SBI Prime Credit Card
SBI Prime Credit Card is a lifestyle credit card issued by SBI Card. The Prime card carries a membership fee of Rs. 2,999 per annum. In many aspects, the card is very much similar to the SBI ELITE Credit Card (having a membership fee of Rs. 4,999) and can be regarded as a toned-down version of the same. Still, SBI Prime Card does offer plenty of value-added benefits like complimentary domestic/international airport lounge access, discounted hotel bookings and movie tickets, etc.
In terms of reward rate, you gain 2 Reward Points per Rs. 100 spent with this card & 10 Reward Points per Rs. 100 for dining, groceries, and departmental store spends. With 1 Reward Point valued at Rs. 0.25, the effective reward rate for the card becomes 2.5% on dining, groceries, and departmental store categories and 0.5% on all other categories of spends.
SBI Card Prime, just like the ELITE Card, is issued in three variants- MasterCard, American Express, and VISA variant. Although the reward rate and benefits offered by all three variants are more or less the same, the payment networks do offer some exclusive benefits on their variant (details later in the article). Read on to know more about this lifestyle credit card by SBI Card.
- Joining Fee- Rs. 2,999 (plus applicable charges)
- Renewal Fee- Rs. 2,999 (plus applicable taxes)
- Best Suited For- Travel | Shopping
- Reward Type- Reward Points
- Welcome Benefits- Gift voucher (worth Rs. 3,000) from any of these brands, Yatra, Aditya Birla Fashion, Bata/Hush Puppies, Shoppers Stop, and Pantaloons.
Rewards and Benefits
- Movie & Dining- 5X Reward Points (10 Reward Points) on dining and movie spends
- Get up to 25% discount on dining bills at partner restaurants (only with AmEx variant)
- Rewards Rate- 10 Reward Points for every spend of Rs. 100 on groceries, dining, movie and departmental store, 2 RPs for every Rs. 100 spent on all other retail.
- Reward Redemption- Redeem reward points on Sbicard.com for gift vouchers or for settling the card’s statement balance. 1 RP = Rs. 0.25
- Travel- Complimentary Trident Privilege Red Tier Membership, Complimentary Club Vistara Silver membership, & complimentary international and domestic airport lounge visits.
- Golf- Complimentary 4 rounds of green fee and 1 complimentary golf lesson every month and also up to 50% off on golf games (With MasterCard Variant only)
- Domestic Lounge Access- 8 complimentary domestic airport lounge visits per annum (max visits 2 per quarter)
- International Lounge Access- 4 complimentary international airport lounge access every year with Priority Pass Membership (2 per quarter)
- Insurance Benefits- Air accident cover (worth Rs. 50 lakhs), fraud liability cover (worth Rs. 1 lakh) applicable from 48 hours prior to 7 days post reporting about the loss of the card to the bank
- Zero Liability Protection- Fraud liability cover (worth Rs. 1 lakh) applicable from 48 hours prior to 7 days post reporting the loss of card to the bank
Fees & Charges
- Spend based Waiver- Renewal fee is waived off if a minimum of Rs. 3 lakhs were spent in the previous year
- Rewards Redemption Fee- Rs. 99 (plus applicable taxes) per redemption request
- Foreign Currency Markup- 3.5% of the transaction amount
- Interest Rates- 3.5% per month (42% per annum)
- Fuel Surcharge- 1% fuel surcharge waiver applicable on every fuel transaction between Rs. 500 to Rs. 4,000 (maximum waiver of Rs. 250 in a month).
- Cash Advance Charge- 2.5% of the amount withdrawn or Rs. 500 (whichever is higher)
- Add-on Card Fee- Nil
Product Details
- Gift voucher (worth Rs. 3,000) as a welcome offer upon card issuance.
- 10 Reward Points for every spend of Rs. 100 on dining, movies, groceries, and departmental store spends.
- For other retail spends, get 2 RPs on every transaction of Rs. 100.
- E-Gift Voucher worth Rs. 7,000 from Yatra or Pantaloons on spending Rs. 5 lakh in a year.
- A Pizza Hut e-voucher worth Rs. 1,000 on spending Rs. 50,000 in a calendar quarter.
- Renewal fee waived off on an expenditure of Rs. 3 lakhs or more in the last year.
- 4 complimentary international airport lounge access every year (max 2 per quarter).
- 8 complimentary domestic airport lounge access every year (max 2 in a quarter).
- Up to 15% discount on finest available room rates at Lalit and F&B hotels (only available for MasterCard variant).
- Up to 10% off on Hertz car rental and get up to 35% off on Avis Car Rentals (for Visa card variant only).
- Enjoy exclusive benefits across 900 extravagance hotels. (only for Visa variant).
- Complimentary Club Vistara Silver Membership.
- Complimentary Trident Privilege Red Tier Membership.
- 20 Reward points for every spend of Rs. 100 on birthday (max cap of 2,000 Reward Points on birthday spends).
SBI Prime Card Benefits and Features
As discussed earlier, the Prime card comes with some world-class benefits in various categories, including dining, movies, travel, shopping, golf, and many more. Other than all these categories, this card provides exclusive welcome and milestone benefits as well. Let’s now understand the benefits and the features of the SBI card prime in detail:
Welcome Benefits:
Enjoy a shopping/travel gift voucher (worth Rs. 3,000) from any of the these brands- Bata/Hush Puppies, Aditya Birla Fashion, Pantaloons, Yatra, and Shoppers Stop.
Milestone Benefits:
- Pizza Hut e-voucher worth Rs. 1,000 on a quarterly expenditure of Rs. 50,000.
- E-voucher worth Rs. 7,000 from Yatra or Pantaloons on an annual expenditure of Rs. 5 lakh.
- Membership renewal fee waived off on an annual expenditure of Rs. 3 lakhs.
Travel Benefits:
- Complimentary Club Vistara Silver Membership.
- Complimentary Trident Privilege Red Tier membership.
- Complimentary domestic as well as international airport lounge visits.
- Up to 15% discount on finest available room rates at Lalit and F&B hotels (only available for MasterCard variant).
- Up to 10% off on Hertz car rental and get up to 35% off on Avis Car Rentals (for Visa card variant only).
- Enjoy exclusive benefits across 900 extravagance hotels. (only for Visa variant).
- Complimentary Tablet plus membership that offers access to VIP upgrades and benefits at hotels in India as well as abroad (only for the American Express variant).
Airport Lounge Access:
- 2 complimentary access to domestic airport lounges (per quarter) by MasterCard/Visa/American Express.
- 4 complimentary international airport lounge access annually (max 2 per quarter) through Priority Pass membership.
Dining and Movie Benefits:
- 5X Reward Points (10 Reward Points per Rs. 100) on movie spends.
- Get up to 25% discount at partner restaurants as a dining benefit (only with the American Express variant).
Golf Benefits:
Following are the golf benefits that you can enjoy with the Mastercard variant:
- 4 rounds of complimentary green fees.
- Up to 50% discount on golf games.
- 1 complimentary golf lesson per month.
Insurance Benefits:
- Complimentary air accident liability cover worth Rs. 50 lakh.
- Fraud liability cover worth Rs. 1 lakh applicable from 48 hours prior to 7 days post reporting the loss of card to the bank.
Zero Liability Protection
The SBI Card provides zero liability protection to its credit cardholders, according to which, the cardholder would not be responsible for any unauthorized/fraudulent purchases made on your misplaced/stolen card if you have reported to the bank about the loss in a timely manner.
SBI Prime Card Rewards Benefits:
- 10 Reward Points for every Rs. 100 spent on dining, movies, groceries and departmental store spends.
- 2 Reward Points for every Rs. 100 spent on all other retail spends with the card.
- 20 Reward Points everytime you spend Rs. 100 on birthday (Reward Points on Birthday spends (one day before, on birthday, and one day after birthday) is capped at 2,000 Reward points per calendar year)
Reward Points Redemption:
Following are the redemption options for the Reward points earned with the card:
- Gift vouchers on sbicard.com or through SBI mobile app.
- Settling card’s outstanding balance.
- 1 Reward Point = Rs. 0.25.
SBI Card Prime Fees & Charges
Checking all the fees & charges applicable with a credit card is an essential step to be followed while choosing the right credit card. Different credit cards come with different fee structures, which include annual fees, interest rates, forex markup fees, cash advance charges, and many more. The fees & charges of the SBI Card Prime are as follows:
- The joining & renewal fee for the SBI Card Prime is Rs. 2,999 (plus applicable taxes). You can’t get the joining fee waived, but the renewal fee of Rs. 2,999 can be waived off on spending Rs. 3 lakhs or more in the last year.
- If the cardholder is not able to settle the outstanding bill before the due date, interest charges of 3.5% per month (42% annually) would be charged on the due amount.
- The cash advance fees on the SBI Card Prime is 2.5% of the cash amount withdrawn subject to a minimum of Rs. 500. This fee is applicable whenever you withdraw cash using SBI Card Prime.
- The card charges 3.5% of the transaction amount as foreign currency markup for purchases made in a different currency.
SBI Card Prime Eligibility & Documentation
Every card comes with eligibility criteria that a person has to fulfill. These criteria revolve around the person’s age, income, and credit history. Similarly, SBI Card Prime also has its own eligibility criteria, which is as mentioned below:
Criteria | Age | Income |
Salaried | 18 years – 65 years | Rs. 32,000 per month |
Self-employed | 21 years – 65 years | Rs. 32,000 per month (as per ITR) |
Documents Required
Following are the documents that one has to upload or submit while filling out the application for the SBI Prime Card:
- Identity Proof – Voters’ Id, PAN Card, Passport, Aadhar Card, Driving License, etc.
- Address Proof – Aadhar Card, Driving license, Passport, Utility bills, etc.
- Income Proof – Latest salary slips, Latest ITR, latest bank statements.
How To Apply For SBI Card Prime?
Like every other major card issuer, SBI Card also provides its customers with several ways to apply for an SBI Credit Card. SBI offers both online and offline ways to apply for the Prime card. If you want to apply offline, simply visit the nearest SBI branch and fill in the application form present there. Make sure to keep all the required documents including identity proof, address proof, and income proof with you. If you want to apply for the SBI Prime Card online, follow the steps as mentioned below:
- Visit SBI Card’s official website.
- You will see a section, ‘Apply,’ click on ‘apply now.’
- A list of all the SBI Credit Cards will be visible on your screen.
- Select SBI Card Prime and click on ‘apply now’.
- Proceed further to fill in the online application form and upload all the required documents.
- Review your application once and submit it.
SBI Card Prime Application Status
If one has applied for the Prime card and want to check the status of your card, simply go with any method given below:
- The easiest way to know your SBI Prime card application status is to call SBI Card customer care and request them about the same.
- To check your application status online, visit the SBI Card’s official website and click on the option ‘Credit Cards.’ Scroll down and find the option ‘Track Application,’ click on that, fill in the required details and proceed. The status of your application will be visible in seconds.
- If you don’t prefer either of these methods, visit your closest branch and ask the branch executives about your credit card application status.
SBI Prime Credit Card Activation & PIN Generation
The Internet has made everything easy these days. Most of people prefer online methods to get their banking works done as long as it’s possible. The activation/PIN generation of a credit card can be done easily via some online methods as follows:
- Log in to your SBI Card internet banking account and add your SBI Card Prime. After that, you can easily find a button to generate the credit card PIN online.
- You can also do the same via an ATM. Visit an SBI ATM nearest to you and insert your card and look for an option to generate the PIN. You will have to enter the OTP in order to complete the verification and your PIN will be set easily.
- If you find it difficult to activate your card with the above two methods, you can call your credit card customer care and request them to assist you with the same.
SBI Prime Credit Card Limit
The credit limit on the SBI Card Prime may differ for different customers. There is no fixed range of credit limit that is provided with this card, but it totally depends on the past payment behavior and credit history of an individual. You may get a lower credit limit initially, but if you keep using your Prime card regularly with no payment defaults and low credit utilization, there are high chances that your card issuer will provide a card with higher limit. If you feel that the credit limit on your SBI Prime Card is not sufficient, you can request your card issuer to increase your credit limit. For doing this, you can contact the SBI Card customer care or you can visit nearest branch in your area. But, make sure that you are using your credit card responsibly so that your card issuer may believe you and improve your credit limit.
SBI Card Prime Bill Payment
Making your SBI Prime Credit Card bill payment is an important thing to do in order to maintain a good credit score and also to avoid debt consolidation. To pay credit card bills always on time, you must be aware of multiple methods for bill payment, so that you can go with the second method if your primary method doesn’t work due to some reason. Following are a few easy ways to make your SBI Prime Card Bill Payment:
- You can pay your SBI Card bill via the YONO app. For doing so, you will have to register yourself on the app and link your credit card. After that, you can easily make your credit card bill payment by clicking on the ‘Pay’ option under the section ‘My Credit Cards.’
- The SBI Card Billdesk is another simple way to pay the bill of your SBI Prime Card. Just enter a few details like your card number, email address, mobile number, amount to be paid, etc, and make the transaction.
- You can also pay the bill via an SBI ATM nearest to you. Just look for an option to pay your credit card bill in the main menu.
- If you are someone who doesn’t believe in online methods, you can either leave a cheque at an ATM Dropbox with your card number and other details, or you can visit your nearest SBI branch and pay the bill manually via cash.
SBI Card Prime Internet Banking Login
Follow the steps given below to register your SBI Prime for internet banking:
- Visit the SBI Card’s official website.
- Click on ‘New User? Register Now’ option under the Login button.
- Enter your credit card number, CVV, date of birth, and other required options (if any) and proceed.
- Enter the OTP for verification that you received on the registered contact number.
- Enter your username and password and you will be registered successfully.
SBI Prime Credit Card Customer Care
- If you want to contact customer care regarding any query/doubt related to your SBI Card Prime, you can call any of these numbers: 1800 180 1290 (toll-free), 1860 500 1290, 1860 180 1290, or 39 02 02 02 (add your local STD as prefix).
- If you want to elaborate your query/complaint via email, you can write and send the mail to customercare@sbicard.com with all your details like credit card number, registered mobile number, your name, etc.
- If you are a social media person, you can also contact SBI Card customer care via Twitter on @SBICard_Connect.
How To Block SBI Prime Credit Card?
Following are different ways in which you can get your card blocked immediately in emergency situations. For example, if your card is lost, you should try to clock it as soon as possible so that no one can use it for their benefit.
- The simplest and easiest way to get your SBI Card Prime blocked is to send SMS BLOCK XXXX to 5676791, where XXXX denoted the last 4 digits of the credit card number that you hold.
- Another way to block your SBI card Prime is by contacting the SBI credit card customer care.
- You can also block your card through net banking. Log in to the net banking account and look for an option to block the card under the ‘Request’ tab.
Pros and Cons of SBI Prime Credit Card
All the advantages as well as disadvantages of the SBI Prime Credit Card are as follows:
Advantages
- The card is suitable for frequent travelers as it offers complimentary domestic as well as international lounge access.
- The annual fee of Rs. 2,999 is waived off on achieving the required minimum spend.
- As the card offers exciting privileges across different lifestyle categories, such as dining, entertainment, golf, etc, it is a great option for those who love to spend on lifestyle related categories.
Disadvantages
- The card might not be a suitable choice for those who are not ready to pay an annual fee of Rs. 3,000.
- The basic reward rate (2 RPs on every spend of Rs. 100) is not very good.
Is This The Right Card For You?
The answer to this question totally depends on your spending behavior and the requirements that you expect to be fulfilled with a credit card. The SBI Card Prime is a premium-level card offered by the bank and comes with exciting benefits over almost all categories. From reward points to travel to dining to golf, you can enjoy exclusive privileges everywhere you use this card. But, all this will be worth it only if you really need all these benefits. The first things that an individual should do is to understand their spending habits and consider the categories where they spend the most. Then mix match your requirements and all the features & benefits of this credit card, and check whether it suits your needs or not. If these are all the benefits you were looking for, then yes, this is the right credit card for you.
Conclusion:
SBI Card Prime can be considered a toned-down version of the SBI ELITE Card. It is suitable for those individuals for whom shopping and travel expenses account for a significant portion of total monthly spends, but they don’t want to pay a very high annual membership fee. SBI Card Prime offers decent benefits and reward rates considering its annual fee of Rs. 2,999. Let us know your views on the SBI Prime card and if you already use the card share your experience with the card so that other can benefits from it too.