BPCL SBI Credit Card OCTANE Review

We have many ‘all-rounder’ credit cards that give us great rewards on everyday spends. But, most of these are not useful for fuel expenses. Some cards exclude fuel transactions for rewards while others have a surcharge. Fuel expenses are now a big chunk of our monthly expenses thanks to the ever increasing prices. Fortunately, we have some fuel credit cards that give us good savings on fuel expenses. Fuel credit cards are co-branded with one of the partners like IOCL/HPCL. So, the key thing to check for any of the fuel cards is to ensure there is a nearby petrol pump where we can use the card. In this post, we review the BPCL SBI Credit Card OCTANE. This card provides a 7.25% value back on our fuel spends.

Fees and Charges

Unlike other issuers, SBI Cards always charge a joining fee for credit cards. But, this is offset by the welcome gift. The annual fee waiver is relatively less at Rs 2L spends for the rewards it provides.

Joining/Annual Fee	Rs 1499 plus taxes
Welcome Gift	6000 Reward Points (Rs 1500 Value)
Annual Fee Waiver	On spends of Rs 2L in a card membership year

Rewards

The BPCL SBI OCTANE credit card has a 7.25% reward rate for all BPCL spends. Other than this, it also gives good rewards for Dining, Departmental Stores, Grocery & Movies category spends as well. This makes it easy to achieve the required spends for an annual fee waiver.

Type of Spend	Reward Points	Return Rate @25 per RP
BPCL Fuel, Lubricants & Bharat Gas Spends	25 RP per Rs 100 *Maximum 2500 RP per billing cycle * Rs 4000 Max transaction value for rewards * 1% fuel surcharge waiver	6.25%
Dining, Departmental Stores, Grocery & Movies	10 RP per Rs 100 *Maximum 7500 RP per month	2.5%
Other spends (Except Non-BPCL Fuel and Wallets)	1 reward point per Rs 100	0.25%

The caps on the accelerated rewards for fuel are there to curb misuse with commercial spending. The monthly transaction value to hit the max cap of accelerated fuel rewards would be Rs 10000. This should be more than enough for most people. We can also spend on other categories like Departmental Stores and Grocery to reach the annual fee waiver. The 2.5% value back on these is also pretty good.

Milestone Rewards

I would not recommend aiming for this milestone reward. We can spend Rs 2 Lakhs to get the annual fee waiver and get maximum rewards on fuel transactions.

• Rs 2000 gift voucher on Rs 3 Lakhs spend in a membership year (0.67% Return)
• Gift voucher options: Aditya Birla Fashion, Yatra, Urban Ladder, Hush Puppies, and Bata

Rewards Redemption

Each reward point is worth 25p. We can redeem the reward points for either fuel or from the reward catalog. Fuel redemption makes more sense as it is instant redemption at the listed outlets. PoS redemption is supported at outlets listed here. E-Voucher redemption is supported at outlets listed here.

Return on Spends Calculator

We can use the below calculator to find the return we will get on spending for the BPCL SBI Credit Card OCTANE. The data needs to be entered only in the green-colored cells. The calculations do not include the 1% fuel surcharge waiver.

Pros and Cons

Final Thoughts

Fuel credit cards are generally not a good fit as they offer good rewards only for fuel transactions. Plus in most cases, the reward rates are not good with lesser caps.

BPCL SBI Credit Card OCTANE addresses these limitations to a large extent. With a generous rewards rate on fuel and good rewards on other spend categories, this card can be a good addition to our wallet. Consider this card if:

• Monthly spends on fuel spends are around Rs 10000 to hit the max cap of accelerated fuel rewards.
• You are able to spend the required amounts for a fee waiver, spend milestones on the other credit cards you hold.
• You can spend Rs 2 Lakhs on this card to get the annual fee waiver.
• Last but obvious one – There is a BPCL outlet nearby to use this card. 🙂

If you are looking out for a fuel credit card, do check out this post on the best fuel credit cards in India.