I had around 15 credit cards since last 20 years till last year. I made a point to not break my head in tracking the card usage (spend in a financial) year to get an annual fees waiver. considering 15 cards, I would go mad. Hence I went for the platinum credit cards with absolute zero annual fees (means no condition of annual spend to get waiver) My experience was great. I did earn good reward points on all of them. But over the time I realized
-To keep card active, one has to use it once in a year. I followed practice of using one card one full month (to avoid ban cancelling card or making card dormant)and then keep it in wardrobe for rest of the year
-Above practice helped me to get rewards on all cards, but if I had used single card, it would have helped me to get better rewards
-Only for rewards, opting for credit card with or without annual fees, is stupidity cause in today's world nobody gets free lunch. Now each bank puts additional charge while you redeem the reward points.
-with RBI tightening norms, it will be more difficult to have card active without usage and for banks as well it will be difficult to keep LTF cards. They will send SMS one day informing changes in T&C
-As ICICI and HDFC were not issuing Rupay add-on CC during 2022 (when Rupay Credit Cards on UPI were introduced) , I went for these PSU bank credit card (and wherever required opened savings account) to leverage early bird offers of Rupay credit card like discounts and cashbacks since 2022, I enjoyed BoB, Indian Bank (Saving Bank A/C Req), UBI(Saving Bank A/C Req), Canara Bank(Saving Bank A/C Req), PNB and Kotak. I collected good cashback on these Rupay and credit cards transactions on UPI apps (BHIM, GPAY, PhonPe) were seamless. Few of these became chargable annual fees credit cards (PNB, UBI, Canara) and I got ICICI Rupay add-on credit card. Hence closed all Rupay CC except BoB. Closed it as to keep number of credit cards manageable. BoB Rupay is still free and gives cashback. I noticed many mercents and small shops have become aware about UPI payment using Rupay credit cards deducts MDR fromt heir account and hence many merchants have disabled Rupay Credit card UPI payment. But I believe MDR charges will be taken care off and UPI Rupay credit card will flourish. So UPI is the future
-If it is true zero annual fees, go for it and keep the card. Do not fall prey to zero annual fees by means of waiver clause like spend 50000 in a financial year to get the annual fees waived off for next year. There are plenty of banks offering zero annual fee platinum credit cards like ICICI, Axis, IDBI (needs to hold savings account), HDFC (might have now stopped giving LTF), IndusInd, IDFC, HSBC and Manhattan. But when it comes to rewards and offers out of these, only ICICI and to certain extent HDFC stands apart.
-For more than 15 years, I am holding HDFC, ICICI, Axis, HSBC, StanChart Manhattan, IDBI, InduSind, & IDFC credit cards, all mostly platinum and LTF. I did not see any issue while using any card or with customer support. I noticed, ICICI, HDFC and Axis are good credit cards. Now they providing Rupay add-on card for UPI payment, what more one can ask.
-Other cards like Standard Chartered Manhattan, HSBC, IndusInd, IDFC and IDBI (platinum and LTF) are ok and nothing great on rewards and offers (unless one goes for other variant with hefty joining and annual fees). IDBI website is not great. Had opted for IDFC no-EMI credit card offer and found interest changed on the monthly statement for EMIs. Recently had issue with IndusInd as they have removed humans as customer care team and everything is IVR based not addressing failed transaction issue reporting. Now a days all banks keep changing T&C and we have seen lounge access vanishing from many cards.
-I had American Express and Citibank card. I used it for a year as annual fees was waived off. I cancelled those after year.
-Instead I would suggest try SBI that has maximum offers on Amazon or even ICICI and HDFC. No point in applying for other cards unless it is corporate credit card and your are frequent flyer/traveler. I do not have one, but planning to go for it. Many times on Amazon,. I have to use my brother's SBI card and hence impressed with it. But since it has annual card, I did nto go for it for very long time. Let see how long I will resist...
