Should I keep using the Emeralde Plastic card and wait for pre-approved offer for Emeralde Private Metal Card in icici internet banking? Has icici even enabled Emeralde Private Metal Card for pre-approved offers?
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Eligibility Criteria for ICICI Emeralde Private Metal - Discussion
No one knows. Not even icici.
Is your renewal date soon?
If not, and you've already activated and paid the joining fees then it makes sense to keep it active until your renewal date is nearby. You get unlimited lounge access and movie benefits. Now whether you should use it for other transactions or not depends on whether you have any other card with better reward rate or not. Even cashback cards like ICICI AmazonPay, Flipkart Axis and SBI Cashback have better rewards.
EPM does get pre-approved, but the eligibility conditions are unknown. Based on my own experience, it does not matter much whether you have the PVC version or not. Depends more on other banking relationships like tier of your salary account, your net salary credit and probably your employer's relationship with ICICI too. Things may have become harder now though as there is a lot of demand for this card after the launch of iShop beta. Maybe they have stopped the invitations now, just a guess.
I would not suggest you to use the PVC variant for high value transactions hoping you'd qualify for an upgrade to EPM in future. It's a pretty bad card TBH at 1% reward rate. Get a good cashback card if you don't have one, not that difficult to get.
As you already paid the joining fees for Emeralde Plastic, better you use it for other spends where you do not gain much in other cards. Then redeem the reward points. Because even if you spend 10 lakhs , ICICI will reverse the joining fees and then immediately charge you the annual fees in advance. So if you do not get upgrade to EPM , then cancel Emeralde Plastic before renewal.
Just an interesting observation -
I had an add on generated on 25th and another one today- the number on newly generated card is incremented by 8 from the previous card. Since the rest of the no. Is exactly same, I believe, only 8 EPMs were issued in last couple of days. I observed a better number during Mar 20 & 25 going by my primary and add-on card nos.
This observation may not be accurate as I’m not sure of how stuff works behind the scenes but this is purely based on the last 4 digits rest of the numbers are same.
I expected better approval rates in Mar given year ending.
I had an add on generated on 25th and another one today- the number on newly generated card is incremented by 8 from the previous card. Since the rest of the no. Is exactly same, I believe, only 8 EPMs were issued in last couple of days. I observed a better number during Mar 20 & 25 going by my primary and add-on card nos.
This observation may not be accurate as I’m not sure of how stuff works behind the scenes but this is purely based on the last 4 digits rest of the numbers are same.
I expected better approval rates in Mar given year ending.
What about difference between original cc number and first add on?
99 . ..
A little more than 100 cards (EPM) were issued in last 7 days (5 working days) going by the incremented last 3 digits (rest 13 digits remain same). Not a bad issuance rate for a premium card.
Usually the last digit of credit/debit cards is the checksum. Luhn's algorithm (called as mod10 algorithm) is used here. The last digit is derived from the first 15 digits.
So your actual card number assigned by the bank is the first 15 digits only. In that, first 6 digits is the BIN (Bank Identification Number).
#Just for information.
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Sorry, it doesn't work like that.
You cannot decide the issuance rate with difference in card numbers.
All otp for my addon card is also going to primary card's mobile number. I recall submitting family's mobile number in application. Do you know how can it be fixed? Can't find any relevant option over app / NetBanking.
You might be right I’m sure. Just saw last 3 digits incrementing perfectly in last 7 days on 3 different cards. But again I’m not sure how stuff works, so thanks for sharing.
You need to have a different mobile no. tagged for your addon. I haven’t started using ICICI addon but just speak to the customer care and get the no changed. Or see if you raise an SR from iMobile.
What’s 1.5L cc?
Dobbiee
TF Premier
This observation may not be relative.
Some data about my experience.
- EPM issued in Oct 23 end.
- Issued add on EPM in Dec 23. The last 4 digit difference was +99.
- Then i lost my main card in Sept 24 and asked for re-issue. The difference in last 4 digit from the original Main card was +8. (And difference from the add on card was -91)
- All other digits have been same.
Quite interesting specially -91.
On a different note, did they charge you for the replacement card - 3500 + taxes
Yes your observation is right.
Banks don’t give account numbers or card numbers in a simple increasing order because it would make others too easy to guess. If someone knew one account number, they could figure out others, increasing the risk of fraud.
Dobbiee
TF Premier
I was waiting for the Rs 3500 charge to happen at 2 times.
When add on card was issued (Was told about the charges while filling form), and then again when i requested for replacement card.
But was not charged anytime.
