[JithinR]

Hi All,

I am trying to narrow down on which credit card to get (would be my first one).
Tried going through this thread but unlike the car mods or DIY threads most of the jargon here is going over my head.

I am not going to spend lakhs in a year and I rather not have any membership fees (I understand that some of them deliver value despite that but that is only if you spend lakhs in a year in purchases which I can't).

Most of my money is in ICICI and Kotak (thought I do have an HDFC account with minimum balance) if that info helps. I tend to make most purchases online on Amazon.

Can someone recommend a decent credit card for online shopping and fuel purchase? I don't really travel by flights anymore since my parents are back in India now and I don't eat out/order out either so I guess most of those lifestyle cards wouldn't suit me.

[searacer932]

Originally Posted by JithinR

Can someone recommend a decent credit card for online shopping and fuel purchase? I don't really travel by flights anymore since my parents are back in India now and I don't eat out/order out either so I guess most of those lifestyle cards wouldn't suit me.

I would suggest that you just go for the simple ICICI Amazon Pay Credit Card. It's a lifetime free and should meet your needs.

[smrtdvl]

Originally Posted by JithinR

Can someone recommend a decent credit card for online shopping and fuel purchase? I don't really travel by flights anymore since my parents are back in India now and I don't eat out/order out either so I guess most of those lifestyle cards wouldn't suit me.

Originally Posted by searacer932

I would suggest that you just go for the simple ICICI Amazon Pay Credit Card. It's a lifetime free and should meet your needs.

+1 to what searacer932 has said. Amazon ICICI card is the perfect choice for your needs.

[JMaruru]

Originally Posted by skanchan95

If a Branch Manager's word/recommendation cannot be trusted by these Bank of Baroda Card fellows, why are they even in the business!

Is that Ms. Vinutha who was with VB earlier? Did you try to meet her in person to sort this issue?

I thought merger of Vijaya Bank with BOB would improve the business processes as BOB is one of the premier PSU bank. Your case makes one feel that merger might NOT be beneficial to VB customers.

[SoumenD]

Originally Posted by JithinR

Hi All,

Most of my money is in ICICI and Kotak (thought I do have an HDFC account with minimum balance) if that info helps. I tend to make most purchases online on Amazon.

Can someone recommend a decent credit card for online shopping and fuel purchase? I don't really travel by flights anymore since my parents are back in India now and I don't eat out/order out either so I guess most of those lifestyle cards wouldn't suit me.

For amazon shopping look no further than Amazon icici card. Flat 5% cash back on amazon purchases in form of amazon pay balance. However there’s no cash back on fuel now I guess which was available till October 2021.

Since you already have icici account, the card can be seamlessly added to the net banking app.

[JithinR]

Originally Posted by SoumenD

For amazon shopping look no further than Amazon icici card. Flat 5% cash back on amazon purchases in form of amazon pay balance..

Originally Posted by smrtdvl

+1 to what searacer932 has said. Amazon ICICI card is the perfect choice for your needs.

Originally Posted by searacer932

I would suggest that you just go for the simple ICICI Amazon Pay Credit Card. It's a lifetime free and should meet your needs.

Thanks guys. I have started the application process for the Amazon ICICI card. However, I do have one more card in consideration. I have been getting alerts recently from the HDFC mobile app about the Millennia credit card.

It seems this one has the 5% cashback on Amazon (and Flipkart along with others) and it doesn't require that you should be a prime member. Since I don't have a prime account my cashback would be limited to 2.5% on the Amazon card right?

This card does seem to have membership renewal fees but it seems to have a min. spend requirement of Rs. 1L that I think I should be able to meet if I use the card for fuel expenses (about Rs. 4k+/month).

Is my understanding correct or is there something that I am missing?

[kavensri]

Originally Posted by JithinR

It seems this one has the 5% cashback on Amazon (and Flipkart along with others) and it doesn't require that you should be a prime member.

With HDFC CC, one need to buy gift vouchers from Amazon/FK through Smartbuy portal to get these cashback. But the catch here is, one can buy maximum of 10k gift vouchers per month. So, the maximum cashback you can get from Amazon and FK per month would be Rs500 each.
But in case of Amzon Pay ICICI CC, there is no upper limit for the cashback amount.

Originally Posted by JithinR

Since I don't have a prime account my cashback would be limited to 2.5% on the Amazon card right?

For non-prime members, it is 3%.

[skanchan95]

Originally Posted by JMaruru

Is that Ms. Vinutha who was with VB earlier? Did you try to meet her in person to sort this issue?

In the interest of privacy of the manager in question, I would neither confirm nor deny it. But yes, the manager was ex-Vijaya Bank, as are most staff of the now Bank of Baroda in Mangalore(where BoB had near zero presence pre-merger).

At the time when the issue came up in November last year, she was on a long leave (just before going on leave, she had gracefully given her recommendation on my credit card application). Things went downward from there on, as mentioned in my earlier post and it would not have been right on my part to trouble her while she was on leave. I did meet her after she re-joined the branch a couple of weeks later and when was just a couple of days away from being transferred. She wasn't happy the way the application was rejected either.

Anyway, her intervention probably wouldn't have helped, as I came to know later that Bank of Baroda has a separate Card Division modelled on SBI ( Ironically, I have a SBI credit card despite not having banked with them directly!!!), and those BoB card "Agents" operate like a mafia at their own whims and fancies!!! It isn't like the old days in Vijaya Bank anymore, where the Manager had the authority to sanction Credit Cards to good customers from the branch.

I was upset not only because the branch manager's recommendation was rejected but also because with the same branch, we had a car and housing loans till very recently both of which had a flawless repayment record over the years. That itself should have been good enough to prove my credit worthiness but it wasn't for Bank of Baroda Card fellows. Instead, I was being asked to open an FD for a credit card!!!! Also, in its earlier Vijaya Bank avatar, the same branch had issued me a Vijaya Bank Credit years ago sanctioned by the then Branch Manager(which I had closed in 2017 when the merger non-sense news first came out).

Unfortunately, at around the same time as this BoB credit card mess happened in Oct/Nov 2021, I also came to know that my old Vijaya Bank card was still Active in my CIBIL report and the bank had shown payment default on my Vijaya Bank card back in 2016!!! Getting this corrected in Bank of Baroda proved to be a nightmare also - Link here (Now have Access to your CIBIL Credit report). After failing to get a hold of DGMs and AGMs in the BoB Mangalore ZO on their mobile numbers listed on BoB's website, I escalated the complaint to the GM on e-mail(the GM's number listed on BoB's own website was wrong too - the number belonged to a DGM in SBI's Vigilance Department in Mumbai!!! - this is the state of affairs in Bank of Baroda!!!! - it has since been corrected after I pointed it out to the GM on that complaint e-mail)

Things did not move as I expected. BoB card fellows whom I spoke to seemed more interested in passing the buck & stalling the complaint and two more weeks passed by. Somewhere in between, some guy from BoB called an said there are in the process of approving my BoB Credit Card application because I escalated it to the GM!!!! I said I was not interested anymore as a private bank had approved my credit card application within a couple of days and the credit card, which has a handsome credit limit, had already reached me. The bank approved it just based on my CIBIL score as they did not ask for my IT returns. It was not my intention to force BoB to give a credit card to me, but to tell them where they are going wrong as far as applications are concerned, especially those which have a branch manager's recommendation on them. It becomes a insult to the Branch Manager if his/her word is not good enough on a credit card application. Hopefully they learnt a lesson.

However on the Vijaya Bank credit card CIBIL report issue, I lost patience and straightaway complained to the Nodal Officer (under the Banking Ombudsman) in Bank of Baroda ZO Bangalore - which seemed to forced them into action.

But the sad part for me was that these fellows in the Mangalore ZO forced the same Branch Manager to handle my complaint from the ZO. It wasn't her fault in the first place. If anything, these ZO people should have taken the BoB Card Division to task for their inaction of taking it up with CIBIL. However, she showed remarkable leadership and ability to personally escalate the complaint to CIBIL and within two weeks, a confirmation was received from CIBIL that the Card is now closed in my CIBIL report and the payment defaults corrected. I am sure if she wasn't on leave, it would not have escalated so much. My interactions with the Manager were minimal over the last 2 years because of Covid and because all our accounts are now with another Bank except the Loan accounts(which is now closed). But in the very minimal interactions, I found her to be very helpful, polite and friendly like most Vijaya Bank officers and managers.

Originally Posted by JMaruru

I thought merger of Vijaya Bank with BOB would improve the business processes as BOB is one of the premier PSU bank. Your case makes one feel that merger might NOT be beneficial to VB customers.

I started banking with Vijaya Bank 18-19 years ago and our entire family & our business firm's account were with Vijaya Bank and no other bank. Till 2017/18, my only SB account was with Vijaya Bank and I was pretty happy with the services and the branch staff. Only after the merger news came about, that I moved out of the bank, sensing that things are not going to be the same again. The only account that stayed back in Vijaya Bank( and later BoB) was joint account through which Loan EMIs were being deducted.

Earlier, in the branch during Vijaya Bank days things were much easier to get done. But now things have changed drastically. Last year in May, I had to urgently get a bank statement to be given to my CA by the next day. Bank of Baroda's pathetic internet banking was down that day and I rushed to the branch with an application to give me SB account statement either by e-mail or a printout. Again that day, the manager was not in the branch and was out on a bank related field visit somewhere, if I recall correctly. I hate to stereotype but the officer, who is an original BoB employee(from a BoB branch that was above Vijaya Bank in the same building!!!), was rather rude when she said Rs 100 per page will be charged to take a printout of the statement. I said I am having a genuine issue and I understand Rs 100 is charged by the system. I am ok if she sends the statement to me by e-mail as written in my request letter. She said even that is not possible!!!

How long does it take to do a simple Ctrl+A, Ctrl+C and then Ctrl+V on statement on the computer screen or convert that into a pdf file? I walked off in a fit of anger and wrote an e-mail to the branch with CC to the manager expressing my displeasure at this. That same evening, the Manager probably after seeing the e-mail after coming back to the branch, sent the statement by e-mail.

See, this is where things have changed now. Vijaya Bank staff had a culture of helping people and at times went out of their way to help customers. I had seen earlier Managers and officers who were from places like MP & Punjab, speak in broken Tulu/Kannada to help poor & illiterate customers in the branch. Earlier, in the same branch, they never questioned me when I asked for a statement like that. I can go on an on how things were extremely good during Vijaya Bank days but I do realize the Vijaya Bank that I knew no longer exists and it is useless to go on a rant against BoB.

For the sake of the ex-Vijaya Bank staff and brand Vijaya Bank for whom I had great respect and regard for, I wish BoB well and I hope the staff are taken care of well. But at the same time, I have developed a hatred towards Bank of Baroda for the way things are in their organization based on my experiences with BoB!!!

[Fordlover88]

Originally Posted by kavensri

With HDFC CC, one need to buy gift vouchers from Amazon/FK through Smartbuy portal to get these cashback. But the catch here is, one can buy maximum of 10k gift vouchers per month. So, the maximum cashback you can get from Amazon and FK per month would be Rs500 each.
But in case of Amzon Pay ICICI CC, there is no upper limit for the cashback amount.

For Millenia card you get 5% cashback from amazon/flipkart and few other websites directly credited to hdfc account. There is no need to purchase through smartbuy portal. The only downside is cashback is limited to Rs.1k per month. These updated features have been in effect since october,2021.

[libranof1987]

Originally Posted by skanchan95

If a Branch Manager's word/recommendation cannot be trusted by these Bank of Baroda Card fellows, why are they even in the business!!!

Btw, it's the same with HDFC. For their super premium cards (DCB, Infinia), the card dept's decision is final and non-negotiable, and no amount of justification or request by the Branch Manager, even for premium customers (Imperia) will change that.

They have a set criteria and cards will be issued only on fulfilling those.

[aadya]

I got my Infinia metal approved after I crossed the spend of 8Lakhs(or may be 7.5L). Upgrade offer for Regalia international and Infinia metal both popped up on the credit card tab of HDFC bank. I accepted the upgrade to Infnia as I was not sure whether Regalia International was a right one.

Card was delivered in 3 days straight along with addon for my spouse. A question for Card Gurus. How to change the pin for the addon card? as all the numbered details are same for the Primary and addon card. In regalia I visited the atm and did the change but this being metal card couple of atm machines I tried were not able to handle the card.

Any tips to make it LTF? I will sponsor one for one in a Itc restaurant if anybody helps me do it.

[rajesh1868]

Originally Posted by aadya

Any tips to make it LTF?

It was 8L annual spend for the non metal version. Dont remember the exact amount, but slightly higher annual spend should get you free renewal.

[AZT]

Originally Posted by Fordlover88

For Millenia card you get 5% cashback from amazon/flipkart and few other websites directly credited to hdfc account.

Is there any cashback on utility payments too. Amazon pay has 2% there so that's a good plus point.

[whitewing]

Originally Posted by AZT

Is there any cashback on utility payments too. Amazon pay has 2% there so that's a good plus point.

You can register your card in the the payzapp app and pay via it. There are have been some cashback offers running since some time. Alternately, use amazon pay. Load up the amazon pay via gift card.

[Jaguar]

Originally Posted by aadya

A question for Card Gurus. How to change the pin for the addon card? as all the numbered details are same for the Primary and addon card. In regalia I visited the atm and did the change but this being metal card couple of atm machines I tried were not able to handle the card.

For setting the add-on card pin, you first need to call customer care and generate an OTP. Then visit the ATM and choose the change/set pin option. You will be asked to enter the OTP to proceed and change the pin. Be patient and careful during the process, cause if you choose the wrong option or make mistakes while re-entering the new pin, you will have to start from scratch, i.e. call customer care again for a new OTP.