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 😄

 

[ashwinkashwink is verified member.]

I WANT TO APPLY FOR NEW CREDIT CARD..

Try with Bob for high chance of approval 🙂

 

[MAHESH9D]

ACTUALLY THERE IS WEBSITE , THROUGH WHICH WE CAN APPLY AND GET CASHBACK, I FORGOT THE NAME OF IT , THTS WHY ASKIN HERE..

 

[007]

ACTUALLY THERE IS WEBSITE , THROUGH WHICH WE CAN APPLY AND GET CASHBACK, I FORGOT THE NAME OF IT , THTS WHY ASKIN HERE..

It's CashKaro I guess, not sure. Have seen some YouTubers advertise it. I haven't used it personally.

 

[Manu624]

I only have 1 cc it is OneCard i got on 25th march xD pre approved metal 15k limit mind that i dont have income but i kept using OneScore app of theirs to check score for a long time and it gave me a notification saying i am pre approved for metal version with 15k limit i just clicked a took at that moment xD was very shocked and 2 days ago on 4th april i got kotak 811 message saying im pre approved for their league credit card i applied it only asked for address nothing else i hope i get it as well haha xD and i only have 811 0 balance acc of kotak not even any premium version lol 2022 is turning out to be great year

I have Kotak ace account. 50,000 minium balance and I didn't find any pre approved till now. I javeonly pre approved emi and personal loan

 

[Manu624]

I also have priority account but no Axis CCs yet 🥲

I don't use Flipkart. I did apply for axis card once but got rejected due to unserviceable area. I got Flipkart axis pre approved. I saw that in pasia bazzar and got the card

 

[repertoire]

First secured credit card: Axis Privilege Easy Credit Card against an FD of ~75k with a limit of 60k in Nov 2021

I tried applying for Axis Ace and then Flipkart, but got rejected both times. It was the first year of running my business so while I did have my ITR filed and it was >5 Lakhs, it wasn't processed yet and I had a new credit profile, so I believe my options were fairly limited. The only savings account I had was SBI. I got the Axis Prestige account, thinking naively that Axis would give me a preapproved offer quicker if I did, but months passed and I got nothing. So I settled on this card to build my credit score.

It actually turned out fairly well. IIRC the welcome benefits I got in terms of points were worth considerably more than the joining fee I paid. That and the 1% reward rate and domestic lounge access that I ended up using twice made it relatively worth it for a first card.

First unsecured credit card: Indusind Legend LTF with 2L limit, got it last month.

RM called me to pester me about investing in their mutual funds, I said I was only interested in their CCs and wanted Legend. He told me I had to pay the usual 10k for the joining fees, and that I'd get it back as GCs but I said I wasn't interested if it wasn't free. I think playing a bit of hardball works well with these banks, because a few days later he called me and said I actually did have the Legend LTF offer available. It probably helped that I already had an Exclusive account with Indusind, purely to take advantage of their 0% Forex markup debit card.

Probably going to try to get Pinnacle with 0 fees next, because I really want that free international lounge access.

I think it took so long for me because I live in a small town that isn't serviceable for most cards, and because I'm self-employed. If you're neither, things should move much, much faster for you.

 

[SiddharthR]

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 😄

Pre-approved CC Card

 

[Tosh]

Hi all,
New here. It's my first post been lurking for a while, but I finally decided to be a part of this incredible community.

So here goes the story of my first CC, which never arrived -
I got a mail from ICICI Bank with two exclusive LTF offers last September 1) Manchester United Platinum Credit Card and 2) Coral Credit card. A bit of background I was still a student back then with no relationship with the bank. I chose to go for the coral card because someone told me to do so ( I didn't know a thing about CCs then, and that hasn't changed much)
I filled out the EOI form, bank representative got in touch with me but could not proceed because Aadhar decided not to give me an OTP for initiating the form. My exams were next week, so I completely forgot about it, and when I eventually remembered after two more weeks, the offers were expired, or so I was told. I had no idea that LTF offers were hard to come by without having an account in the bank wish I had been more serious about this.

Long story short, I do not have any credit cards (yet); I have applied for one (not pre-approved) from HDFC bank and will add my experience here once it arrives. I do have one debit card, though, if it counts 😛

I could not find a thread for an introduction purpose, so I thought using this might get me some visibility. Cheers.

 

[arjun697]

Hello everyone!

I have been following most of the moderators on Twitter, then finally browsed the community here and this proved to be super helpful.

Could say I'm pretty new to the Credit Card game in spite of having one for long enough.

Back in 2016, we had these agents around our office food court trying to advertise these cards to lucrative customers (Pretty much anyone who recently started working). A couple of friends got them and I decided to try them as well being wary of credit cards traps.

I got the HDFC Snapdeal card in Feb 2016 and SCB Titanium (Master Card) as I had a newly opened Salary account with them. Utilisation was minimal, HDFC was just basic purchases and SCB was for my daily Uber rides, they had good discounts then.
The HDFC card had 60k limit and the SCB one I'm still not sure. I purchased an iPhone on my HDFC card in 2017 which pretty much came close to maxing my limit and then for the next year or so I paid off the EMI. Nothing major after that.
The HDFC card expired and was upgraded to Moneyback + in 2019 but I never got to use that even once.

Once Covid started, I had been living in far off places with cash only or traveling extensively with SCB debit. Around 23 flights since Covid started and each time I'm at the airport looking at expensive food prices thinking if I had that lounge access, at least I could settle for something other than a McD or KFC at the airport. Once I put all my travel episodes to rest in 2022 since tourism was peaking again, I got settled at home to actually experience work from your actual home.

This is when I came across this credit card community and decided I needed to resume this. Simply on the basis that my monthly regular expenses could be paid by card to acquire some benefits. No worries of over spending.

At this point of time, I just assumed it would be a breeze just asking HDFC for a new card. But this was a 2 month long ordeal at a snails pace and now with an actual HDFC Savings account in hand too but still nowhere near procuring a new CC for myself. Also got a RM assigned who is ready to help (sell) a lot of useful products but except with this CC issue. The credit score in July was also decent at around 819 but after a couple of applications, this is down to 800.

Now with a couple of options, waiting to see how it goes.

Currently waiting for HDFC to reissue the card, if that works!
Fresh application pending for a month for SBI Vistara from the agent at the mall who was super keen
Fresh application for a week for Indusind Easydiner card

As of now, all expenses on my Millenia Debit they issued last month. Let's see! Cheers 🙂

 

[Rahul92]

Hello everyone!

I have been following most of the moderators on Twitter, then finally browsed the community here and this proved to be super helpful.

Could say I'm pretty new to the Credit Card game in spite of having one for long enough.

Back in 2016, we had these agents around our office food court trying to advertise these cards to lucrative customers (Pretty much anyone who recently started working). A couple of friends got them and I decided to try them as well being wary of credit cards traps.

I got the HDFC Snapdeal card in Feb 2016 and SCB Titanium (Master Card) as I had a newly opened Salary account with them. Utilisation was minimal, HDFC was just basic purchases and SCB was for my daily Uber rides, they had good discounts then.
The HDFC card had 60k limit and the SCB one I'm still not sure. I purchased an iPhone on my HDFC card in 2017 which pretty much came close to maxing my limit and then for the next year or so I paid off the EMI. Nothing major after that.
The HDFC card expired and was upgraded to Moneyback + in 2019 but I never got to use that even once.

Once Covid started, I had been living in far off places with cash only or traveling extensively with SCB debit. Around 23 flights since Covid started and each time I'm at the airport looking at expensive food prices thinking if I had that lounge access, at least I could settle for something other than a McD or KFC at the airport. Once I put all my travel episodes to rest in 2022 since tourism was peaking again, I got settled at home to actually experience work from your actual home.

This is when I came across this credit card community and decided I needed to resume this. Simply on the basis that my monthly regular expenses could be paid by card to acquire some benefits. No worries of over spending.

At this point of time, I just assumed it would be a breeze just asking HDFC for a new card. But this was a 2 month long ordeal at a snails pace and now with an actual HDFC Savings account in hand too but still nowhere near procuring a new CC for myself. Also got a RM assigned who is ready to help (sell) a lot of useful products but except with this CC issue. The credit score in July was also decent at around 819 but after a couple of applications, this is down to 800.

Now with a couple of options, waiting to see how it goes.

Currently waiting for HDFC to reissue the card, if that works!
Fresh application pending for a month for SBI Vistara from the agent at the mall who was super keen
Fresh application for a week for Indusind Easydiner card

As of now, all expenses on my Millenia Debit they issued last month. Let's see! Cheers 🙂

You could have been to infinia or DCB , if u have use it regularly since 2016.

Same thing happened with me too. I got money-back card in 2014 . Never actually used it. Kept and forgot it.

In 2020 i came to know about cibil when I had to apply for a car loan.

In that cibil report , i was surprised to see hdfc card was still up and running !

So i re issued it and later converted it to Millennia card.

Now it is one of my most used cards along with axis Ace and SBI prime

 

[arjun697]

You could have been to infinia or DCB , if u have use it regularly since 2016.

Same thing happened with me too. I got money-back card in 2014 . Never actually used it. Kept and forgot it.

In 2020 i came to know about cibil when I had to apply for a car loan.

In that cibil report , i was surprised to see hdfc card was still up and running !

So i re issued it and later converted it to Millennia card.

Now it is one of my most used cards along with axis Ace and SBI prime

Yes, I realised my mistake a little too late. Then again, never too late to start and nothing has gone bad credit wise till date thankfully.

I just checked my score on the Onescore app an hour back and most indicators are good. 6 years and 6 months with no missed payments.

It did display both my cards shown as active but mapped to my Chennai office address which needs to be updated. I think this could be the reason my recent requests are all being subjected to extra checks.

I guess I will have to slowly go through the whole process of waiting it out and not get carried away on the time I missed.

 

[Bedanta]

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 😄

My experience was good enough.
Opened an account in hdfc saving max..with 1L deposit..
Then the lady who open my account introduce me to a cc agent in same brnch.
I apply offline mode.
And directly select millennia.
Got it as LTF,without even asking about it

 

[Karthik:]

My experience was good enough.
Opened an account in hdfc saving max..with 1L deposit..
Then the lady who open my account introduce me to a cc agent in same brnch.
I apply offline mode.
And directly select millennia.
Got it as LTF,without even asking about it

When was it ?

 

[Bedanta]

When was it ?

In april

 

[akshay_m]

For me, I got my first credit card in 2015 during MBA. This was an AMEX Gold charge card. AMEX for some reason was selling cards on campus and practically everyone in the graduating batch got one. Unfortunately, I got it changed to MRCC since AMEX said that they will make it LTF. Now I almost repent getting this converted given Gold gets better deals on rewards

 

[Saif77]

Hey Everyone.

I am 21 right now. I got my first credit card this year in april 2022. Before that i had no card. My cibil got generated last year in June 2021. I used some BNPL. I m a student and a stock trader. Will file my ITR in 2023 for the first time. I got all my cards without any income proof.

1. HDFC MoneyBack Card - 15k Limit ( April 2022) UNCONDITIONAL LTF

2. ICICI Coral Visa Card - 40k Limit. (June 2022) UNCONDITIONAL LTF

3.BOB Easy Card - 20K Limit. (July 2022) Not LTF.

ICICI and HDFC cards were pre-approved/qualified.

Currently My Cibil is around 763.

Got rejected for Axis Card. So not applying anymore. Will wait for a pre-approved offer from them.

 

[Rahul92]

Hey Everyone.

I am 21 right now. I got my first credit card this year in april 2022. Before that i had no card. My cibil got generated last year in June 2021. I used some BNPL. I m a student and a stock trader. Will file my ITR in 2023 for the first time. I got all my cards without any income proof.

1. HDFC MoneyBack Card - 15k Limit ( April 2022) UNCONDITIONAL LTF

2. ICICI Coral Visa Card - 40k Limit. (June 2022) UNCONDITIONAL LTF

3.BOB Easy Card - 20K Limit. (July 2022) Not LTF.

ICICI and HDFC cards were pre-approved/qualified.

Currently My Cibil is around 763.

Got rejected for Axis Card. So not applying anymore. Will wait for a pre-approved offer from them.

Why was BOB not LTF ?

 

[Tosh]

Hi all,
New here. It's my first post been lurking for a while, but I finally decided to be a part of this incredible community.

So here goes the story of my first CC, which never arrived -
I got a mail from ICICI Bank with two exclusive LTF offers last September 1) Manchester United Platinum Credit Card and 2) Coral Credit card. A bit of background I was still a student back then with no relationship with the bank. I chose to go for the coral card because someone told me to do so ( I didn't know a thing about CCs then, and that hasn't changed much)
I filled out the EOI form, bank representative got in touch with me but could not proceed because Aadhar decided not to give me an OTP for initiating the form. My exams were next week, so I completely forgot about it, and when I eventually remembered after two more weeks, the offers were expired, or so I was told. I had no idea that LTF offers were hard to come by without having an account in the bank wish I had been more serious about this.

Long story short, I do not have any credit cards (yet); I have applied for one (not pre-approved) from HDFC bank and will add my experience here once it arrives. I do have one debit card, though, if it counts 😛

I could not find a thread for an introduction purpose, so I thought using this might get me some visibility. Cheers.

On Popular Demand and many, many DMs (Thank you all for being such an awesome audience 🙂 ), here's the second part of the story of my first credit card.

So here goes the story of my first CC, which DID arrive -
Fast forward ten months from the previous attempt to get a card. With the education phase ending and a bunch of friends with LTF credit cards from ICICI (Rubyx, MU) and HDFC (Millenia), I was living happily, leeching off their cards and discounts during these ten months. But then we graduated, and everyone went their way and took their cards too.
I reached out to banks again, trying to bring back to life the offers I killed by not being proactive. Sadly they were long gone. Then came the saving grace in the form of a Whatsapp group formed by HDFC PoC with a bunch of students from my class. With the sought-after LTF Diners cards (DCP and DCB) and offers, my eyes sparkled again... after a long time, they were full of life.

Wasting no time, I showed interest but was heartlessly shot down. I had not started my job yet and wasn't earning a dime (I know I was stoopid to apply in the first place, but I was interested 😛). After another two-month long wait and enduring much greed/pain, I applied with my first payslip (prorated, with only one week's pay). Had to open an account on the way due to address disputes, applied, and BAM! Rejected (my heart sank lower than Titanic). They couldn't contact my workplace. So I was still jobless in their book. My guy went on vacation, too, so had to wait another two weeks and lots of back and forth later got them to reopen my application, finally sent them some more stuff, and got the approval. Two days later, my LTF DCB arrived the envelope was missing the book, but I can live with that, I guess.

So yeah, that's pretty much it. I cut short a lot of stuff because the post was getting way too long, and I didn't want my readers to lose interest. Looking forward to listening to more stories and the DMs part was a joke 😛

 

[SunnyM]

Hey Everyone.

I am 21 right now. I got my first credit card this year in april 2022. Before that i had no card. My cibil got generated last year in June 2021. I used some BNPL. I m a student and a stock trader. Will file my ITR in 2023 for the first time. I got all my cards without any income proof.

1. HDFC MoneyBack Card - 15k Limit ( April 2022) UNCONDITIONAL LTF

2. ICICI Coral Visa Card - 40k Limit. (June 2022) UNCONDITIONAL LTF

3.BOB Easy Card - 20K Limit. (July 2022) Not LTF.

ICICI and HDFC cards were pre-approved/qualified.

Currently My Cibil is around 763.

Got rejected for Axis Card. So not applying anymore. Will wait for a pre-approved offer from them.

Did you try taking one card ?

 

[Saif77]

Did you try taking one card ?

No. One Card doesn't make sense to me right now.