If Covid-19 and the ensuing lockdowns have got you habituated to purchasing your essentials only online, there are specialised credit cards that can come handy. A few banks are issuing credit cards in partnership with popular e-commerce companies to attract more consumers especially in the post pandemic contactless world. The Amazon Pay ICICI Bank Credit Card and the Flipkart Axis Bank Credit Card are two such cards. These credit cards offer rewards on your online purchases in the form of cashbacks, discounts and reward points. E-commerce websites also provide extra offers to such cardholders on their select purchases. These are over and above the existing discounts, cashbacks, and reward points.
While your affinity to a select e-commerce platform might be a key criterion in deciding the credit card to opt for, there are also other parameters to consider. Here is a lowdown on a few of them.
Enrolment, fees
A registered Amazon Pay user, despite not being an existing customer of ICICI Bank, can easily apply for an ICICI Bank co-branded credit card entirely online using the video KYC facility. They can do so either on the bank’s website or mobile application or through the Amazon.in website or mobile app.
However, for a Flipkart Axis Bank credit card, you must have a current or saving account with Axis Bank apart from being a registered Flipkart user. That apart, the Axis Bank credit card also entails a joining fee of ₹500, while the Amazon Pay ICICI Bank Credit Card is free of cost.
The Amazon pay ICICI Bank card is a free lifetime credit card with no joining or annual fees whereas the Flipkart Axis Bank credit card charges an annual fee of ₹500 after the first year. This is, however waived if the annual spends on the card exceed ₹2 lakh.
On the amount overdue, while ICICI Bank charges an interest of 42-45.6 per cent depending on customer profile, Axis Bank charges 49.36 per cent per annum for amounts overdue on retail purchases and cash transactions. See the table for a comparison on other charges.
Benefits offered
The Flipkart Axis Bank credit card comes with a host of welcome benefits such as free vouchers, discounts and cashbacks on the first card transaction on Flipkart, Myntra, etc. and a free 15-month subscription to Gaana. There are no such benefits on enrolment in the case of the ICICI Bank credit card.
On the ICICI Bank card, customers earn 3 per cent reward points on card spends on Amazon (5 per cent for Amazon Prime users). Besides, one can earn 2 per cent reward points for spends on digital categories on Amazon.in such as bill payments, recharges, travel and movie bookings, and for payments to other Amazon Pay merchants such as Swiggy, Bookmyshow, and Yatra. For spends on any merchant location in the country where Visa cards are accepted, the card fetches you 1 per cent reward points.
Besides, the bank offers benefits mostly in the form of reward points. Each reward point is equal to one rupee and the reward earnings are credited directly to the Amazon pay monthly balance after the billing cycle.
The Axis bank card offers cashbacks that are directly credited in the credit card statement in the next billing cycle. The bank offers cashbacks such as 5 per cent of the spends on Flipkart, Myntra and 2GUD. On spends on other preferred merchants such as Swiggy, PVR and Uber, the bank offers 4 per cent cashback. On all other categories of merchant spends, the bank offers 1.5 per cent cashback.
While the ICICI Bank credit card offers 2 per cent reward points when you add money to your Amazon pay wallet, the Axis Bank card does not offer cashbacks for wallet loading transactions.
Fuel surcharge waiver
The banks also offer their existing customers other benefits such as discounts on dining in select restaurants. Besides, the Axis Bank credit card also gives its customers four free lounge accesses in select domestic airports every calendar year.
Both banks do not offer rewards points and cashbacks on fuel, EMI transactions (including purchases converted into EMI later) and gold purchases. However, the banks offer waivers on fuel surcharge – 1 per cent in the case of the Axis Bank credit card for transactions in the range of ₹400- 4,000 up to a maximum of ₹500 per month. In the case of the ICICI Bank credit card, only the existing bank customers get a waiver of 1 per cent on fuel surcharge payments on spends using the bank’s Amazon pay co-branded credit card.
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