The Gemstone collection from ICICI Bank includes four credit cards: Coral, Rubyx, Sapphiro and Emeralde. The ICICI Bank Rubyx credit card has a joining fee and annual fee of Rs 3000+GST, but is usually issued lifetime free to eligible customers. It offers a return of between 0.25% to 1% on your spends. The benefits of the ICICI Bank Rubyx credit card include complimentary access to railway and airport lounges and a waiver of fuel surcharge.
Fees
ICICI Bank Rubyx credit card is issued LTF in most cases for existing ICICI Bank savings account customers based on the salary. So, do check with the bank on this.
While the welcome benefit is decent enough, we would prefer a statement credit or Amazon vouchers instead. It gives more flexibility instead of moving around different merchants. The spend threshold for annual fee waiver will exclude rent, government, and education payments made via credit card.
| Joining Fee | Rs 3000+GST |
| Welcome Benefit | Rs 5000+ worth Gift Vouchers – Tata CLiQ (Rs 2000), Ease my Trip (Rs 1000 X 2), Uber (Rs 250), Central (Rs 500 X 2), Croma (Rs 1000) |
| Annual Fee | Rs 2000+GST |
| Annual Fee Waiver | Rs 3 Lakh Spend |
Rewards
ICICI Bank credit cards have one of the lowest reward rates in the industry. While they do have many merchant offers, their cards do not offer much value back for regular transactions. The reward rate is quite low for a card that charges a fee. Even LTF cards offer better rewards now.
| Spend Category | Rewards |
|---|---|
| Domestic Spends | 2 RP/Rs 100 ~0.5% return |
| International Spends | 4 RP/Rs 100 ~1% return |
| Utilities and Insurance Spends | 1 RP/Rs 100 ~0.25% return |
| Fuel Spends | No Rewards |
Milestone Rewards on ICICI Bank Rubyx Credit Card
- 3000 RP on spends of Rs 3 Lakh in a membership year
- 1500 RP on every Rs 1 Lakh spend after crossing Rs 3 lakhs milestone above
- Maximum 15000 bonus RP in a year
- The spend threshold for milestone benefits will exclude rent, government, and education payments made via credit card.
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
- Domestic Airport Lounge Access: 1 complimentary visit per quarter. The pre-requisite to get the complimentary visits is to spend Rs 75,000 in the previous calendar quarter.
- International Airport Lounge Access: Not Available
Complimentary Railway Lounge Access
- Railway Lounge Access: 1 complimentary visit per calendar quarter
The access is valid only for the primary cardholder. At the moment, only below railway lounges can be access with ICICI Bank Coral credit card.
- Delhi – Executive Railway Lounge
- Agra – Executive Railway Lounge
- Jaipur – Executive Railway Lounge
- Ahmedabad – Executive Railway Lounge
- Madurai – Executive Railway Lounge
- Kolkata (Sealdah) – Executive Railway Lounge
BookMyShow and Inox Offer on ICICI Bank Rubyx Credit Card
- Book My Show: 25% discount up to Rs 150 on purchase of minimum 2 movie tickets per transaction on BookMyShow and Inox.
- The offer can be availed twice a month on both BookMyShow and Inox.
Other Key Benefits and Charges
- Foreign Currency Transactions Markup: 3.5%+GST ~4.13%
- 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. This is only available on fuel purchases at HPCL petrol pumps when the card is swiped on the ICICI Merchant Services swipe machine. 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
Final Thoughts
ICICI Bank is one of the top 3 credit card issuers in India. One may find it surprising considering the rewards on ICICI Bank credit cards in comparison to other issuers like SBI Card or HDFC Bank. But, ICICI Bank has always been good in merchant offers with e-commerce and offline players. This is what makes it worthwhile to hold ICICI Bank Rubyx credit card especially if you get it as Lifetime Free.
Frequently Asked Questions
ICICI Bank Rubyx Credit Card
1 thought on “ICICI Bank Rubyx Credit Card Review”
ICICI has now started their own reward portal and since April 2022, is no longer tied up with Payback. The new ICICI reward portal isn’t that great either in terms of choices.