2017 Year In Review

By | November 2, 2018

As 2018 is around the corner, lets look back at what has been a good, challenging and rewarding year. 2017 has been quite a good year for me in many aspects, but unfortunately not so great compared to 2016. Almost half of the year i was busy with business and rest half busy with illness. That being said, lets look at what went good and what did not in 2017 both to CardExpert.in and also personally,

The Good

  1. Readership: 2017 has been a great year w.r.t the growth of readers at Cardexpert. At one point of time, we were serving 100,000 readers in a single month. But then there was a dip (credits to things that put me down for ~2 months), its getting back up now.
  2. Credit Card Industry: SBICards came up with the wonderful Prime card to meet the common demands of the most. ICICI refreshed their gemstone portfolio and started issuing Dreamfolks cards with free visits. HDFC was on devaluation spree, but they too changed lane by late 2017 and launched Clubmiles along with new transfer partners. Overall, the industry is growing fast (thanks to demonitization) and now banks have started responding to customer’s demands. I see a huge growth in quality of new/premium cards in past 2 years and will continue to grow.
  3. Points & Miles: This year, i’ve seen quite a good set of promotions with abilities to earn lots of miles. Apart from HDFC Diners 10x promotions, Yes Bank Credit Cards promos were very very lucrative to accumulate points to the tune of over 100k or more.
  4. Trips: My trips in 2017 were just 20% of those in 2016. This was primarily because my friend a.k.a co-traveller got married and so he got busy that we couldn’t make much trips. Though i had one Intl trip to Vietnam and couple of domestic trips here and there. Apart from that, i was able to take my family to North India (Delhi & Agra) which was quite a fulfilling one!
  5. Memorable Experiences: Overnight cruise at Halong Bay, Vietnam and Business Class on jet Airways are very much memorable.
  6. Work & Health: For over 7 years now, i’ve been working as a night owl. My work timings were as bad as 4PM-4AM most times, but no more – as my body doesn’t seem to handle that kind of stress anymore. Finally, i’m back to day-time work schedule – It feels like living in another world to have regular morning breakfast nearly after ~7 years 😀

The Bad

  1. Unwanted Spends: For a while, especially around late 2016, I’ve been spending on few things that i don’t actually “need” but just got them for reward points. Not so later i realised that it is one of the worst things to do as most of these items that i bought on some kind of “offers” were never used at all. That reminds me of the quote: “If you buy things you do not need, soon you will have to sell things you need”. Takeaway: Only buy things that you NEED, when you need. Remember, by buying you may save 50%, but by not buying, you can save 100%
  2. Loss: While i’ve been counting those penny reward points on multiple cards, i forgot to do some important things on time like accounting/taxation/finishing projects on time. That lead to fees/interest of over Rs.20,000 – equivalent to 80k Yesbank Reward points. 🙁 Not to mention, i lost much much more indirectly. Takeaway: Time to forget about tiny promotions that saves anything lesser than ~Rs.1000 or so. 
  3. Illness: I was ill back to back with multiple rounds of fever/cold/flu, etc for about 2-3 months. Its One of the worst times in my life. Hope it doesn’t repeat.

As you could see, the Good outweighs the BAD clearly!

What to expect On Cardexpert in 2018?

I think the credit card chasing has been almost over for me with 2017, except Citibank, but i don’t see much inspiration on it either. 2018 is going to be all about redeeming the points and miles that i’ve accumulated in past 2 years.

Flight Reviews

After flying domestic business class on Jet Airways, i’m already hooked to it but i didn’t find right time to make much trips this year, but this is expected to get better in 2018.

Major resistance in 2017 was that i need to drive ~3 hrs to CJB airport whenever i want to take a flight, but this is changing in 2018 as my city is re-opening its airport (SXV) in a ~month.

The day that happens, i may start flying crazy, which will also boost hotel stays. I can’t wait enough to do this. Lets see how soon this happens.

Hotel Reviews

I got addicted to hotels in past few years, so much addicted that i end up staying in hotels in my own city, just to explore them and get some rest. Given the fact how affordable the hotel rooms are with OTA’s, we were able to spend as low as Rs.500 per head per night on twin sharing in a 3 star property that actually costs Rs.3k and above.

Last time we had sumptous breakfast for 2 hours in one such hotel in my city, which itself pays back 😀 I’ve done a couple of such crazy stays with friends and even solo.

This leads me to next level of exploring hotels and i’ve already started it with some leisure trips, like my recent trip to Aloft Coimbatore and Le Meridien Coimbatore.

I’m in love in starwood hotels and so you’ll see me a lot there, along with Marriott & Taj in later days. I’m yet to crack the numbers with other chains!

Elite Status Targets on: SPG/Marriott & Jet Privilege

Hence, expect more flights, hotels & airport lounge reviews in coming months!

While the above are very certain to happen, i also see myself getting busy with business & personal commitments along the way, so i may also take a major break to the blog as well.

Final Thoughts

There are many decisions to make, new things to learn, new places to explore and a lot of points and miles to burn. With a great amount of uncertainty, i’m waiting eagerly for the surprises that the new year has in for me. I’ve never been this excited in my entire life for a New Year 😀

How was your 2017 and where do you think your points & miles will get you to in 2018? Also, feel free to share your thoughts on what type of content you’re looking for in the blog in 2018, as flights/hotels are relatively new here!

Author: Siddharth

Helping Indians to choose right credit cards, pick right offers and enjoy luxury vacations for less. Day & night exploring the spiritual reality of our human existence.

68 thoughts on “2017 Year In Review

  1. Prashant Gupta

    Rightly summed up. I am too looking forward to 2018 with yes bank and hdfc lately coming up with aggressive offers. My feeling is Yes will come out with offers the whole year and other will launch more premium cards. Citi is lagging behing now and need to rewamp its portfolio. Personally for me i have raked up loads of points this years thanks to you and eagarly waiting for exciting 2018.

    Reply
  2. ANUGU RAVINDER REDDY

    Hi Siddharth,
    it was a great year for me. I could develop a lot of knowledge about C.cards and R.points through your litt. I am able to build my CC profile, it’s because of you. Even though i’m a beginner, I could see drastic changes with my CC profile. Your blog is filled with abundant knowledge about CCs and other things. I fell in love with your blog whenever I landed here. I strongly request and demand you to expand it to entire financial areas. I hope 2018 would be a great year for all of us. Wish you all a happy new year in advance.
    Thank you Siddharth and avid readers.

    Reply
  3. Sathish

    Hi,

    First let me wish all cardexpert reader and the authors , a very happy new year 2018.

    Reply
  4. ND

    Sid, here is wishing you a great 2018 with more points and miles and no health issues. Your blog has been terrific and really useful for me and other readers. I owe a big thank you to you and thanks for the continual efforts.

    Reply
  5. Karthik

    Dear Siddarth, thanks for sharing your thoughts on 2017, especially the bad. And the good about the bad is, it teaches us a lesson which we would never forget. I have had my share bads, more so in 2017 – looking forward to a better 2018. To your Good list, I have something to add – you have made a lot of difference in the wallets of your of readers by sharing such useful and informative articles – needless to say we have saved (or spent?) a lot of money and accumulated thousands of reward points using your tips! Wish you a 10x happy new year! 🙂

    Reply
    1. Siddharth Post author

      Thanks Man! Hopefully readers would have saved few millions, combined 🙂

      Reply
  6. Rahul Singh

    Well great.
    Thanks.
    Congratulations.
    All the best.
    Take care.

    My request –
    1. If I know that there is reply to my comment, it’s great. (or how to get it?)

    2. One article / series on customer service for each brand.

    3. One article / series on loopholes/deceiving T&C for earning or redeeming points. (e.g. I wasn’t credited 5x for sbi elite for spends on Domino’s and few other leading dining outlets. Reason being some MCC code mismatch……. Or buying a movie ticket from Yes rewards actually cost points + 100 (or 99) rupees plus tax redemption fee making it lusterless.

    4. Update date for each article so that viewer would ‘consider’ checking main source due to possibility of changed info.

    5. Payment banks.

    Thanks again to you, Dr Abhishek and other writers for spreading awareness.
    Keep up.

    Reply
    1. Siddharth Post author

      1. Yet to enable it as it consumes more server resources.
      2. Yes, thinking about it for quite sometime. Starting with SBI soon 🙂
      3. MCC part is mostly hit or miss
      4/5. Will look into it.

      You’re Welcome!

      Reply
      1. Balpreet Singh

        Is there a way you can enable which threads got replied in last few days or couple of weeks. As of now if new comments are from same threads, thats only seen recent comments. Hence dont know which other threads might be active..
        Or else, Recent comments can be made bigger list ( last 20/30/50 comments)

        Balpreet

        Reply
        1. Siddharth Post author

          Its all in the list. Usually i increase the comments list whenever required!

          Reply
          1. Balpreet Singh

            Another thought… There can be a corner saying Threads which are active( received one or more comments) in last 1 week. Then we can take that shortcut link from there?

  7. Mukesh

    One way to increase flying is to get married, wish u all d luck regarding the same 🙂

    Reply
  8. Aman

    Hi Sid

    Had a wonderful 2017 and enjoyed reading every post of yours. Part of my daily routine now.

    My Cards strategy for 2018:
    I am satisfied having YFE (for all kinds of spends) and RBL INSIGNIA (Only for movies – BMS offer). I will aim to get SCB Ultimate if available to me LTF but not sure now as I’m reading lots of negative comments about the redemption options.

    Will close my Axis and SBI cards (Both have annual charges) before March.

    Wish you and all the readers a very HAPPY NEW YEAR 2018.

    Reply
  9. Kiran

    Hey Sid,

    Nice summarisation of your journey for 2017. Also take care of your health having said that 2018 I am looking for more of hotel reviews, points claiming for hotel stays and lucrative offers from credit cards and flight deals.

    Have a prosperous year ahead.

    Cheers,
    Kiran

    Reply
  10. Sumeet Gupta

    A very happy new year to you Siddharth in advance, it is really been a great year for me as I came to know about card expert, the leader in cards reviews.
    I came to enhance my knowledge and was able to share them in such a good platform.
    I completely agree with your thoughts on unwanted spends, as one of my colleagues say, the formula for life should be Income-Savings or Investment=Expenses.
    We sometimes tend to spend more just because of few rewards. Similarly, my huge spends on last quarter was just because one of my cousin without a credit card needed money in Paytm for spends and purchases which ultimately helped me in my spends to waive off the annual fees of 3 of my credit cards.
    Wish you a great health and peace in 2018, both in personal and professional life throughout the year and lots of offers and reviews from you.
    Once again, a big thanks for the work you are doing and a great Happy New year………😃

    Reply
  11. Vinod Kannan

    Salem Airport opening next month? Thats great. That would just be 2.5 hour travel from my home. Now i have to visit chennai airport every time i have to take a flight. Any idea when Neyveli and Vellore airports open?

    Reply
    1. Siddharth Post author

      Yes. It was supposed to be opened by Sep 2017 but then got delayed. Jan 25th is current tentative date, lets see. It’ll connect to Chennai/blr airports.

      Reply
  12. Ashish Nikhare

    Hi Sid, very well said. Also, I am a Doc and can take good care of you in your future illness (hoping you don’t get any of those). Just keep doing this great work !

    Reply
  13. Satish Agrawal

    Dear Sid

    2017 Summarized nicely. Thats what you are good rather excellent at. I sincerely wish you ill free 2018 n in future coz we all wait for new updates in more vibrant blog like yours. Rightly mentioned to not fall for the things not required for earning some RPs.

    Due to this blog I visited “Travel Club” lounge Kolkata en route to Bangalore and “Above Ground floor” lounge Bangalore courtesy my Regalia First (2 visits complimentary per qtr) while returning to Lucknow. But for your blog, I think would have never been educated enough to experience these kind of luxury. Thanks to you n fellow readers comments.

    Also by reading your blog I came to know about how much I require HDFC Diners club Black cc and applied for upgrade. Yesterday my RM told that it has been approved by Regional Head of Credit card, Lucknow and now my application will soon go to Chennai. I am fully positive, lets see. Thinking of earning lots of RPs courtesy Diners Black. Apart from this I have Citibank Cashback cc. Yes bank is not issuing CC in U.P.

    What should be my back up CC considering I receive Diners Black soon on upgrade from Regalia First? And good luck for your Citibank cc application in 2018.

    Thanks a lot for this beautiful/ insightful blog. Together we will keep it up.

    Reply
    1. Siddharth Post author

      Congrats on DCB. Maybe SBI Prime would serve as a good backup.

      Reply
  14. Ganesh

    Hi Sid,

    Many thanks for all of your efforts here. Wish you a happy, healthy and prosperous new year!!

    Regards
    Ganesh

    Reply
  15. Satish Agrawal

    Thanks. Ya SBI Prime is very good option but will charge 2999/- per year which I don’t like. I would rather like LTF cc.

    And do review better lounges on same airport, if possible. Bcoz some airports like Bangalore have 2 or more lounges. So which one to visit among them. I hope everybody would be eager to know as well.

    Happy new year 2018 to you n every reader/ contributor of this blog.

    Reply
    1. Siddharth Post author

      As far as the BLR airport is concerned, you could see it clearly from my reviews that Above Ground levell lounge wins, infact its one of the best lounge in the country 🙂

      Reply
  16. SH

    Happy New Year to you Sid. This platform of yours makes a lot of impact with respect to going after the right credit cards and making most of the various promotions. Following your advise I got myself upgraded to DC Black (though a little late to the party). I wish you a great 2018.

    Reply
  17. Rahul Shrivastav

    I am one of those “new” readers in 2017 & I throughly enjoyed being part of this gang.

    Looking forward to continue in 2018 as well.

    Cheers for the new year guys ! And Gals ofcourse !!!!

    Reply
  18. Shrey

    New Year greetings!
    Hope to hear more of how to save on points and redemptions.
    About Citibank prestige the annual fee still doesn’t make sense you should do a blog as per value/fee analysis.cheers

    Reply
  19. Shrey

    The only benefit it is 4th night free we still don’t know how competitive their rates are also 20-30% discount is easy with makemytrip or bookings.com or agoda.luxury airport transfer is a cherry though😉

    Reply
  20. santosh patnaik

    2017 was wonderful,…..ur site has been of good help to get myself updated on the card offers…
    In Sep 2016, i opted for HDFC diners club premium card (missed Black marginally)…but in 6 months got upgraded to Diners black…..purchased AC, furniture, sofas, dining table, gold etc all through 10x partners…..made enough points to do following-
    1. free return tickets for family of 4 (including parents) to sri lanka
    2. free return tickets for 2 from bangalore to bhubaneswar
    3. free return tickets for 2 from bangalore to delhi
    4. free one way tickets from Bangalore to Johannesburg (travelling in April 2018)

    HDFC may not have led me to save some money…but was of tremendous use in traveling international

    Reply
    1. Siddharth Post author

      Impressive. Thanks for sharing your experience with DCB!

      Reply
  21. Sakthivel

    Any plans for converting this site to forum? user contributions will improve…

    Reply
    1. Siddharth Post author

      I think Comments section is sufficient for most discussions. Will think about adding forum if there is a need.

      Reply
  22. Abhijeet Apte

    Yeah .. A very happy new year Guys.
    Have come to learn that sticking to one card and trying to find out the most of it is better than finding out the best card in business at NO REAL GAIN.
    Have been trying to see if Smartbuy gives a better deal than any card loyalty program and kind of hooked to it. Earlier was an AMEX fan but now have moved my spends quietly to HDFC Regalia ( and smartbuy to be specific ).
    Have got 13% cashback ( via 10x ) . Wanting to get DCB but missing the eligibility criteria and my relationship manager is completely non-reactive. ( any tips to get DCB through other routes will be great ). Still happy.
    Cheers – Abhijeet

    Reply
  23. Majumdar

    Dear Sid,

    Wish you a very HNY. 2017 was my first full year of travel hacking, having entered the field only in Sep 2016, thanks to a persistent AMEX executive.

    Activated my JP account on 26 Dec 2016, became Plat by end June 2017 and have ended the year with 1L JP Miles, mostly from CC signup and spends. Also jotted up over tonnes of RPs on DCB, MRs on AMEX et al. Much thanks to sites like yours which got me and kept me hooked.

    Unfortunately, 2018 wont be as good. Looks like the company will be setting up a travel desk!

    Regards

    Reply
  24. Venkat

    Hi Siddharth ,, I started following your blog since late 2017 ly,, I had no cc that time,, but now I have two,, thanks to the knowledge you have shared,, Wishing you and other readers a very happy new year😊😊

    Reply
  25. Joseph

    Dear Sid,
    Wish you a wonderful and healthy new year 2018.
    I want to personally thank you for the invaluable help you and through this site many others have been as I waded into the world of CC for the first time.. For a newbie the world of CC can be daunting and confusing at times.
    Through this site I was quickly able to grasp all the basics, terminology, understand the rewards point and lounge access game and helped me immensely in choosing my first cc.
    And now that I have had my regalia first cc for over 6 months now, which card do do you think would be a good upgrade. I am primarily interested in lounge access for me and family. Once again thank you for all your efforts as I am sure plenty of others like me have benefitted from this site. And best wishes for 2018.

    Reply
  26. Anoop E S

    Happy new year dear Siddharth

    First of all, thank you for providing us “Card Expert”. It helped me to concentrate on Reward points and miles game with your timely updates about campaigns and in-depth review of various cerdit and debit cards. Your blog in fact taught me that points and miles really matters. Pls continue the good work thereby enlightening our lives…

    2017 was a faboulous year for me in terms and points and miles.

    1. Credit Cards

    HDFC – Upgraded to DC Black with the guidance from your blog and utilised 10X reward program really well.
    ICICI – upgraded to ICICI Jet Airways Sapphiro and started earning JP miles on purchases.
    SBI – still stuck with a banking partnership card which could never be upgraded.

    2. Airline

    JetPrivilege – It was a fantastic year with jet Airways. Got Upgraded to Gold first and then to Platinum during last year. Earned 264K miles (Flights, Swipes and Conversion) and Redeemed 217K miles (Economy and Business award flights and upgrades). Had 15 award flights, 44 normal flights and several upgrades in 2017. Plus many overnight stays at GVK lounge Mumbai.

    Other Airlines – Club Vistara got upgraded to Gold through staus match. But could not meet the 3 month criteria for retaining the gold tier. Air India Flying returns account just got activated by year end. Had several flights with Spicejet and Indigo although it didn’t earn me anything.

    3. Lounge Visits

    I was a regular vistor to GVK Lounge and Travel Club at Mumbai T2. Plus visited the lounges at Mumbai T1, Bangalore, Kochi and Ahmedabad.

    For 2018, my first priority is getting one more credit card from HDFC within the same credit limit (Jet Airways Co-branded card). Would like to get Yes bank card when it becomes available in my city and will get rid of the SBI card after that. I’ll not be able to get Amex cards till I move to major cities. I’ll be trying Vistara Premium Economy and hopefully their Business class this month. Plus would try to get entry to Vistara lounge, Delhi T3 through voucher. Would be trying the Spa services offered with dragon pass. I’m planning to concentrate on full service carriers only, to the extent possible as it will earn miles and upgrades.

    Reply
    1. Siddharth Post author

      Thanks for sharing your experience Anoop. #Airline part 260k Miles is WONDERFUL 🙂

      Reply
  27. Mahesh

    Happy New Year Siddharth. I somehow landed on your site around 8 months back searching for some card review and since then I have made a lot of changes to my card portfolio based on what I have learnt from your reviews of different cards.
    I have closed 4 low return cards (less than 1% – I hated those after seeing the reviews as I was losing so much by using those cards) and got three new cards (Yes Preferred, AMEX and HDFC Jet Signature). Best has been the advice on Yes card which in just 3 statements got me INR 25K worth points with Diwali offers. In last 6 months I was able to get around INR75K+ worth points and vouchers (Mostly for travel). My card spend is around 18-20 Lakhs per year on cards so I am able to use your site to make sure that I get the most out of my spends.

    Below is how I planned my expenses in 2018: without calculating points from renewal. I have now moved to all paid cards except for Yes which is LTF on yes preferred. Looks like paid cards give better return than free ones.

    Kindly advice if I can get any better than below by using a different card. I want to get one more card so suggest some high return card (visa or master only).

    1. AMEX Travel platinum – Only good for 4Lakh spend – INR 22K worth travel vouchers + INR 10K Taj voucher, got 6K worth book my show vouchers as well – Also got an INR 12.5K worth Tanishq voucher for Diwali offer (Hope to have something similar in 2018) – more than 10%+ returns but after 4L spend, unless there is an offer the return is very low.

    2. Yes Preferred – Next 7.5 Lakhs and based on offers – I have spent around 5L in 3-4 Months and got INR 24K (5% return) with diwali offer. I believe they have a bonus of 20K points for 7.5L so plan to cross that next. Will apply for Yes Exclusive after 6-7 months as I need the priority access for supplementary card.

    3. AMEX jet and HDFC VISA jet – (not used much) I am collecting Jet points for Europe trip. Amex gives me good return but is not as widely accepted so I got myself an HDFC Jet Visa signature card. Mostly will close the AMEX Jetairways this year as I am not able to use it everywhere and their annual fee from second year is 10K and gives only 5K miles for it.

    4. Citi Premiermiles: This is my go to card for all the left over expenses as it gives me around 1.8x returns flat but I like the flexibility of booking flight and hotel like on yes first.
    Citi offered me prestige card but I am not sure if I can spend 20K per annum and get enough return on it as it has only 1 reward point per 100 which is only 1% back even if one reward point is 1 rupee. Even if I convert 1 point to 4 JP miles, its still the same as HDFC Visa signature jet card. I believe I can get the priority pass for supplementary card which is good but still I feel like I am buying it than getting for free as annual fee is high. I feel what I can get on Premiermiles is much better. Let me know if I am missing anything on prestige card.

    If possible, need your help to review how to use JPMiles, have seen offers like 20% back on JP miles and so on but dont know what is the best time to use it to block tickets.

    Also, I have a very good cibil score and I track it on regular basis but can you cover more on how to score more points on cibil and also where do we lose/gain point. Want to get to 900 if that is possible 

    Thanks a lot, Mahesh

    Reply
    1. Siddharth Post author

      Wonderful!
      Thanks for taking time to share your experience with us.

      Reg. prestige, it does help for frequent flyers (to west), especially with transfer partners other than Jet, being Citi Gold gives you another 30% extra bonus points. Do check out Prestige thread and its comments for more Gyaan 🙂

      Reply
  28. Satish Agrawal

    Dear Joseph

    Please tell your pm salary if you are salaried or ITR if you are a businessman. Also what kind of relationship you have with HDFC bank, viz. savings/ current a/c, FD, Insurance policy etc. Whats current credit limit of your Regalia First cc.

    With above details I or anybody would be able to help you.

    Reply
    1. Joseph

      Hi Satish
      Pm salary 95k
      Current credit limit 2lac
      No other relationship with hdfc..

      Reply
      1. Shrey

        Hi joseph i file itr not more than 50k p.m but i got regalia based on credit limit of 3.6L on my citibank indian oil card.i upgraded from regalia to dcb after hdfc increased my regalia card limit to 6.5L after one year.My spends are good since i pay electricity bills of my relatives and ofcourse do the timely payments.hope this helps
        Ps. i didnt attach any itr on dcb upgrade form.

        Reply
  29. Satish Agrawal

    Dear Joseph

    Its difficult to get Diners Black with this profile in near future. If its your net salary you may upgrade to Regalia cc. But if you want DCB, you have to open atleast savings ac maitain good balance in it. Have good relationship with your RM n BM. Use their other products like FD, Insurance policies and after some time ask for upgrade to DCB. Also apply for cl enhancement every 6 months. If you have less than 4 lacs cl on your existing card, it will be very difficult without any other relationship with them.

    Any additional input Sid ?

    Reply
  30. Tarun

    Sid, can you do one post on the supplementary features? Things like insurance cover etc on cards which are lesser known and understood.

    Reply
  31. Chiller

    Hi Siddharth

    Thanks for the amazingly valuable information you provide on your website, I’m sure card companies may be cursing you for revealing all their tricks! :p

    I had a question based on a recent experience.

    My American Express Travel Card had a statement generated last month and the due date was 23rd December 2017. I made the payment on the 23rd itself. I later found out that they had charged a late fee! Upon inquiry, they said that they had ‘received’ the payment on the 26th as 23,24,25 were bank holidays and so I was charged a late fee for those 3 days!

    Can you please share if this has ever happened with you and whether they are correct or not!

    Thanks!

    Reply
    1. Siddharth Post author

      Yes, that’s normal. Though you can ask Amex to waive off the fee as one time exception. They may honour your request.

      Further, there were some RBI rule which states no fees to be charged upto 3 days from due date.

      Reply
      1. Chiller

        They did waive off the fee.

        But 2 questions now

        1. If I had made the payment by the due date, why is it normal for them to charge late payment charges?
        2. If there is an RBI rule regarding the same, then isn’t what they are doing illegal?

        Reply
  32. jitendra saraogi

    If this rule of 3 days grace period is followed by all card companies?or are all are bound to adhere to same?
    Please confirm.thanks in advance.

    Reply
    1. Amex Guy

      From the RBI release:

      “However, banks shall report a credit card account as ‘past due’ to credit information companies (CICs) or levy penal charges, viz. late payment charges, etc., if any, only when a credit card account remains ‘past due’ for more than three days. The number of ‘days past due’ and late payment charges shall, however, be computed from the payment due date mentioned in the credit card statement.”

      Also note that finance charges and interest are not considered penal charges. Your bank can and will slap those things on you. You’d pay relevant finance charges and 3 days interest.

      Reply
      1. Chiller

        Finance charges and interest are levied only post the due date. As per the MITC issued by a credit card issuer, there are no separate penal charges, only the above mentioned charges apply.

        Also, the issue here is not the kind of charges applicable, its the fact that even though I made the payment by the due date, they still charged me for the same. In the cardmember’s agreement it says that the payment should be paid by the due date, not received by the due date.

        Reply
    2. Harish

      Yes all companies should follow and only applicable when full payment made , additional they should not report to cibil as late payment

      Reply
  33. Prashant Gupta

    How does 3 dauly grace period matter anyways.l when bank is giving 50 days to pay. This is not a good financia discipline.

    Reply
  34. Malavkumar Patel

    Hi Siddhart/Abhishek,
    I have HDFC Bank Credit Card and I am using their Insta Load/ Insta Jumbo Loan facility regularly to get temporary funds for my business,
    I would like to know that if any other bank issues credit card with similar features, I am not interested in reward points but this particular feature,
    Your advice will be very appreciated.

    Reply
    1. Mouli

      HSBC and SBI are good for availing BT and loans with better interest rate

      Reply
  35. Satish Agrawal

    Hi Malavkumar

    Citibank provides me 4X to 8X of credit limit as personal loan over n above credit limit @14% interest. Though I have never used it.

    Reply
  36. Praveen Perumalla

    Thanks, Sid.

    2017 is my best year with credit cards where I was able to save over 1 lakh in terms of RPs, voucher, and cashbacks. Certainly looking to save more in 2018 and also help others who are on this journey.

    Reply
  37. Shankar

    Hi,

    I understand that children below 18 years cannot have their own credit card or even add on, so looking for a work around. Is there any debit card for kids that provide lounge access. Please let me know if there is any, would be a real good information.

    Reply

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