This fuel credit card offers the best cashbacks and reward points; Check details

Credit cards have gained huge traction lately. People have started to understand how to use these cards effectively to earn reward points & cashbacks by simply putting off their expenses on the credit cards instead of spending directly from the bank or debit card.

Most of the credit cards offer category-wise cashbacks, however, many of these cards don’t offer any specific rewards on fuel spends. Also some of them don’t even have the surcharge waiver benefit. Fuel is a big portion of our monthly budgeted expenses.

READ MORE: How excessive credit card usage can throw your financial planning in disarray

Especially for someone driving a car, fuel expenses can go beyond Rs. 10,000 – Rs. 15,000 per month. There are a few credit cards that offer fuel spending benefits. These are mostly co-branded cards with one or the other fuel partner like BPCL/HPCL/IOC.

In this post, we are going to talk about BPCL SBI Octane Credit Card. This is the best credit card right now in terms of rewards on fuel spending. We have discussed about the key points to be kept in mind while using a credit card in our previous post.

Let’s deep dive into the details of BPCL SBI Octane Credit Card:

Fuel rewards

The BPCL SBI Octane Credit Card has a 7.25% reward rate on all BPCL spends. This includes your spending on purchase of fuel on BPCL pumps & booking of LPG cylinders from Bharat Gas app. The break-up of 7.25% is as follows:

• 25 reward points per Rs. 100 on fuel spends (1 reward point = Rs. 0.25) = 6.25%
• Fuel surcharge waiver = 1% (This is applicable on the spends between Rs. 500 - Rs. 4000 in a single fuel transaction). Maximum fuel surcharge waiver is capped at Rs. 100 per month.
• Maximum 2500 reward points can be earned through fuel spends in a single billing cycle. (Rs. 10,000 worth of fuel)
• Maximum value per transaction is Rs. 4000. (Higher single value transaction will not be eligible for higher reward rate)
• The cap of 2500 points per cycle is to curb the misuse through commercial spending usage.
  
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Other rewards

The BPCL SBI Octane Credit Card has a 2.50% reward rate on following categories:

• Dining
• Departmental stores
• Groceries
• Movie tickets
• 10 reward points per Rs. 100 on all the above mentioned spends (1 reward point = Rs. 0.25) = 2.50%
• Maximum 7500 reward points can be earned through the above mentioned spends in a single month. (Rs. 30000 worth of spending in total)

Other spends

• Any other spends done via BPCL SBI Octane Credit Card will be eligible for 1 reward point per Rs. 100 (reward rate = 0.25%). This would cover your electricity bills, insurance payment etc.
• No rewards points on mobile wallet uploads & fuel spending on non BPCL pumps.
  
  READ MORE: Credit card account: How long does it take a bank to close it?

Additional milestone rewards

• Milestone rewards are based on exceeding a certain spending limit on the credit card in a single membership year.
• A gift voucher of Rs. 2,000 will be provided on the spending of Rs. 3,00,000 per membership year. (Reward rate = 0.67%). The gift voucher options are Aditya Birla Fashion, Yatra, Urban Ladder, Hush Puppies, and Bata.

Other benefits

• 4 complimentary airport lounge visits per calendar year to domestic VISA lounges in India. (1 visit per quarter)
• A complimentary fraud liability cover of Rs. 1,00,000.
• Free add-on card for family members above the age of 18 years.

Fees & charges

BPCL SBI Octane Credit Card is a charge card. Annual fee for this card is Rs. 1,499 plus GST at the rate of 18% is charged on these fees. Hence the final fee is Rs. 1,768 per annum. This fee is charged in the first statement after getting the card. This fee is offset by offering 6000 reward points (Cash value = Rs. 1500) once the payment of fees is done. Hence the actual cost on the card is only the GST amount of Rs. 269.

There is also an annual fee waiver only spending Rs. 2,00,000 per membership year. In short, the fee is refunded to your statement on spending Rs. 2,00,000 in a membership year. So this makes the card free of cost if you can spend the required amount.

Reward redemption fees are Rs. 99 plus GST at 18% = Rs. 116.

Processing fees on rental payment is Rs. 99 plus GST at 18% = Rs. 116 (This is important to note as most of the times we make rental payment from credit cards to reach the milestone for additional rewards.)

Personal opinion: There are very few options of credit cards offering such benefits on fuel spending. Anyone who has a capacity to spend Rs. 10,000 per month on fuel can avail this card as the reward rate is quite decent.

Even on some other listed categories the reward rate is 2.5% which is not bad. The fees are on the higher side & a milestone of Rs. 2,00,000 is not easy to achieve as there is a capping on fuel of Rs. 10,000 per month for accelerated rewards.

If you have equivalent dining, groceries or departmental spending then this is a really good addition to one’s wallet. Redemption of points is available against the fuel on specific BPCL pumps so you can redeem the points for fuel right there on the fuel pump.

CA Rohit J. Gyanchandani is Managing Director, Nandi Nivesh Private Limited, A Pune based Wealth Management Company.

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