The Gemstone collection from ICICI Bank includes four credit cards: Coral, Rubyx, Sapphiro and Emeralde. The ICICI Bank Emeralde credit card is the top offering in this collection. It comes with a joining fee and annual fee of Rs 10,000. It offers a return of between 0.25% to 1% on your spends. The ICICI Bank Emeralde credit card also offers benefits like unlimited domestic and international complimentary airport lounge access along with a pretty good BookMyShow BOGO offer. This review is for the PVC variant of Emeralde. ICICI Bank also issues an invite-only Emeralde Private Metal credit card that comes at the same annual fee but different rewards & benefits.
Eligibility
Emeralde credit card is one of the super-premium offerings from ICICI Bank. This also means a higher eligibility criterion to get the card. We need to fulfil one of the below conditions. You can also get the card if you have a high NRV with the bank.
- Net Monthly Income of Rs 1.5 Lakh or more
- Annual Income Tax Return of Rs 18 Lakh or above
- Existing ICICI Bank Global Private Client customer
- Upgrade of existing ICICI Bank credit card with a limit of at least Rs 6 Lakh
Fees
Joining Fee | Rs 12,000+GST ~Rs 14,160 |
Welcome Benefit | None |
Annual Fee | Rs 12,000+GST ~Rs 14,160 |
Renewal Benefit | None |
Annual Fee Waiver | Rs 10 Lakh spend in a membership year |
The card is given First Year Free (FYF) for both upgrades and fresh applications. So, do check it out when you get the Emeralde. FYF is a better deal considering there are no welcome benefits now.
Rewards
Retail Transactions | 4 RP/Rs 100 ~1% return |
Utilities & Insurance Transactions | 1 RP/Rs 100 ~0.25% return |
Fuel & Government Spends | No Rewards |
The ICICI Bank Emeralde credit card disappoints in the rewards department. For a 12K annual fee card, we did expect better rewards. In contrast, the invite-only ICICI Bank Emeralde Private Metal credit card offers much better rewards for the same annual fee. However, the Emeralde PVC variant does offer pretty good benefits that we cover next in this review.
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.
Birthday Benefit
- Rs 5000 Tata CLiQ Voucher
- Available only on ICICI Bank Emeralde Amex Variants
Unlimited Complimentary Airport Lounge Access
- Domestic Airport Lounge Access: Unlimited visits for both primary and add-on cards via Visa/Mastercard/Amex
- International Airport Lounge Access: Unlimited visits for primary cards via Dreamfolks
This is where the Emeralde shines and is at par with its competition. It is good to see unlimited access to both domestic and international airport lounges.
Unlimited Complimentary Airport Spa Access
- Discontinued with effect from 15th November 2024
BookMyShow Offer
- Buy one and get one free up to Rs 750 on the second ticket
- Valid 4 times/month on all movie and non-movie tickets
This BMS BOGO offer and the unlimited airport lounge access are the best benefits of the ICICI Bank Emeralde credit card.
Other Benefits
- Golf: One round/lesson of golf every month if spends are more than Rs 50,000 in the previous month. We get up to 4 rounds/lessons for every Rs 50,000 spent in the previous month.
- Foreign Currency Transactions Markup: 2%+GST ~2.36%
- Rent Pay Transactions Fee: 1%+GST ~1.18%
- Education Payments Transactions Fee: 1% for third-party apps. No charge for direct payments to educational institutes.
- Reward Redemption Fee: Rs 99+GST ~Rs 117
- Fuel Surcharge Waiver: 1% waiver for transactions from Rs 400 to Rs 4000. Fuel surcharge waivers on fuel spends up to Rs 50,000 per month, surcharge waiver will not be applicable for spends beyond this limit.
- Interest Rates: 3.4% monthly or 40.8% annually
- Travel Insurance: Get a refund of up to Rs 12000 for up to 2 transactions every year on a flight, hotel, or movie cancellations. The booking should be with Emeralde to avail of this offer.
Final Thoughts
ICICI Bank Emeralde credit card is a super-premium offering just below the Emeralde Private Metal credit card. While, the reward rate is quite low the Emeralde does have pretty good benefits. You can get it for the unlimited airport lounge access, and BookMyShow offer.
But, we would not suggest spending Rs 10 Lakh on this card to get a fee waiver. You can use it for the benefits plus the numerous merchant offers from ICICI Bank.
ICICI Bank Emeralde Credit Card
CardMaven
2 thoughts on “ICICI Bank Emeralde Credit Card Review”
Does Emeralde also have the criteria of 5k spend in previous quarter to avail lounge access?
No Emeralde does not have this criteria.