On a recent visit to Reliance Smart Bazaar, a credit card executive aggressively pitched Reliance SBI Prime Card. He mentioned the card offered a 20% instant discount on purchases at the store. Well, this offer was obviously too good to be true.
At grocery stores/supermarkets where the margins are wafer-thin, 20% discount was clearly not done. This was either a limited period offer (but then you would not get the card instantly for you to use) OR the card benefits were convoluted and 20% benefit was the rosiest picture of the purchase benefits. OR a mix of both. OR plain simple mis-selling.
While I did not sign up for the card (too much information to consume and process in a short period), the Reliance ecosystem is so wide now that the card certainly warranted a closer look. Hence, in this post, let us review the Reliance SBI Prime Card and see if it is as good as was pitched to me.
Reliance SBI Prime Card: Fee and Important Benefits
- Rupay Card: You can use the card for UPI merchant payments.
- Annual fee: Rs 2,999 + GST. As a welcome gift, you get a Rs 3,000 Reliance Retail gift voucher. This voucher can be redeemed at physical stores of various Reliance Retail brands. Do note Reliance Retail is not just limited to Smart Bazaar outlets. This includes Reliance Digital, Trends, Reliance Footwear, Reliance Jewels and many more. Until the redemption of vouchers is contingent upon a minimum purchase amount, it should NOT be too difficult to recover the annual fee.
- Renewal fee: Rs 2,999 + GST. Renewal fee waiver for annual spend of Rs 3 lacs. Gift voucher of Rs 1,500 for spends over Rs 75,000 in the previous year.
- 10 rewards points for every Rs 100 spent on Reliance Participating stores (except for UPI payments). The list of participating stores includes AJIO and Netmeds.
- 5 Reward Points per Rs. 100/- spent on Dining, Movies & Entertainment, Domestic Airlines and International Spends
- 2 Reward Points per Rs. 100/- spent on other retail purchases (except fuel, property rental, wallet upload)
- Each Reward Point = Rs. 0.25
- These reward points can only be used to purchase Reliance Retail Vouchers that can be used at specific Reliance outlets.
Reliance SBI Prime Card: Discount, Cashbacks, and Reward at Reliance Brand Stores
The reward points mechanism shared in the previous section is certainly not impressive. Even on using at Reliance Participating stores, you get 10 reward points for every Rs 100 spent. That means Rs 2.5 on every Rs 100 spent.
For expenses beyond the Reliance participating stores, the reward points drop sharply. And even these reward points must be used to purchase Reliance Retail vouchers which can be redeemed at offline outlets of specific Reliance brands. Quite convoluted. I do not like such arrangements. And yes, the risk of inflating away the value of reward points is always there.
Hence, we shift the focus to specific Reliance brands. Can the discounts and cashbacks at specific Reliance brands make up for underwhelming rewards? This document lists the various discounts and cashbacks offered at Reliance brand stores. I am not sure if these are the latest transaction benefits.
RelianceOne is a loyalty program for customers of various Reliance Retail brands. You can use RelianceOne Points for payments at various Reliance brand offline and online stores. 1 RelianceOne point = 70 paise.
Clearly, 20% discount at Reliance SmartBazaar was incorrect information. We are nowhere close to 20% even if we add everything (discount, cashback, reward points, and RelianceOne points).
Reliance SBI Prime Card: Additional Benefits
- Free movie tickets: 1 movie ticket per month on BookMyShow. Maximum discount of Rs 250 per month.
- Milestone Benefits: Rs 2,250 (or Rs 5,000) worth Reliance Retail voucher on Annual spends of Rs 1.5 lacs (or Rs 3 lacs) at participating Reliance stores. The list of participating stores is longer than the list of stores where this voucher can be redeemed.
- Fuel Surcharge waiver: 1% fuel surcharge waiver across petrol pumps for transactions between Rs 500 and Rs 4,000, subject to a maximum of Rs 100 per statement cycle.
- Lounge Access: 8 complimentary Domestic Airport Lounges per calendar year. 2 per quarter.
It is smart of SBI and Reliance (two of the most respected brands in India) to come together and launch a co-branded credit card. From Reliance’s point of view, this card is geared towards keeping the customer within the Reliance ecosystem. You get better benefits on spending on Reliance brands and participating stores and the benefits can only be used on Reliance offline outlets. Again, quite smart.
From your perspective, if you shop extensively with the stores (both online and offline) owned by Reliance group, this card may make sense. For others, not so much.