ICICI Bank Visa Signature credit card review

ICICI Bank Visa Signature credit card is a premium credit card on offer from ICICI Bank. It joins the list of the other premium credit cards which ICICI Bank offers including American Express Gold, Travel Smart Gold , Platinum Card and the Titanium Card. The Titanium credit card is no longer being issued by ICICI Bank.

Eligibility for the ICICI Bank Signature Visa Credit card

Both Salaried and self-employed professionals can opt for this card. A gross annual income of Rs. 14,40,000/- p.a. is required. The card costs Rs.35,000 to sign up for. Yes you read that right. It costs that much just to sign-up for this card. There's an annual fee thereafter of Rs.2500 for the ICICI Bank Signature Credit Card.

Salaried applicants need to provide any one of the following documents:

If working for  Public Ltd company / MNC / Government:

Pay slip / Salary Certificate / Income Tax Returns / Form 16

If working for a Proprietorship / Partnership / Pvt. Ltd.:

Pay slip / Income Tax Returns / Form 16

Self Employed applicants need to provide a copy of their Income Tax Returns.

The ICICI Bank Signature Visa Credit Card requires a sign-up fee of Rs.25,000.

You can a Tag Heur Watch when you sign up for this card. Instead of this, you can also get 35,000 reward points credited to your card if you prefer. Their reward point structure is quite lucrative. You earn 5 points on every international spend of Rs.100, 4 points on every travel-related spend of Rs.100 and 2 points on every hotel and dining-related spend of Rs.100. You also get air-accident insurance of Rs. 3 crore. 4 x 7 personal concierge assistance, offering a host of services like travel assistance, hotel bookings, emergency assistance, gift delivery, restaurant-booking assistance, special -events booking, tickets to sporting events and entertainment assistance Special travel-related experiential offers are available. SOme other benefits too are available. Here we analyze the ICICI Bank Signature Credit card to give you an insight into the fine print associated with it.

ICICI Bank's billing policies relating to credit cards:

ICICI doesn't charge interest on the amount you spend through the credit card if you pay the entire amount due before or on the due date, as per the credit card statement sent to you. If you pay only the minimum amount due, the rest of the amount due is considered as a loan from ICICI to you and interest is levived on this loan.

Let's say the due date is the 7th of the month and the statement date is on the 15th of every month. You spend Rs.10,000 on your card. Now you receive a statement between the 15th and 20th of October with the amount due on or before November 7th. You have the option to

1) Pay off the entire amount of Rs.10,000 due on the card
2) Pay the minimum amount due, which would be Rs.500 here and carry forward to balance to the next month.
3) Pay nothing.

If you do not pay atleast the minimum amount due, you'll be stuck with late-payment charges levied by ICICI Bank which are 30% of the minimum amount due. Here this should come to 30 % of Rs.500 or Rs.150. Yet, this penalty is a minimum of Rs. 300 and max. of Rs. 600. So it will be Rs.300. Irrespective of how small the 'minimum amount due' is, if you don't pay it, the minimum late payment penalty will be Rs.300.

If you choose option (2), you'll be paying interest on the outstanding amount of Rs.9500. This interest will be at the rate of 2.75% (monthly) or 33% (Annually) for ICICI Bank Signature Credit Card. We strongly suggest that you do not carry forward the amount outstanding on your credit cards. use the credit cards solely for expenses and to avoid the inconvenience of carrying large amounts of cash around. Earn the reward points at the end of the month and pay off the amount in toto. Credit cards are the worst avenues for long term debt. They are just not meant for long term debt.

Cash advances on the ICICI Bank Signature Visa Credit Card are billed at 2.75% (Monthly), 33% (Annually). This is the same interest rate as charged on balances being carried forward. If you need cash urgently, get an overdraft from your bank, ask your friends for a loan or get a loan against your PF/ Stocks/ Shares etc. Avoid cash advances on your credit card.

You'll get a generous limit usually if you get approved for this credit card. However, if you exceed your credit limit, there will be a fee of 5% on the over limit amount (subject to a min. of Rs. 500) for ICICI Bank Signature Credit Card.

If you issue a cheque to ICICI Bank for payment on your credit card and the cheque bounces, because of any reason, you'll have to pay 1 % of the amount due as penalty charges. Issue a cheque for Rs.25000 and if it bounces, you'll have to pay Rs.250 as penalty.

If you access an ATM that does not belong to ICICI Bank, you'll have to pay Rs.30 as as a fee.

ICICI Bank publicizes their dial-a-draft facility where you can get an draft delivered to your doorstep. This has a transaction fee of 2.50% of the draft value amount subject to a minimum of Rs.300. Ask for a draft of Rs.50,000 and you'll be paying a fee of Rs.1250 for it. The interest of 2.75 % is separate from this. That is the interest you'll pay every month. On a Rs.50,000 draft, you'll be paying Rs.1375 as interest every month.

Charge slip requests costs Rs.100

Duplicate statement request (beyond 3 Months) cost Rs. 100.

If you book tickets with the Indian railways, you'll be charged 1.80% for Internet transactions and 2.5% for other bookings.

Foreign currency Transactions are charged a fee of 3.50% of the total amount.

A service tax of 12.36% is applicable on all fees, interest and other charges. Add this amount to all the charges mentioned above.

Overall, the ICICI Bank Signature Credit card is a good option only if you're not going to carry forward the balance each month. This way you can avoid the ridiculously high interest rate of 33 % per annum that they charge their credit card holders and use this credit card for the generous reward points and other benefits it gets you.