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Which is the Best Credit Card from India for *A travellers?

Which is the Best Credit Card from India for *A travellers?

Old Nov 1, 2016, 3:39 am
  #1  
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Which is the Best Credit Card from India for *A travellers?

Which among SBI signature or Citi Bank card is good for *A trevellers?

One question for comparison:

Suppose AI miles from SBI card are used to buy EVA AIR ticket via *A chart

VS.

CITI Bank card points to miles @ 0.5 for EVA AIR/SIN/Air India etc.
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Old Nov 2, 2016, 8:23 am
  #2  
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the sbi card is better for *a for the simple reason that you can earn *gold via spends & the earning ratio for spending on ai is amazing....much better than any card i have ever come across....
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Old Nov 3, 2016, 12:54 am
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With the change in the terms, to earn Gold, you have to make the spends on AI travel. That restricts the usage a lot since it means that you have to travel AI to get Gold. That you can do with the travel alone, why use this card? Also, the award miles required for AI award travel is very inflated, so that really reduces the value of the "enhanced" mileage earnings. So this card really does not make much sense any more unless one is traveling a lot on AI.
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Old Nov 3, 2016, 1:51 am
  #4  
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The earn gold via spends has been discontinued IIRC
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Old Nov 3, 2016, 10:39 am
  #5  
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Originally Posted by sm123
With the change in the terms, to earn Gold, you have to make the spends on AI travel. That restricts the usage a lot since it means that you have to travel AI to get Gold. That you can do with the travel alone, why use this card? Also, the award miles required for AI award travel is very inflated, so that really reduces the value of the "enhanced" mileage earnings. So this card really does not make much sense any more unless one is traveling a lot on AI.
Originally Posted by A2A
The earn gold via spends has been discontinued IIRC
i believe you have to spend a certain amount on ai to get to gold status....unless they changed that recently....

either way, for someone like me who travels on ai a lot, this card makes a lot of sense....the earnings on the card are amazing....
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Old Nov 7, 2016, 6:05 am
  #6  
 
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Originally Posted by Keyser
i believe you have to spend a certain amount on ai to get to gold status....unless they changed that recently....

either way, for someone like me who travels on ai a lot, this card makes a lot of sense....the earnings on the card are amazing....
Spend based upgrades have been discontinued effective 20th Aug 2016. More details here - https://www.sbicard.com/sbi-card-en/...edBenefits.pdf
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Old Nov 8, 2016, 6:13 am
  #7  
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Originally Posted by manish83
Spend based upgrades have been discontinued effective 20th Aug 2016. More details here - https://www.sbicard.com/sbi-card-en/...edBenefits.pdf
i didn't know that....but i'm not surprised....i was always expecting this to go away after they were fully integrated in *a....
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Old Apr 10, 2021, 10:38 pm
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Originally Posted by Keyser
the sbi card is better for *a for the simple reason that you can earn *gold via spends & the earning ratio for spending on ai is amazing....much better than any card i have ever come across....
Keyser/All,

I am trying to open an India bank account or get a local India card (Prepaid or Credit) so that I can make online purchases in India for services such as Swiggy, Supr Daily, etc. Many vendors do not accept my intl cards, so I am looking to get a local India card. Do you have any experience with this? Is there a bank or card that is available for foreign nationals? Any assistance would be appreciated.
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Old Apr 10, 2021, 11:09 pm
  #9  
 
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Originally Posted by rburner3
Keyser/All,

I am trying to open an India bank account or get a local India card (Prepaid or Credit) so that I can make online purchases in India for services such as Swiggy, Supr Daily, etc. Many vendors do not accept my intl cards, so I am looking to get a local India card. Do you have any experience with this? Is there a bank or card that is available for foreign nationals? Any assistance would be appreciated.
Do you have a PAN card? That is mandatory for getting a credit card in India. While I'm not sure, I think it's highly improbably that that is waived for foreign nationals.

Once you have a PAN and you're looking at collecting *A miles... your options are Citi Prestige, Citi Premier Miles and HDFC Diners Cards and Amex. Citi & Amex has a wider set of *A and non *A partners and different earning rates depending on the card variants. DC only credits to SQ but they have a some great accelerated rewards.
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Old Apr 11, 2021, 5:34 am
  #10  
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Originally Posted by rburner3
Keyser/All,

I am trying to open an India bank account or get a local India card (Prepaid or Credit) so that I can make online purchases in India for services such as Swiggy, Supr Daily, etc. Many vendors do not accept my intl cards, so I am looking to get a local India card. Do you have any experience with this? Is there a bank or card that is available for foreign nationals? Any assistance would be appreciated.
what is your status in india????are you considered an nri, do you have a pan card or an aadhar card????
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Old Apr 11, 2021, 10:13 am
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Originally Posted by Keyser
what is your status in india????are you considered an nri, do you have a pan card or an aadhar card????
I'm a Foreign National. Just started registration process for a business I'm starting in BPO market. That package contains a PAN application, but we're looking at 4-5 weeks for the process to complete.

So I'm looking for some kind of a digital card I can use until I can get a bank acct setup.

Also, my CA has this included in our setup package: DBS (or) Kotak (or) Yes Bank Zero Balance Current Account, but I don't experience with any of these banks...and again, we're about 4-5 weeks out. Any thoughts?
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Old Apr 11, 2021, 9:55 pm
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Originally Posted by rburner3
I'm a Foreign National. Just started registration process for a business I'm starting in BPO market. That package contains a PAN application, but we're looking at 4-5 weeks for the process to complete.

So I'm looking for some kind of a digital card I can use until I can get a bank acct setup.

Also, my CA has this included in our setup package: DBS (or) Kotak (or) Yes Bank Zero Balance Current Account, but I don't experience with any of these banks...and again, we're about 4-5 weeks out. Any thoughts?
From what you described it sounds like you're getting a company level tax number which is called a TAN (vs. PAN for individuals). Make sure you're getting a PAN as well.

I would prefer Kotak over DBS (because of wider presence etc.) and Yes Bank (because Yes was very recently was almost about to go under). But the same thing here - usually current accounts are generally meant for companies. You will need a savings bank account as an individual.
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Old Apr 12, 2021, 2:41 am
  #13  
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Once you have a bank account you get a debit card which can be used pretty much anywhere in India. My HDFC account has a Rupay Debit card which I use as form of payment in digital transactions.
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Old Apr 12, 2021, 2:56 am
  #14  
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Originally Posted by rburner3
I'm a Foreign National. Just started registration process for a business I'm starting in BPO market. That package contains a PAN application, but we're looking at 4-5 weeks for the process to complete.

So I'm looking for some kind of a digital card I can use until I can get a bank acct setup.

Also, my CA has this included in our setup package: DBS (or) Kotak (or) Yes Bank Zero Balance Current Account, but I don't experience with any of these banks...and again, we're about 4-5 weeks out. Any thoughts?
Originally Posted by PiperAtGatesofDawn
From what you described it sounds like you're getting a company level tax number which is called a TAN (vs. PAN for individuals). Make sure you're getting a PAN as well.I would prefer Kotak over DBS (because of wider presence etc.) and Yes Bank (because Yes was very recently was almost about to go under). But the same thing here - usually current accounts are generally meant for companies. You will need a savings bank account as an individual.
i agree....most definitely kotak out of the 3 choices....

it may be worthwhile checking if citibank is an option as well since they have some of the cards that meet the requirement you are looking for....
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Old Apr 12, 2021, 3:51 am
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Originally Posted by rburner3
So I'm looking for some kind of a digital card I can use until I can get a bank acct setup.
You maybe able to get a prepaid Visa/MC from the banks and use it to do digital transactions. You should go to a bank like Citi,, HDFC or Kotak and check if they have a prepaid card that they give to foreigners (i,e. someone without a PAN/Aadhaar card). If you get it - you probably would have to still reload it at any of the bank's branches. But still a temporary solution.

You won't get a regular digital card without a PAN/Aadhaar card.
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