ICICI Bank reduces credit card benefits starting November 15. Details here | Mint

Close on the heels of HDFC Bank upgrading the eligibility criteria for its premium credit cards and SBI increasing interest rates for its credit cards, ICICI Bank has reduced the benefits for customers across credit cards. There will be no reward points on government-related spending on ICICI credit cards.

The bank has also capped reward points for spending on grocery, utility payments and insurance purchases. The changes will come into effect from November 15. Rent payments, government-related spending and education payments have been excluded from spend thresholds for annual fee reversal and milestone benefits for all cards.

“The spend threshold for annual fee reversal and milestone benefits will exclude rent, government, and education payments made via credit card,” ICICI Bank said in a communication to its customers. While the cap for utility and insurance spending has been fixed at ₹80000 in a billing cycle for higher variant cards, it has been set at ₹40000 for lower variants. For grocery, the limits have been fixed at ₹40000 and ₹20000 respectively for higher and lower variant cards.

Changes to lounge access and transaction fees

ICICI Bank has discontinued spa access for high-end cards and has made spending of ₹75000 every quarter mandatory for lounge access at domestic airports. “You can enjoy complimentary airport lounge access by spending ₹75000 in the preceding calendar quarter,” the bank said.

The bank would charge a 1% fee on utility transactions above ₹50000, which is applicable for all cards. It has also imposed a 1% charge on fuel transactions above ₹10000 on all cards. ICICI Bank has also imposed a 1% fee on education payments done on third-party apps. “A fee of 1% of the transaction amount will be charged for education payments made through third-party apps,” the bank said.

Revised annual fee structure

The bank has however reduced the spend threshold for annual fee from ₹15 lakh to ₹10 lakh for ‘Emeralde’ and ‘Emeralde Private’ credit cards. Supplementary cardholders will now have to pay an annual fee of ₹199, which is applicable on all cards. “Supplementary cardholders will enjoy enhanced benefits with an annual fee of ₹199, which will be levied in the card anniversary month statement,” ICICI Bank said.

The move comes close on the heels of HDFC Bank upgrading the eligibility criteria for its super premium credit cards such as ‘Infinia’ and ‘Diners Club Black’. HDFC had earlier announced that it is capping reward points for several popular categories across cards. It capped reward points on utility spends and telecom and cable transactions to 2000 per month across all credit cards. HDFC’s cap on reward points came into effect from September 1.

Banks offer cashbacks, reward points, gift vouchers and air miles for credit card spending. Card issuers offer rewards for regular spending categories such as utility bill payments, grocery purchases, entertainment and dining.

But there have been several instances of customers going overboard with spending in these categories and payments being bunched together just to earn reward points. Personal credit cards were being used to pay utility bill payments running into lakhs of rupees. Following this, banks have started imposing curbs on payments made using personal credit cards and also capped reward points on such transactions.

Allirajan M is a journalist with over two decades of experience. He has worked with several leading media organisations in the country and has been writing on mutual funds for nearly 16 years.