Your First Credit Card Story - How did you get your first credit card?

[TechnoFinoTechnoFino is verified member.]

Hello every,
The first credit card is special for everyone. We all remember the experience of getting our first card
Let's share our first credit card experience...
My experience-
My first credit card was ICICI HPCL Coral, which I received in 2015. My home address at that time did not fall within any bank's serviceable area, so they asked me to apply for credit card against FD. But I needed an unsecured credit card, so I talked to my branch manager and I told him I needed an unsecured card.
He told me that... we can give you an unsecured card but for that you have to purchase an ICICI Prudential Ulip policy of Rs. 2 lakhs (minimum).
At that time I desperately needed a credit card because my business was in USA and I needed a credit card for its payment. I was unemployed that time with zero CIBIL score, No bank was offering me a credit card so I had purchased a policy of two lakh rupees at that time and got my first ever credit card ICICI HPCL coral credit card (chargeable), later icici converted that card to a lifetime free hpcl coral credit card and I'm still holding that one

 

[souvikdey2002]

Wow ... I didn't know it has such an amazing box
@souvikdey2002 why didn't you tell me

it does look amazing.
But in reality it's very ordinary and ready made finish.

 

[BigdeBigde is verified member.]

I used to have very poor image of credit cards (perception about stock markets used to share the same sentiments) in my mind since the beginning of my career in the IT industry. I started getting offers from Kotak and Axis for various LTF cards time to time but each time I turned them down due to the aforesaid reasons. I used to do my offline shoppings either using cash or using my Kotak/Axis debit cards.

However, this vow of not applying for any credit card was finally broken when an Axis customer care executive persuaded me for their NEO LTF card, this guy kept on pestering me for this card and literally bagged me to save his job by applying for this card as he had some targets to achieve. Thought of someone loosing his job made me gave in and asked to process my card request, and that is how this journey started.

Initially I was so scared of using a credit card (heard some stories from my colleagues where they were charged with absurd amount of interests on outstanding because they forgot to pay the bill on time ) that I used to pay my small outstanding amounts within next few days of the respective purchases.

Truly understood the power of holding a credit card when I was about to purchase a Vivo V15 Pro and saw a 3000 rupees instant discount on Axis cards on Flipkart. Despite seeing the offer, I was still skeptical about it, thought of giving it a try and added the phone in the cart, went to payment page and entered my card details first time on an e-commerce website (again the thought of online frauds kept on rumbling in the back of my mind, however an instant discount of 3000 rupees was so overpowering that I literally forced my fingers to type in my card details) and there it was an instant discount of 3000 rupees over the price mentioned on the product page that too on a LTF card where I didn't pay a single penny in terms of fees and charges.

I smirked at my debit cards and kept them in my drawer for good, started shopping using NEO and started receiving reward points. Started taking deep interest in the credit cards related topics and started applying for various cards. Now a proud owner of 15+ cards.

 

[BigdeBigde is verified member.]

Congratulations
What's your portfolio?

People wrongly assume CCs have lots of charges ... They can't believe that I pay 0 extra ...

Mostly hold the LTF CCs.
1. Axis Neo
2. ICICI Amazon Pay
3. ICICI Platinum
4. Flipkart Axis
5. HDFC Millenia
6. IDFC Select
7. Bank of Baroda Premier
8. SBI BPCL
9. American Express Smart Earn
10. Standard Chartered Platinum
11. One Card (Federal Bank)
12. RBL Paisa Bazzar
13. Yes Bank Finbooster
14. Kotak Urbane
15. Slice (Not exactly a CC but mentioned since I hold it)
16 HSBC Platinum (On the way)
17. AU Bank LIT (On the way)

 

[BankExpertIndia]

I used to have very poor image of credit cards (perception about stock markets used to share the same sentiments) in my mind since the beginning of my career in the IT industry. I started getting offers from Kotak and Axis for various LTF cards time to time but each time I turned them down due to the aforesaid reasons. I used to do my offline shoppings either using cash or using my Kotak/Axis debit cards.

However, this vow of not applying for any credit card was finally broken when an Axis customer care executive persuaded me for their NEO LTF card, this guy kept on pestering me for this card and literally bagged me to save his job by applying for this card as he had some targets to achieve. Thought of someone loosing his job made me gave in and asked to process my card request, and that is how this journey started.

Initially I was so scared of using a credit card (heard some stories from my colleagues where they were charged with absurd amount of interests on outstanding because they forgot to pay the bill on time ) that I used to pay my small outstanding amounts within next few days of the respective purchases.

Truly understood the power of holding a credit card when I was about to purchase a Vivo V15 Pro and saw a 3000 rupees instant discount on Axis cards on Flipkart. Despite seeing the offer, I was still skeptical about it, thought of giving it a try and added the phone in the cart, went to payment page and entered my card details first time on an e-commerce website (again the thought of online frauds kept on rumbling in the back of my mind, however an instant discount of 3000 rupees was so overpowering that I literally forced my fingers to type in my card details) and there it was an instant discount of 3000 rupees over the price mentioned on the product page that too on a LTF card where I didn't pay a single penny in terms of fees and charges.

I smirked at my debit cards and kept them in my drawer for good, started shopping using NEO and started receiving reward points. Started taking deep interest in the credit cards related topics and started applying for various cards. Now a proud owner of 15+ cards.

If You Pay The Bill In Full There Will Be No Extra Charges (Don't Know Why People Fear So Much From CC's)

 

[BankExpertIndia]

Mostly hold the LTF CCs.
1. Axis Neo
2. ICICI Amazon Pay
3. ICICI Platinum
4. Flipkart Axis
5. HDFC Millenia
6. IDFC Select
7. Bank of Baroda Premier
8. SBI BPCL
9. American Express Smart Earn
10. Standard Chartered Platinum
11. One Card (Federal Bank)
12. RBL Paisa Bazzar
13. Yes Bank Finbooster
14. Kotak Urbane
15. Slice (Not exactly a CC but mentioned since I hold it)
16 HSBC Platinum (On the way)
17. AU Bank LIT (On the way)

Can You Please Update The Portfolio With CL

 

[spatone]

Mostly hold the LTF CCs.
1. Axis Neo
2. ICICI Amazon Pay
3. ICICI Platinum
4. Flipkart Axis
5. HDFC Millenia
6. IDFC Select
7. Bank of Baroda Premier
8. SBI BPCL
9. American Express Smart Earn
10. Standard Chartered Platinum
11. One Card (Federal Bank)
12. RBL Paisa Bazzar
13. Yes Bank Finbooster
14. Kotak Urbane
15. Slice (Not exactly a CC but mentioned since I hold it)
16 HSBC Platinum (On the way)
17. AU Bank LIT (On the way)

Which ones are the default go-to cards among these on case of no bank-specific offers? Also, how do you manage payments for all of them (for eg. with CRED)?

 

[spatone]

Set billers
Cred sells data

Could you please elaborate on setting billers bit? Although I am not too bothered about CRED or its partners knowing my spending habits, would still like to know the alternative.

One more reason I use CRED is because Standard Chartered gives reward points for using their net-banking as payment gateway on CRED. (Individually the reward rate is miniscule but turns out to be INR 5-6K of vouchers on their reward portal for Credit Card bill payment on CRED and mutual fund investments on Kuvera.

 

[spatone]

HDFC, Kotak, ICICI, IDFC atleast have options to set billers ... Works for CCs too ... One then doesn't have to worry about paying CC bills in time anymore

Try to explore that option

Sadly, I have bank accounts in SBI, Axis, BoB and StanC. Tried adding biller via billdesk in StanC, but it has its auto-pay button disabled. Will see if it fetches the bill next time and reminds me.

 

[spatone]

What about Axis?

Will check if Axis allows adding billers. Thanks.

 

[M2222]

My first cc was simply click in Feb 2021 by giving my old company name with fake address in my city itself.
I went to my SBI bank for something and one agent asked me if I am interested in SBI cc and I said yes I am interested.
Then he checked the MAB in my account through one SBI employee and told me that I am eligible for SBI cc without any docs.
Actually I am not Indian resident and I didn't tell him this part because I was interested in having the credit card just because of complimentary lounge services.
Then one agent called me for house and office verification. I asked him to come and when he reached to my house then he called me again then I gave the phone to my mom and told her to say that I just left home to buy something from neighbourhood. He asked about the office address and I told her that to say I go somewhere but she doesn't know the address. He took my house photos and left.
After few days, voila I receive my first SBI simply save cc with 25k limit. Later I upgraded it to SBI Prime which has 4 complimentary international lounge access which fulfilled my objective.
During my last visit to India in Mar 2022, I added 3 more credit card with same tactics.

FYI: I know it's a crime having Indian credit card as a non Indian resident.

 

[ashwinkashwink is verified member.]

My first cc was simply click in Feb 2021 by giving my old company name with fake address in my city itself.
I went to my SBI bank for something and one agent asked me if I am interested in SBI cc and I said yes I am interested.
Then he checked the MAB in my account through one SBI employee and told me that I am eligible for SBI cc without any docs.
Actually I am not Indian resident and I didn't tell him this part because I was interested in having the credit card just because of complimentary lounge services.
Then one agent called me for house and office verification. I asked him to come and when he reached to my house then he called me again then I gave the phone to my mom and asked her to say that I just left home to buy something from neighbourhood. He asked about the office address and I told her that to say I go somewhere but she doesn't know the address. He took my house photos and left.
After few days, voila I receive my first SBI simply save cc with 25k limit. Later I upgraded it to SBI Prime which has 4 complimentary international lounge access which fulfilled my objective.
During my last visit to India in Mar 2022, I added 3 more credit card with same tactics.

FYI: I know it's a crime having Indian credit card as a non Indian resident.

Unbelievable

 

[spatone]

Do share

Axis doesn't seem to use the BBPS system (since the logo was missing, as against Standard Chartered' s Billdesk BBPS system). This means a lot of Credit Card Billers are not present in their list. From the cards that I hold, I don't see RBL (Zomato Edition), Federal Bank (OneCard).

 

[AsB]

View attachment 1957Not much different from the MC version

 

[pranavcool]

Pre approved hdfc miliniea is my first cc,
And second is onecard
1 icici apay (got recently)
2. Citi rewards (approved)
3 Au vetta (will apply)
Only axis reject me again and again

 

[AsB]

Pre approved hdfc miliniea is my first cc,
And second is onecard
1 icici apay (got recently)
2. Citi rewards (approved)
3 Au vetta (will apply)
Only axis reject me again and again

I took an Axis card, because of its looks . After recent devaluation, I dont think any entry level or entry premium level cards of Axis bank are better, other than ACE.

 

[pranavcool]

I took an Axis card, because of its looks . After recent devaluation, I dont think any entry level or entry premium level cards of Axis bank are better, other than ACE.

I needed myzone for swiggy and yes ace is best no doubt but hdfc miliniea is also good and comparable to ace now after smartbuy amz is gone

 

[AsB]

I needed myzone for swiggy and yes ace is best no doubt but hdfc miliniea is also good and comparable to ace now after smartbuy amz is gone

I don't have Millenia. Otherwise, I would not have bothered with Axis bank cards with a pathetic limit.

 

[Rahul92]

Google pay do not show axis ace as payment option when I try to recharge my BSNL prepaid , while it works fine for jio ! Is this normal ?

 

[ashwinkashwink is verified member.]

Google pay do not show axis ace as payment option when I try to recharge my BSNL prepaid , while it works fine for jio ! Is this normal ?

Maybe BSNL doesn't give commission

 

[ashwinkashwink is verified member.]

Nowadays offers are going on for mobile recharge on Amazon via some bank cards like BOB, Axis, Indusind

Yeah.