ICICI Bank Coral Credit Card Review

By | September 28, 2016

ICICI Bank Coral Credit Card AmexICICI Coral credit and debit cards are one of the ICICI’s flagship product in the market. I personally prefer coral credit card over ICICI Platinum credit card just because of its complimentary lounge access. Even though its not a Visa signature variant, its interesting to note that coral cards has complimentary access to Visa affiliated lounges. Their website interface displaying credit card features and benefits are confusing to the core. Seems they never know what’s a good web design. They need to learn from HDFC probably.

ICICI Coral Credit Card Rewards:

  • 4 Payback points on every Rs.100 spent on dining, groceries and at supermarkets (well, who needs?).
  • 2 Payback points on every Rs.100 spent elsewhere.

That gives you Reward rate of mere 1% & 0.5% respectively (1 Payback point = Rs.0.25). ICICI reward rates are damn low generally compared to HDFC cards & Amex Cards. Infact, their top end premium Card “ICICI Bank Diamant Credit Card” itself has mere useless reward structure.

You can earn a little bit more reward points on American Express variants of coral cards. Whatsoever, they stand nowhere in front of other bank’s semi-premium credit cards.

ICICI Bank Coral Credit Card Features:

  • Card Expert Rating: 2.5/5 [yasr_overall_rating]
  • Reward Rate: 0.50% to 1% as Payback Points
  • Fuel Surcharge Waiver: 2.5% fuel surcharge waiver can be availed on fuel transactions of maximum ₹ 4,000 per transaction at HPCL pumps, when swiped on ICICI Merchant Services swipe machines.
  • Renewal Fee Waiver: Spend ₹ 1,25,000 or more annually, for renewal fees to be waived off.
  • Complementary Airport lounge access: Yes, 2 complimentary Visits per quarter to Visa Lounges (for Visa Card holders) and Master Card lounges (for Mastercard Holders)
  • Special Features: BookMyShow Buy1 Get 1 Offer. (Hard to avail though)
  • Foreign Exchange Markup fee: 3.5% + Service Tax

Features aren’t that attractive as you can see. Just because they integrated payback reward system in their platform, they were able to do some nice promotion campaigns to keep business going. The only card that’s worth holding from ICICI is Jet Airways ICICI Bank Sapphiro Credit Cards which gives 5 JP Miles per Rs.100 spent (domestic).

I’m even interested in their new launch of ICICI Ferrari Credit Cards but they never mention proper info on what they mean by “Top spender” to enjoy its benefits. Worst way of introducing such cards. A Visa Signature card goes worthless for that reason.

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.

87 thoughts on “ICICI Bank Coral Credit Card Review

  1. SriKrsna

    I own this card (ICICI Coral AMEX) and got this card especially as I wanted to have an experience with AMEX PG. This card works with AMEX, ICICI, UniPay EDC and machines which support AMEX. Regarding my online experience with this card, this card can be used on Flipkart, Snapdeal, Aircel, Tata docomo and the intermediate billers who support AMEX like Billdesk, CCAvenue (AMEX option should have been opted by the site owner who gets service from the intermediates). As this card is issued by ICICI, it is managed by ICICI and one needs to use the internet banking facility of ICICI to manage the card. You cannot manage this card with standard AMEX website/app.
    Enrolling and using AMEX exeClick is supported.
    One exception with ICICI Coral AMEX is, this doesn’t work properly with Amazon.in
    You will be asked for billing Pincode and upon authorization, amount gets deducted from the account. You will receive a SMS for amount deduction but amazon.in order would fail as they were unable to capture/track the payment. Amazon.in representatives doesn’t have a clue on that. You will not be billed for the failed order even though the account was deduced and will have to wait for 15 days to get your payment reversed to your account.

    Reply
    1. Siddharth Post author

      Thanks for sharing your experience with Amex Coral Credit card. It helps 🙂

      Reply
      1. Akash

        Which one is better for use in india especially in retail stores, restaurants and online shopping:Coral amex or coral visa?

        Reply
  2. SriKrsna

    One more important info on this card(ICICI Coral AMEX):
    If you loose/forget your PIN, you CANNOT reset it. You need to inform the ICICI representatives and they will REPLACE YOUR CARD. This info is as per their instructions in booklet.

    Reply
    1. Siddharth Post author

      That’s sad. It seems amex has put some strong conditions. Its still interesting for me to understand how Amex partnership works with banks.

      Reply
      1. MILIND NAGRALE

        What is use of Coral debit card?
        Bank said is acceptable at Airport lounges but it came to know it is only for domestic flights only and not for international.
        The reaming benefits are useless like cinema tickets and all ..no one can use as it’s odd hrs to watch. I don’t know why they offer me this Ferrari card ,it is also useless and like normal card. Sbi is taking 200 Rs for credit card while icici charging 700 for Ferrari card with gst.

        Reply
  3. Arfat

    I have some questions
    1. Is icici coral credit card and icici coral amex the same ?
    so what will be interest rate on EMI ?

    For suppose i thought of buying “x” product which is of 70000 rupees on emi of 6 months , how much interest will be charged ?

    Reply
    1. Siddharth Post author

      In coral, VIsa/Mastercard/Amex are the variants. ICICI has anywhere around 15% interest rates on credit card loans/emi usually.

      Reply
  4. Sanket Kharat

    I am working in a IT company and before submitting the documents I use to get call from sales person 5 times a day and after submitting the documents there is no response on the application status now its been more than 15 days, After calling customer care they said I have to wait more 7 days, This is so incontinent, Any clarification before I cancel my application.

    Reply
    1. Siddharth Post author

      Happens. ICICI is very slow in card issuance. You’ve to wait for sometime.

      Reply
  5. John

    Can i use it for International travel purpose, like a forex card? to pay hotel bills and etc..

    Reply
  6. Sairam

    I have a coral credit card of icici bank ,
    Just I want to know one thing
    Icici bank coral credit card is better or icici platinum card is good
    Please suggeste me a good one

    Reply
      1. Ramesh

        Hi,
        Kindly assist me what s the advantages of travel lounge

        Reply
  7. Saksham

    I think it’s the most cheapest American express card (co-branded) available. It’s annual fee is 199 + taxes. Please tell me about hidden charges. Also can we avail special discount for amex cards on e-commerce sites like snapdeal etc

    Reply
  8. Saksham

    Snapdeal offered 20% instant discount using amex cards in last October(diwali scheme). Could that offer or other similar offers like that be availed using icici coral amex cards ?

    Reply
  9. Abshiek

    Which Card is better either ICICI Coral credit card and HDFC Regalia Credit card.

    Reply
    1. Siddharth Post author

      Ofcourse HDFC Regalia. ICICI stands nowhere near to Regalia 🙂

      Reply
  10. Krishan Sharma

    I have icici coral American express credit card.can I use this card for emi option?

    Reply
      1. CHEKKALA VINOD KUMAR

        I am not able to use coral American express card all transactions was got declined. How to add money to my paytm wallet because while adding money app is asking CVV 3 digit number but credit card has 4 digit how it is possible. I really fedoff about this card.

        Reply
        1. Sharathkumar Anbu

          You can very well add 4 digit security number printed on the top and authenticate the transaction.

          Reply
  11. Mukehs

    hi…want a best credit card for Airport lounge access and cash back on shopping…dont mind paying joining fees…kindly suggest me the best one…any one from icici would be more suitable..

    Reply
    1. Siddharth Post author

      ICICI Coral amex cards should help as they have lounge access. But their reward rate on usual spends are too low.

      Reply
  12. Pramit Dutta

    Nice review! Very crisp and to the point! I just wanted to know if the term ‘lounge access’ also means complimentary food and beverages or just entry to the lounge. Its not mentioned cleary anywhere.

    Reply
  13. Gaurav saini

    I liked all reviews, nicely written, but please write review on icici diamant credit card. I hold icici jet sapphiro credit card and they said its the top most card of icici just non sense card. I dreamed for hdfc infinia or diner black, i hold regalia first, kotak league, sbi air india platinum, diners rewards as addon. sbi air india signature is also in my list. I am self employed 4-4.5lacs itr, hdfc regalia first with 1.25 lacs limit need your help to upgrade diners black and sbi signature.

    Reply
    1. Siddharth Post author

      ICICI diamat is not so great card, ok, will get it reviewed shorlty 🙂
      Check out Diners Black article comments for some insights.

      Reply
  14. Captain Bishuddha Bharatiya

    I have Coral Amex Card from February 2016 and it came with Rs. 20,000 limit. Despite my several request customer care was unable to increase my limit as there was no offer. Is there any other way despite calling call centre to increase limit. When I applied for the card my ITR was Rs. 2.7 lakhs and now my latest ITR is Rs. 3.27 lakhs.

    Reply
    1. Siddharth Post author

      They’re increasing the Limits based on spend, more like Amex. Try to put lots of spends and then request. But 20k is too low, there might be some other reason as well.

      Reply
  15. Captain Bishuddha Bharatiya

    Should I cancel this card and again after few months I will apply for same . As my annual income will significantly increase ( 4.10 lakhs ) than they might give good limit right ?

    Reply
  16. prasad

    i am using icici coral credit card from last 3 years. this credit card is worst. we will not have any offers available with this card and more over they will impose some hidden charges often. we need to fight with them to cancel that charges. This happened to me so many times. charges are repeating, every time we need to contact all the levels , some times i crossed all the levels and complained to Obudsmen also.

    Please dont take Icici credit cards.

    Reply
    1. Siddharth Post author

      Icici always adds extra charges, happens on my SB ac too. But yes, they just reverse when requested.

      Reply
  17. Aman

    Hi,
    Please review ICICI Coral Card secured card as like Platinum Credit card.

    Reply
    1. Siddharth Post author

      The benefits are all same except that lien will be marked on FD.

      Reply
  18. SaurabhN

    Hi, thanks for the helpful review, can you please review the ICICI Rubyx card VISA. Request you to please review the VISA version as its reward points program is “Hand Picked rewards” which is totally different from Rubyx Mastercard/Amex card Payback program. I think the “Hand Picked Reward” program provides a great value.

    Reply
    1. Siddharth Post author

      Its just 1% rewarding.
      Will review shortly.

      Reply
      1. SaurabhN

        Thanks, but I think RubyX VISA provides Reward Rate ranging from 1.6% to 3.2%. Please have a look at its exclusive “Hand Picked Rewards” catalog.

        Waiting for the extensive review, thanks for your help.

        Reply
        1. Siddharth Post author

          I could see about 1.4%-2.8% value.

          However, joining fee seems to be another resistance.
          Though, much better than Payback reward system.

          Sure, will review it shortly.

          Reply
  19. Vasumathi

    I have ICICI coral credit card (VISA), Can this be used for international purposes, like dining, hotels, etc.

    Reply
  20. Amit Paul

    The no. of lounge visits have been limited to one per quarter as of now

    Reply
  21. Dev

    Great Review, But this 2.5 rating is little scary me, Currently I am holding CICI Platinum chip card and my annual spending is 2 Lakh, mostly I spent on electronics Gadget and Amazon buying some house hold items/ grocery, but hardly spend on dining (as am single :(( ) Just hour before I called up ICICI to upgrade it to Coral card, what do you think Sir did I make a right choice?
    In past HDFC have canelled my application for card which damaged my CBL score so I would never opt for HDFC again in life.
    Sidd, what do you suggest should I continue with ICICI coral card or go for any other bank cards?
    Thanks for your time 🙂

    Reply
    1. Siddharth Post author

      Coral is fine. has lounge access. You may still explore better cards with other banks.

      Reply
      1. John

        Sid
        Only 1 Complementary Airport lounge access per quarter,
        Icici bank not good in credit limit increase , is SBI good in that department , thinking to switch to SBI as I utilize 90% of credit limit , not good for CIBIL.

        Reply
  22. Rajesh Pal

    Which is better-Coral Amex or Coral Visa or Coral Mastercard…and major reasons? Which one I should go for if I have choice… TIA!!

    Reply
  23. Khushbu

    The ICICI coral cc page mentions about new features from 7th October 2017 and in that there is mention of introducing railway lounge. Any idea what is that??

    Reply
  24. Srinivas

    Which one is better Coral or Platinum credit card? I already have Platinum credit card, they customer service executive suggested that I have offers to upgrade to Ferrari Platinum or Coral Credit Card.

    Please let me know which one is better.

    Reply
  25. Abeer

    Hi, can one avail of regular AmEx offers with this card? For example BMS promotion of Rs 2500 x 2 purchases a month for Rs 1000 voucher?

    Reply
  26. Shyam

    Thanks guys for comments and post.
    I want to know that ICICI Coral is still worthy to have, in terms of Fuel wavier, rewards wavier and higher credit limit in 2018?

    Reply
  27. Hariz Usman

    Hi Siddarth Ji
    I have received icici coral master card credit card last week and used once…..I have told that the card is having one airport longue facility one per quarter at the time of purchasing the card…..but I have called master card customer care and they told me that there is no longue facility in your credit card……as my coral credit card start with 5241 9312…..the facility is there in 9311 or 9310 etc……what should I do……?????? Pls give your response

    Reply
    1. Mickey

      Hariz – Jan 29 – replying to you –

      Lounge access is free with 9312 Coral card.

      Reply
  28. Lyndon Fernandes

    Hi Siddharth!
    I am impressed with how you articulate all the minute details of each credit card available in India! Your’e awesome!

    I have a query,
    I have the HDFC Regalia and SBI Elite card (Cumulative credit limite: 6.7 lakhs)

    I am being offered the ICICI Coral card for Lifetime Free! (No joining fee, no annual fee) (Got an official email)

    1. Do you think I should just apply for the card since this would increase my cumulative credit limit?
    2. Does SBI ever provide emails or sms stating that they’ve increased credit limit/ (It’s 1 year with SBI Elite and I need to have the limit increase 😉

    Or
    3. Should I dumb the SBI Elite and go for the Amerx Platium Travel (Since both have the same annual fees)

    And yes, I’d be waiting for you to get the ‘baap’ of all, the HDFC Infinia! 😉

    Keep up the good work bro!
    Thanks very much!

    Reply
    1. Siddharth Post author

      1. & 3. Well, its very tough to answer these qns without knowing your needs, spends, financial capacity, etc.
      2. Sometimes yes, but if they didn’t, you can upload IT docs on website and they increase limit within ~2 days.

      I kind of not so impressed with Infinia anymore as i got other equivalent cards. The shiny black card is the current long term target 😉

      Reply
  29. Kalyani

    Hi Siddharth

    I have a query regarding ICICI coral amex credit card. I would like to know regarding it’s usage are there enough outlets physical an online where I can use this card. I am not much of a flier so no usage of airport lounge access. Should I continue with my ICICI platinum visa cc.

    Thank You

    Reply
  30. Ameya

    Hi Siddharth
    ICICI has given me 2 Coral (Visa Platinum) Primary Cards.
    I had applied for the first time and they said they rejected it because they couldn’t verify my office address.
    I then re-applied and got it sorted. Received the card allotted to this application.
    Suddenly, ICICI woke up and cleared my 1st application 😀
    Now I have 2 Coral Visa cards.

    Do you think if I link them both to my NetBanking Account, ICICI will notice and cancel one? I know HDFC has a strict policy but any idea about ICICI?

    Reply
  31. Yogesh Pandhare

    What does complimentry lounge access means? Does it mean food and beverages for free?!

    Reply
  32. Arun

    Hello
    I have the coral amex card though icici. Recently I booked air ticket in US currency and was taken by shock that they charged Markup Fees, almost 6% on the entire transaction and that too with higher currency exchange.
    Will have to take this matter up, It never happened with my previous Platinum Visa card.

    Reply
  33. Anoop A V

    Today, I applied for HP Coral AMEX card and the annual fee is 199 + tax. It offers 8 domestic lounge visits per year. I thought of sharing it because this is even cheaper than some debit cards offers 8 lounge access.

    Reply
    1. Ashish Nikhare

      They have reduced it to 2 per year now. Will be applicable from 15 June 2018.

      Reply
  34. Harshal

    Really useless card & bank too.They are lying with customers. When I got card i had 3 accces/quarter then 2 &then 1 without prior intimation. Still they were charged me annual fees without offering what I want

    Reply
    1. Mickey

      @ Harshal – yes lounge access is now only 1 per quarter.

      Did u also by any chance get the sms for LE ‘within 30 minutes’?

      Someone else also wrote about this and I replied but I can’t find which thread that was on!

      Reply
  35. Mickey

    Sid –

    How many points are docked on your CIBIL score if you close a card? I’m thinking of closing the Coral and getting something like the Yes Premia instead because the Coral is not LTF for me and no point wasting spends on that.

    It is my 2nd oldest card (2005), so will that make a difference?

    Reply
  36. Mickey

    Got a call today from ICICI to upgrade the Coral card to Rubyx or Sapphiro. Both have benefits linked with Jet so I turned down the offer.
    Also have a long standing offer for LE which I haven’t taken either. I think the Coral card is fine with its features at the moment + 1 free domestic lounge access per quarter. The BMS offer of 1+1 is quite impossible to get.

    I’ve also found ICICI to be among the easiest to give LE and upgrade, but not free.

    Reply
    1. Shivi

      LE should be taken whenever the offer is there. That helps you to get better card upgrades in future too.

      Reply
  37. Mickey

    10% sale with ICICI cards on Paytm mall. I’m seeing an offer from ICICI cards after ages.

    You can also use code ‘onceamonth’ and get Rs 200 off + the 10%

    Reply
  38. Shivi

    So, I got a new ICICI Coral AmEx Variant this month but the Reward Points are not being accrued against the Payback number mentioned on the card. The RPs are not even reflected in the ICICI website after Login or on iMobile App. Can anybody suggest the course of action to be taken in this scenario, please?

    Reply
    1. Vinod Kannan

      RP will be posted only after the statement generation in case of ICICI

      Reply
  39. Ankit R

    Just a quick update for the benefit of blog readers. Currently ICICI Coral credit card VISA variant is the only VISA variant accepted at Clipper Lounge Mumbai Terminal 2 International Departure. For others its a Mastercard exclusive lounge now. Used it in March first week.

    Reply
  40. Anuj Bahl

    I hold this card since 2006 …with gradual limit enhancements … Now upto Rs 260000. Use it occasionally for travel purposes . Now since they are charging rs 500 as annual charges …is it worth holding ? I have an yes exclusive and hdfc rewardz credit cards too with similar and higher limits.
    Had shifted spends to yes exclusive after I got it …and reduced on this .

    Reply
    1. Praveen Katiyar

      @Anuj Bahl
      I hold the Visa variant of this card. Yes i agree with Sid &others that payback is worst reward system and reward rate is poor.
      I have been able to get BMS offer 7 out of 10 times. So even if i could use it for 4-5 movies in a year, I’m able to recover more than my annual fee. One more reason I’m holding this cards is good limit and card being very old.
      I’m due for renewal, any other comparable in terms of benefit/annual fee card from ICICI ?
      I hold YFE, Amex MRCC, ICICI Amazon Pay & other major cards too.

      Reply
  41. SNEHANSHU RANJAN

    ICICI coral credit card is worst ever….plz don’t take ICICI coral credit…what benefits it show will not give in reality…if you call ICICI credit card customer care no.(18601207777) Charges will be 2 rupees/minutes and customer care executive will take minimum 11-13 minutes to attend your call and another 5 minutes for your query so minimum 40 rupees you have to spent to put your query to customer care executive…so it’s totally to loot customer….I m requesting everyone indian no to apply for ICICI credit card

    Reply
  42. gaurav bharadwaj

    i went to the icici bank to close an old student account … where they stuck a credit card on my backside .. anyways i got the credit card and i was told i was supposed to spend 50k for the card to be free for next year .. so i used the card anyways .. it was on auto debit from my account .. within 1 month of using the card and after the money got deducted i started getting calls that i have not made the payment .. when i call them they tell me i dont have any outstanding amount … but then i still keep getting the calls ..trying to get rid of the card as soon as the money blocked by some hotels is released …

    Reply
  43. Mickey

    I think it’s a really rare event to get a post regarding ICICI cards on this forum! It’s a really dead CC in comparison to most others

    This time though ICICI has teamed up with Flipkart for the annual Big Billion Days sale from 29/09. What a surprise – never seen any offers from ICICI CC.

    Also surprising how Flipkart has skipped it’s regular sale partner HDFC and gone with ICICI (& AXIS) for its annual flagship sale.

    Reply
    1. Divaksh Jain

      Apart from this, these days ICICI aggressively pushing offers on the market. In every few days flipkart and amazon come with discount on ICICI credit cards. I already have ICICI Amazon Pay, Platinum Chip card and today got call from payback that I’m eligible for the LTF coral card and I said yes. Hope this card will separate limit. Other two have shared limit but Amazon Pay has less limit than other one.

      Reply
  44. valliappan

    Got a message that bookmyshow, inox and lounge access benefits are getting revised effective April 15. No further details on website

    Reply
  45. SAURABH JUNEJA

    I recently applied for icici platinum chip credit card but today I got a message after 15 days that application has been processed. However, on checking, I got to know that it’s showing coral credit card instead. Will I be charged for coral as when I applied for platinum chip credit card I was told it will be lifetime free??

    Any suggestions would be appreciated 😊

    Reply
  46. Mugunthan

    Thought of paying a small annual fee to ICICI because my other cards are LTF cards (Amazon and Platinum). So asked for HPCL Visa card (Rs. 199+tax) through Customer care on May.20th afternoon.

    Got a call from ICICI on May.21st evening about processing time for new card as well as about possible delay in physical card delivery due to lock down. He said me the staff name allotted for the work – printing and dispatch of the card (I never heard any bank calls and inform this much details to customers).

    On May.21st night, 9:00PM, got the complete card details in net banking.

    On May.22nd, card got dispatched.

    On May.23rd morning the physical card got delivered to me.

    So ICICI took only 3 days to process and deliver the new card amid lock down.

    (On May. 22nd and 23rd, lock down was relaxed in Tamilnadu and ICICI have perfectly worked in time. Otherwise, I have to wait for one or two more weeks due to lock down).

    Reply

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