ICICI Bank Times Black Credit Card Launched - Full Details & Review

[VasukiVasuki is verified member.]

Reward System:

• Earn Points:
  • 2 Reward Points per ₹100 spent in India
  • 2.5 Reward Points per ₹100 spent outside India
  • 6 Reward Points per ₹100 spent on Flights & Hotels

Conversion Rates:

• 1 Reward Point = ₹1 for most redemptions
• 1 Reward Point = ₹0.40 for statement

Sums up the reward rate being pathetic at icici

Butt yes butt

• Spend ₹2,00,000: Get ₹10,000 Klook Voucher
• Spend ₹5,00,000: Get ₹10,000 worth of airport transfers in a luxury sedan (₹5,000 x 2) or helicopter service (₹10,000 x 1) by BLADE/AVIS (available only from Bangalore Airport to select destinations).

This will make up for dream of having luxury helicopter ride 😁

 

[rogerthat]

Features of ICICI Bank "premium" cards:

• Reward rates that seem to be good but are actually worthless in real life
• Benefits that seem to be a lot and high in number but are complicated, practically useless and of no value
• Stupidly confusing and contradicting terms and conditions
• Ridiculous fees and charges
• Regular, heavy devaluations that absolutely strip the cards.

The most "premium card" in the ICICI lineup remains the APay card and that too only because Amazon is paying for it.

 

[shadow28]

Will it be easier to get hold of an Emeralde Private Metal Credit Card after this card is launched? Currently, they're being very selective with issuing EPM even to customers who fulfil the basic eligibility criteria.

 

[Pack_of_Cards]

Hey TFCians,

ICICI Bank is soon launching its top-tier super-premium credit card: the ICICI Bank Times Black Credit Card.
Expected launch time: Mid December 2024

Fees:

• Joining Fee: Rs. 20,000 + GST
• Annual Fee: Rs. 20,000 + GST

 

[Avinash.Mishra]

Features of ICICI Bank "premium" cards:

• Reward rates that seem to be good but are actually worthless in real life
• Benefits that seem to be a lot and high in number but are complicated, practically useless and of no value
• Stupidly confusing and contradicting terms and conditions
• Ridiculous fees and charges
• Regular, heavy devaluations that absolutely strip the cards.

The most "premium card" in the ICICI lineup remains the APay card and that too only because Amazon is paying for it.

Rightly said only useful credit card from ICICI is Apay

 

[Harry1]

Wow, 10k klook voucher on 2L spends seems nice. I never found any klook voucher anywhere. Hopefully it drops someday in hdfc gyftr too.

 

[amitr29]

10k Tata Cliq voucher on 10 L spend and Helicopter airport transfers at 5L spend 😂 Something is seriously wrong with this offering

 

[Avinash.Mishra]

Helicopter airport transfer is not available for most people

 

[Dobbiee]

Features of ICICI Bank "premium" cards:

• Reward rates that seem to be good but are actually worthless in real life
• Benefits that seem to be a lot and high in number but are complicated, practically useless and of no value
• Stupidly confusing and contradicting terms and conditions
• Ridiculous fees and charges
• Regular, heavy devaluations that absolutely strip the cards.

The most "premium card" in the ICICI lineup remains the APay card and that too only because Amazon is paying for it.

Very true. After spending 12 lacs on Emeralde Metal, I received 50k reward points (including joining fee payment bonus).
Wasted money by buying 20k MMT vouchers. (Discount code not applicable if paying by voucher). Learnt it hard way.

Couldnt use the milestone benefits of 2 Easmytrip voucher, as every time I tried to apply it, found better rate somewhere else (again no discount code applicable if paying by voucher). So didnt use these 2 vouchers... wasted.

It seemed more of time waste trying to use the reward points. So, for the balance reward points, I enchased it for Amazon Vouchers for a rate of 1:0.6 ratio. Better was Apay card, which I was using previously. No hassles, no time waste and higher rewards.

If Times Black card is compared to Emeralde Metal, it has lower reward rate, poor joining benefit, no bookmyshow offer, higher fee etc etc. It looks like ICICI is launching a devalued version of Emeralde Metal in the name of Times Black.

 

[sousnake]

I think people will get card & not activate it..
they need to add upfront fee like idfc mayura & ashva.

 

[rogerthat]

Very true. After spending 12 lacs on Emeralde Metal, I received 50k reward points (including joining fee payment bonus).
Wasted money by buying 20k MMT vouchers. (Discount code not applicable if paying by voucher). Learnt it hard way.

Couldnt use the milestone benefits of 2 Easmytrip voucher, as every time I tried to apply it, found better rate somewhere else (again no discount code applicable if paying by voucher). So didnt use these 2 vouchers... wasted.

It seemed more of time waste trying to use the reward points. So, for the balance reward points, I enchased it for Amazon Vouchers for a rate of 1:0.6 ratio. Better was Apay card, which I was using previously. No hassles, no time waste and higher rewards.

If Times Black card is compared to Emeralde Metal, it has lower reward rate, poor joining benefit, no bookmyshow offer, higher fee etc etc. It looks like ICICI is launching a devalued version of Emeralde Metal in the name of Times Black.

Yeah forgot to add - the only straightforward benefit on ICICI cards is the BMS BOGO offer. And that is not available on this supposedly super premium card.

 

[cardio_guycardio_guy is verified member.]

Yeah forgot to add - the only straightforward benefit on ICICI cards is the BMS BOGO offer. And that is not available on this supposedly super premium card.

The only reason why I want Emeralde PVC LTF is for the B1G1 BMS offer. Other than that it is a useless card. 😀

 

[Sidharth1094]

Very true. After spending 12 lacs on Emeralde Metal, I received 50k reward points (including joining fee payment bonus).
Wasted money by buying 20k MMT vouchers. (Discount code not applicable if paying by voucher). Learnt it hard way.

Couldnt use the milestone benefits of 2 Easmytrip voucher, as every time I tried to apply it, found better rate somewhere else (again no discount code applicable if paying by voucher). So didnt use these 2 vouchers... wasted.

It seemed more of time waste trying to use the reward points. So, for the balance reward points, I enchased it for Amazon Vouchers for a rate of 1:0.6 ratio. Better was Apay card, which I was using previously. No hassles, no time waste and higher rewards.

If Times Black card is compared to Emeralde Metal, it has lower reward rate, poor joining benefit, no bookmyshow offer, higher fee etc etc. It looks like ICICI is launching a devalued version of Emeralde Metal in the name of Times Black. bookings

Very true. After spending 12 lacs on Emeralde Metal, I received 50k reward points (including joining fee payment bonus).
Wasted money by buying 20k MMT vouchers. (Discount code not applicable if paying by voucher). Learnt it hard way.

Couldnt use the milestone benefits of 2 Easmytrip voucher, as every time I tried to apply it, found better rate somewhere else (again no discount code applicable if paying by voucher). So didnt use these 2 vouchers... wasted.

It seemed more of time waste trying to use the reward points. So, for the balance reward points, I enchased it for Amazon Vouchers for a rate of 1:0.6 ratio. Better was Apay card, which I was using previously. No hassles, no time waste and higher rewards.

If Times Black card is compared to Emeralde Metal, it has lower reward rate, poor joining benefit, no bookmyshow offer, higher fee etc etc. It looks like ICICI is launching a devalued version of Emeralde Metal in the name of Times Black.

this is true for any card. 1:1 reward redemption has some drawbacks as compared to straight brand discounts. Atleast you are able to use those mmt vouchers to book cheap hotels if needed and are not forced to overspend on marriot/accor. And if you fully want to utilize your points, then use them on tanishq/taj/itc/marriot

 

[sourpai]

Very true. After spending 12 lacs on Emeralde Metal, I received 50k reward points (including joining fee payment bonus).
Wasted money by buying 20k MMT vouchers. (Discount code not applicable if paying by voucher). Learnt it hard way.

Couldnt use the milestone benefits of 2 Easmytrip voucher, as every time I tried to apply it, found better rate somewhere else (again no discount code applicable if paying by voucher). So didnt use these 2 vouchers... wasted.

It seemed more of time waste trying to use the reward points. So, for the balance reward points, I enchased it for Amazon Vouchers for a rate of 1:0.6 ratio. Better was Apay card, which I was using previously. No hassles, no time waste and higher rewards.

If Times Black card is compared to Emeralde Metal, it has lower reward rate, poor joining benefit, no bookmyshow offer, higher fee etc etc. It looks like ICICI is launching a devalued version of Emeralde Metal in the name of Times Black.

I think you would have got rate better than 1:0.6 with MMT voucher usage even without any discounts... It would have been more like 1:0.85 or 1:0.9 approx

Almost all the premium cards give poor rate on voucher redemptions

 

[Dobbiee]

I think you would have got rate better than 1:0.6 with MMT voucher usage even without any discounts... It would have been more like 1:0.85 or 1:0.9 approx

Almost all the premium cards give poor rate on voucher redemptions

Yeah thats how i used. Some on hotels and some on flights.

But if a super premium card makes me change my choice of hotel or I have to wait to book a hotel when discounts are not running across other places, then I am spending too much time on it.
Compared to the experience of Smartbuy, where you dont need to think, just go ahead and book your choice of hotel at any point of time without worrying, and no loss on the the price, as its the best rate across all platforms. That makes life easy.

 

[drsel]

https://static.timesblack.com/static/reward-points-tncs.pdf

.
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This is a no brainer --strictly avoid

 

[Animal]

Application will be open from 19 Dec.

 

[BhaiyaJi]

I also received this email today

 

[BVCBVC is verified member.]

I also received this email today

So who have clicked on Notify me only received? or profile based?

 

[BhaiyaJi]

So who have clicked on Notify me only received? or profile based?

Not sure, we need to wait for others to comment.