
Rio Money card is a Rupay credit card issued in partnership with the Yes Bank. UPI credit cards have seen numerous recent launches, and more launches are likely to come soon. So, should you apply for the Rio money card? Read to find out
Rio Money card
Key Features and Benefits
Fees:
- Lifetime free card.
Reward and Benefits
- Reward points
- You get 3 Rio coins for every 100 spent on UPI. 1 Rio coin = 25p. Thus a 0.75% reward rate for UPI payments
- You get 1 Rio coin for every 100 spent on non-upi transaction. Thus a 0.25% reward rate for non-UPI transactions
- Good thing is you get fractional Rio coins on all your spending, as long as the transaction is above INR50.
- No upper cap on reward points. But excluded categories include Fuel, Rentals, Repayments of loans, Jewellery, Cash Withdrawal, Wallet load, Insurance, Education, Government Services, Utility payments, EMI, Purchases converted to EMI after the transaction is complete
- Lounge access
- Rio Money card will have the feature of lounge access when they start issuing physical cards
Thoughts about the Rio Money Card
Positives of the Rio Money Card
0.75% reward rate with fractional coins
The Rio Money card gives what they call Rio coins for every spend. The current reward rate is 3 Rio coins for every 100 spent on UPI. Translating into a 0.75% reward rate. While the reward rate is just about decent, the good thing about the Rio money card is that it gives fractional coins too. If you do a 60INR transaction on the UPI platform, you get 1.8 Rio coins. Similarly, if you do a 150INR transaction you get 4.5 Rio coins.
Fractional coins are a great feature and not many cards have this feature. As far as I remember OneCard(Apply Now) is the only other credit card that gives fractional reward points.
Lifetime free credit card
The Rio Money card is currently being offered as a lifetime free credit. The Yes Bank’s website indicates that the card will have an annual fee of 399+GST. Thus, if you are looking for a free UPI credit card, apply for this right away.
Statement credit and no minimum redemption value
The Rio Money card offers simple and hassle-free redemption of Rio coins. The Rio coins can be redeemed directly for statement credit. Much like many cashback credit cards such as Axis Ace(Apply Now), HDFC Swiggy(Apply now), SBI Cashback(Apply Now) etc.
Further, there is no minimum redemption value for statement credit and also no reward redemption charges. Do note that Yes Bank was among the first banks to levy reward redemption charges on its credit card portfolio.
Negatives of the Rio Money card
The reward rate could have been better
The reward rate on the Rio Money card could have been better; especially on the non-UPI spends. Many credit cards give up to 2% cashback on regular spending (Axis Ace, Axis Airtel, HDFC Swiggy, HSBC Live+ etc) and even 5% on online spending (SBI Cashback). The low reward rate on non-UPI spending would prevent many cardholders from making the Rio Money card their primary credit card.
Only one Yes Bank card allowed
Yes Bank’s internal policy allows only one credit card per individual. Thus, if you already own a Yes Bank credit card you will not get approved for the Rio Money card. This is a serious drawback. Hope that Rio Money card goes the OneCard(Apply Now) way and ties up with multiple banks.
Long exclusion list
The Rio Money card has many popular spend categories in the exclusion list i.e. you don’t reward points when spending towards these categories. They are Fuel, Rentals, Repayments of loans, Jewellery, Cash Withdrawal, Wallet load, Insurance, Education, Government Services, Utility payments, EMI, and Purchases converted to EMI after the transaction is complete.
I don’t get why banks have to exclude utilities, insurance and education categories from reward points. These are spends that every household does. Many banks have started capping spending in these categories, which I think is a better way to manage rather than a blanket ban on rewards.
Upcoming features in the Rio Money card
At the moment, the Rio card is available only in digital form. However, the physical card will be available to the cardholders soon. Further, once the physical card is available, lounge access will also be available on the Rio Money card.
Conclusion
Rio card is a simple Rupay credit card that can improve. Currently, the Rio card is lifetime free, so one can apply and keep it. Further, the reward rate of 0.75% on UPI spending is decent. I seriously hope that the Rio card goes the OneCard (Apply Now) way and ties up with multiple banks so that users are not stuck with one bank.
Did you apply for the Rio Money card? How was your onboarding experience? Do share your experience and views in the comment section below.
The article was published/updated on 30-9-2024. Image courtesy: www.rio.money
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.