Category: Credit Cards

With the advent of the internet, the pool of knowledge has widened a lot. But this has also given way to a lot of misunderstanding and myths among people. Even the credit cards that we buy are not safe from myths. 

Different people have different opinions about financial instruments and that is the reason that many people end up making wrong choices and affect their financial stability. Any misinformation related to credit cards can cost huge. 

To help people get proper knowledge, we have jotted down five common credit card myths and revealed the truth about them. Take a look!

1. Single Credit Card is Enough

While there is no doubt that one should abstain from over-spending, having multiple credit cards does offer a lot of perks than one can imagine. All they need to do is handle their finances well and keep a track of their expenses. There are plenty of credit cards in the market that come with lucrative offers and rewards that help save some bucks and grab amazing deals on various purchases. Thus, people can surely buy more credit cards as per their needs and enjoy their benefits.

Buying a New Credit Card Affects Credit Score

While, buying a credit card does result in a “had credit enquiry”, a single one is unlikely to affect your credit score. Thus, it is important to choose the right card as per your requirements and spending habits. If a person pays credit card bills on time, they get a good credit score in turn.

2. Settling Monthly Dues Sooner is Best

It may sound tricky but this is one of the most common myths about credit cards. Every month, one starts panicking about their credit cards dues and tries to make the payment sooner so as not to hamper their credit score. 

However, the truth is while late payments do make a difference, it takes almost 30 days for that. In short, a person needs to be miss at least 30 days to actually affect their credit score. If that’s not the case, well, one can afford to miss the last date at times.

3. Cancelling Old and Unused Credit Cards

No doubt that when we don’t use a product, the best things seems is to just discard it. But that’s not the case with credit cards. Now, when person cancels their credit cards, they lose the credit line and they have less available credit to their name. This also affects their credit score, which in turn, can affect their loan application in future. Thus, it is usually suggested that people can have at least one card open for its available credit and account history.

4. No Negotiation on Credit Card Terms

Most of the people feel that they have to follow whatever terms and conditions their banks have give them. But the truth is, banks are always looking at keeping their customers. Therefore, they can make concessions in the conditions to be at your side. So, if you feel that you are paying a lot of interest or annual fee on the credit card, try contacting the company. They may waive it or offer you other perks to make it worth your while.

In case you are looking for buying a new credit card, explore our website and apply for the one that suits your needs the most. For more such articles, keep reading BankingOnTips.

Most of us opt for credit cards which benefit us in our day to day life, like cashback offers on fuel, shopping, travel etc. 40% of credit card users have cards with fuel cashbacks. This news is going to hurt us a lot.

From October 1, 2019, majorly all the banks in the country are going to discontinue the cashback credit cards at all the petrol pumps and fueling stations. This is going to come into effect after an advisory issued by Public Sector Fuel Retail companies.

All the OMCs (Oil Marketing Companies) have told the banks to terminate the cashback benefit on their credit cards whereas cashbacks and discounts for other digital payment methods like PayTM, Phone Pay etc. will still be in effect.

There are three state-run oil marketing companies in the country, namely, Indian Oil Corporation Ltd, Bharat Petroleum and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd. They offer cashback up to 0.75% per transaction value of the fuel purchased using debit/credit cards and electronic wallets. This cashback is reflected in the buyers’ bank account or wallet in three working days.

Government introduced this discount after the cash crunch of 2016 at the time of demonetization. The prime purpose was to encourage digital banking and payments. After three years of demonetization, the percentage of digital money transfers and payments has increased at a striking rate, however, the three oil marketing companies are still bearing the discount/cashback cost. 

It is a celebrated fact that paying your credit card bills timely is not only a good habit but it also helps you financially in future, by throwing a positive impact on your credit score. And a good credit score makes you a reliable individual to lend loans. On the other hand, late payments, lesser payments or minimum payments can also hamper your credit scores.

After a massive digitalization, people are mostly comfortable to pay their credit card bills through net banking or phone banking. Not because it saves time or is comfortable but because it secured and cost effective. Let us now know about the benefits of paying credit card bills through net banking.

- Net banking payments are out of any transaction fees or payment processing fees etc. You would have to pay these extra charges if you pay it through other modes like ATM etc.

- This method of paying your credit card bill is more secured and safe due to the encrypted security in the technology used to pay it online. The more people have started using this medium, the safer it has become to pay bills with net banking.

- It is hassle-free and easy to login and pay through net banking. It is just a matter of few seconds; therefore, it is time saving as well.

Net banking process varies from bank to bank though; the major method is almost same. Have a look at this process:

- Log on to the website of your credit card provider

- Select ‘Pay your Credit Card bill’ option

- Enter your credit card number, email id and the amount you need to pay (either minimum or full outstanding)

- On the payment modes page, select Net Banking and fill in the bank details/bank account details to pay

- After that, you will be redirected to the bank’s login page

- If the website of your preferred bank is beginning with ‘https://.’ It is considered as secure

- Enter you username and password on the login page

- Accept the payment details like the amount etc. and confirm it by entering the OTP sent to your registered mobile number

- On the successful transaction, you will be shown an e-receipt which is to kept safe for future requirement

This way, your credit card payment is done in a fraction of seconds. Yes, you should have a good internet connection for using net banking for making any payments.

When you apply for a credit card and it gets approved, that is surely a thing of joy in today’s time. But only getting a credit card doesn’t matter much, getting the best one according to your needs is important. So, what makes a credit card worth relying? Reward points, isn’t it? Every time you swipe your credit card, you get certain reward points which pay you back in one attractive deal or the other.

A lot of people consider the reward points a useless element in a credit card and that whatever additional features like extra miles or points cannot make any difference. Each reward point looks tiny at once but if you keep on paying the outstanding and all the bills on time, these reward points pile up to really reward you big, once you save a lot of them, and it is no myth.

May be, your credit card offering executive has promised you about the easiness of redeeming the reward points. But truly, it is not that easy. It is rather about how intelligently you redeem them. Be careful about the time and dates of your travel before you redeem your air miles. And if you redeem according to their conditions only, it can land you in so many layovers and abrupt timings of flights.

In case you dream about your next travel for free, just because you have sufficient air miles to sponsor that; you are mistaken. Chances are you may only get the flight tickets for those air miles, but other charges like the accommodation and the surcharge etc. are not included in it.

All your myths related to credit card rewards can be true or untrue but it wholly depends upon the kind of credit card you choose. You must check what features are going to benefit you and what kind of rewards suit to your requirements. Therefore, don’t just have a credit card for only the sake of it, but treat it has a very important financial asset which helps you at the time you most need it.

If you are some of those people who generally forget paying their credit card bills on due date, this blog is for you! Forgetting your credit card bills invites so many ‘not-so-good’ things like late payment penalties, increased interest charges due to added up outstanding amount and critically affected CIBIL i.e. credit score. Therefore, to get rid of this expensive habit of procrastination and forgetting your credit card bills, automatic payment modes are way better options.

Automatic payment simply known as ‘auto-pay’ is a kind of regular monthly debit from your bank account (savings/current) which settles against your monthly utility or credit card bills. You need to opt for it in your bank account either through net banking or mobile banking. You must fill the details carefully like your usual payment amount (total outstanding or minimum amount) along with the due date. The money will be deducted before the due date which will not burden you with any late fine.

If we talk about the advantages of automatic payment of credit card bills, the most important one is convenience. You save a lot of time as you need not to remember the due dates, amount to be paid etc. which is a huge help in today’s busy time where you hardly have any time for such chores. And a little mistake can lead to big monetary losses. Therefore, choosing auto-pay is a good option.

It also comes with a bit of disadvantages. For example, if you don’t have much funds in your account at the time of auto-pay, your will miss your payment in any case. And on the other hand, auto-pay is ultimately a mechanic program, it is likely to system generated errors! You should check the process of auto-pay at regular intervals to get updated about what you pay. Sometimes, there are wrong entries or fraudulent transactions in your monthly bill statement. Automatic bill payment option does not check all these details, so there are probable chances of you paying a higher amount for those duplicate bill entries etc which is again, your loss. But there are always two sides of everything, so is here.

If using wisely and without wholly depending upon it, automatic pay is a great substitute to paying bills manually. 

Credit card is something everyone considers as an important banking product. But, all credit cards are not same and do not offer similar benefits. Citi Credit Cards are known to be one of the best choices as compared to others due to the benefits it provides. Here is all you should know about them before applying for one:

• Choose among a range of pre-approved Citi Credit Cards online: Citi offers its users sign up bonuses available online. You can apply and get your credit card pre-approved credit cards online.
• You can hold unlimited Citi Credit cards: Citi never holds a limit to number of cards you can hold, once they approve it.
• Strict application rules: Citi has stern application rules stuck to their credit cards. One Citi Personal Card can be applied every 8 days. Maximum 2 cards can be applied for every 65 days and 1 Citi Business Card can be applied every 95 days. These rules depend from person to person and their credit history.
• Sign Up bonus: You can get Citi Credit card Sign Up bonus more than one time whenever you open or close a card within past 24 months.
• Do not ask for credit limit increase often: Always keep in mind that frequently asking to enhance the credit limit may not always be welcomed by Citi. It may also be considered as a hunger for credit. Therefore, stay on the given limit for a considerable time, utilize it wisely and if needed, then ask to increase the credit limit.
• Wait if your Citi Credit card request has been denied: Do not re apply again and again if your Citi Credit card application has been disapproved for whatsoever reasons. You must read their reconsideration policy properly and should not disobey it in order to get your application approved.
• Instant Credit card number: In few cases, Citi gives you the Credit card number instantly after card approval so that you may use it for your immediate needs. But the facility is limited to Citi’s 1-2 cards only.
• Quick online credit card status check: When you have applied for a Citi Credit card, you do not need to wait for any executive’s call to confirm your card’s approval. You may check your credit card application’s approval or disapproval online, without any hassle.

Now we will show you the range of credit cards offered by Citibank for customers:

1. Citibank PremierMiles Credit Card: This card offers air miles and travel insurance cover as well. It comes with benefits like:

- Every travel booking done by this card offers Air Miles for your next journey.

- Redeem your Air Miles among 100 international and domestic airlines.

- Benefit of complimentary premium airport lounge access.

- Gives 10 miles for every Rs. 100 spent on travel transactions.

2. Citibank Rewards Cards: This card provides you a shopping experience full of deals and promos.

- Approximately 20% savings on dining and retail outlets.

- Gives 10 reward points for every Rs. 125 spent at partner merchant outlets.

- Points never get expired and can be redeemed for offers related to holidaying, cash backs, air miles etc.

- EMI benefits on shopping are additional features.

Apply For Citibank Rewards Credit Card Here..

3. Citibank Rewards Domestic Credit Card: The card offers best deals to the users when they make purchases anywhere inside the country.

- 20% savings on retail and restaurants.

- No annual fee is charged if the purchases exceed Rs. 30000 in a year.

- All expenditure can be converted into flexible EMIs on low interest.

4. Citibank Cash Back Credit Card: Daily expenditures on household purchases and dining across different restaurants are rewarded with the benefits of this card

- Customers get cash back offers and various special offers and discounts while making purchases on different merchant outlets.

- 5% cash back on utility bills, telephone bills and movie tickets.

- Cash back is redeemed and credited in multiples of Rs. 500.

- Around 20% savings in 2000 dining outlets including Costa Coffee, Pizza Hut etc.

Apply for Citibank Cashback Credit Card Here..

5. Citibank Platinum Credit Card: One of the most prestigious credit cards. It offers dynamically special experiences and privileges.

- Exciting offers on holidaying, dining and entertainment experiences.

- 1 reward point credited for every Rs. 125 billed. These points are easily redeemable in almost all merchant stores across the country.

- Online and instant payment of all utility bills and credit card dues through this card.

- CitiAlert benefit for mobile updates and internet banking accessibility.

5. IndianOil Citibank Platinum Credit Card: This card is a real fuel saver and is specially designed for people who travel so frequently by roads.

- Turbo points given on all IndianOil outlets in India with every fuel purchase.

- 4 turbo points for every Rs. 150 spent on fuel.

- Annual Fee is waived off after Rs. 30000 spent from the credit card annually.

- Additional benefits include up to 20% savings on restaurants and redemption of reward points.

Apply for IndianOil Citibank Credit Card Here..

There are other Citibank Credit Cards suiting to needs of every customer. For example, Citi Prestige Credit Card, Citibank Corporate Credit Card etc. You should first know your primary and secondary requirements before applying for any Citibank Credit Card along with annual fee levied on it.