RBL Bank Play Credit Card: Monthly perks include 2 free movie tickets—Worth it? | Mint

Are you a complete movie and entertainment buff? Would you like to enjoy your monthly dose of movies or other forms of entertainment free of cost? You can do that with the RBL Bank Play Credit Card. In this article, we will explore the features and benefits of the RBL Bank Play Credit Card and whether you should take it.

What is the RBL Bank Play Credit Card?

The RBL Bank Play Credit Card is a co-branded credit card offered by RBL Bank in collaboration with BookMyShow. The card provides a complete entertainment package with monthly free access to 2 tickets for movies, streams, events, plays, sports, and other activities booked on the BookMyShow website/App. Thus, the card is an all-rounder in the entertainment category.

Welcome benefits

The RBL Play Credit Card offers a welcome benefit of Rs. 500. The benefit is in the form of a Rs. 500 discount on ticket bookings made on the BookMyShow website/App. The bookings can be for movies, streams, events, plays, sports, or other activities. To get the welcome benefit, the cardholder needs to make a purchase within 30 days of the card issuance. Once the welcome benefit has been activated, it can be availed within three months.

Monthly benefit on BookMyShow

The USP of the card is the Rs. 500 monthly discount on tickets booked on the BookMyShow website/App. On spending Rs. 5,000 every month in a billing cycle using the card, the cardholder will unlock a Rs. 500 monthly discount on various bookings on the BookMyShow website/App. The cardholder can book two free tickets for movies, streams, plays, events, sports, or other activities. The discount on each ticket will be the ticket price or Rs. 250, whichever is lower. The discount will be up to Rs. 500 on the stream category.

The monthly benefit must be used in a single transaction for booking a minimum of two tickets. The maximum discount will be Rs. 500 (Rs. 250 per ticket). On spending Rs. 5,000 in a billing cycle, the offer will be activated on the next day of the start of the next billing cycle. The offer will remain valid till the end of the billing cycle. For example, if the statement date is the 12th, the offer will be valid from the 13th of February to the 12th of March.

On activation, the offer is valid for a month. Thus, you can book two tickets every month and enjoy your monthly dose of entertainment.

When you book movie tickets on BooMyShow with the RBL Play Credit Card, you will get up to Rs. 100 off on any food and beverage item.

The fuel surcharge will be waived on transactions between Rs. 500 and Rs. 4,000. The maximum fuel surcharge waiver will be up to Rs. 100, once a month.

Steps for availing of the BookMyShow offer

You can avail of the BookMyShow discount on movie tickets in the following manner.

1. Select the movie details like the movie name, date, show timings, seats, etc.
2. On the payments page, enter your email ID and mobile number, and click the “Unlock offers or apply promo codes” dropdown list.
3. Click the “Credit/Debit/Net Banking” option. In the dropdown list under all offers, select the “Play Credit Card – Monthly Offer”.
4. Enter your RBL Play Credit Card number to apply for the offer. Click on the “Check” button.
5. The offer will be applied, and you will get an instant discount of up to Rs. 500.

The discount will be applied to the movie ticket price only. The convenience fee charged by BookMyShow will have to be paid.

Please note that several credit cards offered by various banks have the Buy One Get One (BOGO) offer on booking movie tickets on BookMyShow. However, the RBL Bank Play Credit Card offer is not a BOGO offer. The RBL Bank Play Credit Card gives you a total discount of up to Rs. 500 (up to Rs. 250 per ticket) on both tickets in a single transaction. So, if each ticket costs Rs. 200, your transaction value for two tickets will be Rs. 400 + convenience fee. In such a case, you will get a total discount of Rs. 400 on booking two tickets in a single transaction. You will have to pay only the convenience fee. Apart from the RBL Bank Play Credit Card, a few other credit cards also give discounts on booking two movie tickets in a single transaction.

Exclusions

The transactions done in the following categories are not counted towards calculating the Rs. 5,000 spent required to unlock the monthly benefit.

1. Fuel and auto (MCC codes – 9752, 5541, 5983, 5172, 5542, 0032, 2541, 4001)
2. Rent (MCC code – 6513)
3. Wallets (MCC code – 6540)
4. Insurance (MCC codes – 6300, 5960, 6310)
5. Utility bill payments (MCC code – 4900)
6. Government services (MCC codes – 9400, 1490, 2490, 2995, 7800, 9406, 9222, 9405, 9399, 9211, 9402, 9401, 9311, 9223)
7. Quasi cash (MCC codes – 6050, 6051, 4829)
8. Railways (MCC codes – 0066, 4011, 4112)
9. Education (MCC codes – 8220, 8244, 8249, 8211, 8241, 8299)
10. Contracted services (MCC codes – 1711, 1740, 0763, 1520, 0742, 1761, 1799, 1750, 1731, 1771, 0780)
11. Cash (MCC codes – 6011, 6010)
12. Miscellaneous (MCC code – 5960)
13. Bills2Pay
14. EMI transactions

Fees

The RBL Bank Play Credit Card has an annual fee of Rs. 500 + GST. The annual fee is waived on spending Rs. 1.5 lakhs in the previous year. The spends made on excluded categories are not counted towards calculating the Rs. 1.5 lakh spends required for annual fee waiver.

Things to watch out for

If you want to book your entertainment tickets from any other platform apart from BookMyShow, the monthly benefit of the RBL Bank Play Credit Card cannot be used. So, the flip side of this card is it ties you down to the BookMyShow platform. The card doesn’t give you other benefits like reward points, lounge access, etc., that many other cards give you. The card has a long list of exclusions that are not counted towards calculating spends for monthly benefits and annual fee waiver.

Should you go for this card?

For a monthly spend of Rs. 5,000, you can enjoy entertainment benefits of Rs. 500 on the RBL Bank Play Credit Card, translating into a good reward rate of 10%. RBL Bank regularly comes out with 10% instant discount offers on various online/offline merchants for all or specified categories. 

You can club the instant discount benefit with the monthly benefit and increase your overall benefits on the card. All of us enjoy going out for our regular dose of entertainment. If BookMyShow is your go to platform for booking tickets for your entertainment, you may consider going for the RBL Bank Play Credit Card.

Gopal Gidwani is a freelance personal finance content writer with 15+ years of experience. He can be reached at LinkedIn.