About the SBI IRCTC Platinum card

[GalacticTreasurer]

I feel this is one of the most underrated cards in the market. I will try to explain the value prop of this card in the post.

The good:
1. This is the cheapest SBI card with an AF of Rs. 300
2. The card comes as FYF if you apply via a referral along with a Amazon voucher of Rs. 500 (so effectively free for 2 years)
3. The card is applicable on all SBI offers, I've used it to save around 7k so far on Amazon SBI offers
4. Huge one for me personally - 10% value back on AC train bookings. I travel weekly and this is a god send.
4. Decent railways lounge access - 4 times a year.

The bad:
1. Redemption process: First you have to have a IRCTC loyalty account created for you by SBI. This took 4 days for me after the card was delivered, and I followed up with them each day. This should have been created as soon as the card details are generated. Once the IRCTC loyalty account is created, you have to go ahead and link your account on the website. After that, every time you click book now, you will be shown an intermittent loyalty screen like this



For a few trains, you only get Accrual option and for most others you also get a 'Redemption' option. Accrual is straightforward, you go ahead with your normal booking flow and pay with the card, HDFC gateway is recommended for this as its the most consistent gateway where 1% transaction charges are reversed. Another thing to note here is that you cannot change your name on the ticket - it will be the one on your card and is not editable during booking. Presumably this is done to prevent misuse by travel agents. During redemption - you click redemption and simply pay with your points (you have to have a transaction password created for this prior to redeeming). Another note is that you have to have full value of points to redeem i.e. if you're booking a ticket for Rs. 500, you need to have 500 points, points + pay is not an option.
As you can probably see, the redemption process is less than ideal and cumbersome at best. However, I don't have a suggestion here as to how they can improve this process while also keeping travel agencies from gaming the system.

The Ugly: none

For anyone who is looking to get an SBI Card for the sake of it, or for the offers, just get this one instead of SimpliClick or SimpliSave. Its effectively 2 years free and you stand a good chance of converting this to LTF down the line, since its not an in demand card. The card is also a no brainier for regular (at least 2 times a month) train travelers who prefer traveling in AC coaches.

Happy to answer if anyone has any doubts on this card!

 

[Sourabh_13]

A family member has had this card (the VISA Platinum variant) since 2016 with me as an add-on and it has been a love-hate relationship with this card -

Love -
1. Cheapest SBI card that works on all online offers. SimplyCLICK and SimplySAVE are Rs 500 a year.
2. Reversal of 1% Payment Gateway charges on IRCTC
3. 0.8% reward rate is not premium but better than a lot of competitors

Hate -
1. The 10% cashback that you mentioned is ONLY applicable if the primary cardholder is the one travelling. For family and friends, you get the standard 0.8% reward rate. My family member ironically never travels by train or probably once in 3 years whereas the parents travel multiple times a year. In hindsight, it would have been better to take it in the parents' name.
2. The 10% cashback is only for off-peak season / 6 months of the year. The remaining time it is 5%.
3. The redemption has to cover the entire ticket fare. That is, for a Rs 1k ticket you cannot redeem 500 pts and pay remaining 500 by another method. You need to have 1000 pts or, worse, buy them at 1 pt = Rs 1.5 + GST.
4. There is no spend-based waiver either on this card unlike SimplyCLICK and SimplySAVE that have 1L as the spend criteria.
5. When my card was renewed after 5 yrs, the points stopped getting credited. I noticed that only after a couple of years. I have had to raise 3 tickets to SBI who told me last month that this month' statement should fix the issue. Fingers crossed. They also sent me to IRCTC once who asked me to go back to SBI. Another TF member has had the same issue with no resolution.

The number of times we have wanted to cancel this card or replace it with SimplyCLICK has been way too much. Then I read horror stories of people redeeming SimplyCLICK RPs and then SBI charging their CC statements wrongly for it! That stops me from cancelling this card because so far I have never had SBI charging me wrongly.

A few years after getting this card, I discovered HDFC SmartBuy and its 3X RPs / 5% CB on HDFC CCs/DCs and have never used my SBI IRCTC card expect for Tatkal / 8 am bookings when HDFC SmartBuy won't work.

If you are hell-bent on getting an IRCTC co-branded card then the HDFC IRCTC RuPay card is infinitely better on paper since it rewards nearly 10% via the HDFC SmartBuy portal not only for the primary cardholder but anyone. Disclaimer - I have not personally used it.

The HDFC card looks better only from far. Here are some more important things about this card.
1. Out of the effective 10% value back, 5% is credited to the statement (which is amazing) and the remaining 5% is credited as reward points.
2. The reward points earned can only be redeemed towards 70% of the total purchase value. The remaining 30% has to be paid from the card.
3. Each redemption, irrespective of the number of reward points, costs ₹99 + taxes.

I am not saying that the HDFC IRCTC CC is not better than SBI IRCTC CC. The question of which card is better depends heavily on the spending pattern of a user.

 

[dexter_greycells]

3. Each redemption, irrespective of the number of reward points, costs ₹99 + taxes.

+1 for that nugget of information. Despite that I am comfortable in stating that the HDFC IRCTC card is better. If you have a DCB or Infinia, then don't bother with either of the cards. The 3X RPs give a 10% value back.

 

[Zulu]

I feel this is one of the most underrated cards in the market. I will try to explain the value prop of this card in the post.

The good:
1. This is the cheapest SBI card with an AF of Rs. 300
2. The card comes as FYF if you apply via a referral along with a Amazon voucher of Rs. 500 (so effectively free for 2 years)
3. The card is applicable on all SBI offers, I've used it to save around 7k so far on Amazon SBI offers
4. Huge one for me personally - 10% value back on AC train bookings. I travel weekly and this is a god send.
4. Decent railways lounge access - 4 times a year.

The bad:
1. Redemption process: First you have to have a IRCTC loyalty account created for you by SBI. This took 4 days for me after the card was delivered, and I followed up with them each day. This should have been created as soon as the card details are generated. Once the IRCTC loyalty account is created, you have to go ahead and link your account on the website. After that, every time you click book now, you will be shown an intermittent loyalty screen like this



For a few trains, you only get Accrual option and for most others you also get a 'Redemption' option. Accrual is straightforward, you go ahead with your normal booking flow and pay with the card, HDFC gateway is recommended for this as its the most consistent gateway where 1% transaction charges are reversed. Another thing to note here is that you cannot change your name on the ticket - it will be the one on your card and is not editable during booking. Presumably this is done to prevent misuse by travel agents. During redemption - you click redemption and simply pay with your points (you have to have a transaction password created for this prior to redeeming). Another note is that you have to have full value of points to redeem i.e. if you're booking a ticket for Rs. 500, you need to have 500 points, points + pay is not an option.
As you can probably see, the redemption process is less than ideal and cumbersome at best. However, I don't have a suggestion here as to how they can improve this process while also keeping travel agencies from gaming the system.

The Ugly: none

For anyone who is looking to get an SBI Card for the sake of it, or for the offers, just get this one instead of SimpliClick or SimpliSave. Its effectively 2 years free and you stand a good chance of converting this to LTF down the line, since its not an in demand card. The card is also a no brainier for regular (at least 2 times a month) train travelers who prefer traveling in AC coaches.

Happy to answer if anyone has any doubts on this card!

If you have referral link please share with me. I want to apply.

 

[MrJJ]

If you have referral link please share with me. I want to apply.

You can apply via this link

 

[Sahil_07]

A family member has had this card (the VISA Platinum variant) since 2016 with me as an add-on and it has been a love-hate relationship with this card -

Love -
1. Cheapest SBI card that works on all online offers. SimplyCLICK and SimplySAVE are Rs 500 a year.
2. Reversal of 1% Payment Gateway charges on IRCTC
3. 0.8% reward rate is not premium but better than a lot of competitors

Hate -
1. The 10% cashback that you mentioned is ONLY applicable if the primary cardholder is the one travelling. For family and friends, you get the standard 0.8% reward rate. My family member ironically never travels by train or probably once in 3 years whereas the parents travel multiple times a year. In hindsight, it would have been better to take it in the parents' name.
2. The 10% cashback is only for off-peak season / 6 months of the year. The remaining time it is 5%.
3. The redemption has to cover the entire ticket fare. That is, for a Rs 1k ticket you cannot redeem 500 pts and pay remaining 500 by another method. You need to have 1000 pts or, worse, buy them at 1 pt = Rs 1.5 + GST.
4. There is no spend-based waiver either on this card unlike SimplyCLICK and SimplySAVE that have 1L as the spend criteria.
5. When my card was renewed after 5 yrs, the points stopped getting credited. I noticed that only after a couple of years. I have had to raise 3 tickets to SBI who told me last month that this month' statement should fix the issue. Fingers crossed. They also sent me to IRCTC once who asked me to go back to SBI. Another TF member has had the same issue with no resolution.

The number of times we have wanted to cancel this card or replace it with SimplyCLICK has been way too much. Then I read horror stories of people redeeming SimplyCLICK RPs and then SBI charging their CC statements wrongly for it! That stops me from cancelling this card because so far I have never had SBI charging me wrongly.

A few years after getting this card, I discovered HDFC SmartBuy and its 3X RPs / 5% CB on HDFC CCs/DCs and have never used my SBI IRCTC card expect for Tatkal / 8 am bookings when HDFC SmartBuy won't work.

If you are hell-bent on getting an IRCTC co-branded card then the HDFC IRCTC RuPay card is infinitely better on paper since it rewards nearly 10% via the HDFC SmartBuy portal not only for the primary cardholder but anyone. Disclaimer - I have not personally used it.

yeah I am using hdfc irctc card & I can confirm you are right. It is the most underrated card.Apart from all the details you shared,there is 500 amazon/flipkart voucher on 30k spend in a quarter + 8 railway lounge.. No restriction of ac or 1st class booking. Only corn is it charges 99+taxes at the time of redemption of points. So you have to collect and make it little larger then use it. Even if anybody does not use it for ticket booking,still 500*4 + 8 railway lounge + no renewal fee(1.5 lakh spend required), a very decent card?

 

[Zulu]

yeah I am using hdfc irctc card & I can confirm you are right. It is the most underrated card.Apart from all the details you shared,there is 500 amazon/flipkart voucher on 30k spend in a quarter + 8 railway lounge.. No restriction of ac or 1st class booking. Only corn is it charges 99+taxes at the time of redemption of points. So you have to collect and make it little larger then use it. Even if anybody does not use it for ticket booking,still 500*4 + 8 railway lounge + no renewal fee(1.5 lakh spend required), a very decent card?

Please let me know how did you get the card? I am already having DCB BUT want second card HDFC IRCTC.

 

[Zulu]

You can apply via this link

Still is it FYF through referral program? any information

 

[Sahil_07]

Please let me know how did you get the card? I am already having DCB BUT want second card HDFC IRCTC.

apply from irctc website

 

[shashank08]

You can apply via this link

At which page it will show card is fyf?

 

[Sourabh_13]

As far as I know, the card isn't being given as FYF anymore.