Estimate Savings: SBI IRCTC vs HDFC IRCTC Credit Card

[Sourabh_13]

Estimate savings from the SBI IRCTC Credit Card and the HDFC IRCTC Credit Card to decide which suits you the best.

Note: I have considered a single redemption at the end of the second year. A transaction charge waiver is not considered as it applies to both cards.

SBI IRCTC:

1. Set the Variables.
   • irctc_on_spends: AC train ticket bookings through IRCTC for the cardholder during the peak season
   • irctc_off_spends: AC train ticked bookings through IRCTC for the cardholder during the off season
   • non_irctc_spends: All non-IRCTC spends + IRCTC non-AC spends for any traveller + IRCTC AC spends for travellers except the cardholder
   • annual_fee: 356
   • num_years: 2
2. Compute total reward points you would earn.
   • total_reward_points = irctc_on_spends * 0.04 * num_years + irctc_off_spends * 0.1 * num_years + non_irctc_spends * 0.8 * num_yearrs
3. Compute your total savings by using the following formula:
   • sbi_irctc_savings = total_reward_points - annual_fee

HDFC IRCTC:

1. Set the Variables.
   • irctc_spends: Total spends on IRCTC for any traveller for any class of train tickets
   • non_irctc_spends: All other spends
   • num_qmilestones: Number of quarters when total spends crossed Rs. 30000
   • y_milestone: 0 if total spends in year < 15000. 1 otherwise.
   • annual_fee: 590
   • num_years: 2
2. Compute total reward points you would accumulate.
   • total_reward_points = irctc_spends * 0.1 * num_years + non_irctc_spends * 0.01 * num_years + 500 * num_qmilestones
3. Compute the redemption charges.
   • redeemption_charges = (total_reward_points - 500 * num_qmilestones) * 0.7 - 118
4. Compute total savings.
   • hdfc_ircrc_savings = total_reward_points - redeemption_charges - y_milestone * annual_fee

Similarities and Differences:

• SBI IRCTC is a pre-nonsense credit card while HDFC IRCTC is a post-nonsense credit card.
• Both the cards are RuPay Platinum credit cards.
• Joining Fee
  • SBI IRCTC: Rs. 300 + taxes
  • HDFC IRCTC: Rs. 500 + taxes
  • For both the cards, it is easy to get welcome benefits worth their joining fee (excluding taxes)
• Annual Fee
  • SBI IRCTC: Rs. 300 + taxes
    • Fee Waiver Criteria: No
  • HDFC IRCTC: Rs. 500 + taxes
    • Fee Waiver Criteria: Total spends worth Rs. 1,50,000 in a year
• Milestone Benefits
  • SBI IRCTC: No
  • HDFC IRCTC: A gift voucher worth Rs. 500 (of Amazon/Flipkart/Others) on reaching spends of Rs. 30000 in a quarter.
• Pre-nonsense SBI IRCTC Credit Card
  • Rewards are given only for the tickets booked through the IRCTC website.
  • Rewards can be accrued/redeemed only if AC class tickets are booked.
  • Rewards can be accrued only when the cardholder is travelling. No rewards can be accured if the cardholder is not travelling.
    
    • Similarly, the rewrds can be redeemed only if the cardholder is travelling.
  • Reward Rates
    • IRCTC Ticket bookings during peak season: 4% of the fair of the cardholder
    • IRCTC Ticker bookings during off season: 10% of the fair of the cardholder
    • All other spends: 0.8%
      
      • These spends include all non-IRCTC spends and all IRCTC spends for other people than the cardholder.
  • The rewards are credited to SBI IRCTC loyalty account at the end of the monthly statement.
  • There are no restrictions or redemption charges for redeeming the reward points.
  • The validity of reward points is 2 years.
• Post-nonsense HDFC IRCTC Credit Card
  • Rewards can be accrued by booking train tickets through the IRCTC website or through the SmartBuy portal.
  • Rewards can be accrued by booking a train ticket of any class for any passangers.
    
    • The restriction that the cardholder must be travelling is not here. Similarly, there is no restriction on the class of travel.
  • Reward Rates
    • Train tickets booked through IRCTC: 5%
    • Train tickets booked through SmartBuy: 10% (5% rewards + 5% cashback)
    • All other spends: 1%
      
      • Unlike SBI IRCTC, the minimum transaction amount must be very low. I can see 1% rewards credited for for Rs 10 transactions as well.
  • The rewards can be redeemed for train ticket bookings through the SmartBuy portal.
  • The rewards can be used only to pay maximum of 70% of the ticket fair.
  • Each redemption costs flat Rs. 99 + taxes

Help me Choose!

1. Do you mostly travel (alone or with others) in non-AC coaches? HDFC IRCTC
2. Do you mostly travel alone in AC coaches? SBI IRCTC
3. Do you mostly travel with others in AC coaches? HDFC IRCTC
4. Do you travel a lot by train and also going to use this RuPay card for other spends (enough to reach Rs. 30K in some of the quarters) like for UPI transactions? HDFC IRCTC

 

[Vasuki]

Good information . keep it up
Edit with gaps in between for better clarify.
Use bold to highlight

 

[techt]

Which programing language is that ?

 

[Sourabh_13]

IRCTC on Rails

 

[Farhad sekh]

It is hard to understand, please use as simple language

 

[techt]

It is hard to understand, please use as simple language

OP posted code. don't know which prog. language.

 

[Sourabh_13]

OP posted code. don't know which prog. language.

It is a pseudo-code, bro. It is programming-language-independent.

 

[techt]

It is a pseudo-code, bro. It is programming-language-independent.

The lines set variables and colons : made me to think its some programming language.
A simple '=' would have made it clear.

 

[Walter White]

Estimate savings from the SBI IRCTC Credit Card and the HDFC IRCTC Credit Card to decide which suits you the best.

Note: I have considered a single redemption at the end of the second year. A transaction charge waiver is not considered as it applies to both cards.

SBI IRCTC:

1. Set the Variables.
   • irctc_on_spends: AC train ticket bookings through IRCTC for the cardholder during the peak season
   • irctc_off_spends: AC train ticked bookings through IRCTC for the cardholder during the off season
   • non_irctc_spends: All non-IRCTC spends + IRCTC non-AC spends for any traveller + IRCTC AC spends for travellers except the cardholder
   • annual_fee: 356
   • num_years: 2
2. Compute total reward points you would earn.
   • total_reward_points = irctc_on_spends * 0.04 * num_years + irctc_off_spends * 0.1 * num_years + non_irctc_spends * 0.8 * num_yearrs
3. Compute your total savings by using the following formula:
   • sbi_irctc_savings = total_reward_points - annual_fee

HDFC IRCTC:

1. Set the Variables.
   • irctc_spends: Total spends on IRCTC for any traveller for any class of train tickets
   • non_irctc_spends: All other spends
   • num_qmilestones: Number of quarters when total spends crossed Rs. 30000
   • y_milestone: 0 if total spends in year < 15000. 1 otherwise.
   • annual_fee: 590
   • num_years: 2
2. Compute total reward points you would accumulate.
   • total_reward_points = irctc_spends * 0.1 * num_years + non_irctc_spends * 0.01 * num_years + 500 * num_qmilestones
3. Compute the redemption charges.
   • redeemption_charges = (total_reward_points - 500 * num_qmilestones) * 0.7 - 118
4. Compute total savings.
   • hdfc_ircrc_savings = total_reward_points - redeemption_charges - y_milestone * annual_fee

SBI aur IRCTC ka integration bahut barbaad hai. Ladte rehna phir dono se jab IRCTC account me points credit na ho.

 

[Sourabh_13]

I have been using this card (SBI IRCTC Rupay Platinum CC) for more than a year now and haven't faced any problems so far. To get clarification on a few doubts, I had mailed SBI Cards and they cleared all my doubts within a day.

Rather, I faced many issues with the HDFC IRCTC CC. For more than two months, I wasn't able to book train tickets using this card through the SmartBuy portal. It led me to reaching out to them via both the channels: call and mail. As none of them had any idea or expertise to diagnose the problem, they kept tossing the problem to different departments (hdfc customer care, smartbuy support, loan dept, tech team, conceirge team). It took them more than a month just to figure out the root cause. Further, they took more than a month to resolve the issue.

 

[Sourabh_13]

It is hard to understand, please use as simple language

Is it easy to understand now? Or has it become even more messy?

 

[Vasuki]

Is it easy to understand now? Or has it become even more messy?

@techt see the improvement

 

[prateekm03]

For people like me who have to do bookings for friends/family too, HDFC IRCTC card looks good, additional benifit is 1% on UPI, as I am not able to get other cards with better UPI rewards, HDFC declines my application for this card each time citing that I already have HDFC card (Millenia, virtual rupay and freedom). Is there any way to get this card from them?

 

[CHOCOPANDA]

My brother has max savings account and millennia cc with 1.37k limit. He just got it on 3april.
I myself have the above account and cc but I am holding tata neu rupay.
I want my brother to have that hdfc irctc rupay.

However when I applied for that card bank rejected and told in reply that due to I already have a core credit card.

What steps I should follow to get that card.
And after how much time