While ICICI Bank has become a ‘better’ private bank than HDFC Bank in some aspects, it continues to lag in the credit cards market. While ICICI Bank credit cards have good benefits, they offer very low rewards. This is true, especially for the super premium segment. In this post, we review an ICICI HPCL co-branded credit card for fuel. ICICI Bank allows us to hold more than one card, so getting a second credit card is easy. Here is a review and everything you need to know about the ICICI Bank HPCL Super Saver credit card.
Fees and Charges
| Joining and Annual Fee | Rs 500 plus taxes |
| Welcome Benefit | 2000 Reward Points ~Rs 500 |
| Annual Fee Waiver | Rs 1.5 Lakhs spend in an anniversary year |
The annual fee waiver at Rs 1.5 Lakhs is high for a fuel credit card. It should have been Rs 50000 at max considering the rewards.
Rewards
| CATEGORY | RETURN | MAX CAP |
|---|---|---|
| Utility, Grocery, Departmental Stores |
5% | Rs 100/month |
| HPCL Fuel and HP Pay | 4% | Rs 200/month |
| All other purchases | 0.5% | NIL |
We earn ICICI Bank Reward Points on all transactions except fuel. Each Reward Point is equal to 25 paise for all redemption options.
- Utility, Grocery, and Departmental Stores: 20 RP/Rs 100 ~5% Return
- All Other Spends: 2 RP/Rs 150 ~0.5% Return
- Extra 1.5% cashback (as PayBack points) on using HP Pay
- Fuel Surcharge Waiver of 1%
- Total Rewards on Fuel (excluding HP Pay): 5%
There is no advantage of the 5% rewards on fuel and groceries with these low caps. We hit these caps when we spend Rs 5000 on fuel and Rs 2000 on utilities, groceries and departmental stores. Over a year, these will be Rs 60000 on fuel and 24000 on utilities, groceries and departmental stores. So, we get accelerated rewards only on Rs 84000 worth of spends every year.
With the annual fee waiver set at Rs 1.5L, we have two options:
- Option 1: Spend extra Rs 66000 to get annual fee waiver and get only 0.5% rewards that is Rs 330 on those. Any other cashback card like Ace would give us a minimum of Rs 1320 in cashback.
- Option 2: Stop spending and pay annual fee of Rs 590. Considering above option, I would rather pay the annual fee.
Key Benefits
- 24*7 roadside assistance
- 25% discount (up to Rs 100) on BookMyShow and Inox. Valid twice/month.
- 1 complimentary domestic lounge access per quarter with Visa. This is valid only if spends are more than Rs 5000 in previous quarter.
Final Thoughts
The ICICI Bank HPCL Super Saver has the usual problems that come with a fuel credit card. The low caps on accelerated rewards and high annual fee waiver spend hurt the total reward rate. Instead of this, we would prefer cashback cards like Ace to get consistent cashback on all spends.
For HPCL, the BoB ENERGIE credit card is a much better choice with two advantages. It comes with a low annual fee waiver and higher caps on fuel rewards.
