Co-branded credit cards are quite common. I recently came across one by ICICI Bank and MakeMyTrip — MakeMyTrip ICICI Bank Credit card. In this post, let’s find out more about this card and whether it makes sense for you to apply for this credit card.
MakeMyTrip ICICI Bank Credit Card: CashBack Benefits and Limitations
- 6% cashback on hotel booking on MakeMyTrip.
- 3% cashback on flight, bus, and cab bookings.
- 1% cashback on all other retail expenditures.
- No cashback for rent or EMI payments. 1% Cashback on insurance premium payments, but the cashback for insurance payment is capped at Rs 1,000 per year.
- There is no mention of exclusive discounts for MakeMyTrip ICICI Credit card holders. Such discounts may come and go as for credit cards from other banks.
This cashback shall be in the form of myCash (MakeMyTrip wallet) and shall be over and above any discount available on the travel website.
1 myCash = Re. 1
myCash earned on this credit card has no expiry date and can be utilized until the card is active. However, you can utilize this cashback ONLY for future expenses on MakeMyTrip. This becomes restrictive. While myCash won’t expire and can be used when you use MMT next, I would prefer to use this cashback for other payments too, not just MMT.
MakeMyTrip ICICI Bank Credit Card: Other Features and Benefits
- The card is issued on Mastercard and Rupay. Not on Visa. And you will get both the cards. Two credit cards for you. The good part is that you can link Rupay card to your UPI app and use for even small payments.
- Forex markup of 0.99% on international transactions. Your bank charges this cost when you make a payment in a foreign currency while travelling abroad or online. For other credit cards, this tends to range from 1-3.5%. Note Forex markup is different from Dynamic Currency Conversion fee, which applies when I make payments to foreign merchants in INR. In any case, you might be better off using a pre-loaded card or carrying foreign currency during your foreign trips.
- MMTBlack membership for 1 year. This membership gets you a few benefits but the benefits do not seem reliable or meaningful. By the way, if you frequently book on MakeMyTrip, you will automatically get this membership for spending Rs 50,000 or more on the travel website.
- 2 complimentary domestic airport lounges access per quarter. 8 per year.
- 1 complimentary international airport lounge access per year.
- Buy 1 and get Rs 150 off on the second ticket on BookMyShow and INOX. 2 times a month.
What Is the Joining and Annual Fee?
Joining fee of Rs 1,000 + GST. You get a MakeMyTrip voucher of Rs 1,000 with validity of 1 year. This voucher can be redeemed on flights, hotel, holiday packages, cabs, and buses for both domestic and international transactions.
Annual fee of Rs 1,000 + GST. Again, you get a MakeMyTrip hotel voucher of Rs 1,000 with a validity of 3 months. This voucher can only be used for hotel and homestay bookings. Clearly, the annual voucher is much restrictive compared to the joining voucher. The annual fee shall be waived if you spend over Rs 3 lacs on this card in the previous year.
Should You Apply for a MakeMyTrip ICICI Bank Credit Card?
Since the cashback is in the form of myCash, this card makes sense only if you book through MakeMyTrip frequently.
But yes, if you do not yet own a Rupay credit card and use MakeMyTrip too, this card can indeed help. You can link your UPI app to Rupay credit card and earn myCash for your expenses on the card.
If you are shopping for a credit card, do look at other credit cards which offer benefits on expenses on MakeMyTrip and are not as restrictive. For instance, a few months ago, I had written about HDFC Pixel Credit Card. HDFC Pixel Card allows you to pick merchants from 2 categories where your expenses will earn you 5% cashback. MakeMyTrip was one of the options with the HDFC card. If you book frequently through the MakeMyTrip website, you can select MakeMyTrip as a preferred merchant and earn 5% cashback on expenses on the travel website. The MakeMyTrip ICICI card offers 6% only on hotel bookings and only 3% on the other bookings on the MMT site. While the mode of cashback is quite convoluted with HDFC card, it is less restrictive than MakeMyTrip ICICI Credit card.
Additionally, if you are a frequent traveler, you might want to sign up for a credit card where reward points can be used to purchase travel vouchers and experiences. Personally though, I find it difficult to understand the workings for such cards and can be easily gamed through reward point inflation. I prefer cards with a simpler reward structure in the form of cashbacks.
Do you plan to apply for a MakeMyTrip ICICI Credit card? Let me know in the comments section.