SBI Prime Credit card serves quite well for offline transactions as well as provides both Domestic as well as international lounge access.
This is the most beautiful card in my pocket.
Read on to know full details about this card as well as ways to maximize the benefits out of it.
You can use my referral to apply for this card.
You will get Rs 500 e-voucher once you spend more than Rs. 500 with this card, and I will get one too.
This card is like an upgraded version of SBI Simply save credit card.
SBI Prime Credit card Savings Calculator
In this table you can add your expenses and check out how much you would save with SBI Prime credit card save.
If the Calculator doesn't run, click here and run again :)
Variants
There are two other variants
SBI Prime Advantage credit card: This is given against an Fixed Deposit. 80% of the fixed deposit amount is given as the credit limit. You can go for such cards when you have no credit score. Banks will not issue cards to people with no credit history.
SBI Prime Pro Credit card: This is generally given to govt employees or to people holding SBI bank savings account. The benefit of this card is that the card annual fees are waived off when you spend more than Rs. 2 lacs instead of Rs. 3 Lacs for the normal card. The drawback here is that the reward points which are given are much lower. The default reward rate is 2Rp/ Rs. 125 for pro version instead of 2Rp/ Rs. 100 for the normal card. I would not recommend this card to anyone.
Welcome Offer and fees
SBI Prime card charges annual fees of Rs. 3000+ taxes (approx. Rs 3560). Sometimes, they may offer it to you as 1st year free, however they will be charging you for it at the end of the year.
Another alternate offer is a Welcome e-gift Voucher worth Rs. 3,000 from any of the following brands: Bata/Hush Puppies, Pantaloons, Aditya Birla Fashion, Shoppers Stop and Yatra.com.
Of these, I think the Yatra vouchers are the best value.
It’s very rarely that you will find this card given as life time free (none of the SBI cards are).
However, the fees will be waived off on spending more the Rs 3 Lacs. This number is a bit on the higher side, but this card does give you enough back.
SBI Prime card credit limit is generally on the lower side compared to other issuers. The card limit range is generally 1.5 to 3 times of your monthly in-hand salary.
Lounge Access
International Lounges: 4 complimentary visits per calendar year to International Priority Pass Lounges, outside India (max. 2 visits per quarter). However, this is just for the first 2 years. This is a very weird contract as without international lounge this card can no longer be called as a premium credit card. Also it is like they are punishing you for being loyal customer.
Domestic Lounges: 8 complimentary visits per calendar year to Domestic Lounges in India (max. 2 visits per quarter). Thankfully this benefit continues till you hold the card.
Sbi Prime card lounge access list is here (visa), for American express(Amex) it is here.
The list is quite exhaustive and covers all metro cities and many tier 2 cities as well.
Reward Programme
1 Reward point (RP) = Rs 0.25
Base rewards: 2rp per Rs 100. (0.5%)
Reward points are not provided for fuel and WALLET transactions.
Accelerated reward points:
Dining, Departmental stores, Groceries and Movies: 10rp per Rs 100 (2.5%) or 10X offer
(Departmental store seems to be quite a hit or a miss. Eg you get base reward points at medical shops.)
Birthday Benefit 20 rp per Rs 100 (5%) or Birthday offer
All spends will net you 5% back. The maximum points under this offer is 2000rp which is equivalently just Rs 500. You will meet this cap on spending Rs 10000. The exclusions are fuel and wallet transactions.
Standing Instructions provide 20rp per Rs 100 (5%)
This is capped at 3000 rp which will be achieved on spending Rs.15000 per month. This is quite a healthy margin.
To use this feature, you need to register for auto payment through the card. This can be done for utility bills (electricity, gas etc) as well as insurance (LIC). For insurance payments, this is quite useful as most credit cards don't even give base points.
Reward Redemption:
Even though multiple vouchers, items are available the best is direct statement credit. For this you need to call their customer care to place a request for statement redemption.
They will charge you Rs. 99 + taxes. (so gather the maximum points before you redeem them.)
Do note that the points are redeemed in multiples of Rs 500 (2000rps) only.
The points have an expiry of 2 years.
Fuel Surcharge Waiver
Fuel surcharge waiver is valid for transaction amount ranging from Rs 500 – Rs 4000. Do note that if you fill petrol for an amout outside of the stated range you will be hit with 1.2% additional charge.
Maximum surcharge waiver of Rs 250 per month.
Milestone Benefits
SBI Prime card pizza hut voucher: Get Pizza Hut e-Voucher worth Rs. 1,000 on achieving spends of Rs. 50,000 in a calendar quarter.
This equates to just Rs 12500 per month. What you get are 2 vouchers worth Rs 500. Given a choice, I wouldn’t choose Pizza hut. How about zomato credit! That would make this quite the offer.
Annual benefit on spending more than Rs 5 lacs. is an e-Gift Voucher worth Rs. 7,000 from Yatra.com/Pantaloons.
For me I chose Yatra and got 2 yatra vouchers worth Rs 3500 each.
SBI Yono Portal
This card will provide you access to SBI's yono platform.
It will provide additional 5% cash back to the user which will credit within 3 months from the date of purchase from e-commerce websites. This adds up quite well with the frequent on-going offers from SBI on Flipkart, Amazon etc.
Effective Reward Rate
Now, the final test for SBI prime card is effective reward rate considering the most effective way to use this card. The table below shows a realistic spending and its effective rewards applicable.
The effective reward rate of approx. 3.4% makes this a moderately rewarding card.
Rating:
3/5
Better or Similar Options
HDFC regalia credit card could be a better option for you to consider. SBI Elite credit card may be considered.
For more info check related posts below.