IndusInd Credit Card Rewards Program getting less attractive from 1st Aug 2019

By | June 28, 2019

Indusind has announced couple of changes to their credit card loyalty program that’s said to go live by 1st Aug 2019 and so here’s everything you need to know about the un-impressive future of the Indusind Credit Cards.

Indusind Iconia American Express Credit Card

Lower Rewards on Select Categories

What’s the Change?

Going forward, your reward rate for spends on below categories drops from 2%-2.5% to as low as 0.7% on most premium cards and much lower on entry-level cards. The catagories with lower rewards are as follows,

  • Utility Bill Payments
  • Insurance Premium Payments
  • Government Services/Charges/Payments
  • Education Institute Fees

Is this Change Necessary?

Absolutely not to this extent. Limiting Utility Bill/Gov. Services is just fine, as bank may earn less % on those txns. But coming to Education & Insurance, they could have rather limited the points with max. cap instead of setting the flat %.

Rewards capped to your Credit Limit

What’s the Change?

Going forward, you will earn reward points only for spends upto the assigned credit limit in every statement cycle. Meaning, if you pre-pay multiple times to the card and then spend due to low credit limit, then you no longer get rewards for those spends done beyond your credit limit.

This is a HUGE blow!

This almost affects everyone because, when you go on Shopping spree during festive season to earn that 2x/3x/5x rewards, you’ll be limited by your credit limit and hence low rewards.

Is this Change Necessary?

This is probably one of the many worst decisions that Indusind took in recent times. Indusind has already been limiting the ability to earn points per “statement cycle” which was OKAY but now they’ve took it to one more level – worser.

If the bank see’s a set of cardholders taking advantage of pre-payments to 5x/10x of the limit, bank could probably inform individually to reduce the activity, rather than hitting everyone with this rule, which affects even those once in a while doers.

Detailed terms & conditions on the changes are here.

There’s even more

Due to above changes and other “un-announced” changes, it appears that Indusind is not willing to give you the reward points even for valid txns.

I recently did a valid offline retail txn on my Indusind Iconia Amex and the bank didn’t credit the reward points for that txn.

I tweeted about this issue a while back and it appears that even many others are facing the same issue,

Eventhough I got the points after I raised a query, it appears that the Indusind team isn’t working in good intention when it comes to crediting the reward points you deserve.

Bottomline

So overall, its safe to assume that Indusind no longer has plans to play the premium credit card game the right way. All their newly launched premium / super premium cards are just useless.

From the newly launched co-branded credit cards with Thomas Cook, Payback to super premium cards like Crest & Pioneer range of cards – none of the cards have the right kind of benefits that the market demands. Not to mention, their flashy NEXXT card is yet another flop of 2018.

Few years back, I used to think that Indusind had amazing credit cards like Pinnacle & Iconia Amex, though their poor/not-so transparent Joining fee concepts doesn’t make it attractive. But now as they ruined the benefits too, their cards no longer look attractive as it was in the past.

If they don’t re-structure the credit card portfolio with right kind of joining fees & benefits, I don’t think they’ll get any attention from premium cardholders.

What’s your take on the latest changes that’s about to happen on Indusind Credit Cards? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments below.

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.

44 thoughts on “IndusInd Credit Card Rewards Program getting less attractive from 1st Aug 2019

  1. Hemanth

    Indusind can easily play decent and occupy the void YES bank generated (selfie moment)

    Reply
  2. Manu

    I Dont remember the last time I used my iconia amex.with unlimited lounge access gone. The card became a permanent resident of my flat rather than a wallet companion.

    Reply
  3. Maj Shetty

    Yes,got the mail too…I just want to know does this reduction in points also apply also on e wallet loading like paytm??
    Hold the amex variant of iconia

    Reply
    1. Firose

      ya it does…as it comes under utilities….Paytm, phonepe, Freecharge, Mobikwik…all fall under utilities in the credit card statement.

      Reply
  4. Captain Bishuddha Bharatiya

    The intensity of restrictions and reduction in rewards points is very new in the industry.

    Reply
  5. Jambui

    Always saw that one time joining fees as a dodgy thing. Was right afterall.
    Seems like new card joining fees became less than reward outgo, so the very action by card management.

    No forsightness in how to handle the card division. They after brought this division from other bank. Not an organic hard earned growth.

    Reply
  6. Ankur

    Was checking statement and yes they are not providing points for many transactions and when called customer care , executive told that he is able to see the points, so asked for duplicate statement with points and will complaint if no points provided their too. Indus Ind has dropped in reputation now by doing these tactics. Will not recommend Indus Ind cards now to anyone.

    Reply
  7. Praveen Katiyar

    @Sid
    Thanks for another prompt & honest review.
    hahhahha.. here’s everything you need to know about the “un-impressive” future of the Indusind Credit Cards..

    I was few months back inclined to apply for upgrade of my LTF Platinum Aura to Iconia Amex (for weekend spends among others) by paying one time fee, thank God i didn’t. With Credit card industry geared to better products along with newer offering, I think this is the final Nail in Indusind’s Credit Card coffin. May God give them peace.

    Reply
  8. A2Z

    Indusind picked up Credit Card portfolio from Deutsche & they never looked to grow upon that
    They did launch Iconia, Pinnacle cards but they never put bigger thought behind these
    Their abrupt joining fee compensated by sort of lesser popular vouchers does not fetch interest
    Iconia/Pinaccle with 2% weekend rewards only had that advantage of adjusting rewards against outstanding
    Else their super premium cards as Sid mentioned are really not worth mentioning
    Their lackluster customer support compliment equally pathetic card portfolio

    Nonetheless last Diwali only Indusind offered Rewardz fest which had something worth to discuss otherwise most banks played lottery spends game with offers
    Indusind Rewardz had assured rewards hence made most impact
    Still they have not been clear about loading Wallets
    Usually they exclude wallets from spends based offers but for usual RP they have not done that, Hope they don’t 😛

    Reply
    1. Prem Taparia

      Most of the wallet load transactions viz. Payzapp, PhonePe, YesPay etc are considered as Utility by Indusind. They actually have a ‘Merchant Category’ column in their credit card statement for each spend.

      Interestingly, Paytm and AmazonPay transactions are considered as ‘Merchandise’ by them (even for wallet loading and utility bill payments…Ha!).

      Another interesting hack: Instead of loading money INTO Payzapp, if you directly pay THROUGH Payzapp, then the merchant description changes to ‘Instapay BBPS’ which is categorized as ‘Apparel’ by Indusind.

      But overall, this is a sad move…hope other card companies do not follow suit 🙁

      Reply
    2. Prannoy Ghosh

      Wallet loading no more accrues points on Iconia Amex…. Classified as Insurance

      Reply
  9. Kiran

    Hi Sid,

    What’s the effect on Legend Card?

    Does redemption option also changed by these changes ?

    Reply
  10. Akarsh

    Thanks for the update Sid. I was thinking of switching to IndusInd Signature Legend from SBI Elite as they were offering it for 10k joining fees with vouchers to me. Now with the new reward system it makes no sense to switch. I’ll be sticking to my SBI Elite for now.

    Reply
  11. Prannoy Ghosh

    The last nail to the coffin has been laid – RIP IndusInd Credit Card. The only thing left to do is redeem the points & close this.

    I had a great run with Iconia Amex last Diwali, where I spent nearly 3.5 lacs & took out the max benefit of 25k reward points totally.

    Reply
  12. Arko

    What does prepay on the credit card and it affecting the limit mean? If someone can explain..

    Reply
  13. GOPSS

    Hi Sid,

    i have indusind pinnacle credit card with 4.5 lakh credit limit..mostly i use my card for grocery purchase and i spend almost 4.3 lakhs on my pinnacle card every month on ecommerce site(grocery for Business).
    is there any effect on pinnacle card?
    AND ALSO I WOULD LIKE TO KNOW THAT AM I ELIGIBLE FOR HDFC DINERS CLUB BLACK CARD?
    MY PINNACLE CARD IS 6 MONTHS OLD

    THANK YOU.

    Reply
  14. Himanshu Kainth

    Indusind iconia was decent card for me. As i spends on weekends and save 2%.

    I don’t spend on these categories with my iconia amex but most annoying thing is Not getting reward points on retail txn.

    After escalating, they credited the points. Hope it is not done purposly.

    Anyways too many devaluation news on different cards. Is this end of golden days?

    Reply
  15. Poornith Ninan

    I use a LTF Platinum Aura Card (Travel Plan) and looks like my card has been spared from the devaluation. I still will earn 2.5 Saving Points for every Rs.100/- spend on merchants registered under the ‘Travel’ category. The redemption value is Rs.0.50/- for every savings point. Usually I redeem the points for Amazon vouchers but this month they took away the redemption option so I called the bank and requested for statement credit which worked out great. So I personally think it is not yet time to park my card. In fact, IndusInd reached out to me two weeks back and offered me two options. One was to increase the credit limit on my Aura card by 50% or get a LTF Iconia Card as a companion card with 50% credit limit of my existing card. I decided to take the credit limit enhancement option so that the larger limit will allow me to put on larger travel related spends thereby earning more reward points overall.

    Reply
  16. Aaditya

    Hey Sid

    Any idea on how to check reward point credits for each transactions?

    This question is not limited to IndusInd but to all including HDFC, Amex, StanC.

    Reply
    1. Viswanathan

      @Aaditya, you can see that in monthly stmt for IndusInd. For Amex and SC, you can check in their website. AMEX gives detailed info with Txn details. SC gives with only date. SO, for SC, if you make multiple txns for same day, finding yourself might be challenging. HDFC is bad in that. You need to call to get this info.

      Reply
  17. Jinesh shah

    Which is the Best Card with Low Forex Markup now?
    I had the Yes First Preferred and the Indusind Legend. Since now both of them are devalued, what should I be looking at?

    Reply
  18. Balaji

    What about indusind iconia visa variant?

    Till now was a fan of this card. Now I have to stick to icici Amazon card only

    Reply
  19. Nihar Das

    These changes will not work out for IBL, it’s a flawed product packaging. Agree they were bleeding earlier on some swipes but only IBL can make these changes !! Bad move. Do they still give points on fuel spends ?

    Reply
  20. Venkata

    Indusind is not good in approving the credit cards too. I applied for Indusind credit card around 4 years ago and got rejected due to poor credit score, Later I rectified issues with SC bank and got approval on other bank cards. But now after 4 years time IndusInd rejected my credit card and when I contacted the bank representative, he told me my credit score is not good, When I asked him a copy of the credit score for my reference, he gave me 2015 credit score based on which they rejected my credit card. I think they don’t have money for even to get a fresh credit report.

    Reply
    1. Himanshu Kainth

      Venkata,

      Maybe there is an issue with your cibil report. If not, you can escalate this issue and ask to re-process your application. Have applied for indus iconia card. It was approved within 5 days and got handsome limit.

      Reply
  21. Ankit Jain

    I got call from indusind sales team that it will be applicable for new CC card issued after 1 Aug. Not applicable to existing CC. Can someone card holder confirm same from bank.. Should i apply for their card or not.. Thanks

    Reply
    1. Praveen Katiyar

      @Ankit Jain
      Stay away.. unless u r getting LTF.

      Reply
    2. Srikanth V V

      Even existed card holders got the message saying rewards are going to be changed on your credit card.
      If sales team is saying that ask him to send a mail from the official address with the same thing.

      Reply
      1. Ankit Jain

        Asked same, he got stumbled. Thanks @Praveen and @Srikanth..
        my initial cc application was regeted last week due to some issue and was planning to apply again with hard push to rm on card to card basis this week. Documents submitted on 27 Aug.
        Read post on 28 Aug and Ask them to cancel. Even, sales guys was not aware and shocked. Thanks @Sid

        Was planning for pinnacle saved 60k on last minute..

        Reply
    3. Himanshu Kainth

      Ankit Jain,

      I hold iconia amex card. Even i have recieved the message. Also i know many holders who have received this message. Looks like customer care is bluffing you.

      Reply
  22. Ravi Arya

    Hi Siddharth,
    Thanks for the updates. I got my IndusInd Iconia card sometime back. Not using it much. However, I recently noticed that it provides priority pass even for the addon card holder. Can you please inform whether its true and worth it like other priority pass membership for e.g. like HDFC Regalia or there is some catch like no free visits under priority pass. If thats true is there any woth of holding this card at all now that lounge access also reduced and there’s devalued rewards program.

    Reply
  23. Siddharth Mehta

    Outright stupid move… my iconia amex will lie in some corner of my house unused from now. its LTF anyways, so i won’t cancel it. I will just use for bank specific offers (which too have become rare these days).

    Reply
    1. Himanshu Kainth

      Hello Siddharth Mehta,

      How did you manage to get LTF? Corporate offer?

      I don’t think it has devalued a lot. Some categories are affected. But not all. Still it is decent card for 2% weekend savings.

      Reply
  24. Beginner

    With effect from 15th March 2022, 1 Reward Point = Rs. 0.75 of cash value for cash credit, sad move

    Reply
    1. balaji

      Time to ditch this card. Axis ACE all the way now for me.

      Reply

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