ICICI Amazon pay card benefits and best time to apply??

If you regularly buy from Amazon then you should definitely get this card. This will give you 3% cashback as non prime member on all Amazon shopping. Prime members get 5%. Remember this percentage is for shopping, not your bill payments. For all bills recharges and even other websites or apps which accept Amazon Pay you would get 2% if you use this card through Amazon Pay interface. Any other type of spend anywhere else will give default 1% cashback.

Cashback gets credited as Amazon Pay balance. There are no joining fees or annual fees for this card. The Paytm Citi card is decent but it gives 1% everywhere with no specific place where it gives more. Amazon ICICI card gives same plus more for Amazon spends.

One suggestion, if you go for this card, do think about getting Prime membership for 5% cashback. If you are spending more than 50k a year in shopping on Amazon, then the extra cashback you earn with 5% instead of 3%, would be 1000 which is what Prime membership would cost. Beyond this spend amount Prime will always be more profitable with this card. But if you are not spending upto minimum 50k with this card on Amazon shopping then you should be fine with non prime.

Please note, this is just talking about card cashback benefits. Prime does have its own benefits and stuff, but that is upto the person if they find it useful or not. I personally find Prime completely worth it, but that may not be true for everyone. Purely in terms of numbers, spends above 50k on Amazon you should definitely get Prime as well, as it becomes free at that point with additional cashbsck. You net benefit after paying from prime is exactly same as non prime.

And yeah 50k calculation is for shopping on Amazon which gives 5%, not the Amazon Pay transaction which anyways gives 2% for both prime and non prime. And I don’t there is any specific best time to apply for this card. But you can check if there is any offer running for application. The card is really good and lifetime free. The Paytm Citi card needs 50k spends for waiver of 500 fees. But you can still maybe keep it for specific Citi offers if you want to.

I have ICICI CC against FD, limit is Rs.25k , can I apply amazon pay cc ?

kool wrote:

I have ICICI CC against FD, limit is Rs.25k , can I apply amazon pay cc ?

I think you should be able to. If you already have ICICI cc even if it is against FD, then that means your credit history should have been built up by now. But you won’t get this card against FD. You would need to apply for this card separately and based on your good CIBIL score you should be able to get it.

Credit cards against FDs are good to start building credit history initially when you have history. Once the history is set up and you display responsible behavior in clearing all dues in full, your score should definitely be good. After this you can get other cc on the basis of your good score.

You can check with ICICI or even check in Amazon app if you can see this card somewhere in Amazon Pay section and apply from there.

bharatjadeja825 wrote:

And yeah 50k calculation is for shopping on Amazon which gives 5%, not the Amazon Pay transaction which anyways gives 2% for both prime and non prime. And I don’t there is any specific best time to apply for this card. But you can check if there is any offer running for application. The card is really good and lifetime free. The Paytm Citi card needs 50k spends for waiver of 500 fees. But you can still maybe keep it for specific Citi offers if you want to.

Minor correction – Paytm Citi CC is always excluded from any Citi bank specific offers anywhere

BlueFlash wrote:

Minor correction – Paytm Citi CC is always excluded from any Citi bank specific offers anywhere

That’s so true yes. I noticed that recently during Flipkart sale 🤦‍♂️ Even Citibank itself excludes this card from its own promotional offers. I remember there was one a few months back about wallet loads with citi credit cards and they excluded Paytm Citi card Talk about irony.

The only useful thing left for this card is 1+1 on movies on Friday via Paytm movies. But we anyways can get decent deals if not 1+1 on movies most times via other offers running. And anyways this can change in the future so yeah I am myself thinking to get one Citi card and remove this Paytm co-branded one.

Flipkart is annoying in these cases. They always exclude Amazon Pay and Paytm cards. Amazon atleast has not done such a thing so far but again won’t take much time for them to start following others if it helps them ¯\(ツ)/¯

BlueFlash wrote:

Minor correction – Paytm Citi CC is always excluded from any Citi bank specific offers anywhere

Are you sure about it?

Also, ICICI APay card can be used in another account?
If yes, which account should be prime to get 5% CB? The Account on which the card is linked or the account on which we are making the purchase?

moriarty wrote:

Are you sure about it?

Yes check recent offer of 10% discount of citi on az

moriarty wrote:

Also, ICICI APay card can be used in another account?
If yes, which account should be prime to get 5% CB? The Account on which the card is linked or the account on which we are making the purchase?

The card should be usable on any Amazon account. Haven’t tried on other non prime account myself, but I think it should be the linked account that would be considered for the 5% prime benefit, as all cashback is deposited in the linked Amazon account.

Can’t say for sure though. Might need experimentation or maybe someone here has already tried and can share their experience. I think that the minimum 3% for non-prime should still work on any Amazon account at the least.

AyushiiiVijay wrote:

Yes check recent offer of 10% discount of citi on az

Yes, also I had tried it during Flipkart sale. Both Paytm Citi and Amazon ICICI were not giving the 10% instant discount. They sometimes call it out explicitly in their T&Cs.

bharatjadeja825 wrote:

One suggestion, if you go for this card, do think about getting Prime membership for 5% cashback. If you are spending more than 50k a year in shopping on Amazon, then the extra cashback you earn with 5% instead of 3%, would be 1000 which is what Prime membership would cost. Beyond this spend amount Prime will always be more profitable with this card. But if you are not spending upto minimum 50k with this card on Amazon shopping then you should be fine with non prime.

Please note, this is just talking about card cashback benefits. Prime does have its own benefits and stuff, but that is upto the person if they find it useful or not. I personally find Prime completely worth it, but that may not be true for everyone. Purely in terms of numbers, spends above 50k on Amazon you should definitely get Prime as well, as it becomes free at that point with additional cashbsck. You net benefit after paying from prime is exactly same as non prime.

Was thinking the same, buying prime membership from the cashback. Thanks for the suggestion.

I am trying to apply for amazon pay card.It says :
Enter your existing ICICI Bank Credit Card Number
Your existing ICICI Bank Credit Card will continue to remain active
Credit Limit of your existing ICICI Bank Credit Card will be shared with your Amazon Pay ICICI Bank Credit Card

But I don’t have any ICICI credit card

Script3r wrote:

I am trying to apply for amazon pay card.It says :
Enter your existing ICICI Bank Credit Card Number
Your existing ICICI Bank Credit Card will continue to remain active
Credit Limit of your existing ICICI Bank Credit Card will be shared with your Amazon Pay ICICI Bank Credit Card

But I don’t have any ICICI credit card

Do you have or ever had icici bank account?

yes , I have ICICI account.
I contacted ICICI bank, they said it’s invite only offer . You will receive link if you are invited .

kool wrote:

I have ICICI CC against FD, limit is Rs.25k , can I apply amazon pay cc ?

Now you won’t get amazon pay card on basis of a card against FD. You should have at least some salary/income proof of 4 lakh+ annual income or you should have salary acc in icici or you should have 2-3 years old icici acc with good balance history &/or an icici credit card not against fd.
@bharatjadeja825

moriarty wrote:

Also, ICICI APay card can be used in another account?
If yes, which account should be prime to get 5% CB? The Account on which the card is linked or the account on which we are making the purchase?

You can use amazon pay card in any amazon acc but the cashback will only come into the linked amazon acc to the card & that acc status is the only think to be considered for the amount of cashback(aka 3% for non-prime & 5% for prime).
@bharatjadeja825

guest_999 wrote:

Now you won’t get amazon pay card on basis of a card against FD. You should have at least some salary/income proof of 4 lakh+ annual income or you should have salary acc in icici or you should have 2-3 years old icici acc with good balance history &/or an icici credit card not against fd.
@bharatjadeja825

Thats what I said in my post as well. You can’t get it on the basis of FD but if you have already have good credit history then you can get it. Since he already has a cc against FD he should have a credit history by now, and ofcourse income is needed in most cases anyways

guest_999 wrote:

You can use amazon pay card in any amazon acc but the cashback will only come into the linked amazon acc to the card & that acc status is the only think to be considered for the amount of cashback(aka 3% for non-prime & 5% for prime).
@bharatjadeja825

Again, I guess I said the same thing in my post as well. Only confirmation I don’t have is on 3 or 5% which I guess you have given already now.

bharatjadeja825 wrote:

Thats what I said in my post as well. You can’t get it on the basis of FD but if you have already have good credit history then you can get it. Since he already has a cc against FD he should have a credit history by now, and ofcourse income is needed in most cases anyways

You didn’t get my post, banks don’t give card on card-to-card basis against a FD based card even in normal times irrespective of your credit history/cibil score so chances are near zero in present times that too for in-demand cards like amazon pay. FD based card means your financial position is based on FD locked in a particular bank which is useless for another bank & that is why other banks look for card age & that it is unsecured(aka not against FD) so they can be assured about your financial capacity.

guest_999 wrote:

You didn’t get my post, banks don’t give card on card-to-card basis against a FD based card even in normal times irrespective of your credit history/cibil score so chances are near zero in present times that too for in-demand cards like amazon pay. FD based card means your financial position is based on FD locked in a particular bank which is useless for another bank & that is why other banks look for card age & that it is unsecured(aka not against FD) so they can be assured about your financial capacity.

Buddy I understand already how FD based card works. I guess you didn’t get my post. I already know Amazon card is not given on FD. I also did not say he can apply on card to card basis. I said
1. He already has one card even if it is against FD, that means he has a cibil score which is non zero and probably good if he is paying all bills on time. So the credit history is setup and non zero, which is almost always required by all banks. Having no score means many banks don’t bother providing credit card to the person, unless they already have some sort of relationship with the bank like savings account.
2. He has to apply for Amazon pay card separately and rely on his Cibil score to get approved, and obviously whatever income docs required or not based on whether he already has relationship with ICICI.

So no, I never said he can get this card based on FD, nor card to card of a normal card or FD based card, irrespective of normal times or covid times.

guest_999 wrote:

You didn’t get my post, banks don’t give card on card-to-card basis against a FD based card even in normal times irrespective of your credit history/cibil score so chances are near zero in present times that too for in-demand cards like amazon pay. FD based card means your financial position is based on FD locked in a particular bank which is useless for another bank & that is why other banks look for card age & that it is unsecured(aka not against FD) so they can be assured about your financial capacity.

And your point about FD based card being useless for another bank isn’t always true. People with no stable income or students or people who are applying for a credit card for the first time, can get FD based card, build a credit history which demonstrates good credit behaviour, and then go for normal unsecured cards. FD based cards are most often used for this exact purpose when a person might find it difficult to otherwise get a card from another bank, but they don’t issue one because of non existent credit score. Citibank is one such bank which doesn’t issue cards even if person satisfies other criterias like income but has no credit history. The only way in such cases is to either get card from a bank with whom you already have a relationship with or go with a bank who is not so strict on existing credit history or FD based card.

bharatjadeja825 wrote:

Buddy I understand already how FD based card works. I guess you didn’t get my post. I already know Amazon card is not given on FD. I also did not say he can apply on card to card basis. I said
1. He already has one card even if it is against FD, that means he has a cibil score which is non zero and probably good if he is paying all bills on time. So the credit history is setup and non zero, which is almost always required by all banks. Having no score means many banks don’t bother providing credit card to the person, unless they already have some sort of relationship with the bank like savings account.
2. He has to apply for Amazon pay card separately and rely on his Cibil score to get approved, and obviously whatever income docs required or not based on whether he already has relationship with ICICI.

So no, I never said he can get this card based on FD, nor card to card of a normal card or FD based card, irrespective of normal times or covid times.

My initial reply was not meant for you but the guy who asked whether he can get apay card on basis of a card against FD. You said in your reply to that guy “I think you should be able to. If you already have ICICI cc even if it is against FD, then that means your credit history should have been built up by now. But you won’t get this card against FD.” You never mentioned anywhere “you won’t get this card based on card against FD”. Leave it now because no point stretching this further.

In my experience most major banks won’t give you credit card based just on your cibil score made by using a card against FD. If you have definite monthly income/salary proof even for just last 3-4 months then most banks will issue you credit card even without cibil score though with low limit. Exceptions are always there but for majority cases this holds true.

guest_999 wrote:

My initial reply was not meant for you but the guy who asked whether he can get apay card on basis of a card against FD. You said in your reply to that guy “I think you should be able to. If you already have ICICI cc even if it is against FD, then that means your credit history should have been built up by now. But you won’t get this card against FD.” You never mentioned anywhere “you won’t get this card based on card against FD”. Leave it now because no point stretching this further.

In my experience most major banks won’t give you credit card based just on your cibil score made by using a card against FD. If you have definite monthly income/salary proof even for just last 3-4 months then most banks will issue you credit card even without cibil score though with low limit. Exceptions are always there but for majority cases this holds true.

Yes, I know the reply was meant to the person who asked it, but since I was tagged hence thought to reply. As you said yes it depends on various banks as to what they do, but my answer to him primarily rested on the fact that he already has some sort of relationship with ICICI, as he already has one secured card with them. I don’t know for certain if a bank will not issue cards if person has only secured cards, but I think they should count in most cases, especially in this case the FD is also with ICICI, so it should hold some weight. Anyways, can’t be sure about it, but the person has an existing relationship with ICICI, so can’t hurt to try for him.

And in my experience I have seen most people being declined for lack of credit history for their first card rather than income. So experiences may vary and maybe the person can try it for themselves and find out.

bharatjadeja825 wrote:

Yes, I know the reply was meant to the person who asked it, but since I was tagged hence thought to reply. As you said yes it depends on various banks as to what they do, but my answer to him primarily rested on the fact that he already has some sort of relationship with ICICI, as he already has one secured card with them. I don’t know for certain if a bank will not issue cards if person has only secured cards, but I think they should count in most cases, especially in this case the FD is also with ICICI, so it should hold some weight. Anyways, can’t be sure about it, but the person has an existing relationship with ICICI, so can’t hurt to try for him.

And in my experience I have seen most people being declined for lack of credit history for their first card rather than income. So experiences may vary and maybe the person can try it for themselves and find out.

It used to be the case earlier when many here tried this way of getting amazon pay card by first getting a fd based card from icici & later applying for amazon pay card successfully but since the corona issue started I don’t know of anyone here succeeding using this method.

I have personally confirmed from hdfc card agent that just last 2-3 months of monthly salary slip is enough to get hdfc credit card irrespective of credit history & also personally confirmed from indusind card agent that they don’t issue card on card-to-card basis if card is against FD irrespective of cibil score.

guest_999 wrote:

It used to be the case earlier when many here tried this way of getting amazon pay card by first getting a fd based card from icici & later applying for amazon pay card successfully but since the corona issue started I don’t know of anyone here succeeding using this method.

I have personally confirmed from hdfc card agent that just last 2-3 months of monthly salary slip is enough to get hdfc credit card irrespective of credit history & also personally confirmed from indusind card agent that they don’t issue card on card-to-card basis if card is against FD irrespective of cibil score.

Yes that may be the case, some banks don’t need credit history and some do, like I said Citibank needs it either ways.

It might seem that I had asked the person to apply for apay on card to card basis, but no that was not what I meant. Infact even in normal cases with other cards also, this card to card basis is a hit and miss with some banks issuing whereas others not. I am not sure if ICICI needs credit history or not, and hence what I meant was they already have credit history so that should be sorted for them either ways, as that is the step where most times it gets stuck when they pull up the credit report and see N/A. The income proof and all was not even a question, as that is anyways needed in almost all unsecured cards. And I assumed they would be having all that anyways while applying for the card.

I am actually surprised that Apay card was issued previously on card to card basis against FD cards.

The main use of FD cards has always been to build credit history easily so that people can display good credit behaviour in an easy way, wasn’t aware that banks actually issue (or used to issue) other unsecured cards on card to card basis against FD cards as well.

bharatjadeja825 wrote:

Yes that may be the case, some banks don’t need credit history and some do, like I said Citibank needs it either ways.

It might seem that I had asked the person to apply for apay on card to card basis, but no that was not what I meant. Infact even in normal cases with other cards also, this card to card basis is a hit and miss with some banks issuing whereas others not. I am not sure if ICICI needs credit history or not, and hence what I meant was they already have credit history so that should be sorted for them either ways, as that is the step where most times it gets stuck when they pull up the credit report and see N/A. The income proof and all was not even a question, as that is anyways needed in almost all unsecured cards. And I assumed they would be having all that anyways while applying for the card.

I am actually surprised that Apay card was issued previously on card to card basis against FD cards.

The main use of FD cards has always been to build credit history easily so that people can display good credit behaviour in an easy way, wasn’t aware that banks actually issue (or used to issue) other unsecured cards on card to card basis against FD cards as well.

SBI can offer unsecured credit card depending on branch if you maintain 1 lakh in savings acc for at least 7-8 months with no income proof other than a self-declared figure in application form.

Thanks guys for all your suggestions
My card has been approved. Can anyone tell me if I can use it on digital platforms or do I need to wait for the physical card?