Keeping in mind, my long association with SBI for other financial services, I decided I would like to try out its credit card around 4 years back. After a lot of negotiations, they finally managed to allot me the SBI SimplySAVE Pro credit card. Let me talk about my experiences with the same as below.
KEY FEATURES:
I am aware of their other cards too. Personally, I don’t think "Credit Cards" is SBI’s strong point, even though I like some of their other financial services. They always tend to be relatively less rewarding in this aspect.
5X rewards points: W.r.t. points accrual, it allows you 5X points accrual on any dining outlet, departmental stores and movie experiences. There are probably some reward points on joining too. The good thing is that the reward accrual was always there even on smaller dining outlets for every Rs. 125 spent. But the bad thing was you miss out on points even if you fall short by a small margin. Considering the rewards are itself 5X and not more, overall it doesn’t seem like a good deal even though the point accrual is steady and continuous. On similar lines, the points accrual is also accounted for, in movie watching and departmental stores.
Fuel Surcharge Waiver: There is a provision of fuel surcharge waiver also for vehicle owners, although I didn’t use it.
VISA Card / International Acceptance: The card is internationally accepted, which is not very unusual nowadays. Also, being a VISA card, it is widely accepted.
Annual Fee Waiver: This is where it scores over the basic SimplySAVE card. One has to spend Rs 30, 000 with this card in the previous year to get the annual fee of Rs. 500 waived. On the non-Pro version, Rs. 1, 00, 000 has to be spent to avail the same. Considering the very basic features, one wonders why isn’t there any option of offering free to its loyal and longstanding customers.
WiFi Card: As is the norm with latest cards, WiFi is supported for transactions.
Online Card Transactions: It is supported, but is not as secure as many other cards. One gets that feeling with usage. Transaction can happen easily at times with this card.
Redemption on Products: This is another area where it scores low. It has a vast range of products to be redeemed with one’s points. That’s not bad, but the redemption rates are so unrealistic or hefty, that one can only dream of reaching their goals, but not practically realise it. That’s not a good scenario to complement the already somewhat gradual accrual of points.
If you are only looking to redeem a voucher, there too the rates are lowest, being Rs. 0.20 / point on most occasions (general).
Maybe their aim is to ensure more card usage, but they should also understand why should anyone waste time using a non-productive card when there are so many more rewarding options? To put things into perspective, I only redeemed something 4 times in 4 years.
Customer Service: This is ok. I did not observe anything great or bad in this regard.
Conclusion: To conclude, I was happy to get the burden of having this card off my back a few months back as one feels one has to use it when one has it. At the same time, one wonders, what is the point of using it with such low returns and working hard for basic things.
It is their "Pro Card", but neither SimplySAVE nor SimplySAVePro is likely to compare well with several other basic cards. I’m glad I no longer use it, even though I’ve had 2 instances of the card in the last 3.5 years.