IRCTC SBI Card Premier Credit Card Launched - Review

SBI Card in partnership with IRCTC has silently launched IRCTC SBI Card Premier Credit Card. This credit card is a level above the older IRCTC SBI Platinum Card and provides more benefits than latter. Some of the notable features of IRCTC SBI Card Premier Credit Card are accelerated rewards on purchasing train tickets, air tickets, IRCTC catering services etc. on IRCTC portal. This card also offers waiver on transaction charges for train and air ticket booking along with spend based milestone benefits.

Just like other SBI Cards, IRCTC SBI Card Premier Credit Card is well designed. This card features an attractive abstract design which adds to it’s aesthetics. IRCTC SBI Card Premier Credit Card is available on Visa Signature platform and is enabled for contact-less payments.

• Eligibility Criteria
• Fees
• Features
  • Welcome Benefit
  • Milestone Benefits
  • Reward Points
  • Insurance Cover
  • Waiver of transaction charges
  • Finance Charges
• Drawbacks
• Verdict

Eligibility Criteria

Though SBI Card has not disclosed the eligibility criteria for IRCTC SBI Card Premier Credit Card, I gathered following information from their executive:

• Age: Minimum 21 Years
• Salaried: Net Monthly Income > Rs. 25,000 per month
• Self Employed: ITR > Rs. 3 Lakhs per annum

SBI Card is very strict about credit history and there is a high chance of rejection if you don’t have credit history or your credit score is low.

Chance of approval for SBI Credit Cards increases multi fold if you have an existing credit card and are salaried.

Fees

IRCTC SBI Card Premier Credit Card comes with following fees:

• Joining fee: Rs. 1,499 + GST
• Renewal fee: Rs. 1,499 + GST

Renewal fee is waived off if spend in previous year is more than Rs. 2 Lakhs. SBI Card generally doesn’t issues credit card life time free and one needs to pay the annual free every year if they are not able to meet the spending criteria for fee waiver.

Features

Being a co-branded credit card, IRCTC SBI Card Premier provides maximum benefits while transacting on it’s partner brand IRCTC.

Welcome Benefit

• 1,500 reward points equivalent to Rs. 1,500 on payment of first annual fee
• BookMyShow movie voucher worth Rs. 500 on spending Rs. 2,000 within 60 days of card setup

These are some decent benefits and it’s quite evident that SBI Card compensates for joining fee in form of bonus reward points. BookMyShow movie voucher further sweetens the deal making it even more lucrative.

Milestone Benefits

• 2,500 Reward Points on annual travel spends of Rs. 50,000
• 5,000 Reward Points on annual travel spends of Rs. 1,00,000

That’s an additional reward rate of 7.5% on achieving a spend of Rs. 1 Lakh on this card. The bonus reward points will be credited within 15 days of achieving spends target.

Reward Points

• 1 Reward Point = Rs. 1
• 10% back on AC1, AC2, AC3, AC CC as reward points for ticket purchase on IRCTC
• 5% back on Air ticket purchases at IRCTC
• 5% back on E-catering purchases at IRCTC
• 3 Reward Points per Rs. 125 spent on Dining and standing instructions on Utility spends, 2.4% reward rate
• 1 Reward Point per Rs. 125 spent on other retail purchases (Non fuel) including railway ticket purchases at IRCTC, 0.8% reward rate

The reward points have validity of 3 years and can only be redeemed on IRCTC portal for train tickets.

Insurance Cover

• Rail Accident Insurance of Rs. 10 Lakhs
• Air Accident insurance of Rs. 50 Lakhs
• Fraud Liability cover of Rs. 1 Lakh

The insurance cover is decent and can save you some bucks if you’re in habit of purchasing insurance policy along with each train ticket.

Waiver of transaction charges

• 1.8% transaction charge waiver on train ticket booking
• 1.8% transaction charge waiver on air ticket booking

Finance Charges

• Foreign Currency Markup of 3.5%
• Revolving credit at interest rate of 3.35% per month
• 1% fuel surcharge waiver for each transaction between Rs. 500 to Rs. 4,000, maximum Rs. 250 per statement cycle

Drawbacks

Though SIRCTC SBI Card Premier Credit Card provides decent benefits, there are some drawbacks too:

• No complimentary Railway Lounge access: Absence of Railway Lounge access on a IRCTC co-branded credit card is a shocker. SBI Card should have provided complimentary Railway Lounge access on this card to make it even more attractive.
• Low default reward rate: The default reward rate of 0.8% is really low. Almost all recently launched co-branded credit cards provide reward rate better than this. SBI Card should have provided a better reward rate to remain competitive.

Verdict

IRCTC SBI Card Premier Credit Card is a decent credit card and would make sense for those who travel by train a lot. 10% reward rate on train tickets and 5% reward rate on air tickets with no upper limit is quite good.

However I wouldn’t suggest this card to those who travel by train very infrequently as there are other credit cards like HDFC Bank Regalia which provide better reward rate on air tickets. Also, HDFC Bank has recently enabled train ticket booking on SmartBuy portal wherein you can get reward rate up to 33%, way better than IRCTC SBI Card Premier Credit Card. If you want to have a low fee SBI Card in your wallet just for partner merchant offers, I would suggest you to stick with SBI SimplyCLICK credit card if your spends are mostly online and SBI SimplySAVE credit card if your spends are mostly offline.

Fees 3.5/5

Rewards 3.5/5

Features 2/5

Overall 3/5

What do you think of new IRCTC SBI Card Premier Credit Card? Let me know in comments below.