Many of my friends & relatives hold an SBI credit card and its usually the SBI IRCTC Platinum Credit Card because most of them travel at least once a month via train between their native and work location. As it helps to save upto 10% on IRCTC spends, its definitely a worthy card to hold. Let’s see in detail below:
Joining Fees
Joining/Renewal Fee: Rs.500+GST
Welcome Benefit: 350 points
The welcome benefit kind of sets off the fee partially, which makes Sense for a low fee card with a very good return on spend on IRCTC train bookings.
Rewards
IRCTC Train Bookings – Peak Season: 10% as points (AC1, AC2. AC3 and AC CC)
IRCTC Train Bookings – OFF Season: 4% as points (AC1, AC2. AC3 and AC CC)
All other spends: 0.8% as points (1 Reward point for every Rs. 125)
1 Reward point = Rs.1
Note: To be eligible for the rewards, booked ticket must have one Traveller same as the name on the card
Save 1.8% transaction charges on railway ticket bookings
1% fuel surcharge waiver, on txns of Rs. 500 – Rs. 3,000, exclusive of GST and other charges (maximum surcharge waiver of Rs. 100 per statement cycle)
Bottomline
Rating: 3.8/5 [yasr_overall_rating]
Its a very basic one and was indeed an amazing card until the launch of the new, improved & premium version of this card which is SBI IRCTC Premier Credit Card. So it now makes no sense to hold on to the platinum card unless your spends are low (or) your train travel is seasonal and falls under the period where this card gives you 10% returns.
Remember, if you spend less than 20K on train tickets a year, I wouldn’t even suggest you to go for either of the IRCTC cards, you may rather go for the newly launched entry-level cards like SBI Ola card or Axis Flipkart Card or ICICI Amazon Card which could get you rewards on all type of spends.
Do you have IRCTC Platinum credit card? Feel free to share your experiences in the comments below
SBI SimplyClick Credit Card is one of the very few credit cards in India that has pretty good reward rate on regular spends for beginners.
While it used to be one of the most sought after entry-level credit card in the past because of the 10X rewards, it’s still a good pick in it’s current form.
Overview
Type
Cashback Credit Card
Reward Rate
0.20% – 2%
Annual Fee
499 INR+GST
Best for
Online spends upto 2 Lakhs a year
USP
Milestone benefits
SBI SimplyClick Credit Card has been the only best entry-level credit card until the launch of SBI Cashback Credit Card.
While SBI Cashback Credit Card is primarily meant for online spends with the possibility of getting devalued anytime, SBI SimplyClick Credit Card is evergreen and could get you a decent reward rate of over 2% on annual spends of 2 Lakhs, thanks to the milestone benefit, which we’ll see shortly.
Fees & Charges
Joining Fee
499 INR+GST
Welcome Benefit
500 INR Amazon eVoucher
Renewal Fee
499 INR+GST
Renewal Benefit
–
Renewal Fee waiver
Spend 1 Lakh
While Amazon voucher takes care of the fee for 1st Year, annual spend of just 1 Lakh is sufficient for the renewal fee to be waived off, which is easy for most cardholders in the segment.
Design
SBI SimplyClick Credit card is probably one of the few entry-level cards that also looks good in terms of design.
Earlier it used to be in matt finish and now it’s being issued with a shiny front face that looks more appealing.
Rewards
SPEND TYPE
CASHBACK %
Online Spends
~1%
Offline Spends
~0.20%
Select merchants (10X)
~2%
Points Validity: 2 Years
No points on discounted products on Flipkart/Amazon
Note that the point value on SBI SimplyClick Credit Card has dropped from 25ps to 20ps recently.
But the good thing is that we can redeem points for Amazon Pay eVouchers which is almost cash equivalent.
The SBI SimplyClick Credit Card was quite popular in the past because of it’s 10X rewards especially on Amazon for obvious reasons but that it no longer available.
While the current partners are decent, the drop in point value further makes it less attractive than it used to be.
Milestone
SPEND REQUIREMENT
MILESTONE BENEFIT
VOUCHER TYPE
1 Lakh
2,000 INR
Cleartrip/Yatra
2 Lakh
2,000 INR
Cleartrip/Yatra
Yatra Voucher: Can be redeemed for flights/hotels
Cleartrip Voucher: Can be redeemed only for flights
Voucher Validity: 4 months
Voucher is usually triggered in ~2 weeks of reaching the milestone.
This is a neat and simple benefit which is useful for travellers. While they used to have only Cleartrip Voucher in the past, it seems they’re now offering Yatra Vouchers.
So by reaching the milestone through typical online spends, one could easily get a sweet reward rate of 3% which is great for this segment.
My Experience
I was using SBI SimplyClick Credit Card in the past, before moving to SBI Prime for few years and then to Aurum.
Back in time I got the Cleartrip vouchers which I used for a stay in Malaysia. The redemption was quick and simple.
And I recently downgraded my Aurum to Simplyclick once again to primarily retain the credit limit on the card.
And for the milestone spends, this time I got the Yatra Vouchers. Hope the redemption is as simple as it used to be on Cleartrip.
While I haven’t used the Yatra voucher, from t&c it appears to be a straightforward process to redeem them as well.
How to Apply?
SBI SimplyClick Credit Card can be applied online which uses the latest sprint application system for quicker processing.
If you’re new to the sprint application process, this article may help: SBICard Sprint Credit Card Application Process.
Bottomline
Cardexpert Rating: 4/5
The SBI SimplyClick Credit Card is great for beginners who can spend 1L (or) 2L a year, at offline stores or online.
If your annual spends are over 2 Lakhs and if they’re primarily online then you should instead go for the SBI Cashback Credit Card that offers lucrative 5% Cashback on online spends.
While the Cashback Card is the hot pick for beginners since 2022, it may anytime go for the next round of devaluation.
Nevertheless, SBI SimplyClick Credit Card also serves as a solution to hold the credit limit until the next premium credit card arrives.
Do you hold SBI SimplyClick Credit Card? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments below.
