Citibank India Credit Card has introduced a new offer for those who want to apply for their credit cards. They have recently introduced cash back card with lifetime free feature where you don't have to pay any annual fees at all. And what more you will be getting cash backs on your purchase using your credit cards at various outlets across India, but it is applicable only at select outlets mentioned here, which has the Citibank EDCs (Electronic Data Capture) machines or so-called swiping machines. They claim that we can get up to Rs. 20,000/- as cash backs every year, but I am not sure on what basis have they calculated it, but still cash backs on purchases is a good way to save some extra bucks, considering you use your credit card wisely and pay all your dues every month fully rather than paying only minimum required or less than your full amount due.
They are actually offering up to 30% discount with some merchants. Apart from these cash backs from the merchants mentioned in the list, you can also avail cash backs for other merchants too, i.e., you will be earning at least Rs. 1 for every Rs. 200 purchased using your Citibank credit card. These will be accumulated as points, rather than cash, which you can redeem as cash once you reach 250 points by calling their call center, which adds more value to this offer, I feel. Apart from this you will have a waiver of fuel surcharges of 2.5% at all Indian Oil outlets, which normally most of the other bank credit cards charge, except HSBC and SBI Gold Card.
These cash back credit cards were actually introduced by Citibank only, but the cash back feature was started by ICICI Bank when they first introduced 5% cash back during the festive season in India and soon other banks started this trend and now it has come to the point of offering credit cards with cash back features for the whole year.
The drawbacks of this card would be that you cannot perform your shopping on your desired shopping location, if you want to avail the cash back, but need to look at their list and have to visit those specified shops for all your shopping needs, which can prove sometime rather worthless and could even void the cash back itself. The other drawback would be that you would be adding more credit cards if you already hold other banks' credit cards, hence I would prefer to apply for this card and cancel any of your other existing card if you feel that you cannot manage it and can fall into debt trap with so many cards or if you have control of your spendings, can have one more collection to yours.
Apart from this offer, if you chose to apply for the above credit card or any other Citibank credit card online, you will get a cash back of Rs. 250/- on your first purchase regardless of product or where you purchased it, the cash back will be credited back to your account in the next statement, which is making this offer even more tempting to apply. This offer is valid for all Citibank credit cards that is being applied online in their website provided you meet the criteria for getting the card. At least you can use up this cash back and can even cancel your card later if you don't want it, which way you will save Rs. 250/- at least hence you will be saving some extra bucks from your credit card.
You can apply for Citibank Cash Back Credit Card here.
Citibank has also introduced another offer where if you opt for getting your statements through email rather than physical paper statements, every month, they will reward you with 100 rewards points which can later be redeemed as gifts from them. This offer can be availed by existing Citibank credit card and bank account holders. This they claim are doing to save trees. I feel that this is a noble cause and can help this world in the long run. Anyways, with all these paper statements I receive every month, it gets piled up in my home and would be very difficult to dispose too due to security reasons, hence I feel that opting for email statements would a viable option. But even this has its drawbacks and that is that you may tend to forget to pay your credit card bills if you receive it in your email. If the bank comes forward and help the customers in reminding them through SMS, email, or other ways, it would be very beneficial to avail this option of getting statements to the emails.
Image courtesy Citibank India.
They are actually offering up to 30% discount with some merchants. Apart from these cash backs from the merchants mentioned in the list, you can also avail cash backs for other merchants too, i.e., you will be earning at least Rs. 1 for every Rs. 200 purchased using your Citibank credit card. These will be accumulated as points, rather than cash, which you can redeem as cash once you reach 250 points by calling their call center, which adds more value to this offer, I feel. Apart from this you will have a waiver of fuel surcharges of 2.5% at all Indian Oil outlets, which normally most of the other bank credit cards charge, except HSBC and SBI Gold Card.
These cash back credit cards were actually introduced by Citibank only, but the cash back feature was started by ICICI Bank when they first introduced 5% cash back during the festive season in India and soon other banks started this trend and now it has come to the point of offering credit cards with cash back features for the whole year.
The drawbacks of this card would be that you cannot perform your shopping on your desired shopping location, if you want to avail the cash back, but need to look at their list and have to visit those specified shops for all your shopping needs, which can prove sometime rather worthless and could even void the cash back itself. The other drawback would be that you would be adding more credit cards if you already hold other banks' credit cards, hence I would prefer to apply for this card and cancel any of your other existing card if you feel that you cannot manage it and can fall into debt trap with so many cards or if you have control of your spendings, can have one more collection to yours.
Apart from this offer, if you chose to apply for the above credit card or any other Citibank credit card online, you will get a cash back of Rs. 250/- on your first purchase regardless of product or where you purchased it, the cash back will be credited back to your account in the next statement, which is making this offer even more tempting to apply. This offer is valid for all Citibank credit cards that is being applied online in their website provided you meet the criteria for getting the card. At least you can use up this cash back and can even cancel your card later if you don't want it, which way you will save Rs. 250/- at least hence you will be saving some extra bucks from your credit card.
You can apply for Citibank Cash Back Credit Card here.
Citibank has also introduced another offer where if you opt for getting your statements through email rather than physical paper statements, every month, they will reward you with 100 rewards points which can later be redeemed as gifts from them. This offer can be availed by existing Citibank credit card and bank account holders. This they claim are doing to save trees. I feel that this is a noble cause and can help this world in the long run. Anyways, with all these paper statements I receive every month, it gets piled up in my home and would be very difficult to dispose too due to security reasons, hence I feel that opting for email statements would a viable option. But even this has its drawbacks and that is that you may tend to forget to pay your credit card bills if you receive it in your email. If the bank comes forward and help the customers in reminding them through SMS, email, or other ways, it would be very beneficial to avail this option of getting statements to the emails.
Image courtesy Citibank India.
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