SBI SimplySAVE Credit Card is an entry level lifestyle credit card mostly focused towards people who prefer to spend offline. This credit card provides 10X reward points on shopping offline on Dining, Movies, Departmental Stores and Grocery Spends and there is no maximum cap on bonus reward points which is simply amazing. This is one of the best credit cards in India for beginners right now for offline spends.
SBI Cards generally have good design and SimplySAVE is no exception. The light blue murals on dark blue background makes it aesthetically pleasing to the eyes. The card is issued on both Visa and MasterCard platform and is enabled for contactless payments.
Eligibility Criteria
Though SBI Card has not disclosed the eligibility criteria for SimplySAVE 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.
Fees
SBI SimplyCLICK Credit Cardd comes with following fees:
- Joining fee: Rs. 499 + GST
- Renewal fee: Rs. 499 + GST
Renewal fee is waived off if spend in previous year is more than Rs. 1 Lakh. 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
SBI SimplySAVE Credit Card is tailored for offline spends and hence the rewards and features are tweaked to give maximum benefit on offline spends.
Welcome Benefit
- 2,000 Bonus Points on spends of Rs. 2000 within 60 days of receiving card
2,000 reward points are worth Rs. 500 and it’s quite clear that SBI Card compensates for joining fees by providing bonus reward points of equivalent value.
Reward Points
- 1 Reward Point = Rs. 0.25
- 10 Reward Points per Rs. 100 spent on Dining, Movies, Departmental Stores and Grocery Spends, 2.5% reward rate
- 1 Reward Point per Rs.100 on all other spends, 0.25% reward rate
- Reward points can be redeemed from
- Rewards catalogue
- Statement credit (minimum 2,000 reward points required for statement credit)
- Reward redemption fee of Rs. 99 + GST applicable on each redemption
The reward catalog of SBI Card is decent and you can redeem reward points for e-vouchers of Flipkart, Amazon, BigBazaar, Central etc as well as physical goods.
Finance Charges
- Foreign Currency Markup of 3.5%
- Revolving credit at interest rate of 3.35% per month
- Convenience fee waiver of 1% on all fuel transactions between Rs. 500 to Rs. 3,000
Drawbacks
SBI SimplySAVE Credit Card provides great value for offline spends, but it has some drawbacks too:
- Low default reward rate: The reward rate of 0.25% on online spends and other categories is a joke. I wish, SBI Card should have provided a better reward rate given that recently launched co-branded credit cards provide way better reward rate than this.
- No milestone benefits: SBI SimplySAVE Credit Card doesn’t provide any spend based milestone benefits which is disappointing. Many other credit cards from SBI provide this, not sure why it was omitted from this this card.
Verdict
SBI SimplySAVE Credit Card is an offline counterpart of SBI SimplyCLICK Credit Card. However SBI Card has really stripped down the rewards on this one. 2.5% reward rate on offline spends Dining, Movies, Departmental Stores and Grocery is great, but absence of milestone benefits and low default reward rate other categories is really disappointing. This card may make sense to people in Tier 2 and 3 cities where most of the spend is offline. However, I would suggest SBI SimplyCLICK Credit Card over this any day owing to better return value proposition.
How has been your experience with SBI SimplySAVE Credit Card? Let me know in comments below.
