Co-branded cards have been the flavour of the season. Many brands have tied up with banks to launch co-branded credit cards and we have covered many such cards in our posts. Every few weeks, I come across a new one. Recently, I came across Titan SBI Credit Card which offers accelerated benefits for purchases across various brands from Titan including Tanishq, Caratlane, and Fastrack.
In this post, let us find out more about Titan SBI Credit Card. We evaluate its various features and benefits and whether it makes sense for you to sign up for this credit card.
Titan SBI Card: Features and Benefits
- Cashback for spending across Titan brand stores (offline/online) except Tanishq
- Gift Voucher for spends at Tanishq stores/website
- Additional gift vouchers if your expenses exceed Rs 5 lacs
- 6 reward points for every Rs 100 spent outside the Titan ecosystem. No reward points for fuel purchase, wallet loading, property rental and utility payments
- 8 domestic lounge visits in a year
- 4 international lounge visits in a year
- 1% Fuel surcharge waiver for transaction amount ranging from Rs 500 to Rs 3,000. Waiver capped at Rs 100 per billing cycle
- Available on both Visa and Rupay card networks. You can choose your preferred network. As I understand, there is no difference in reward points or benefits structure. With RuPay, you can make UPI payments using your credit card
You get cashback when you use the Titan SBI card for purchase within the Titan ecosystem (except Tanishq). For Tanishq purchases, you get a gift voucher. You get reward points for expenses outside the Titan brands ecosystem. However, those reward points must be used to purchase gift vouchers of different Titan brands.
What Is the Annual Fee and Renewal Fee?
The annual fee is Rs 2,999 + GST. You get 12,000 reward points as a welcome gift. 1 Reward point = Rs 0.25. These reward points can only be used to redeem gift vouchers from Titan brands.
The renewal fee is Rs 2,999 + GST. However, the bank can waive off the fee if you spend Rs 3 lacs during the previous year.
Additionally, if you spend Rs 5 lacs or Rs 10 lacs on the Titan SBI card, you will get an additional benefit of Rs 5,000 and Rs 10,000 as milestone rewards. These milestone rewards will be paid as gift vouchers that can be redeemed exclusively at Titan stores.
How Do You Earn Cashback?
The cashback varies across Titan brands.
| Benefit | Brands | No. of Brands | Maximum Benefit |
| 7.5% cashback | World of Titan, Taneira, Titan Eye+, Helios, Fastrack, Skinn, Irth, Sonata | 8 | Rs 10,000 per quarter |
| 5% cashback | Caratlane, Mia, Zoya | 3 | Rs 10,000 per quarter |
| 3% worth Gift Voucher | Tanishq | 1 | Rs 25,000 per quarter |
The cashback gets credited to your SBI card account within 2 days of the statement generation date and is adjusted automatically in your next statement. This is clean and crisp. With this, the cashback is as good as the discount on your purchase.
While all the other brands offer cashback, Tanishq offers a gift voucher. This gift voucher will be sent to you within 15 days from the statement date.
What Is the Value of These Reward Points?
You get 6 reward points per Rs 100 of spend outside the Titan ecosystem.
1 Reward point = Rs 0.25 (Source: SBI Card Website)
Essentially, you get benefit of Rs 1.5 per Rs 100 of spend outside the Titan ecosystem.
Note that the value of reward points can be easily reduced through inflation in conversion pricing. For instance, SBI and Titan can agree to change the conversion rate from Rs 0.25 per reward point to Rs 0.2 per reward point.
How to use these reward points? The reward points are different from cashback and cannot be used to set off the future credit card bills. These reward points must be used to purchase a wide array of Titan vouchers. I assume this refers to purchasing brand specific vouchers. Hence, any reward points that you earn must be spent within the Titan ecosystem.
Gift Vouchers Can Be Complicated
The gift vouchers (either through purchase from Tanishq or conversion from reward points) come auto activated and have a validity of 1 year. There is no provision to re-validate the vouchers. Hence, you must utilize these vouchers within a year of issuance.
It is not clear if the gift vouchers are contingent or are easy to use. Let us consider 3 forms of Rs 1,000 gift vouchers.
Example 1: Rs 1,000 off any purchase. So, if your bill is Rs 1,200, you pay only Rs 200.
Example 2: Rs 1,000 off on minimum purchase of Rs 5,000. So, you must spend Rs at least 4,000 from your own pocket to utilize the gift voucher fully.
Example 3: 5% off up to Rs 1,000 on minimum purchase of Rs 5,000. For you to utilize the voucher fully, you must spend Rs 20,000. Rs 19,000 from your own pocket.
You get the drift.
Over and above, if you add restrictions on validity and the participating stores, this can get quite complicated.
In contrast, cashback-based benefits are so crisp and reliable.
Should You Opt for Titan SBI Card?
This card can make sense if you foresee yourself shopping regularly at various Titan brand stores or websites.
Cashback is quite decent. Even the reward points for purchases outside of Titan ecosystem are quite good. However, these reward points can be used to purchase Titan brand gift vouchers. We also do not completely understand the nature of gift cards that will be offered.
Still, if you frequent various Titan brand stores, this card may not be a bad deal. I doubt any other credit card will offer you better benefits for shopping at stores from various Titan brands.
Before applying, do your own research and find out more from the banks about the nature of gift cards. I do not own Titan SBI Credit card and may have skipped crucial details and caveats in this post.