Devaluation ICICI Bank Reduces iShop Limits, Majorly Impacting Emeralde Private Metal & Times Black Cards

[SubhankarSubhankar is verified member.]

We all know that when something seems "too good to be true," it usually doesn’t last long. We’ve seen this happen multiple times with other credit card-issuing banks, and now ICICI Bank has joined the list.


ICICI initially thrilled credit card enthusiasts by launching the iShop portal, offering accelerated reward points - similar to GiftEdge, TravelEdge, SmartBuy, and Rewards Multiplier from its competitors.


The key attractions?
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• 6X reward points on flight bookings​
• 12X reward points on hotel bookings​
• 6X reward points on gift vouchers—including the highly sought-after Amazon Pay vouchers​

With a ₹1,00,000 monthly purchase limit and an impressive 15-18% return, this was a no-brainer for many. Other banks had already imposed strict limits and convenience fees on such benefits, making ICICI’s offer a dream come true for users.


This was particularly rewarding for cards like Emeralde Private Metal and Times Black. While the Emeralde Private Metal is an exclusive offering, the Times Black card was widely issued, making it accessible to many.

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The Silent Devaluation​

However, in under two months, ICICI silently devalued the benefit, slashing the maximum purchase limit for Amazon Pay and Flipkart vouchers to just ₹12,000. This is a major letdown, especially for those who recently got the Times Black card, which comes with a hefty ₹20,000 joining and renewal fee.


While it’s understandable that the bank wanted to prevent potential catastrophic losses - something we’ve seen happen to its peers - this abrupt change has shaken customer trust in ICICI.

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Planned Strategy or Poor Judgment?​

This move raises two possibilities:

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1. A strategic bait-and-switch: ICICI may have planned this from the start, waiting to hit its internal targets (especially considering the poor initial response to the Times Black card). If so, it was a well-played marketing move.​
2. A miscalculated risk: If ICICI failed to anticipate the cost-to-opportunity ratio, it reflects poorly on the management’s competency—something we have questioned before with other banks.​

What do you think? Was this an intentional strategy or a miscalculation? Let us know in the comments.​

 

[vinrey287]

It's good. I wonder why to slog it out just to get to the break-even or make marginal benefits over the fees. Not discouraging you or anyone but I'm thinking to myself why break our head just to figure how to recover the fees when we have other good cards available in the market for much lower fees that offer better benefits such as Axis Atlas, Amex Plat. Travel etc. Not even talking about Infinia, EPM or Amex Plat.

I have both the cards that you mentioned. Atlas is not good for vouchers and we can't use it on sites that Axis does not like. PT generally good only until 4L and I instead use Gold for voucher purchases.
Other 3 cards are not generally issued to one and all.
I did not take TB initially as it did not add any value to my current CC portfolio. I would have rather gone for MB but took it bcos of iShop addition. Hence I am now seeing if I can still profit this year after paying the annual fees since the iShop deval