IndusInd Launches a New Credit Card: Celesta – Review

By | July 8, 2019

IndusInd Bank is in the business of launching new credit cards every few months. While I appreciate their intention of bringing new products to the market, I equally dislike their new products as most of them comes with worst reward structure and no benefits that the market demands. 

That all said, here’s yet another failure attempt by Indusind Bank with the launch of their new credit card called Celesta in partnership with American Express. Here’s everything you need to know.

  • Joining Fee: Rs.50,000+GST (welcome gift as below)
  • Annual Fee: Rs.5,000+GST (waived on spend of 10 lacs p.a.)

The available welcome gift options for Celesta are:

  1. Rs.50K worth Oberoi Resorts and Hotels vouchers
  2. Rs.50k worth Montblanc vouchers
  3. A combination of 25K worth Montblanc and Oberoi Resorts and Hotels vouchers
Indusind Celesta Credit Card

Benefits at a glance

  • Reward Rate: 1% Domestic / 3% International
  • Unlimited Complimentary lounge Access
  • Complimentary Shangri-La Golden Circle Jade Membership / Taj innercircle Gold
  • Movie Benefits: 2 complimentary Première Class movie tickets also Buy 1 Get 1 via Bookmyshow
  • Dining Benefits: Dineout Plus, Rs.2500 Discount, Amex Dining Benefits
  • Golf: 3 Complimentary Golf Games per month & 3 Complimentary Golf Lessons per month
  • All Amex Merchant Offers applicable too

While they’ve given a taste of Amex Platinum Charge card into this platform, Indusind can never get close to that when it comes to “Service”. Moreover, a card that costs 50K without International lounge access benefit??!

With this kind of joining fee, you can actually get one top-tier credit card from each of the top 3 credit card issuers like: HDFC Infinia + ICICI Emeralde + SBI Card Elite, which gives you benefits much more than this single card and of course you’ll still save ~23K in doing do 😀

Thanks to Ankit for spotting the card.

Bottomline

  • Cardexpert Rating: 2/5 [yasr_overall_rating]

Just incase if you’re wondering why I gave “2” rating instead of “0”, that’s because 1 for decent design and 1 more for Shangri-la/Taj benefit.

Currently Indusind has 6 Super Premium Credit Cards: Indulge, Crest, Celesta, Pinnacle, Pioneer Legacy & Pioneer Heritage. Out of them only Pinnacle is a good one, which also lost its shine due to new limitations imposed by Indusind from 1st Aug 2019.

Indusind Bank keeps doing the mistake over & over again by launching USELESS credit cards in the Super Premium segment. I still wonder why on earth a bank needs to have so many unwanted super premium cards?!

The kind of money, time & energy they put in setting up the new & useless credit cards could rather be used effectively elsewhere.

Well, that’s just my thoughts. How about yours? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments below with open heart 😀

15 thoughts on “IndusInd Launches a New Credit Card: Celesta – Review

  1. Ankit

    Here’s a bit more “features” Sid.

    *Celesta (Amex Credit Card)*
    *Key Features :*

    *# Lounge :* Unlimited lounge Access (Domestic)
    *# Celesta Dining :*
    *1.* 25% discount through dine-out application exclusively for celesta cm (maximum upto 10k per txn)
    *2.* 20% discount across globe on selected list of dining outlets
    *# Celesta Reward points :* 3 Rp (International) & 1 Rp (Domestic) on every Rs 100 spent
    *# Hertz Car Rentals :* 10% discount on every booking through celesta card & upgrade option also available
    *# Entertainment:* Complimentry 2 premium movie tickets “Rs 700 each” / every month
    *# Golf :* Green fee waived golf access : 3 times in a month
    *# Complimentry Shangri-la-golden Circle Jade membership*
    *# Taj inner circle membership*
    *# Private Designer Consultstion:*
    *1.* Manish Arora
    *2.* Sasha Grewal / Kaabia
    *# Discounted Air chopper facility*
    # Reduced ROI – 2.99%
    # Personal Air Accidental insurance : *2.5 cr*

    *Fee point :*
    # 50k to 100k
    # 200k only for upgrade

    *Minimum credit limit : 2 lacs*

    *Eligibility Criteria :* As per Pinnacle card

    *# Annual fees :* 5k (waived on spend of 10 lacs annualy)

    *# Add on Card fee :* 5k + GST

    *All Cards Having limit of 1.5 lacs : Can be upgrade to Celesta*

    Unbelievable these guys. No international lounge access plus charge for add on cards in a premium card. I have half a mind of canceling my Legend card and putting that FD money into another FD to get the Infinia.

    Reply
  2. Prashant Gupta

    They think the all indians are mindless HNI and Indusind will
    Mint money when infact they are making fools of themselves…….😀

    Reply
  3. Rajesh

    If you combine 2-3 premium cards available with you, this is costliest. No such benefits with this paid card 😀😀😉👎👎

    Reply
  4. Nihar Das

    IndusInd needs a decent Cards product manager. That’s about it ! Hope they are listening.

    Reply
  5. Dipankar

    Add to it the pathetic customer care .. response will be given to your email with a minimum time of 7-8 days !! The reply will start “sorry for the delay” always..

    Reply
    1. Aditya

      The quality of support is pathetic! I am surprised that they can even think of the super premium. Segment! The only good thing is their mobile application which has great features.

      Reply
  6. Surya

    Lulzz… this is the worst super premium card offered with the amex banner on it. I’d rather stick to my Amex plat charge card for now😂

    Reply
  7. Mudit

    Indusind haa the worst customer care possible. that alone is sufficient to shoo away all the customers. they dont need to put so much effort in creating worthless cards !

    There only plan is to get as much as possible upfront with joining fees. so tht once the customer realizes the worth of card he cannot do anything… hence no annual fees for most cards as they no nobody will pay thm !!

    I have a personal experience with like 20 mail chain of dealing with thier customer service. they sent wrong card and then took 3 re applications and 10 months to give the right card. Sometimes its like “wow, how can a customer care be so incompetent in this era”

    why wait 10 months ? Because they had already taken the joining fees ! so cant do anything but hope they will give the right card some day… haha

    Reply
  8. M Loganathan

    At present I am holding an HDFC regalia world credit card. Can I upgrade or continue with the same card

    Reply
  9. AM

    Lol so many haters 50k joining fees can be offset by the hotel vouchers
    5k a year can be justified for Shangri-La Golden Circle Jade Membership / Taj innercircle Gold

    I think the only other card offer it is amex platinum charge which may not make sense to many

    I would say it’s a niche product not for everyone

    Reply
  10. Aditya Mohta

    I want to book free golf lesson , how can i do it please suggest.

    Reply

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