Lifetime free credit cards to get blocked!

Status
Not open for further replies.
nRiTeCh

nRiTeCh

Oracle
Lifetime free credit card is the one where there's no joining or annual fees charged by the issuing bank. No charges even for card replacement after expiry etc. unless card damaged or getting stolen. No extra charges on purchases.

But as per my just recent exp. with ICICI and AXIS bank lifetime free credit cards, due to non-usage, such cards will now be getting blocked.
Receiving these smses since few days now..

1658841202371.png


If anyone of you are holding such cards then you might have been receiving texts from the banks. Or might start getting it sooner or later.

Issue is, when confirmed with the customer care they say the card is free so either use it or not there's no question of getting it blocked.
However, emailing the bank says otherwise which sticks to the text messages. Even though the card is sparingly used.

1658844410623.png
 
Last edited:
Even though they are lifetime free, you have to use them otherwise they will get deactivated. It just save annual fee payment but still got to use.
Same is the case of regular cards.
 
  • Like
Reactions: ssslayer
I had an Axis MyZone (lifetime free) credit card (digital in-app) and an add-on card (physical) and the expiry of my digital card was in April 2022 and I was getting SMS notifications that it'll be renewed automatically and I just had to keep my address updated in their records for delivery. The card expired and they never issued a new one.

The app now shows I have no credit card and the add-on card which I have physically doesn't even show in app. I tried using the card and I reach the stage of getting OTP for the transaction but didn't proceed because how would I pay the bill if the app doesn't show the card anymore and says "Apply for a card".

I had very little usage on the card, I always used it once or twice in couple months so it was not completely inactive but here we are. They didn't even notify me before closing, just decided not to issue a new one. I never failed on my payments and my CIBIL score is in good standing.
 
I got the same SMS and email from ICICI bank for my credit card which I hadn't used for the past year. As @puns mentioned dormant cards are deactivated. I used the ICICI card for a couple of bill payments and the problem is resolved. Bill has been generated for the current month. Last year I had got a similar reminder from SBI regarding using my SBI credit card.
 
puns said:
Even though they are lifetime free, you have to use them otherwise they will get deactivated. It just save annual fee payment but still got to use.
Same is the case of regular cards.
Click to expand...
I have asked such queries to the bank numerous times when I was offered these cards and using lifetime cards since 15yrs now and never ever came across such conditions nor mentioned anywhere.
Thus, bank was crystal clear on the usage part.
Even if today if you are getting those daily spam credit card calls just ask them once and they also will reply the same as what I said.
But again unsure if the TnCs have changed all of a sudden since last month or so.
 
Last edited:
@nRiTeCh buddy you should be careful with ICICI, very careful.
i hold similar lifetime free blah blah card (black colour) from them ( i hardly use cc) , i caught them levying annual charges twice a year, two year consecutively.
when confronted they said my annual expenditure is below 50K, so as per their "NEW" policy I have to pay annual charges.
The policy which was never communicated.. and its waste of our time to argue with those illiterate assholes.
good thing they did reversed the double deductions, both the time.

since then im using the card just like debit card once a month, purchase sometime and pay it within 24 hours.

So the banking system is so broken right now, every bank are trying to reduce all possible overheads. closing non active card could be one of the many things.
nimod said:
Received same message from indusind. Used the card to top up paytm for a few thousands.
Click to expand...
best way to deal.
Else if you close the card -- they will put negative ranking in cibil.
 
Last edited:
These guidelines are issued by the RBI, not the banks themselves.
I see no problem in what they're doing. The card is still LTF, they're not asking you to pay THEM any money. Just use it once for a small amount like a phone recharge.
Hope you are aware that similar rules also apply to your bank accounts, demat accounts etc.
If a person passes away, the bank can't be expected to keep that card/ account active in perpetuity, can they?

RBI direction is here: Point 8.b)
 
  • Like
Reactions: ssslayer and psyph3r
letmein said:
These guidelines are issued by the RBI, not the banks themselves.
I see no problem in what they're doing. The card is still LTF, they're not asking you to pay THEM any money. Just use it once for a small amount like a phone recharge.
Hope you are aware the same rules also apply to your bank accounts, demat accounts etc.
If a person passes away, the bank can't be expected to keep that card/ account active in perpetuity, can they?

RBI direction is here: Point 8.b)
Click to expand...
I did mentioned earlier, this policy might have came right now and there it is...Date : Apr 21, 2022.
Earlier no such crap as again said earlier, I'm using lifetime cards from 3 banks till date no such issues. In fact I only used HDFC thrice in 5yrs that too never for consequent 3 years it still gets expire and they send me another card until last year when I cancelled it as I didn't felt the need to continue.
 
jinx said:
Wait SBI offers LTF credit cards??
Click to expand...
They offer to make it LTF prior to closure. The third-party agents also promise the same, but I never trust them.

nRiTeCh said:
I did mentioned earlier, this policy might have came right now and there it is...Date : Apr 21, 2022.
Earlier no such crap as again said earlier, I'm using lifetime cards from 3 banks till date no such issues. In fact I only used HDFC thrice in 5yrs that too never for consequent 3 years it still gets expire and they send me another card until last year when I cancelled it as I didn't felt the need to continue.
Click to expand...
All card issuals are subject to policy changes which is mentioned upfront in the documents. RBI has been coming down on misuse of cards a lot recently and hence we have this and tokenisation. In that sense, this is a good initiative as the lifetime free cards just inflate the card count. Even websites categorize users as active or inactive based on logins, so there is no sense in having issued cards that are not in use.
 
Last edited:
rdst_1 said:
What's with the click-bait headline? You could've used the word 'unused' in the main thread topic itself.
Click to expand...
Well my card is active and been used but on rare occasions so the word UNUSED doesn't really applies here...
If it was for a totally UNUSED ones then the story would have been a bit different..

Btw catchy headlines do catch attentions if you get it... Why not ignore the subject and focus on the main matter instead..
jinx said:
Wait SBI offers LTF credit cards??
Click to expand...
Yes/No
t3chg33k said:
They offer to make it LTF prior to closure. The third-party agents also promise the same, but I never trust them.
Click to expand...
Correct! And sbi will never ever rings its customers to offer such cards but only 3rd party agents who has zero to partial knowledge.
Such agents are good only for pvt. bank cards.

To clear the air, SBI does offers LTF cards to the chosen one having a very lng term relation with them with subscriptions to many services like saving/fds/loans/lockers etc etc.. But again not for all. Their funda is quite fuzzy!
 
Last edited:
nRiTeCh said:
Well my card is active and been used but on rare occasions so the word UNUSED doesn't really applies here...
If it was for a totally UNUSED ones then the story would have been a bit different..

Btw catchy headlines do catch attentions if you get it... Why not ignore the subject and focus on the main matter instead..
Click to expand...
I thought this was about some news that would say Ltf credit cards are gonna be blocked and clicked it so fast. This is no YouTube Bhai :p
 
rockstah said:
I thought this was about some news that would say Ltf credit cards are gonna be blocked and clicked it so fast. This is no YouTube Bhai :p
Click to expand...
Of course they are gonna get blocked if you go through the entire thread and link, and obviously cannot put the main matter in as thread title..
 
Yes got similar communications about my Amex card.. seems to be some new guidelines.
IMO its a good thing. As you don't need to go through the headache of dealing with customer care to get any unused cards deactivated.
In my case I have tried deactivating this Amex card few times and everytime they convince me someway or the other to retain it. They even reduced my yearly fees one time :D
If you need to keep the card though, just make one transaction to load amazon pay wallet or something and then you are good to go for another year
 
  • Like
Reactions: blr_p
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top Bottom