Revaluation All passengers will now earn points on SBI IRCTC card bookings!

[rogerthat]

Incredible news for SBI IRCTC card holders! You will now on get points (as per time period) on the entire fare paid for all passengers on the ticket and not just only your fare amount! SBI Card has out of nowhere amended its Terms and Conditions to create this revaluation.

As posted on the SBI Card website: "W.e.f 26 Dec'24, the accrual of Reward Points on ticket purchases at www.irctc.com will be basis the booking amount i.e the value of the Primary Cardholder’s individual fare as well as that of all other co-travelers."


Until now only the primary card holder's ticket charges would earn points which made this card useless for family travel booking. However with this single move SBI IRCTC is card is now hands down the best rewarding card for train ticket bookings with confirmed 4% to 10% value back!

It is more shocking than suprising to see such revaluations coming in as a ray of light this season of doom and gloom and that too from SBI Cards!

 

[CardTox]

How to get this card, each time when i apply, it got rejected due to internal policy. I already have SBI CB cc and Simplyclick cc with me, want irctc as third card, but they are not issuing me this card.

 

[rogerthat]

How to get this card, each time when i apply, it got rejected due to internal policy. I already have SBI CB cc and Simplyclick cc with me, want irctc as third card, but they are not issuing me this card.

Unfortunately that's how SBI is right now. If you have any SBI credit card or any credit card more than a couple of lakhs of credit limit you will not get another SBI card. It looks like it is their policy to not issue credit cards anymore especially to those who will and are willing to use it. They are only issuing cards to people who will spend around a couple of thousand rupees a month.

The results of this brilliant policy is showing in their corporate reports. SBI is massively down in number of cards issued and is slipped in market share as well.

 

[Beyond]

How to get this card, each time when i apply, it got rejected due to internal policy. I already have SBI CB cc and Simplyclick cc with me, want irctc as third card, but they are not issuing me this card.

Next time try to apply from irctc email banner, the ad you receive on your email id from irctc for sbi cc.

 

[dexter_greycells]

OP, this revaluation was necessary because the card has always been pretty bad. I have had it for nearly 8 years and it is easily the worst amongst the dozen we have in our family. One of our mistakes was that the primary cardholder almost never travels by train but their family does. Even with this revaluation, the card is still useless for them because the primary cardholder must be on the booking. The only reason we still have it is because it used to have the cheapest annual fee (Rs 300 + GST) and worked with Amazon/Flipkart sales. Now that has been increased to Rs 500 + GST; so it matches SimplyCLICK/Save. Also, starting last year SBI had started charging for the points as statement debit if you avail of Amazon/Flipkart sales instant discounts. So no double-dipping, so to speak. During card expiry and renewal, the IRCTC linkage breaks, your points don't get credited and it takes weeks of follow up with SBI and IRCTC to fix it. Last month I could not even redeem my points on IRCTC due to a technical issue that lasted at least the whole month. I didn't try since then. The 10% value back is for off-season travel and just 4 months a year. For the rest of the year it is 4%.

The HDFC IRCTC RuPay CC looks infinitely better on paper but I have no practical experience. We have DCB/Infinia in the family; so SmartBuy and its 3X RPs (10% value back if you consider 1 RP = 1 Rs) are unbeatable. Also, SmartBuy does not charge the 1.8% + GST CC charge. The only issue is that SmartBuy does not work for 15 minutes starting 8-10-11 am when reservation slots open.

 

[Beyond]

OP, this revaluation was necessary because the card has always been pretty bad. I have had it for nearly 8 years and it is easily the worst amongst the dozen we have in our family. One of our mistakes was that the primary cardholder almost never travels by train but their family does. Even with this revaluation, the card is still useless for them because the primary cardholder must be on the booking. The only reason we still have it is because it used to have the cheapest annual fee (Rs 300 + GST) and worked with Amazon/Flipkart sales. Now that has been increased to Rs 500 + GST; so it matches SimplyCLICK/Save. Also, starting last year SBI had started charging for the points as statement debit if you avail of Amazon/Flipkart sales instant discounts. So no double-dipping, so to speak. During card expiry and renewal, the IRCTC linkage breaks, your points don't get credited and it takes weeks of follow up with SBI and IRCTC to fix it. Last month I could not even redeem my points on IRCTC due to a technical issue that lasted at least the whole month. I didn't try since then. The 10% value back is for off-season travel and just 4 months a year. For the rest of the year it is 4%.

The HDFC IRCTC RuPay CC looks infinitely better on paper but I have no practical experience. We have DCB/Infinia in the family; so SmartBuy and its 3X RPs (10% value back if you consider 1 RP = 1 Rs) are unbeatable. Also, SmartBuy does not charge the 1.8% + GST CC charge. The only issue is that SmartBuy does not work for 15 minutes starting 8-10-11 am when reservation slots open.

Still 3e should have been included, when you travel within a week of booking, mostly only 3e are available.. 3A have wait list.
So this card is only suitable for occasional travelers only which ultimately defeats purpose of having a dedicated card.

 

[CCgeek]

I was about to shut down this card however chose to wait till a month before annual fee was levied. Thankfully the SBI mailer just came in time. With no compensation at 300+Gst annual fees to 500 reward points to compensate for 500+GST is great. Also Rupay and SBI Card offers make this combo decent. The downside was inability to redeem the points, however that has been now resolved after umpteen mails to IRCTC.

 

[rogerthat]

OP, this revaluation was necessary because the card has always been pretty bad. I have had it for nearly 8 years and it is easily the worst amongst the dozen we have in our family. One of our mistakes was that the primary cardholder almost never travels by train but their family does. Even with this revaluation, the card is still useless for them because the primary cardholder must be on the booking. The only reason we still have it is because it used to have the cheapest annual fee (Rs 300 + GST) and worked with Amazon/Flipkart sales. Now that has been increased to Rs 500 + GST; so it matches SimplyCLICK/Save. Also, starting last year SBI had started charging for the points as statement debit if you avail of Amazon/Flipkart sales instant discounts. So no double-dipping, so to speak. During card expiry and renewal, the IRCTC linkage breaks, your points don't get credited and it takes weeks of follow up with SBI and IRCTC to fix it. Last month I could not even redeem my points on IRCTC due to a technical issue that lasted at least the whole month. I didn't try since then. The 10% value back is for off-season travel and just 4 months a year. For the rest of the year it is 4%.

The HDFC IRCTC RuPay CC looks infinitely better on paper but I have no practical experience. We have DCB/Infinia in the family; so SmartBuy and its 3X RPs (10% value back if you consider 1 RP = 1 Rs) are unbeatable. Also, SmartBuy does not charge the 1.8% + GST CC charge. The only issue is that SmartBuy does not work for 15 minutes starting 8-10-11 am when reservation slots open.

I agree the card has been pretty bad. I face all the problems you mentioned and especially the issue with the linkage between the IRCTC and SBI breaking. I have now trained myself to alert them every first week of March just as and when it happens. I don't travel a lot anymore but still keep this card because it was my first card and the only SBI Card I have, and if I close it I might not get another SBI Card ever again. And then for the sale discounts.

However still I believe I have made extremely good use of this card during the times when I used to very extensively travel by train. I raked up thousands of points and redeemed them well, the big two among them being for journeys on Bangalore - Delhi AC Duronto on AC First Class and AC First Class on the Delhi - Trivandrum Rajdhani.

I don't have (or will get) DCB or Infinia ever and the HDFC IRCTC card has a hundred technical problems with it so I think this is the best card right now. And especially since it covers Tatkal too and refunds the convenience fee.