ICICI LTF SAGA

[anirban.choudhuryanirban.choudhury is verified member.]

Good Day Everyone,

Just thought of doing a small write-up on my journey with icici bank. So, those of you who don't know me, I am just another credit card enthusiast like you are. I started my journey with ICICI bank, some 6 years ago when I was offered an LTF Jet Airways Rubyx credit card with a limit of 60k, fast forward a couple of years and I was given my first upgrade to MMT Signature, and the upgrade offer showed a One time Fees of 2500, but I was never charged that fees and I also received my MMT vouchers too 🙂 . Then in the year 2020, I applied for an Apay card from amazon which is default LTF, fast forward to end of 2021 , I got my first LE offer from 60k to 180K , which I declined, within 3 months I got another offer from 60k to 14.7 Lakhs, the first thing I did was counted the zeros and opted for the LE this was in the month of March 2022 I guess, This is when the hunt for Emeralde LTF started, I escalated everywhere starting from Twitter to PNO, rejection everywhere. This is when I decided to try the classic old way via branch , I have known the BM since long as he is a family friend, first thing he did was to get me LTF Sapphiro ( with a limit of 23.7 lakhs) based on my employer and salary, and I also converted my salary account with ICICI to a wealth Salary account , started pumping some money to my icici direct account and kept my pursuit for Emeralde active all this while . Finally in the month of February there was a breakthrough and My BM patched me in call with Regional Head as even he got frustrated with my nagging about Emeralde ;P . This is when I realized I have almost won the game , he asked to write a mail attaching relevant documents like salary slips , ITR. Within a week of sending this mail , I got a approval call from the BM stating that I can apply for the card and it will be processed as LTF . So I went to branch and applied for the Emirates Emeralde Credit Card , and as he mentioned , the final stage of the application showed the card as Life Time Free, the card got processed and delivered in a week ( limit of 36 Lakhs)

I have also taken approval for Vanilla Emeralde LTF, and I will be starting the process by next month.

So this is a small write-up on my journey with ICICI from 60K to 36L in 6 and half a years.

This is how my ICICI portfolio looks now.

 

[Sreerag]

If we get LE, should we decline the offer in turn for a new one, also note that if the offer doesnt come again? Does ITR make difference? What's the effective way to increase limit?

 

[Akash Topder]

2L plus for sapphiro
Emeralde there is no such criteria , Bank will tell you 20L plus Per month could get you LTF Emeralde

20L per month!!! That's 2.4 CR PA !!!!

 

[netsec]

i got silver status update after second statement , as I already have a silver with emirates I have requested icici to upgrade that to gold

Did you got Gold status?

 

[anirban.choudhuryanirban.choudhury is verified member.]

Did you got Gold status?

Not yet

 

[MilesMax]

Not yet

With the silver status, is the lounge access only for the member or it can be availed by family members as well if the ticket is in the same PNR?
Same question for priority check-in and boarding. Only for member?

 

[amit5ire]

With the silver status, is the lounge access only for the member or it can be availed by family members as well if the ticket is in the same PNR?
Same question for priority check-in and boarding. Only for member?

As per the terms and conditions of Silver tier (see below), lounge access is only for the member when travelling on an Emirates flight:
"A Silver Member may access the Emirates Business Class Lounge at Dubai International on a complimentary basis for themselves only. Lounge access benefits are only available when travelling onwards on an Emirates flight or Qantas codeshare flight."

There is no clarity in terms and conditions for priority check-in and boarding but one can assume that, as a matter of entitlement, the same is applicable only for the member. The ground staff may or may not offer priority check-in and boarding to other guests travelling on the same PNR.

 

[prakhar1010]

What is your total credit limit for ICICI credit cards?

 

[CardCraftsman.]

For wealth salary account there is no NRV requirement , net salary credit should be greater than 3 lakhs per month .
Also for LTF Sapphiro , you won’t need any source , if your employer is listed with icici and salary is approx 1.8-2 lakhs or more , Sapphiro will be default LTF for you either you can apply online or through branch , salary account in icici is non mandatory

Afaik , icici doesn’t downgrades account easily , so even if you move your salary to some other account your account will still remain “wealth” , but that’s not a rule , ICICI May downgrade it but it’s not seen uptill now

I had recently request branch officer to give me assurance that i will LTF SAPPHIRO within 3/6 months after opening WEALTH MANAGEMENT ACCOUNT with 10L funding but she said that you may get it if you do alot of transaction, maintain good balance then i said i will comeback after somedays because i want to confirm it with you guys, what should I do? It's a new branch and that may be the reason behind thier answer. @anirban.choudhury

 

[luciferlucifer is verified member.]

I had recently request branch officer to give me assurance that i will LTF SAPPHIRO within 3/6 months after opening WEALTH MANAGEMENT ACCOUNT with 10L funding but she said that you may get it if you do alot of transaction, maintain good balance then i said i will comeback after somedays because i want to confirm it with you guys, what should I do? It's a new branch and that may be the reason behind thier answer. @anirban.choudhury

you can get it with below 2 criteria are fulfulied:
1. Salary greater than 2Lac
2. Your company should be listed in their LTf list

 

[Tosh]

you can get it with below 2 criteria are fulfulied:
1. Salary greater than 2Lac
2. Your company should be listed in their LTf list

I have a friend with 1.90+ (net, gross higher than 2.4) something salary and listed company but was still rejected are they that strict on the criteria

 

[vkdleo]

My first post in the community detailing my journey of ICICI LTF Emirates Emeralde saga (without any relationship other than Apay Credit Card)

1. With ICICI, have been holding only Amazon Pay credit card since 2019 with current limit of 9.1 lakh. I do not hold any other relationship with ICICI Bank other than Apay Credit Card.

2. In the last 2 – 3 years, tried to apply online for LTF Platinum card (mainly to avail online offers where Apay was not eligible), but every time there was some or other issue, and hence did not receive any card approval.

3. One fine Sunday afternoon (16 April 2023), went through the online process again as follows:
(a) Provided my basic details (mobile number, PAN and Aadhaar etc.,) and background CIBIL check happened and aadhaar authentication happened (FYI, this is for delhi address).
(b) Amongst other details, I reckon three details could have been important, i.e., salary figure (refer (c) below), name of employer (refer (d) below) and name of the educational institution (refer (e) below).
(c) For the salary figure (which I provided was around monthly 2.3 lakh net), I remember I was asked to either upload pay slips or have the option to upload bank account statements through an account aggregator such as Anumati. I opted to upload my hdfc bank a/c statement through Anumati, which fetched my bank account statement from HDFC and provided to ICICI. Reasons: Manual uploading of pay slips or bank a/c statements may go for verification, which brings human discretion amongst other factors into play. Automated verification or processing can weed out such factors plus faster processing, of course. I assume ICICI’s backend software would have fetched the credits and debits during March month from the bank statement generated by Anumati and would have come up with its own salary or income profile (FYI, one of the credit entries has the narrative of ‘Salary’ which matches with the salary figure I gave initially.
(d) For the name of employer, upon typing the first few letters, my employer name popped up and I could select it from the dropdown menu list (FYI, my employer is not an MNC or renowned or prominent, it’s a small firm).
(e) For my education institution, the name of the college popped up and I could select it from the dropdown menu list (FYI, my college consistently ranks in top 3 in its field).
(f) After submitting all the information, I was asked to do Video KYC, which I completed that afternoon itself within a few minutes (Tip: Please start your online application from the very start on a personal laptop that has a decent webcam and ideally a non-office laptop. Some office laptops may have certain restrictions which may prevent completing the VKYC. There is no option to complete the VKYC later if the only thing pending is VKYC. You will have to complete the VKYC in the same session otherwise the whole application will go to waste).

4. I was shown card offers with a tentative credit limit of 31.5 lakhs with options to choose from LTF Emirates Emeralde, LTF Platinum, paid versions of some other cards. (FYI, I don’t recollect whether the option to select a credit card came up after my CIBIL check or after I provided my basic salary figure or after I uploaded my bank a/c statement through Anumati. There was an option of LTF Saphiro but don’t recollect whether it was plain vanilla LTF Saphiro or LTF Emirate Saphiro. I do recollect that there was NO option for plain vanilla LTF Emeralde. I wish I could have taken screenshots of the card offers. That could have benefitted many. Request members to take screenshots of the card offers presented for the benefit of other members.)

5. After 36 hours of VKYC (18 April), I first received an email regarding joining Emirates Skywards. Thereafter, the card showed up on mobile app with 15 lakh credit limit (with a separate limit of 9.1 lakh on Apay). In sum, one of the fastest card approval I have received without any physical verification or call verification.

6. Received the card physically on 19 April and dreamfolks card separately on 20 April.

7. Few things to note: My first statement is yet to be generated. At the time of writing this post, my emirates skywards display a Blue tier. I read somewhere in the TnC that complimentary Silver tier membership is only when you pay an annual fee. Considering mine is an LTF card, I doubt I will be given silver-tier membership. Please let me know if anyone else has other experience with membership. Also, my mobile app only shows Privilege Banking status (there is no other relationship other than Apay and Emirate Emeralde Credit Card now).

8. Hope the above information is of help to the community.

Thanks for sharing! What was the link through which you applied?

 

[D₹V]

Amazing story, @anirban.choudhury bro 😅.

 

[amit5ire]

Thanks for sharing! What was the link through which you applied?

Apply online link that is available on the main website <https://www.icicibank.com/card/credit-cards/credit-card>

 

[pprakash11]

Anyone, When will CIBIL check happens here?

View attachment 19575
Which stage? before able to see card variant and price or later once everything done?

Before as soon as you enter PAN and Verify it with OTP !!

 

[Pankhuri]

Yes
Limit will be shared

If we close the previous card, would the whole limit be for new card or will the new card have decreased limit?

 

[pprakash11]

If we close the previous card, would the whole limit be for new card or will the new card have decreased limit?

Yes same as previous limit.
It won't decrease.

 

[anish1516]

Good Day Everyone,

Just thought of doing a small write-up on my journey with icici bank. So, those of you who don't know me, I am just another credit card enthusiast like you are. I started my journey with ICICI bank, some 6 years ago when I was offered an LTF Jet Airways Rubyx credit card with a limit of 60k, fast forward a couple of years and I was given my first upgrade to MMT Signature, and the upgrade offer showed a One time Fees of 2500, but I was never charged that fees and I also received my MMT vouchers too 🙂 . Then in the year 2020, I applied for an Apay card from amazon which is default LTF, fast forward to end of 2021 , I got my first LE offer from 60k to 180K , which I declined, within 3 months I got another offer from 60k to 14.7 Lakhs, the first thing I did was counted the zeros and opted for the LE this was in the month of March 2022 I guess, This is when the hunt for Emeralde LTF started, I escalated everywhere starting from Twitter to PNO, rejection everywhere. This is when I decided to try the classic old way via branch , I have known the BM since long as he is a family friend, first thing he did was to get me LTF Sapphiro ( with a limit of 23.7 lakhs) based on my employer and salary, and I also converted my salary account with ICICI to a wealth Salary account , started pumping some money to my icici direct account and kept my pursuit for Emeralde active all this while . Finally in the month of February there was a breakthrough and My BM patched me in call with Regional Head as even he got frustrated with my nagging about Emeralde ;P . This is when I realized I have almost won the game , he asked to write a mail attaching relevant documents like salary slips , ITR. Within a week of sending this mail , I got a approval call from the BM stating that I can apply for the card and it will be processed as LTF . So I went to branch and applied for the Emirates Emeralde Credit Card , and as he mentioned , the final stage of the application showed the card as Life Time Free, the card got processed and delivered in a week ( limit of 36 Lakhs)

I have also taken approval for Vanilla Emeralde LTF, and I will be starting the process by next month.

So this is a small write-up on my journey with ICICI from 60K to 36L in 6 and half a years.

This is how my ICICI portfolio looks now.


View attachment 12909

What was your net salary per month when you got the Emerald card? I recently opened a wealth account with ICICI while applying the cc the app showed me Sapphiro LTF but these buggers gave me Rubyx LTF with 9L limit stating salary issues.

 

[ankitfintech]

My first post in the community detailing my journey of ICICI LTF Emirates Emeralde saga (without any relationship other than Apay Credit Card)

1. With ICICI, have been holding only Amazon Pay credit card since 2019 with current limit of 9.1 lakh. I do not hold any other relationship with ICICI Bank other than Apay Credit Card.

2. In the last 2 – 3 years, tried to apply online for LTF Platinum card (mainly to avail online offers where Apay was not eligible), but every time there was some or other issue, and hence did not receive any card approval.

3. One fine Sunday afternoon (16 April 2023), went through the online process again as follows:
(a) Provided my basic details (mobile number, PAN and Aadhaar etc.,) and background CIBIL check happened and aadhaar authentication happened (FYI, this is for delhi address).
(b) Amongst other details, I reckon three details could have been important, i.e., salary figure (refer (c) below), name of employer (refer (d) below) and name of the educational institution (refer (e) below).
(c) For the salary figure (which I provided was around monthly 2.3 lakh net), I remember I was asked to either upload pay slips or have the option to upload bank account statements through an account aggregator such as Anumati. I opted to upload my hdfc bank a/c statement through Anumati, which fetched my bank account statement from HDFC and provided to ICICI. Reasons: Manual uploading of pay slips or bank a/c statements may go for verification, which brings human discretion amongst other factors into play. Automated verification or processing can weed out such factors plus faster processing, of course. I assume ICICI’s backend software would have fetched the credits and debits during March month from the bank statement generated by Anumati and would have come up with its own salary or income profile (FYI, one of the credit entries has the narrative of ‘Salary’ which matches with the salary figure I gave initially.
(d) For the name of employer, upon typing the first few letters, my employer name popped up and I could select it from the dropdown menu list (FYI, my employer is not an MNC or renowned or prominent, it’s a small firm).
(e) For my education institution, the name of the college popped up and I could select it from the dropdown menu list (FYI, my college consistently ranks in top 3 in its field).
(f) After submitting all the information, I was asked to do Video KYC, which I completed that afternoon itself within a few minutes (Tip: Please start your online application from the very start on a personal laptop that has a decent webcam and ideally a non-office laptop. Some office laptops may have certain restrictions which may prevent completing the VKYC. There is no option to complete the VKYC later if the only thing pending is VKYC. You will have to complete the VKYC in the same session otherwise the whole application will go to waste).

4. I was shown card offers with a tentative credit limit of 31.5 lakhs with options to choose from LTF Emirates Emeralde, LTF Platinum, paid versions of some other cards. (FYI, I don’t recollect whether the option to select a credit card came up after my CIBIL check or after I provided my basic salary figure or after I uploaded my bank a/c statement through Anumati. There was an option of LTF Saphiro but don’t recollect whether it was plain vanilla LTF Saphiro or LTF Emirate Saphiro. I do recollect that there was NO option for plain vanilla LTF Emeralde. I wish I could have taken screenshots of the card offers. That could have benefitted many. Request members to take screenshots of the card offers presented for the benefit of other members.)

5. After 36 hours of VKYC (18 April), I first received an email regarding joining Emirates Skywards. Thereafter, the card showed up on mobile app with 15 lakh credit limit (with a separate limit of 9.1 lakh on Apay). In sum, one of the fastest card approval I have received without any physical verification or call verification.

6. Received the card physically on 19 April and dreamfolks card separately on 20 April.

7. Few things to note: My first statement is yet to be generated. At the time of writing this post, my emirates skywards display a Blue tier. I read somewhere in the TnC that complimentary Silver tier membership is only when you pay an annual fee. Considering mine is an LTF card, I doubt I will be given silver-tier membership. Please let me know if anyone else has other experience with membership. Also, my mobile app only shows Privilege Banking status (there is no other relationship other than Apay and Emirate Emeralde Credit Card now).

8. Hope the above information is of help to the community.

What was your yearly spend roughly on the Amazon credit card? If its on higher side doesnt it matter for premium credit card LTF application?

 

[amit5ire]

What was your yearly spend roughly on the Amazon credit card? If its on higher side doesnt it matter for premium credit card LTF application?

It was hardly anything. I am sure it would not have even touched fifty thousand per annum!

 

[ankitfintech]

Does emerald card provide unlimited lounge access for add on members also?