BoB Eterna Credit Card Review

By | August 30, 2023
BoB Eterna Featured Image

Bank of Baroda Eterna or BoB Eterna credit card by BoB Financial (a 100% sub of Bank of Baroda) is a new entrant in the premium credit card space. It is the flagship card in BoB’s bouquet. The USP of the BoB Eterna is 5x rewards points on Online/Travel/Dining spends and unlimited domestic lounge access, including add-on cards. Currently, online spends include all online spends, even wallet loads and utility bill payment, which is just awesome.

Below is my detailed take on the card

BoB Eterna Credit Card

BoB Eterna Credit Card

Fees and Eligibility:

  • Joining fee of INR2,499 + GST. (Waived on spending 25,000 in first 60 days)
  • Annual fee INR2,499 + GST. Waived on spending INR250,000 in a year.

Rewards and Benefit:

  • Joining Benefit:
    • 6 months FitPass Pro membership
    • The website mentions about 10000 reward points on spending 50k within 60 days. I believe that one will not get both joining fee waiver and 10k reward points. Someone who owns the card can shed more light on this.
  • Recurring Benefits:
    • Buy One Get One on movie ticket via Paytm app (up to 250) every month.
    • 20,000 bonus reward points on spending 500,000 in a year. (equivalent to INR 5000 or 1% of spends)
  • Reward Points:
    • 3 reward points on every 100 spent. 1 reward point = 0.25p. 0.75% reward rate.
    • Accelerated Reward Points:
      • 15 reward points (5x) on every 100 spent on Online/Dining/Travel. Wallet load and utility spend are considered as online spends. 3.75% reward rate
    • 1% fuel surcharge waiver
  • Lounge Access: (Both for primary and add-on cardholders)
    • Unlimited domestic lounge access via Mastercard

BoB Eterna Snapshot

How to maximize benefits on BoB Eterna

As mentioned earlier, the USP of BoB Eterna credit card is 3.75% reward rate on all online spends. Thus the most optimal way would be to spend 400,000 in a year online (33,300 in a month). 33,300 a month on online spends is to max out the 5x quota.  This is not difficult, given that spends on Amazon, Flipkart, wallet load, utility bill payment etc. are all considered for 5x reward. The remaining 100,000 a year can be spent online or even offline. This results in an effective reward rate of 4.15%, which is super awesome. Further, given that wallet load is considered for online spends, even insurance premiums paid will give 3.75% return.

Another way to look at BoB Eterna credit card is to calculate the reward rate in the worst case. Assume one spends around 500,000 annually on PoS machine i.e. offline. One would get 0.75% standard reward rate on spends and 1% as milestone benefit i.e. total 1.75% reward rate. This is still very good considering that at this spending level the annual fee is already zero and we have not yet accounted for the unlimited domestic lounge access benefit and BOGO on movie tickets via Paytm.

BoB Eterna Scenarios

That’s not all, given that the reward points can be redeemed for statement credit without any charges makes BoB Eterna credit card an even more interesting proposition, especially during these times.

Thus, on the annual spends of 500,000, the reward rate should hover between 1.75% and 4.15% depending on the usage pattern. At 4.15% annual reward rate, BoB Eterna easily beats the SBI Prime credit card and comes very close to Amex Platinum Travel credit card in terms of reward rate.

Even in the worst case of 1.75% reward rate, BoB Eterna credit card is much better than Citibank Premiermiles.  Citibank Premiermiles gives just 1.4%, after accounting for annual fees and assuming that entire INR500,000 are spent toward points accruing spends.

Drawbacks of BoB Eterna credit card

The card lacks any international lounge access, which is a dampener. BoB could have increased the annual fees by 100 or so and easily offered international lounge access.

The biggest drawback as of now is that one doesn’t get to see many offers from BoB, the way one sees from other leading card issuers. However, given that Bank of Baroda is now getting serious about BoB Financial, especially after the blockbuster SBI Card IPO earlier this year, one may expect this to change very soon.  (Btw, the current Bank of Baroda MD, Mr Sanjiv Chaddha, was heading the investment-banking unit of SBI, SBI Capital Markets, before joining Bank of Baroda. So fair to assume that IPO of BoB Financial is on the cards.)

Conclusion

No doubt, Bank of Baroda Eterna or BoB Eterna credit card is a very solid product with excellent reward rate. However, I feel that the current 5x rewards on online spends are unsustainable and soon there would be exclusions, for eg. Wallet load and utility bill payments. However, at the moment it remains one of the highest rewarding credit cards. If you are looking for a high reward rate credit card, get the BoB Eterna and maximise the benefits. The day they announce exclusions on online spends, redeem all your points for a statement credit and bid adieu to the card.

Do you own the BoB Eterna credit card? Do let me know your views about it and whether one gets both the fee waiver and 10,000 reward points in  the first year?

Photo by freddie marriage on Unsplash

Disclaimer

In the interest of full disclosure, Credit Cardz may earn a referral bonus for anyone that’s approved through some of the links in this post. However, opinions and views expressed here are of the author's alone and not those of the bank, credit card issuer, or anyone else and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any of these entities.

Author: CreditCardz

Hi, I am an avid credit card user who loves minting reward points on credit cards. I try to put every possible expense on credit card to earn maximum reward points and want realize my dream to travel the world using just rewards points.

11 thoughts on “BoB Eterna Credit Card Review

  1. Tanmay Lodha

    With regards to offers, you are wrong. From the past one year, BOBFinancial is giving offers on lots of partner merchants.

    Reply
    1. Harshvardhan Agrawal Post author

      Ohh is it? to be honest, i have not seen many BoB offers. But this also maybe coz since I dont have BoB card, i sort of dont look for those offers.

      Reply
  2. Amit

    What is the best way to get this card ? Filled their length form couple of times but no one call back 🙁

    Reply
  3. Amit

    So I applied again with my secondary mobile number.
    Got mail for Video Kyc in a day and completed it immediately.
    Very next day someone mailed me that few documents are missing (Still wondering how it is possible) and i sent them immediately.
    Today someone called me to get some clarity about my CTC as soon as clarified it show my application is approved.

    If i ignore the first hickup their process is more smoother, faster and better than most of private banks as atleast they call/mail to clarify the things while pvt banks will just take decision based on their understanding.

    Kiddos to BOB!!

    Reply
  4. Harish Raj

    Unlimited Lounge access for add-on. Is this tested. Atleast can any one confirm, they were able to use lounge access using AddOn Card.

    Reply
  5. PUNEET

    Hi friends,
    The benefits shown above are correct. I am using eterna card. If u consider 6 month fitness pass cost+ 15xcashback points+ paytm movie+fuel+lounge+yearly 20000 points, the return will be more than 7%. I got 10000 bonus points in 1st 60 days for using 50000/-

    Offers are also increasing, please refer bobfinancial.com for all offer list.

    PUNEET

    Reply
  6. Mannat Juneja

    Hi,

    I am holding this card. Can anyone guide me about the points redemption. As I can only find the option to redeem for statement credit.
    Is any option available to redeem for vouchers?
    Kindly assist if anyone has a clue.

    Thanks

    Reply
  7. Akash goel

    Please correct the facts here, I recently got this card and the accelerated rewards are restricted to dining, shopping and travel now. NOT FOR ALL the online transaction, which is quiet disheartening

    Reply

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