Fi Money is offering a Credit Card which is a co-branded credit card from Fi and the Federal Bank. Fi is marketing this credit card as “The most rewarding card!“ and “Get 5% valueback”. So let’s deep dive into the features and rewards of this credit card to see if what they claim is true or not.
Fi Federal Co-branded Credit Card
Fees and Eligibility
- Joining fee of 2000 – You get welcome vouchers worth more than 5,000 (including no T&C attached gift cards from Zomato, Myntra, Uber and more) or 50,000 Fi coins (approx. value of 1500)
- Annual fee of 2000 from 2nd year onward – Waived off on spends of over 250,000.
- This credit card is currently available only to existing Fi users with a plan to be made available to larger audience soon.
Rewards and Benefits:
Reward Points:
The Fi Collection is an impressive list of top brands which can ensure you get accelerated rewards on almost all your daily spends!
- Base Reward rate: 0.6%: You get 1 Fi coin for every INR 5 spent. i.e. 20 Fi coins for every 100 spent.
- 2x on Fi Collection: If you shop from the 21 brands (Fi Collection), you get a 1.2% reward rate.
- 5x on Fi Collection: On the top 3 brands you spend the most on each month from the Fi Collection and provided the total spend on the card is above 15k, you get a 3% reward rate. i.e. 5x Fi coins of those 3 brands.
- This credit card does not limit you to a specific brand or category like some other cards in the market. With this card, users have the flexibility to spend as they want and get rewarded on whichever brands end up being the top 3 for the month – even if they are different month on month. This allows a lot of flexibility to the users as spends tend to change every month. For example, in a month spending on travel may be high, in another month spending on apparel and maybe for most other months spending on groceries will top the charts.
Inclusions and Exclusions:
- Rent and Fuel spending are NOT excluded. I.e.you get 1x Fi coin (0.6% reward rate) which sets this card apart from others in the market. However, they are NOT counted towards milestone benefits
- Wallet load and gold purchases – no reward points and no milestone benefits.
Milestone Benefits:
- Vouchers worth 2.5k on annual spend of 2.5lk. JioCinema Premium annual membership along with a annual renewal fee waiver.
- Additional benefits worth 8K on annual spend of 4L: Includes Vistara upgrade vouchers, airport assistance & priority check-in, ET Prime annual membership and DocuBay annual membership. The vistara upgrade vouchers can be used for upgrading even to business class!
Thus you get 10.5k vouchers on an annual spend of 4lk (a solid 2.6% reward rate).
Lounge Access
- 1 lounge access per quarter with a requirement of spending 10K in a quarter
- Interestingly, lounge access would be provided digitally, that is you will get an access code or QR. This along with a list of lounges where the code can be used saves you the trouble of standing in queues to check different cards for lounge access.
Thoughts on Fi Federal Co-branded Credit Card
When you put pen to paper and work out the benefits, this credit card comes out as a strong rewarding credit card with a max 5.6% reward rate. The overall pitch of 5% valueback indicates users can enjoy benefits of more than 20,000 in a year with this card!
Pros of Fi Federal Co-branded Credit Card
Rent and fuel spend earn Fi coins
During times when nearly no card issuer is giving reward points on fuel and rent, it is refreshing to see Fi Federal Co-branded credit card giving points for the same. You get a 0.6% reward rate on rent payments and fuel spending.
Fi Collection – a very good set of brands
Fi collection is a set of 21 brands as of now where you get upto 5x i.e. 3% reward rate on your spending. Below is the list of these 21 brands. Have to agree that this is a very good collection of brands. Covering almost the entire spending spectrum from online, groceries, travel, food, shopping etc. for an individual.
5x reward rate
Within the Fi collection brands discussed above, you earn 5x Fi coins, i.e. 3% reward rate on the top 3 brands by spending provided your overall monthly bill is over 15000 which does not seem like a very high spend criteria. Also, the top 3 are not fixed in any way. They can change depending on your spend patterns each month, and by the end of it you get rewarded on the 3 brands you have spent the most on.
1% forex surcharge
Fi Federal Co-branded credit card offers just a 1% forex surcharge as against the market standard of 3.5%. This is again one good feature.
Smooth app experience
The credit card is issued instantly if you are an existing user who has been pre-approved. The application process takes less than 5 minutes and the card is ready to be used for online spends immediately!
Cons of Fi Federal Co-branded credit card
The value of Fi coins is not clearly mentioned
Fi has not mentioned the monetary value of 1 Fi coin anywhere. The 3p value I derived is by doing reverse calculations from the calculator put up on their website.
This seems to be a deliberate attempt more than an oversight. The reason is, they have not enabled the feature to convert Fi coins into statement credit as yet. So, very likely that this clarification may be expected soon
No cash withdrawal allowed
Again, very odd, but you cannot use the Fi Federal Co-branded credit card to withdraw cash. Not that I have ever used this feature in a credit card – due to high charges that these transactions attract; nonetheless, it’s good to have such a feature for emergencies which the Fi Federal Co-branded credit card clearly lacks.
Transfer Fi coins to Vistara
The Fi Federal Co-branded credit card also allows you to transfer Fi coins to Vistara in the ratio of 40 coins = 1 CV point. With more air-mile partners expected to be added over time, this will surely become a strong reason for people to take this card.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the Fi Federal Co-branded credit card is a solid credit card with potential reward rate of up to 5.6%. Nonetheless, given the kind of devaluations happening in the credit card industry, here is a credit card that gives possibly upto 5.6% cashback valueback. Thus, I have to agree with their tagline, “The most rewarding card!”.
Do share your views about the Fi Federal Co-branded credit card? How was your experience while applying for this credit card?
Image courtesy: www.Fi.money
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Do you know the list of lounges in which this card is accepted?