !!
and yes, I was conned into first year insurance of 360 :(

and boss, never sign up for offers that sound too good to be true. better sucky promise-nothing banks like ICICI! Or even citi - they LET you cancel your card. With stanchart, a friend was given inflated charges to the tune of 11k for some insurance thing, she was dragged into a court case and she had to settle. just because these arses record their calls and we don't - nowadays I tell any agent upfront that their call is being recorded. politeness magically arises Would advice all to record such calls and only THEN register the card. ask them to confirm name, mgr name, phone etyadi. that takes out 70% of them - the leftover guys who comply are genuine

[spadival]

Originally Posted by LLL

true...check out ICICI's credit card rewards program. They have this huge list of items(like 15 or so) that can be redeemed for reward points. when i try to redeem online, it allows me to select from only 5 items and the items are completely useless.

Huh?? I have been able to redeem a variety of stuff - 1 year subscription to Readers Digest (And India Today - which has since ended). The Readers Digest one subscription also ended, so I renewed it using the rewards point. I ended up getting 2 copies because RD obviously dunno what they are doing !!

Other stuff I got - Pen tyre gauge (Okk okk), Leather bound diary (rubbish), 2 Shoppers Stop vouchers worth Rs 500 (very good), pearlpet jars that my wife wanted (excellent). and a zillion other things I cant remember.

[lurker]

What about American Express cards ? How is their reputation like ? Some stores like Costco accept only American Express cards but do they have any such advantage in India ?

[HappyWheels]

SBI card have a lot of tie up with gov organizations. but you have to be very careful with the fine prints. very careful.

i had once applied for a 'international' card and i got a 'Bangalore' card!!! took me 1 week to get thru the CC and finally was able to get thru at 2am on a sunday morning (saturday night!).

never used to card to there was no charge to it.

OT:
with regard to ICICI rewards - same here; have redemmed it twice. once for an umbrella and another for a gift voucher.

did not notice any restriction or mismatch in items listed vs redemable.