Union Uni Carbon Credit Card

The Union Uni Carbon credit card is a fuel card offered by the Union Bank of India. It offers up to 5.5% cashback on fuel spending and is an HPCL co-branded credit card on the Rupay platform. The card offers good rewards for fuel transactions and can be useful for low fuel expenses. Here is a review of the Union Uni Carbon credit card and its rewards & benefits.

Eligibility

Salaried: Age Limit of 18-60 years
Self-Employed: Age Limit of 18-70 years
Minimum Annual Income: Rs 2.5 Lakhs

Application Process

If you are an existing customer of Union Bank of India through a savings account, then you can apply for the Union Uni Carbon credit card online.

But, for new customers the process has to be done at the branch. Unfortunately, no online process is available here.

Fees and Charges

Joining Fee	Rs 499+GST
Welcome Benefit	Rs 300 statement credit
Annual Fee	Rs 499+GST
Annual Fee Waiver	Spend Rs 1 Lakh in a membership year

Union Bank Uni Carbon credit card comes with a joining and annual fee of Rs 499 plus GST. We get a Rs 300 statement credit as a welcome benefit. For this, we need to make a fuel purchase of at least Rs 300 at an HPCL outlet within 60 days. So, the joining fee is not fully compensated with the welcome benefits.

From the 2^nd year onwards, the annual fees are waived on spends of Rs 1 Lakh. With the reward rates the Uni Carbon offers, spending Rs 1 Lakh is going to be difficult.

Rewards

Category	Rewards	Value
Fuel Spends at HPCL outlets	16 RP / Rs 100 for a transaction value of Rs.500 and above Max Cap of Rs 150 per billing cycle.	4%
Fuel Spends with HP Pay App	6 Payback Points on HP Pay App	1.5%
Non-Fuel Spends	2 RP / Rs 100	0.5%

We can redeem the reward points for cashback. As this is a fuel credit card, the rewards are higher on fuel purchases and nominal on other purchases.

HP Pay is a scan-and-pay app through which we can pay for fuel and gas cylinders. This is possible if the fuel pump has an HP Pay QR code. But, there is an extra charge of 1% for using credit cards on HP Pay. So, the 1.5% benefit is not of much use.

This card is more suitable for two-wheeler fuel requirements as:

The fuel transaction cap for rewards is set to Rs 500
The monthly cap of Rs 150 means we can use the card for fuel for up to Rs 3750 each month

The non-fuel spend reward rate should have been at least 1%. The 0.5% is too less.

Milestone Rewards

There are milestone awards for reaching target spending as well. But, it is nothing great and there is no incentive for spending more than 1L on the Union Uni Carbon credit card for the fee waiver.

Annual Spends	Cumulative Additional Reward Points	Value	Additional Return in %
Rs 1.25 Lakhs	500	Rs 125	0.1%
Rs 1.5 Lakhs	1100	Rs 275	0.18%
Rs 1.75 Lakhs	1800	Rs 450	0.26%
Rs 2 Lakhs	2600	Rs 650	0.33%

Fuel Surcharge Waiver

Uni Carbon credit card offers a 1% fuel surcharge over and above the rewards. This is in line with what other credit cards offer.

The good thing is there is no upper cap on the transaction for fuel surcharge waiver.

Pros and Cons

Return on Spends Calculator

Final Thoughts

When used for both fuel and non-fuel spending, the reward rate for the Union Uni Carbon credit card is around 1% to 2.5%. While this is decent for its segment, we can get that kind of return with Axis Ace as well. That too, without any kind of caps and calculations. So, not much of a selling point here.

We would have liked to see a higher cap for fuel rewards which would have made this card more attractive. The annual fee waiver is at Rs 1 Lakh while fuel spends will get accelerated rewards capped at Rs 45000. This means we will end up diverting our spending from other cards without any extra benefit.

If you are still looking for credit cards that offer good rewards on fuel spending, then do check out this list. For HP fuel credit cards, the new launch IDFC First Bank Power+ credit card is a much better choice. For the same fee of Rs 499, you get better rewards and benefits.