Devaluation ICICI Bank Credit Cards Huge Devaluation Effective from 15th November 2024

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Now it's ICICI Bank's turn—they've joined the 2024 devaluation party. Here’s a simplified breakdown of the changes:

1. Utility & Insurance Capping:
   You will continue to earn reward points for utility and insurance spends up to Rs. 80,000 at the current earn rate on Rubyx and higher variant cards*.
   For Coral and lower variant cards**, the cap is Rs. 40,000 for both utility and insurance spends
2. Grocery Capping:
   Earn reward points for grocery and departmental store spends up to Rs. 40,000 per month on Rubyx or higher variant cards.
   The cap is Rs. 20,000 per month for Coral or lower variant cards.
3. No Reward Points on Government-Related Spends. (Fees on Emeralde private metal card - unclear)
4. Fuel Surcharge Waiver:
   Waiver applies to fuel spends up to Rs. 50,000 per month for all cards except ICICI Emeralde Private Metal.
   For the Emeralde Private Metal card, the waiver limit is Rs. 1,00,000 per month.
5. Spa Access Discontinued:
   Spa access through DreamFolks card is discontinued for all cards.
6. Exclusion of Rent, Government, and Education Payments:
   These payments are excluded from spend thresholds for annual fee reversal and milestone benefits on all cards.
7. Spend Threshold for Annual Fee Reversal Reduced to 10L:
   The threshold for annual fee reversal is reduced to Rs. 10 lakh per annum from Rs. 15 lakh for ICICI Emeralde and Emeralde Private Metal credit cards.
8. 1% Fee on Education Payments via Third Party:
   No fee for direct payments to schools or colleges, including international payments, but a 1% fee applies to education payments made through third-party apps. - applicable on all cards.
9. 1% Fee on Utility Transactions Over Rs. 50,000. - applicable on all cards.
10. 1% Fee on Fuel Transactions Over Rs. 10,000. - applicable on all cards.
11. Add-on Fee of Rs. 199:
    Supplementary cardholders will now have an annual fee of Rs. 199. - applicable on all cards.
12. INR 75K Quarterly Spend for Domestic Lounge Access:
    To enjoy complimentary airport lounge access, you need to spend Rs. 75,000 in the preceding quarter. - applicable for all cards except ICICI Emeralde and Emeralde Private Metal.

[*Coral or lower variant cards: ICICI Bank Platinum Chip Credit Card, ICICI Bank Platinum Credit Card, ICICI Bank Indiabulls Platinum Card, Instant Platinum Credit Card, ICICI Bank JPMC Platinum Visa Credit Card, ICICI Bank Indian Platinum Credit Card, ICICI Bank MasterCard Platinum chip Credit Card, ICICI Bank Unifare MasterCard Platinum Chip Transit Credit Card, ICICI Bank Instant Platinum Chip Credit Card, ICICI Bank HPCL Coral Platinum Credit Card, HPCL GOLD CARD ( SOLID GOLD ), ICICI Bank HPCL Airtel Master Gold, ICICI Bank HPCL Platinum Credit Card, HPCL GOLD ( SOLID GOLD ), ICICI Bank HPCL Titanium Credit Card, MASTER CARD HPCL SILVER ( STERLING SILVER ), ICICI Bank HPCL Platinum Chip Credit Card, ICICI Bank HPCL Coral Visa Contactless Credit Card, ICICI Bank HPCL Coral American Express Credit Card, ICICI HPCL CARD ( STERLING SILVER ), HPCL SMART GOLD ( SOLID GOLD ), ICICI Bank MasterCard Coral Credit Card, ICICI Bank Secured NRI Coral Credit Card,ICICI Bank NRI Coral Credit Card, ICICI Bank Coral RuPay Credit Card, ICICI Bank Coral Credit Card, ICICI Bank Secured Coral Credit Card, ICICI Bank MasterCard Coral Credit Card, ICICI Bank LeadtheNew Coral Credit Card, ICICI Bank Coral Contactless Credit Card, ICICI Bank Coral American Express Credit Card, Coral Unsecured Credit Card, Coral Secured Credit Card, ICICI Bank Secured Coral MasterCard Credit Card, Manchester United Platinum Credit Card by ICICI Bank, Manchester United Signature Credit Card by ICICI Bank, Chennai Super Kings ICICI Bank Credit Card, ICICI Bank Parakram Credit Card, ICICI Bank Parakram Select Credit Card, ICICI Bank Secured Expressions Credit Card, ICICI Bank Expressions Secured Credit Card, ICICI Bank Expressions Credit Card, ICICI Bank Expressions Secured Credit Card]

[**Rubyx or higher variant cards: ICICI Bank Rubyx Visa Credit Card, ICICI Bank Rubyx RuPay Credit Card, ICICI Bank Rubyx Visa Credit Card, ICICI Rubyx Master PLT Chip Card, ICICI Rubyx PLT Credit Card (AMEX), ICICI Bank LeadtheNew Rubyx Credit Card, Rubyx Credit Card, ICICI Bank Secured Rubyx MasterCard Credit Card, Rubyx VISA expense card, ICICI Bank Sapphiro Visa Credit Card, ICICI Bank NRI Sapphiro Credit Card, ICICI Bank Sapphiro RuPay Credit Card, ICICI Bank Sapphiro VISA Credit Card, ICICI Sapphiro Master PLT Chip Card, ICICI Sapphiro Card (Amex), ICICI Bank LeadtheNew Sapphiro Credit Card, ICICI Bank NRI Sapphiro Credit Card, ICICI Bank Emeralde Visa Credit Card , ICICI Bank Emeralde Credit Card, ICICI Bank Emeralde Private]

Additionally, they've updated the late payment fees, interest rate (APR), and increased the markup fee to 2% for Emeralde and Emeralde Private Metal credit cards.


This devaluation is outrageous. ICICI Bank already offers one of the lowest reward rates across all their credit cards compared to other banks in the same category. Capping reward points for utility and government spends is understandable, but charging fees for add-on cards, even for super-premium cards like Emeralde private metal, is hard to justify. Now, customers need to spend Rs. 75K in a quarter to get complimentary lounge access, which is a very high requirement.

If you closely examine point 4 and point 10, ICICI Bank's hypocrisy becomes clear. They offer fuel surcharge waivers up to Rs. 50K for Coral and lower variant cards and Rs. 100K for Rubyx and higher variant cards, yet they charge an extra 1% fee for fuel spends over Rs. 10K. It’s absurd, and they haven't clarified whether this 1% fee applies to a single transaction over Rs. 10K or cumulative transactions exceeding that amount. Same with 1% extra fees on utility transactions, their t&c is not clear as usual.

Overall, this is a brutal devaluation. I hope people switch to other banks, as ICICI doesn't offer significant rewards on card spends anyway.

 

[sourpai]

Weren't the net returns almost zero after 1% surcharge?

People count DC cashback of 1% also in calculations

 

[S.B.N.B]

Amazon pay icici.. 50k per transaction limit or statement limit? Where it written exactly?

Also hdfc devaluation also have confusion if its per transaction or per statement ..

 

[fageriaji]

That's a great move by ICICI Bank to make 75K for airport lounge access.
From January 2025 lounge will be spacious.
All bank should put minimum 50K spend criteria for lounge access

 

[drsel]

That's a great move by ICICI Bank to make 75K for airport lounge access.
From January 2025 lounge will be spacious.
All bank should put minimum 50K spend criteria for lounge access

I was just wondering if someone has not spent 75000 and uses his ICICI cc for Rs 2 at the Lounge, then will he get billed later in the statement ?

 

[fageriaji]

I was just wondering if someone has not spent 75000 and uses his ICICI cc for Rs 2 at the Lounge, then will he get billed later in the statement ?

There are 2 scenarios:
1. The card will not show rs 2 entry at POS of lounge or there will be full charge at the time of entry.
2. The card will be used for entry and bank will calculate the last quarter spend before the bill generation and if 75k spend is not there then will bill accordingly.

 

[Swastik]

That's a great move by ICICI Bank to make 75K for airport lounge access.
From January 2025 lounge will be spacious.
All bank should put minimum 50K spend criteria for lounge access

Lounge costs are going up, and people are using a lot, this bound to happen

 

[Anupama_Jha]

There are 2 scenarios:
1. The card will not show rs 2 entry at POS of lounge or there will be full charge at the time of entry.
2. The card will be used for entry and bank will calculate the last quarter spend before the bill generation and if 75k spend is not there then will bill accordingly.

Correct. 1 user reported he got charged months after using PP that too on a cancelled card

 

[Anupama_Jha]

Hey everyone, isn't it concerning thatI CICI setting benchmarks to a new regime, where any bank's can bring a 30 days notice and start levying annual/renewal fees on LTF cards.

Bcs, till 2-3 days ago, it was clearly mentioned no fees for add on cards, but after this change, how can they charge renewal fee even on existing add on cards!!

 

[drsel]

Hey everyone, isn't it concerning thatI CICI setting benchmarks to a new regime, where any bank's can bring a 30 days notice and start levying annual/renewal fees on LTF cards.

Bcs, till 2-3 days ago, it was clearly mentioned no fees for add on cards, but after this change, how can they charge renewal fee even on existing add on cards!!

Don't worry, just close all the existing add on cards

 

[kuchbhi]

As the prices are going up and more and more people are becoming aware of the credit card benefits on their daily spending, each is trying to acquire the card and trying to maximize its usage, banks (getting low defaulters and taking loss by giving extra rewards) as more and more people becoming aware and hence the devaluation series, changing limits, putting charges, changing categories (mcc codes), restricting utilities, education, governmental transactions and increasing fees etc etc!!

 

[kuchbhi]

As the prices are going up and more and more people are becoming aware of the credit card benefits on their daily spending, each is trying to acquire the card and trying to maximize its usage, banks (getting low defaulters and taking loss by giving extra rewards) as more and more people becoming aware and hence the devaluation series, changing limits, putting charges, changing categories (mcc codes), restricting utilities, education, governmental transactions and increasing fees etc etc!!

tho icici cards were never so nice to begin with!! lol

 

[Anupama_Jha]

They have not started levying annual/ renewal fee on LTF Credit Cards. They have given notice to levy fee on Add-On Credit Card.
Acc to the RBI Master Direction>> https://rbi.org.in/Scripts/BS_ViewMasDirections.aspx?id=12300
1) Add-On Credit Card & 2) Credit Card
are two separate terms.
Add-On Credit Card acc to the circular means - 'a supplementary credit card to the principal or primary credit card, issued to person/s with predefined relationship with the primary cardholder, within the credit limits and liability of the latter, subject to such terms and conditions as stipulated by the card-issuer.'

Icici has not started levying fees for LTF Credit Cards ; but rather Add-On credit Cards. If they did suddenly make LTF cards into paid; then that would be a violation of RBI guidelines and a matter for the RBI to personally look into. And even in that case, if you do not want a paid card; your only option as a consumer would be to either complain to BO or close the Credit Card.

And as @drsel stated, you can obvio close Add-on cards if you don't want them.

I don't have ICICI cards. xD😝

 

[jeevanreddy58]

Hey everyone, isn't it concerning thatI CICI setting benchmarks to a new regime, where any bank's can bring a 30 days notice and start levying annual/renewal fees on LTF cards.

Bcs, till 2-3 days ago, it was clearly mentioned no fees for add on cards, but after this change, how can they charge renewal fee even on existing add on cards!!

its brutal. add on fee should be on card renewl or re-issue/replacement cards.. should not be yearly.. looks like some one from AXIS SHIT joined ICICI.

 

[thereguser]

Transaction categoriesCategory Merchant Category Code (MCC)Utility 4899, 4900, 4901, 3887Insurance 5960, 6300, 6381, 6399Grocery & Department Store 3333, 5411, 5412, 5441, 9751, 5311, 5331, 5499Rent 7014, 7407, 5271, 6513Government 6760, 9222, 9211, 9399, 9402, 9405Fuel 1361, 3851, 5172, 5541, 5542, 5983, 9752, 5555Education 8211, 8220, 8241, 8244, 8249, 8299, 8493, 8494, 791

above categories are excluded or included for rewards?

 

[drsel]

above categories are excluded or included for rewards?

Please don't use any ICICI card to get any rewards, it's an effort in futility.

Use ICICI cards only for the 10% discount which comes every now and then on Amazon, Flipkart etc

 

[thereguser]

Please don't use any ICICI card to get any rewards, it's an effort in futility.

Use ICICI cards only for the 10% discount which comes every now and then on Amazon, Flipkart etc

bruh come on

 

[Ash8]

Please don't use any ICICI card to get any rewards, it's an effort in futility.

Use ICICI cards only for the 10% discount which comes every now and then on Amazon, Flipkart etc

I think you had a thread whether to get infinia when you already have magnus burgundy and that was before gyftr coins were introduced I guess. So what is your take/action now?

 

[Gkcards]

There are 2 scenarios:
1. The card will not show rs 2 entry at POS of lounge or there will be full charge at the time of entry.
2. The card will be used for entry and bank will calculate the last quarter spend before the bill generation and if 75k spend is not there then will bill accordingly.

But how can they charge extra if already billed for Rs 2 even if spend was less?

 

[drsel]

I think you had a thread whether to get infinia when you already have magnus burgundy and that was before gyftr coins were introduced I guess. So what is your take/action now?

I'm taking Infinia for Pharmeasy 10x and Amazon pay 5x
You cannot get Amazon pay on Giftedge 2x, nor on Grabdeals

 

[mgforce]

ICICI Amazon Pay Card also impacted today.