THESE credit cards help maximize savings on grocery shopping in 2025 | Mint

Groceries and daily use household goods are something that we need to buy every month. However, the prices of many food items have been running high for the last few months, disturbing the household budget of many families. Food inflation has ranged between 9 to 11% in the last three months. What if you could soften the impact of food inflation to some extent with discounts, cashbacks, and other benefits on credit cards? 

In this article, we will discuss how some credit cards can help you to maximise savings on grocery shopping.

Saving money on grocery purchases from Amazon

Amazon offers instant discounts on various credit cards for grocery purchases from Amazon Fresh from time to time. Usually, in the 1st week of the month, there is a 10% instant discount on ICICI Bank credit cards. 

For example, from 1st to 4th January 2025, ICICI Bank offered a 10% instant discount on debit and credit cards on Amazon Fresh grocery purchases. The minimum order value was Rs. 2,500, and the maximum discount was Rs. 300.

Some other bank credit cards that offer instant discounts on Amazon Fresh grocery purchases include Axis Bank and Bank of Baroda. 

For example, in December 2024, Axis Bank credit cards offered a 10% instant discount on Amazon Fresh grocery purchases. The minimum order value was Rs. 2,500, and the maximum discount was Rs. 300. The offer was valid on all Wednesdays except for the first Wednesday of the month.

Similarly, in December 2024, Bank of Baroda credit cards offered a 10% instant discount on Amazon Fresh grocery purchases. The minimum order value was Rs. 1,500, and the maximum discount was Rs. 300. The offer was valid on all Fridays except for the first Friday of the month.

Besides instant discounts, credit cardholders can get additional benefits from Amazon Fresh grocery purchases. These include reward points, contributing towards achieving milestone spends, spend-based offers, unlocking spend-based airport lounge access, annual fee waiver spends, etc.

While instant discounts on credit cards help you save some money on grocery purchases, you can save additional money through Amazon Pay cashback from Amazon. From time to time, Amazon provides cashback in the form of Amazon Pay on Amazon Fresh grocery purchases. 

For example, from 4th to 7th January 2025, Amazon ran various Amazon Pay cashback offers on Amazon Fresh grocery purchases. Some of these offers include the following.

For example, one of the offers included a flat Rs. 400 Amazon Pay cashback on a minimum order of Rs. 3,999 on Amazon Fresh grocery purchases. It translates into a 10% cashback.

To summarise, when you purchase groceries from Amazon Fresh, you can get a combination of the following benefits.

1. Discounts on product MRP from merchant +
2. Instant discounts on credit cards +
3. Amazon Pay cashback from Amazon +
4. Reward points on credit cards +
5. Other benefits on credit cards like contributing towards achieving milestone spends, spend-based offers, unlocking spend-based airport lounge access, annual fee waiver spends, etc.

Saving money on groceries through the purchase of gift cards with credit cards

In the earlier section, we saw how we can save money on Amazon grocery purchases through a combination of instant discounts on credit cards and other benefits. But what if someone wants to buy groceries offline from, say Reliance Smart or Spencer’s? In that case, you can save money in the form of reward points through the purchase of gift cards of these brands with credit cards.

For example, HDFC Bank offers gift cards of various brands through its SmartBuy platform. In the grocery category, you can purchase gift cards from Amazon Pay, Amazon Shopping Voucher, Bigbasket, Blinkit, , Reliance Jio Mart, Reliance Smart, Spencer’s Retail, V Mart, etc. Depending on the credit card variant held, HDFC Bank credit cardholders get either a 5% cashback or up to 5X reward points for purchasing gift vouchers of various grocery brands. 

For example, the HDFC Bank Infinia Credit Card offers 5X reward points, and the Diners Club Black Credit Card offers 3X reward points on purchasing gift vouchers from the SmartBuy platform.

Similarly, American Express credit cardholders can earn up to 10X accelerated reward points for the purchase of gift vouchers of various grocery brands from its Reward Multiplier platform. The reward rate varies as per the credit card variant as follows.

1. 10X reward points on Centurion Card
2. 5X reward points on Platinum and Gold cards
3. 3X reward points on Platinum Reserve and Platinum Travel cards
4. 2X reward points on Membership Rewards and SmartEarn cards

Please note that there is a cap on the amount of gift vouchers of specific brands (for example, Amazon) you can purchase in a month. There is a cap on the number of reward points you can earn through the platforms in a month.

Saving money on grocery purchases through Bigbasket

Bigbasket is one of India’s leading online platforms for grocery and daily use household products. It runs discount offers with credit and debit cards from various banks across the month. Depending on the credit card held, the user can get a 10 to 20% instant discount. Some offers applicable in January 2025 include the following.

(Source: Bigbasket website)

Along with credit card instant discounts, you can club the benefits of the Tata Neu platform. Bigbasket grocery orders placed through the Tata Neu App get 5% Neu Coins. One of the features of the Tata Neu Infinity HDFC Bank Credit Card is up to 5% Neu Coins on various Tata brands, including Bigbasket. 

Also, Tata Neu Infinity HDFC Bank Credit Card provides a 10% instant discount on Bigbasket from time to time. During such instant discount offers, you can place the Bigbasket grocery order through the Tata Neu platform and maximise your benefits as follows:

1. Instant discount on product MRP from Bigbasket +
2. 10% instant discount on Tata Neu Infinity HDFC Bank Credit Card +
3. 5% Neu Coins on Tata Neu Infinity HDFC Bank Credit Card +
4. 5% Neu Coins from Tata Neu App

You can club the credit card instant discount offers from other banks also, as explained above. In such cases, you will not get the 5% Neu Coins from Tata Neu Infinity HDFC Bank Credit Card when you use other bank credit cards.

Big savings on grocery purchases with credit cards

We have discussed the various ways you can combine credit card benefits with other benefits on grocery purchases and maximise your savings. While food inflation is running high, you have no control over it. However, you can cushion the inflation impact with savings from credit cards. Within the credit cards category, some give you benefits with instant discounts while some give you higher benefits through reward points. 

Depending on whether your preference is for instant discounts or reward points, you can choose the credit card accordingly and maximise your benefits on grocery purchases.

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