What credit card I should get as my first card?

Sorry to hijack this thread, but didn't want to start another one for almost the same topic.
Wife and I are looking to get CCs, one each!
What is a good combo to get, so as to cover most of the offers, and also have decent set of rewards.
Both of us have ICICI Salary accounts, if that helps..
 
Psycho_McCrazy said:
Sorry to hijack this thread, but didn't want to start another one for almost the same topic.
Wife and I are looking to get CCs, one each!
What is a good combo to get, so as to cover most of the offers, and also have decent set of rewards.
Both of us have ICICI Salary accounts, if that helps..
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Why stop at one CC each? If you are disciplined, get LTF cards of major banks first, like ICICI plat, Axis myzone & if HDFC offers you any, like I got Milennia from them. For paid cards, depending on your usage, Axis airtel, HDFC swiggy, Axis FK, ICICI amazon pay (you technically pay for prime sub), SBI cashback are good choices.
 
OMEGA44-XT said:
if HDFC offers you any, like I got Milennia from them
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Nowadays hdfc offer ltf cards (excl virtual rupay card) only to employees of certain companies in their list eligible for such ltf card offers or if customer has a very high relationship value with the bank.

Psycho_McCrazy said:
Both of us have ICICI Salary accounts, if that helps..
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Get icici ltf cards only & keep in mind that icici bank does not have a chargeback policy for cases where you have a dispute with seller over product quality/misleading descriptions etc so as long as your order from ecomm site is delivered then icici will not consider anything that happens afterwards. Get Amex card if you want best customer support miles ahead of any other cc in India & don't mind sacrificing a few thousand rupees cashback/reward for peace of mind that if a defective product is delivered & ecomm site refuse to accept your argument then amex is there is save the day.

Hachune said:
I think it's best to get all the free card from each bank and then if still not enough, low cost cards lol. That way you won't miss out any offers xD
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Just fyi, having too many credit cards will affect your ability to take large amt home loan at good interest rate in future.
 
Hachune said:
Even without a debt? I didn't know that. Thanks for the information
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Having multiple CCs are an indication that you rely heavily on credit, even if you don't have any debt, because CCs are inherently flexible loans given by banks.

Personally, I just have one CC. My salary is credited on the 10th of every month. From the 1st-10th, I use my CC for household expenses and some shopping (thus, I do not touch my month-end savings). Once my salary comes in, I pay off my CC in full. That way, I keep my CC active, and earn some points, as well.
 
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Hachune said:
Even without a debt? I didn't know that. Thanks for the information
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The reason is, potential liability. Say a person has annual income of 6 lakh but has 4 cc each having avg limit of around 2 lakh (very easy nowadays as many ppl earning less have cc with 2-3 lakh limit on easily obtainable cards) then it means that person has the capacity to spend 8 lakhs in extreme case while having an income of 6 lakhs. Now if that person goes to a bank to take home loan then this extreme scenario will be considered while approving the loan amt/interest rate. Same situation can happen with a person having annual income of 12 lakh while holding 4 cc each having 5 lakh limit. In short, your total cc combined limit should be reasonably less than your total income if planning on applying for a home loan in the future.
 
PunkX 75 said:
Having multiple CCs are an indication that you rely heavily on credit, even if you don't have any debt, because CCs are inherently flexible loans given by banks.

Personally, I just have one CC. My salary is credited on the 10th of every month. From the 1st-10th, I use my CC for household expenses and some shopping (thus, I do not touch my month-end savings). Once my salary comes in, I pay off my CC in full. That way, I keep my CC active, and earn some points, as well.
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I have 6 CCs which I use mainly for reward points & offers. If you are not disciplined enough, better to not get a CC at all. Sadly these people are how CC providers can provide rewards but apparently, India has more disciplined users than indisciplined ones, that's why we saw a lot of CCs getting devalued recently.

All my CCs have due date between 5-10th of the month, so even I pay it in full when my salary gets credited even though I can afford to pay it before that. Free 30 day credit is nice to have but surely you shouldn't be dependent on it.

Not sure of home loan but I was getting car loans easily. My friend was getting home loan at competitive ROI when his CC limits were almost as much as his annual CTC but his CC utilisation ratio is low (same for me). I hope banks check that as well.
 
OMEGA44-XT said:
Not sure of home loan but I was getting car loans easily. My friend was getting home loan at competitive ROI when his CC limits were almost as much as his annual CTC but his CC utilisation ratio is low (same for me). I hope banks check that as well.
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I know someone who was specifically told that his 40-50 lakh home loan will either be approved with lower amt or higher interest rate (in comparison to what is available for someone at near 800/800 cibil score) because his total combined cc limit was almost reaching 20-30 lakh) with annual income of around 20-30 lakh I think. Actually, cc companies/banks too aren't supposed to give a person with high card limit after seeing their cibil report which mention all existing cc limit as well as the income proof submitted by the person to the bank but this is not strictly followed in India unlike US & here banks will give 4-5 lakh limit on low end/co-branded/not-so-popular cc to ppl declaring themselves as self-employed with less than 5 lakh annual income as long as they keep paying the bills on or before due date. Ideally, a person having say 20 lakh annual income proof shouldn't be able to get multiple cc with total combined card limit more than that.
 
OMEGA44-XT said:
but apparently, India has more disciplined users than indisciplined ones, that's why we saw a lot of CCs getting devalued recently.
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CCs have been getting devalued mostly due to banks suffering losses on things such as lounge access, and people using CCs to clear business transactions.

Also, I may be wrong, but I doubt (most) people in the country are disciplined when it comes to CCs. CC defaults are massively on the rise.

www.indiatoday.in

How a credit card pandemic is gripping India

Just a decade ago, credit cards were a rarity, with stringent eligibility criteria. From two crore in 2011 to 10 crore in 2024, the number of credit cards issued in India has seen a phenomenal jump. With it has risen the spend on credit cards and the defaults. Now, India is facing a credit card...
www.indiatoday.in www.indiatoday.in
 
PunkX 75 said:
CCs have been getting devalued mostly due to banks suffering losses on things such as lounge access, and people using CCs to clear business transactions.
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CCs are getting devalued because majority pay their bills on time while many of them also misuse the cards for rewards.

PunkX 75 said:
Also, I may be wrong, but I doubt (most) people in the country are disciplined when it comes to CCs. CC defaults are massively on the rise.
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They are on the rise because due to above reason banks are now handing out CCs like candy in hope that 2 defaulters/min due amt payers out of 10 would be able to cover the losses incurred by the remaining 8 paying full bills on time incl 3-4 also misusing the card for rewards & earn some decent profit on top of that.

Btw that 4072 crore figure mentioned in the article is less than the total of promotional expenses (aka rewards/cb/sale offers etc) of sbi cc+hdfc cc+icici cc+axis cc.
 
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