Depending on the card, fuel transactions may not be eligible for rewards, while others may be subject to a surcharge. There are a few fuel credit cards that provide us with good savings on fuel expenses. The BPCL SBI credit card OCTANE is one of the best options if you use Bharat Petroleum fuel pumps for your vehicles. With the BPCL SBI credit card OCTANE card, you can get 6.25% back on fuel purchases, and 2.5% back on department store and grocery purchases. Furthermore, it waives a 1% fuel surcharge so we don’t have to pay extra at the pump if we use a credit card.
Fees
Unlike other issuers, SBI Card always charge a joining fee for its credit cards. But, this is offset by the welcome gift. The annual fee waiver is relatively less at Rs 2 Lakh spends for the rewards it provides.
| Joining Fee | Rs 1499+GST ~Rs 1769 |
| Welcome Gift | 6000 Reward Points ~Rs 1500 Value |
| Annual Fee | Rs 1499+GST ~Rs 1769 |
| Renewal Benefit | None |
| Annual Fee Waiver | On spends of Rs 2 Lakh in a year |
Rewards
The BPCL SBI credit card OCTANE has a 6.25% reward rate for all BPCL spends including Bharat Gas spends. Other than this, it also gives good rewards for dining, departmental stores, grocery & movies spends. This makes it easy to achieve the required spends for an annual fee waiver.
| Type of Spend | Reward Points | Return |
|---|---|---|
| BPCL Fuel & Bharat Gas | 25 RP/₹ 100 *Maximum 2500 RP per billing cycle for BPCL fuel spends *Maximum 500 RP per billing cycle for Bharat Gas spends * ₹ 4000 is the max transaction value for rewards * 1% fuel surcharge waiver | 6.25% |
| Dining, Departmental Stores, Grocery & Movies | 10 RP/₹ 100 *Maximum 7500 RP per month | 2.5% |
| Others | 1 RP/₹ 100 | 0.25% |
| Non-BPCL fuel, Rent, Wallets | No Rewards | 0% |
The monthly transaction value to hit the max cap of accelerated fuel rewards would be Rs 10,000. This should be more than enough for most customers. 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 pretty good too.
Milestone Rewards
We would not recommend aiming for this milestone reward. We can just spend Rs 2 Lakh to get the annual fee waiver and get maximum rewards on fuel transactions.
- Rs 2000 gift voucher on Rs 3 Lakh spend in a membership year
- Gift voucher options: Aditya Birla Fashion, Yatra, Urban Ladder, Hush Puppies, and Bata
BPCL SBI Credit Card OCTANE Rewards Redemption
Each reward point for BPCL SBI credit card OCTANE is worth 25 paise. We can redeem the reward points for either fuel or from the reward catalogue. Fuel redemption makes more sense as it is instant redemption at the listed outlets.
- PoS redemption is supported at eligible outlets
- E-voucher redemption is also supported at eligible outlets
Complimentary Airport Lounge Access
- Domestic Airport Lounge Access: 4 complimentary visits/year with Visa or RuPay
- International Airport Lounge Access: Not Available
Refer to this list of airport lounges eligible for complimentary access with BPCL SBI credit card OCTANE.
Key Benefits and Charges
- Fuel Surcharge Waiver: 1% waiver on fuel transactions up to Rs 4000. Maximum surcharge waiver of Rs 100 in a statement cycle.
- Rent Payment Charges: Rs 199+GST for each transaction
- Foreign Currency Markup: 3.5%+GST ~4.1%
- Interest Rate: 3.5% per month or 42% annually
Pros and Cons
Pros
- 6.25% rewards on fuel and BPCL spends is good
- 2.5% rewards on Dining, Departmental Stores and Grocery spends allows using the card for general spends
- Extensive list of supported BPCL outlets for reward redemption
Cons
- The annual fee can be less, ideally Rs 999+GST
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 10,000 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 Lakh 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.
Frequently Asked Questions
BPCL SBI Credit Card OCTANE
22 thoughts on “BPCL SBI Credit Card OCTANE Review”
On card swiping at BPCL for fuel there is charged 10 rs additional on statement and giving waiver of 1%
i..e.
Fuel Amount/ Debited in Statement/Surcharge Waiver Credited
100/110/1
200/210/2
300/310/3
400/410/4
1000/1010/10
Why?
You will be charged the fuel surcharge which is 1%+GST or Rs 10 whichever is higher.
Please note that using UPI for payments involving fuel will not provide a fuel surcharge waiver or cashback. Cashback on fuel purchases is only available when the card is swiped directly
Why am I unable to redeem the BPCL SBI E-VOUCHER anyone from the SBI card app?? Why are they saying card redemption is not possible??
i am extremely happy using this card. redeemption is so easy.
Max rewards for Fuel are capped at 2500 per month. So what’s the point..??
That is good enough for a majority of the customers.
Is this card available in RuPay variant?
Not yet
Is it possible to get the fee waived off by writing to customer support (in case the spends don’t cross Rs. 2 Lac threshold)
Yes, you can call them and try it.
Hello,
SBI rewardz have accelerated points for flipkart, igp etc. t
This card normally gives 1x points for e-commerce[except grocery, dining]. Is this card eligible for accelerated rewards?
Isn’t SBI Rewardz only for debit cards?
I saved lot of money on fuel because of this card.
What about lounge access for Add-on cards? Or can I use my card for someone else? TIA!
Domestic airport lounge access should work fine for add-on cards too. But the same limit of max 1 visit per quarter applies across all cards.
I believe this is worth to be considered as we fuel card and 2.5 on Dining, Departmental Stores, Grocery none other cards give that(offline spends). I have checked Infinia/Magnus/Eterna/Pinnacle and seems they don’t give this much reward .
Pinnacle 2.5 only on online spends
Infinia 3.33% for spending on smart portal for flights/hotels else it is just 1.66% for vouchers and 1% for cash credit
Magnus has 1.2%
Eterna has 3.75 but on online spends only
Finding the BPCL petrol bunk using SBI POS machine which gives reward points is soo difficult…,,if your octane was swiped in any another pos other than SBI in BPCL bunk it will be totally useless ..
I have a BPCL octane card. It doesn’t matter which bank POS machine card is swiped on the outlet needs to be BPCL.
Also points redemption is also quite easy now at least in Mumbai and Thane.
This is the exact feedback i was waiting for!! Are you sure regardless of POS machine, if you spend at the mentioned BPCL outlets your points are accumulated?
yes, regardless of the pos machine,point get accrued. using this card for over a year
Thnx for the info, what about points redemption? what has been your experience with respect to redemption of points at fuel stations?