I've got 14 credit cards now, from 12 banks. I happen to be blind, and it was difficult to convince banks to issue me that first credit card. Though rules are clear that people should not be denied any banking service because of disability, the guys tasked with processing documents, usually are unaware, and when I applied for my ICICI platinum card, the agent who came to collect the document refused to even pick up the document. It was after lots of convincing, and a long discussion with his manager that he picked up the documents. Then as usual, they rejected the application. I complained to the customer care, escalated all the way up to the CEO desk. Eventually got to talk to a relationship manager who had a sense of things. After he initiated a set of back and fourth communication with the management, the card was ultimately approved, after a month of struggle.
I had a similar struggle with Axis when I applied for my Flipkart Axis card. They rejected the application based on disability. Refused to acknowledge the issue. I escalated the issue, they assigned a relationship manager to talk to me. And surprise of surprise, it was the same person who processed my ICICI card, who shifted jobs from ICICI to Axis. He took a fresh application, and within 2 days the card was approved, all after they had wasted nearly a month of my time!
Last year I applied for AU Zenith, same story, they rejected, I fought back, had a lawyer-disability activist friend who had contacts in AU top management team. Took it up through him. He told them no more nonsense or I'll be going to court. After a bit of back and fourth, the card was approved and despatched. Then there was another difficulty. Delhivery, through which the card was send, ended up losing the shipment. For the initial week or so, AU kept telling me to hold on, and eventually they gave me a replacement card...
I've had some difficulty with HDFC when I applied for my 2nd card with them, the Tata Neu Infinity. They didn't refuse the card, instead told me they'll provide doorstep service to do KYC. Took them 2 weeks for the same. Then it took them another 3 weeks to approve and send the card.
The easiest card to process was Federal Bank Imperio. Already had an account with them, so applied with mobile number, was done in less than 2 minutes. Getting Amex and IDFC First cards were also absolutely smooth, and so was getting the 2nd ICICI card, the Amazon Pay card... Didn't have any difficulty with SBI, though they did take a couple of weeks between application and card despatch.