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

[TechnoFinoTechnoFino is verified member.]

Hello everyone,
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 experiences...

My experience:
My first credit card was the ICICI HPCL Coral, which I received in 2015. At that time, my home address was not within any bank's serviceable area, so they suggested I apply for a credit card against an FD. However, I wanted an unsecured credit card, so I approached my branch manager and explained my requirement.
He told me that they could issue an unsecured card, but I would need to purchase an ICICI Prudential ULIP policy worth a minimum of ₹2 lakhs.
At that point, I desperately needed a credit card because my business was in the USA, and I required one for payments. I was unemployed at the time, with a zero CIBIL score, and no bank was willing to offer me a credit card. So, I purchased a policy worth ₹2 lakhs and received my first-ever credit card – the ICICI HPCL Coral Credit Card (chargeable). Later, ICICI converted it into a lifetime free HPCL Coral Credit Card, and I’m still holding it to this day. 😄

 

[RAMESH BABU N]

30 years back - when there were no CIBIL n credit scores or online applications or reward points or FYF or LTF - I got my first few credit cards through my friends - EX-PNB Colleagues - in various other banks.

Anand in Andhra Bank helped me to get AB Visa Classic card.
Prabhakar K in BOB gave me BOB Visa card - special Sachin Tendulkar edition.
My own bank - SBI - allowed Officials to apply for our own cards - Employee Siver Visa n later Employee Gold Visa. I helped many of my relatives and friends to get SBI CCs.

Then, when the CC bug caught me, I took CCs from AMEX, HSBC, CITI, BOI and later co-branded cards from Indian Oil, Air India, Kingfisher, Jet Airways......

Nice to remember those days...

 

[devanshgadda70]

Wanted a card desperately, so contacted an agent at my ICICI Branch and got my first card ICICI HPCL Coral in January, 2023 as a LTF card with a limit of 60k. Then I wanted the Amazon Pay Card desperately so customer care gave me an idea to just create an Amazon account and use my Coral card to do a transaction and then check. Amazon Pay was instantly approved based on my existing ICICI card. Then got Coral RuPay last month as LTF. Holding 3 cards now although with a shared limit of 60k.

 

[aceventura]

Got mine a decade back when I started in my career. I did not really know a lot about Credit cards, only wanted some offers on cinema, went with Times Titanium, as it offered 25% off on movie tickets for 4 tickets a month. Did not really look into rewards or cashbacks etc., had that card for close to a decade and got limit enhancements to 20L on that starter card. Recently got it upgraded to DCB LTF via Alumni program.
Couple of years back got APay ICICI and Zomato Edition card for the cashbacks, which is when I got into the game finally.

 

[telescope]

Here goes my story.

More than a decade ago, few days after my 18th birthday, I went to nearest icici branch to open an account. Once the account got opened, I went again to make a fixed deposit of 20k. Once I was given the fd certificate, the deputy manager of the branch asked me if I am interested in CC. I told her that I was just a student with no income. She said I can Have LTF gold credit card against fd. She was the person who introduced me to the world of credit cards. She explained to me everything about cc, the jargons of TAD, MAD, when and how interest is charged and calculated, what's cibil and how to build good score, everything by making diagrams on a piece of paper for around 2 hours after branch timing. Also answered all my questions patiently.

I still remember how happy I was on that day and surprised my parents with that 'insta gold cc' kit.

I have never seen such a good banker in icici who was true to their tagline. Nowadays, even the thought of visiting icici branch annoys me.

 

[imdjay]

She was the person who introduced me to the world of

This line changed my life. 😀

 

[telescope]

This line changed my life. 😀

elaborate on this

 

[CrimeMasterGoGo]

what happens? if i don't recieve my kotak physical credit card, will they close it?

 

[telescope]

what happens? if i don't recieve my kotak physical credit card, will they close it?

Yes if you don't receive and don't activate the card then it'll get closed after a month.

 

[mukesh01]

Many Bank agents come to our campus with LTF CC offers.
In Jan 2020 I saw ICICI and HDFC, my friend applied for ICICI Bank, and so did I, I thought we could have only one CC(I would have got Millenia)
LTF Coral Mastercard came with an initial limit of 50000.
I used ₹7200 in April 2020 thinking I would pay that by month end but at the same time lockdown hit us.
And that part-time job payment differed by 4-5 months.
I couldn't pay that money at that time, so I applied for the moratorium as RBI ordered during COVID.
But when I had to pay 10500 after 4-5 months.
I paid extra ₹11 thinking I won't have any dues.
After sometime I got a message that ICICI also added ₹129(Interest on Interests during lockdown back) so I still have ₹140 in that account.
But when I tried to use that card again I got errors when I contacted CC, they told me that my card had been closed by the bank.
Because of this, my CIBIL was badly hit.

After that, I never thought about loan/CC for the next 2 years.
I started working in 2021, didn't need CC much, and also didn't have much knowledge about cashback and rewards.
Specially afraid of card as didn't have knowledge of CB/rewards. So always ignored offers in GPay(ACE CC) and PayTM.
But wanted Axis FK(That I never got because of a bug in my Flipkart account), I don't use Amazon much.
But back in June 2022 my friend needed some money, I told him that I could try to take a loan from an app.
I got an offer of 168k in KreditBee but took only 20 in EMIs(I paid that on time, don't know remember how much interest and Processing Fee), after that again too a loan of 222k with 0 fee and at affordable interest for 9EMIs.
That built my Credit Score.

I got an offer from ACE in GPay with ₹500 cashback, I thought it was free for me for the first year and after that, I can close that just after one year(I got 4000+ CB in 6 months).
But immediately applied for ICICI and had to apply over call and email Platinum Chip CC(but that was rejected, don't know why).


I got BoB Premier LTF CC last month as I had salary account in BoB with 50k limit.
My Axis ACE LE offer from 44k to 175k this week.
I applied for ICICI Alumini program again last week and when I got the callback, I explained my journey with ICICI.
Today again got a call from ICICI CC team, I told them to call on Saturday.

 

[balpreet.singh]

My first credit card was in 2003 by citibank. ( citi gold card if I remeber correctly) Citi guys were giving it to us premier institute MBA students. Did a test transaction at a restaurant and the statement went to parent's place ( that was the address as per proof) they didnt understand and go firing 😀

Since then a lot many cards that I have had across so many banks

 

[s4more]

My first card was ICICI Coral Visa secured against FD. Those days of payback point rewards were awesome.

 

[Nishan11]

My first credit card was SBI simplyclick, their team visited our state secretariat office last year & offered credit card.

After that got 7-8 more other bank cards. And then I started playing this game. And luckily found this forum. Learning new things daily.

 

[chatenrk]

Year is 2007 and first credit card applied and approved was SBI Vishal Megamart card. Used sparingly as I had few months later applied for Citibank Indian Oil Credit card which I used heavily as majority of my expenses were Fuel. Till last year also never had more that 2 cards, and never thought different cards for different expenses was the best way to earn reward points.

BTW, funny thing i remember my first points redemption was a Tupperware Box spending lot of points

 

[Yugi]

Ahh, the good old days when I got my first credit card, it was HDFC Regalia LTF in 2017. My employer had salary account tie up with HDFC which made it easy to get the card even without having a Credit Score. I still remember telling the bank agent that I only want regalia and want the name to printed in a certain way in the card, else I would not take the card, childish me 😛

My main moto to take credit card was to avail the interest free credit period and track my expenses. I didn't even care for the reward points or lounge access or anything else. I got it upgraded to DCB but still have my old Regalia as memorabilia.

 

[vijay.vj]

2016, open salary account with Citibank. Agent convinced me for citibank rewards CC. Got welcome vouchers for joining fee, I couldn't even make use of them.

Didn't know much about it, but still took it and used it just for the sake of interest free period.

 

[nomad]

2019 got my APay card with 34k limit
Had been trying to get a CC to build CIBIL and enjoy EMIs and offers but no bank was willing to give
I think activating and then not using Zest credit line created a score for me

Since then, have just gotten FK Axis card and recently MRCC

Looking for other LTF cards to play the game now

 

[krish11]

I got my first credit card in 2011 - Citibank IOCL Card and the card was issued LTF and then the series of credit cards began and it has been a fascinating journey till now. Then i got the following cards -
1. HDFC Moneyback Card - Upgraded to HDFC Regalia and now HDFC DCB Card LTF
2. Standard Chartered Landmark Reward Card(FYF) now closed
3. ICICI HPCL Card - now closed
4. ICICI Apay Card - LTF
5. ICICI Coral Mastercard - LTF
6. ICICI Coral Rupay - LTF
7. ICICI Sapphiro Amex - LTF
8. ICICI Sapphiro MasterCard - LTF
9. Amex Smartearn - free if spend greater than 40K
10. AU Bank Xcite Ultra Card - LTF
11. BoB Premier Rupay Card - LTF
12. Axis Bank Premier Card - Closed
13. Axis Bank Myzone Card - LTF
14. AXIS bank Kiwi Rupay Card - LTF
15. Standard Chartered Platinum Reward Card - LTF
16. Standard Chartered Titanium Mastercard - Closed
17. HSBC Platinum Card - LTF
18. ONECARD from Federal Bank - LTF
19. IDFC First Wealth Card - LTF
20. IDFC FIRST Power Card on Rupay - LTF
21. Yes Bank First Exclusive - LTF
22. Yes Bank Rupay Virtual Card - LTF
23. Indusind bank iconia Visa Card - LTF
24. Indusind bank iconia Amex Card - LTF
25. HDFC Tata Neu Infinity - LTF
27. SBI Simply Click - now closed
28. AU Bank Instapay Rupay Card - LTF
28. KOTAK MAHINDRA Royal Signature - LTF
29. Kotak Mahindra League Rupay - LTF
30. Kotak Urban Visa Card - Closed
31. RBL Titanium Mastercard - now closed
32. RBL World Safari Mastercard - LTF

 

[sharma]

I got my first credit card in 2011 - Citibank IOCL Card and the card was issued LTF and then the series of credit cards began and it has been a fascinating journey till now. Then i got the following cards -
1. HDFC Moneyback Card - Upgraded to HDFC Regalia and now HDFC DCB Card LTF
2. Standard Chartered Landmark Reward Card(FYF) now closed
3. ICICI HPCL Card - now closed
4. ICICI Apay Card - LTF
5. ICICI Coral Mastercard - LTF
6. ICICI Coral Rupay - LTF
7. ICICI Sapphiro Amex - LTF
8. ICICI Sapphiro MasterCard - LTF
9. Amex Smartearn - free if spend greater than 40K
10. AU Bank Xcite Ultra Card - LTF
11. BoB Premier Rupay Card - LTF
12. Axis Bank Premier Card - Closed
13. Axis Bank Myzone Card - LTF
14. AXIS bank Kiwi Rupay Card - LTF
15. Standard Chartered Platinum Reward Card - LTF
16. Standard Chartered Titanium Mastercard - Closed
17. HSBC Platinum Card - LTF
18. ONECARD from Federal Bank - LTF
19. IDFC First Wealth Card - LTF
20. IDFC FIRST Power Card on Rupay - LTF
21. Yes Bank First Exclusive - LTF
22. Yes Bank Rupay Virtual Card - LTF
23. Indusind bank iconia Visa Card - LTF
24. Indusind bank iconia Amex Card - LTF
25. HDFC Tata Neu Infinity - LTF
27. SBI Simply Click - now closed
28. AU Bank Instapay Rupay Card - LTF
28. KOTAK MAHINDRA Royal Signature - LTF
29. Kotak Mahindra League Rupay - LTF
30. Kotak Urban Visa Card - Closed
31. RBL Titanium Mastercard - now closed
32. RBL World Safari Mastercard - LTF

Bro how you managed to get below cards as ltf

IDFC FIRST Power Card on Rupay - LTF
Yes Bank First Exclusive - LTF

 

[krish11]

Bro how you managed to get below cards as ltf

IDFC FIRST Power Card on Rupay - LTF
Yes Bank First Exclusive - LTF

IDFC Power Card is technically not a LTF. It's spend based waiver and it's just 50K. Per month 5K fuel easily gives me the waiver.

I had a savings account with Yes Bank and they offered Yes Prosperity Card LTF initially after which they upgraded to Exclusive LTF. After this upgrade, I closed the Yes Bank Savings Account 🤣🤣

 

[kishorvr]

My first one is Citibank Indian oil in 2009 with 35k limit. I opened it with my Citi Suvidha salary account. I reached upto 88k limit by 2015 end. In Jan 2016, i took up on the loan on credit card offer of 5 lakhs, which completely changed my financial life for the worse until March 2023.