SBI Cashback Credit Card

SBI Cashback Credit Card

Fee

Joining Fee: Rs 999+GST
Annual Fee: Rs 999+GST

Type

Cashback

Return

1% to 5%

Rating

3.7/5

Payment Network

Visa

Benefits

Fuel Surcharge Waiver

Cashback credit cards are always special. They are easy to get value out of unlike airmiles and they are the most popular among customers. Make a transaction, get the cashback, and redeem it. It is as simple as that. SBI Cashback credit card became the most popular cashback card on launch with its amazing 5% cashback on online spending. And hardly 7 months down the line, it has already seen its first devaluation. With the devaluations coming in, here is an updated review of the SBI Cashback credit card. This will help you decide whether to apply for the SBI Cashback credit card or close it if it’s up for renewal.

Overview

TypeCashback
VariantVisa
Annual FeeRs 999+GST
Rewards1% to 5%
Best ForOnline Spends
SBI Cashback Credit Card Review: Overview

Fees

Joining FeeRs 999+GST
Annual FeeRs 999+GST
Annual Fee WaiverRs 2 Lakhs spend in a membership year
SBI Cashback Credit Card Review: Fees

The Rs 2 Lakhs spend is a little bit on the higher side but can be achieved. The annual fee of Rs 999 is still reasonable considering the cashback it offers. Most of the customers have been able to get this annual fee waived off just by requesting SBI Card customer care. So, you can contact them to check if out.

LTF IndusInd Bank Credit Cards

Cashback

SBI Cashback has now restricted cashback in a lot of categories. So, it is not a 5% cashback on all online merchant spending anymore.

Purchase TypeCashback
Education, Fuel, Jewelry, Insurance, Rent, Utilities, WalletsZero
Other Online Spends5%
Other Offline Spends1%
SBI Cashback Credit Card Review: Cashback

Excluding categories like education, jewelry and even utilities from even 1% cashback is surprising. The 5% cashback now has a cap of Rs 5000 per statement cycle, down by 50% from the earlier cap of Rs 10000. But, it is still ok as it needs Rs 1 Lakh spent per month to hit the cap. Not many of us will have that kind of spends to max out this cap on 5% cashback.

Major e-commerce sites like Amazon, Flipkart, Myntra and many more continue to get 5% cashback on spends. This makes it a good option to replace many paid co-branded credit card cards like Flipkart Axis and Myntra Kotak. Amazon Pay ICICI Bank credit card is LTF but offers 5% cashback only if you are a Prime member. If you are not a Prime member, SBI Cashback is a better option as it will give you 5% cashback on Amazon spends.

LTF IDFC First Bank Credit Cards

How is the 5% cashback calculated for SBI Cashback Credit Card?

SBI Cashback credit card does not give an exact cashback of 5% on spends. The calculation is a little different. The cashback is calculated at 1% for regular spending and a 4% bonus for offline spending. Each of these is then rounded down to the nearest integer. For example, if you spend Rs 2345 and are eligible for 5% cashback, then:

  • 1% of Rs 2345 is Rs 23.45 which is rounded down to Rs 23
  • 4% of Rs 2345 is Rs 93.80 which is rounded down to Rs 93
  • Total cashback will be Rs 116 or 4.94%

This is explained in the SBI Cashback credit card T&C booklet.

Cashback Redemption

The earned cashback is automatically credited to the statement every month within 2 working days of statement generation. SBI Card also sends a cashback credit message once this is done.

AU Bank Xcite Ace

There are no redemption charges. SBI Card does not give a transaction-wise cashback calculation in the statement. So, we need to manually calculate the eligible cashback.

SBI Cashback Credit
Cashback credit message for SBI Cashback Card

Pros and Cons

Cashback SBI Card vs other cashback credit cards

If you hold multiple cashback credit cards, use this forum thread to compare cashback rates across all of them. This will help you find the best cashback credit card for your spending.

No Complimentary Airport Lounge Access

SBI Cashback credit card does not get any complimentary airport lounge access now. This has been discontinued with the devaluation from the 5th of May 2023.

  • Complimentary Domestic Airport Lounge Access: Not Available
  • Complimentary International Airport Lounge Access: Not Available

Other Key Benefits & Charges

  • Fuel Surcharge Waiver: 1% surcharge waiver on transaction value between Rs 500 to Rs 3000. Maximum surcharge waiver of Rs 100 per statement cycle.
  • Foreign Currency Markup: 3.5%+GST ~4.13%
  • Interest Rates: 3.5% per month or 42% annually

SBI Cashback Credit Card Annual Fee Waiver

SBI Cashback credit card is an amazing option for online spends. If you do not meet the annual fee waiver on spends and get charged, contact SBI Card customer care to request for a fee waiver. Most of the customers have got their annual fee on SBI Cashback credit card waived off with a simple request. So, do try it out.

Final Thoughts

While the devaluation has a huge impact on the usefulness of the SBI Cashback credit card, it is still a good option if you spend on online merchants like Flipkart, Amazon and others. Flipkart, Myntra and Amazon get 5% cashback on their co-branded credit cards. But with SBI Cashback credit card, you pay the fee just for this one and get 5% cashback on these retailers and many more.

But, SBI Card should have retained at least a couple of complimentary airport lounge visits on the Cashback card. For a Rs 999 credit card, it should have been there. May be with some spend based conditions like other issuers are doing it.

Frequently Asked Questions

SBI Cashback Credit Card

Card Maven

Fees
Rewards
Benefits
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Axis Bank My Zone Credit Card LTF
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57 thoughts on “SBI Cashback Credit Card”

  1. After the recent devaluation circulation starting from May 1, will I be able to avail the cashback on CFA exam fees if paid via this?

  2. I got this card recently. I was testing buying Amazon gv for about 10k(in Amz) and waited for transaction to settle to see the cashback posted. Cashback amount was visible. So I bought another 10k ,the transaction is settled but not cashback is seen for this. Does this card stopped giving cashbacks for purchase of Amazon gv

  3. Please update the Eterna cashback details in accordance with the latest devaluation from BOB.

  4. Gautamr Goell

    Axis Ace Credit card statement clearly shows how much cashback is earned, while the same is not applicable for SBI Cashback credit card
    @SBICard_Connect
    for SBI Cashback credit card, in statement, you should also show how much cashback is earned against each transaction

    1. This issue is still persistent. I called their customer care today – initial level executive declined to give breakdown of cashback. I didn’t budge and made them escalate the call to a higher level executive – she said there’s no way for the customer to see the breakdown, but individually spoke out the cashbacks for each transaction. Exercise was useful as I found out that they dont give cashback on Urbanclap payments – she said they don’t even have a specific category of MCC it is listed under, but it is not included in the list of cashback MCCs

  5. i did an irctc transaction for Rs.562/-. In the App its showing me as Rs.5/- cashback even after 10 days
    Beware, even IRCTC is counted as Utility

    1. Tried with APSRTC bus booking. its again 1% cashback. So this card clearly puts many things as under UTILITY as awrds 1%

  6. Shobhit Shukla

    Can anyone confirm that SCB Smart can be used for insurance premium payment to get 2.0% cashback?

  7. Applied for Card, Got the card. Smooth … but when I tried to use it during Amazon great Indian festival, 10% instant discount is not available. Same issue during the flipkart current sale in partnership with SBI . My SBI simply click card works . Any idea why the SBI Cashback is not eligible for 10 % instant discount but SBI Simply click card is and why EMI is not available in SBI cash back credit card?
    Customer service is clueless about this.

    1. During sale cashback card might not work for instant discount as per T&C , but some users reported their cashback card worked . Bin number might be different . But as per their T&C cashback card is not eligible for instant discount during sale . So officially it is not eligible .

  8. I applied on 2nd, done biometrics and one verification call. Then nothing since last 1 week, but received 3 calls from different SBI agents saying I’m eligible only Prime/Pulse and can’t give Cashback due to some technical issues when entering promocode. Not sure what to do? If these people can’t move the application, is there anyway to proceed.

    Email or twitter always says, ‘we’re receiving your application, wait 21 days’.

  9. Biggest issue with this card is, it is giving credit limit of only 10 – 20 thousand. Many people are reporting this. Even I(Salary 80k, other card- 2.9 lakhs) got a meagre 20k.
    So it’s useless, also won’t be able to spend 2 lakh for fee waiver.

    Is it coz we applied online & not through agent where we could have given our salary slips or ITR ?
    Would we have got better limit applying through offline mode ?

      1. I got a credit limit of 5L but then I had an SBI Elite card with that credit limit which I had previously closed.

    1. Make excess payments to your credit card before performing a huge transaction. They won’t charge you any fees. This works with SBI but not with all banks (e.g., HDFC won’t work).

    2. That’s the reality of these kind of cashback cards . Axis sold dreams when they rolled out Flipkart card with UNLIMITED CASHBACK branding and many people got 15k limit even if with high ITR or Salary . SBI is following the same for customer acquisition and these TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE cards aren’t gonna survive many days . Reap out the benefits till you have….. although with 20k limit this card is useless for you.

    3. If I apply from sbi branch. Will I get card 0 joining and 0 annual fees for 1st year, if yes I will apply from branch

    4. Same case with me. Got mere 20k limit 🙁 This is my second SBI card. I am already having SBI gold card.

  10. Can we buy Gift voucher from amazon @5% cash back and use them to pay bill ? possible ?

  11. I habe the following credit cards
    1. HDFC Business Regalia
    2. ICICI Amazon pay(LTF)
    3. Axis Flipkart
    4. BOB Eterna, Select card(LTF)
    5. Now I’ve just been approved with SBI Cashback credit card(no sbi card before) and its on the way.
    Should i convert the Flipkart card to Ace as u said? It seems difficult as i heard some people saying they got a call from Axis saying to switch to Flipkart card, as they will soon discontinue Ace card.

    1. You will still have the card even if they discontinue new applications. So, get it if you want and if you can.

  12. Will 5% cash back be applicable for foreign currency transactions done online and offline?

  13. I am planning to make this collection,

    – SBI Cashback (I already Have Click and Elite but will flip these)
    – Axis ACE (Already have Privilege (for double value RPs redemption) and Select (for few Swiggy/Bigbasket/BMS benefits may cancel Select)
    – Indusind Eazydiner (Great card + can easily replace my Elite for BMS benefits as well)
    – Have RBL Supercard, which I am planning to keep for occasional online offers (the fee is waived off)
    – Have HDFC Diners Privilege as well, not much used for exclusive deals sometimes.

    How does it look?

  14. In continuation of the above comment I made, I forgot to add a few key details there which I would like to highlight here in this comment:

    1. There is so far no current restriction for jewelry purchase. But in future it might be imposed if people start misusing the card features. MCC for Gold/Jewelry purchase is 5944. So, keep an eye out for it in future revision of the T&C of the card.

    2. SBI card team is basically lying to users saying the card will provide 5% cashback. It won’t. It will only provide 4.91% cashback. So if you buy stuff online worth ₹1160/- instead of getting cashback of ₹58 (5%), you will only get ₹57 (4.91%) cashback.
    Check this tweet of mine to see the details of their cashback calculation: https://twitter.com/iSaumya/status/1567478752879443975

    1. Card Maven

      Rounding down of cashback or rewards on credit cards is not new. A lot of credit cards do that.

      1. Yes and no. For example, in Axis Ace if your cashback is 17.45 then you will get 17 but if it is 17.65 then you will get 18. Also I have not seen any other cashback card doing a wired 5% calculation like the way SBI Cards are doing. That is first calculate 1% of the amount and then round that down. Then calculate 4% of the amount and round that down and then finally sum it up. This is truly wired. I don’t know which are cashback segment credit card does that.

        1. I agree with you and I am using HDFC millennia more than 1 yr and it might have low capping but i got the cashback accurately always . But on Flipkart Axis the calculation works like you mentioned for SBI cashback card.

  15. Please note that with SBI Cashback Credit Card, Insurance Premium Payment will be under 1% cashback category as according to the T&C of the card, it is considered as “Utility Payment”. The MCC code for Insurance premium payment is 6300 which is mentioned under the 1% cashback category in the T&C.

    So, for insurance premium payment if you have HDFC Regalia credit card and if you would like to use it’s points for Flight/Hotel booking then with that card you will get 1.32% reward while SBI Cashack will give you 1% reward rate. But if you do not have such requirement then you can definitely use this card as with Axis Ace you will get nothing.

    Also do note that in SBI Cashback Card T&C they have also mentioned that MCC 9399 will be considered as “Utility” and will get 1% cashback. MCC 9399 is for Government Services Payment like Tax and other things.

    Just a few things to keep in mind. Thanks for the great detailed review.

    1. What happens if utility payments are made via CRED using SBI Cashback Card. This sidesteps the 6300, I suppose.

      1. Absolutely no. No matter what platform you use, be it CRED or GPay or something else, according to RBI regulations, all need to pass the proper MCC code for the transaction. So, the way it works behind the scene is that, these fintech companies have multiple accounts with the same or different page getaways and based on the option that you have selected, it uses the appropriate API credential for redirecting you to that payment gateway which will then report the correct MCC to the card system. So, it will always be 6300 for utility bill payment no matter which system you use otherwise they will get penalized by RBI.

        1. we can buy an Amazon Gift card using an SBI Cashback card, and then use it on Amazon to make payments for Utility. That way we will get 5 percent

    2. With the above message i would liek to suggest you to get or use amazon pay icici card for insurance payments. It definately gives 2% cashback. Ace used to but now they have removed in T&C.

  16. Harshit verma

    Good comparison sheet.
    Can you add some more credit card for reference only HDFC infinia, SC Ultimate, SBI Prime. I know that some cards comes with very high fee, still I want to see the comparison.

    1. Card Maven

      Thanks! It is simple for Standard Chartered Ultimate card. It is always 3.3% rewards without any exclusions and caps.

      SBI Prime is not worth considering at all. The rewards are too low.

      Infinia is in a different league. I have another comparison sheet for Magnus, Infinia and DCB on the Axis Bank Magnus review.

      https://cardmaven.in/axis-bank-magnus-credit-card-review/

      1. Vivek Goenka

        I am using SBI elite. It has great milestone rewards. Can you add it to your comparision table.

  17. Mohsin Hussain

    Is the sprint website suitable for existing card holders? Seems like first time users are getting instant approval but existing users are asked to wait for document verification.

    1. Card Maven

      Yes, we can apply offline but many agents and branches are not aware of this card for now.

      1. Exact same problem with me applying to this card as soon as i heard of this on 1st sept itself.

  18. Vamsi krishna

    I want this card, but I already have 2 sbi credit cards and last one is before 90 days. So that I have to apply after 90 days.

  19. Sahil singla

    Already applied. But their system is too poor overall starting with application procedure

    1. Same problem with this site. And the customer care said they are not yet throgh with this card application so only online approval is needed and there sprint site is too dumb to take full application.

      1. I applied My application 10 days before but still not processed. Done video kyc and after that no progress. How much it takes to get card normally? Thanks

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