Since I have been "chosen" because of my frequent booking at irctc.co.in, I was lured to sign up for this card. The call center agent has provided the following benefits of the card:
No annual fee Activation fee for subhyatra INR 500 and I would get 350 points with irctc that can be redeemed for the ticket purchase INR 15 lakh free insurance
Before I sign up, I thought of looking it up in mouthshut and found lot of complaints about thecard. So, I have decided to check it for myself and asked the agent to visit me with the application and the card’s term and conditions. The agent carried an application form that is generic and not specific to rail card. It has the following issues:
Annual fee INR 1500
No reference to free insurance for the card
When I asked about these discrepancies, the agent called hissupervisor and told me that I can write 0 in the application form for the annual fee consent section and premium charge 0 in the customer comment section. I am not sure how this would hold in case of dispute as I don’t see it printed on the application form. The call center agent was insistent on thatt his is nationalized bank and there will not be any issue and asked me to sign up.
As I am not confident about the process, I turned down the offer.
If the user does not check these terms they may be likely to be slapped with annual fee.
Summary: If you are already having a card that gives you rewards and most of your online booking is not first class, it is not worth it.I carry HDFC platinum card and I don’t incur any service charge for irctconline booking.