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. 😄

 

[BK7]

I got my first card with Kotak, PVR edition with 15k limit in 2014

 

[HumorSimpson]

Yes Bank First Exclusive - LTF

What's the reward rate ?

 

[Cc_creditguy]

Mine is Amazon pay ICICI card got my job at 2021 waiting for a month to get a payslip and then I applied for it , but at that time I didn't know that salary slip is not necessary 🥲🥲. ,even though it's a good card

 

[infinia_finally]

IIRC, My first was HDFC platinum (or premium, I don't even remember) in 2010 which I got with salary account.

 

[quino]

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.

could you elaborate?

 

[hedgehog2122]

HDFC easyshop, beige coloured card in 2012, have been upgraded 4 times since to RG.

 

[rahulsethi]

My first credit card was in 2013, Citi Rewards applied along with my salary account in my first job. 🙃 Now I hold 44 active credit cards.

 

[minhazuddin]

Got a random call claiming to be from IDFC First bank employee, offered LTF card and narrated unlimited features of the cards which I was not able to grasp any of it as I was new to Credit Card. Proceeded ahead with documentation and got multiple calls from same employee who trained me to say the bank that I had physically provided documents. Did same as instructed. Got the IDFC Millennia card. My first credit card journey thus begun. I'm not going to close that classic guy even if I don't use it

 

[monologuer]

Mine was an HDFC moneyback+ that they offered ltf without any documentation. That was 3 years ago and now I have 10 cards now idk why

 

[AnungUnRama]

Mine was an HDFC moneyback+ that they offered ltf without any documentation. That was 3 years ago and now I have 10 cards now idk why

Yep, getting that 1st cc is always special. And Once the CIBIL gets generated getting other CCs becomes comparatively easier.

 

[panchabhut]

It was in 2001.
One AMEX agent came to our office in CP New Delhi to meet one of my senior. My senior asked whether I can get a card. I had just started a year back as a fresher. Had absolutely no idea about use of credit cards. Got a Green card (upgraded to Gold a few years later).
Later just showing that card I got 3 more Visa & Master cards

 

[Rohith-2009]

I got hdfc moneyback plus credit card in 2022. That's my first credit card. I used it to learn and upgraded it to hdfc millenia before a few months. Now I have 9 cc

 

[sums]

My first card is Flipkart axis approved based on the purchase history of flipkart back in college days.

 

[Paradjanov]

Jan 2008. HDFC Silver Card it was, with a CL of ₹ 15,000. LTF. I didn’t even have a Savings A/c with HDFC then; and the bank (Axis) with which I actually had both a Savings and a Current account—and a Loan A/c—declined to give me a CC, even after my repeated requests.

So, that was my first CC: HDFC Silver. I “grew” upwards with it till Regalia level, which I obtained in 2016. But then…nothing kept happening any further. I was offered upgrades which only HDFC would have the gall to call an “upgrade”, each of which I deemed worthless, and thus declined. My CL kept increasing bit by bit…and hit ₹ 15 Lakhs in 2021, where it got stuck (for whatever reason). Declined a FYF Infinia and a FYF DCB as well (both in 2021, some months apart). Anyone here may actually feel that I’ve been stupid to have declined a FYF Infinia…and I wouldn’t argue the point. Perhaps I had been. Perhaps I ought to have accepted the offer. Perhaps I did make a mistake there. Agreed.

Anyways, less than a week back, I did accept the Infinia, and it arrived fast enough. My Regalia was MC, so the default upgrade was MC too; but I requested for a Visa Infinia. Meanwhile, HDFC had dispatched the MC Infinia even before “seeing” my request, so they are now re-sending the Visa variant.

Sixteen years with HDFC CC(s), which is not just my first, but even my primary card, and has always been so. At times I love it, at times I fume at it, but it’s a fact that I’ve never parted ways with it. Legend has it, that these days, even marriages don’t last as long.

 

[raghu.rokda]

Mine was an HDFC moneyback+ that they offered ltf without any documentation. That was 3 years ago and now I have 10 cards now idk why

Similarly i have a gf 3 years ago and now i have 3 gf now idk why

 

[credit geek]

Once upon a time, when you had to fill printed form, take xerox copy of salary slip and people had not heard much about credit score, I got a credit card through an agent who came to our office. StanChart and Citi was two players who used typically issue credit card. I got a stanChart card!! Things got dramatically changed in next 3 years as ICICI and HDFC start pushing
credit cards

 

[Riya]

My first card was ICICI HPCL coral card in 2020...
It was a pre-approved offer... The mails were stuffing my inbox for almost 6 years...
So just to give it a try, I took the bait and got the card with 30k limit...
Limit was pretty low as per my expectations but they were generous with LEs, now its 5L in less than 4 yrs... And it was start of my CC journey 😀

 

[raghu.rokda]

My first card was ICICI HPCL coral card in 2020...
It was a pre-approved offer... The mails were stuffing my inbox for almost 6 years...
So just to give it a try, I took the bait and got the card with 30k limit...
Limit was pretty low as per my expectations but they were generous with LEs, now its 5L in less than 4 yrs... And it was start of my CC journey 😀

Very good…..riyan parag 🙂‍↔️

 

[Riya]

Very good…..riyan parag 🙂‍↔️

Nhi nhi... Riya bhai sounded better 😁 😁

 

[deep@vie]

Pre-approved from hdfc in Aug,2016 with 40 or 50k limit.