ICICI Bank’s Gemstone collection has five credit cards – Coral, Rubyx, Sapphiro, Emeralde and Diamant. Coral is the entry-level card with Diamant(invite only) being the highest in the order. In this post, we will review the ICICI Bank Coral credit card. Coral is a dual variant card issued on both American Express and Visa/Mastercard. This is a review of the Visa/Mastercard variant as it is the one that gets issued in most cases.
Fees and Charges
Coral is issued LTF in most cases for existing ICICI Bank savings account customers. So, do check with the bank on this.
| Joining and Annual Fee | Rs 500+GST |
| Annual Fee Waiver | Rs 1.5 Lakhs Spend |
Rewards
ICICI Bank has one of the lowest reward rates in the industry. While they do have many merchant offers, their cards do not offer much for regular transactions. The reward rate is quite low for a card that charges a fee. Even LTF cards offer better rewards now.
- Domestic Spends: 2 RP per Rs 100 ~0.5% return
- Utilities and Insurance Spends: 1 RP per Rs 100 ~0.25% return
- Fuel Spends: No rewards
Milestone Rewards
- 2000 Payback points on spending Rs 2 Lakhs
- 1000 Payback points on every Rs 1 lakh spend after crossing Rs 2 lakhs milestone above
- Max 10000 Payback points in a year
Rewards Redemption
We get multiple categories for redeeming the reward points.
- Fashion and Lifestyle catalog
- Electronics products
- Travel and Luggage catalog
- E-Vouchers
- Home and Kitchen products
The value of each reward point stays at 25 paise. Given the reward value, e-vouchers are the only good choice. Tanishq, Kalyan Jewellers, Jockey, Marriott and Croma are some of the good options in e-vouchers. We also have e-commerce GVs like Amazon, Flipkart, and Tata CliQ.
Benefits
- Airport Lounge Access: 1 complimentary access per quarter to select airport lounges in India on spending Rs 5,000 in the previous quarter
- Railway Lounge Access: 1 complimentary access per quarter
- Book My Show: 25% discount up to Rs 100 on purchase of minimum 2 movie tickets per transaction on BookMyShow and Inox. The offer can be availed twice a month on BookMyShow and Inox each.
Drawbacks
I usually evaluate the Pros and Cons of a credit card in a review. Considering the card features in this case, I will focus more on the drawbacks.
- High Annual Fee Waiver – The fee waiver is set too high at Rs 1.5 Lakhs for this card.
- Rewards System – The low earning rate of rewards along with PAYBACK does not make this card lucrative at all.
- Conditional Airport Lounge Access – Even entry-level credit cards have started offering complimentary airport lounge access now. Coral should do a lot better.
Final Thoughts
ICICI Bank is the second-largest private bank in India. But it continues to lag in the credit cards market. It is not surprising seeing their credit card offerings. Even the co-branded Amazon Pay credit card offers better rewards than Coral card.
If you are planning to get the Coral card by paying a fee, avoid it. We have far better cards in the market. If you are getting this LTF, then take it to avail of the cashback offers that come on Flipkart/Amazon during sales.
ICICI Bank Coral Credit Card