SBI credit card closure

[luffy]

Hello everyone,
I need your suggestions regarding should I close my 3+ years old SBI simply click credit card or wait because they never increase my credit limit or give me any card upgrade offer current limit 38k my cibil is always good like currently I have 777 and never miss a single payment to any credit card. They don't provide LTF credit card so I'm not thinking about to downgrade.
Also how much impact I will get on my credit score for closing an old credit card.

 

[Bharatiya Nagrik]

SBI is pathetic in this matter. There is no LTF card available. I had a Simply save visa card which was of not much use to me and did not know what to do with it until I saw a Rupay version of it and thought of getting it changed. I had to fight a lot with them for getting it done. They did not budge and kept saying it is not possible because of internal policies. RBI in oct 2023 introduced a new rule of giving the customer rights to choose the card variant. I finally had raised a Ombudsman complaint and SBI had to change my card variant to rupay. If Simply Click has Rupay variant then you can try to get the same for daily UPI transactions. If Rupay version is not available for Simply Click card then ask them to upgrade it to Simply Save Rupay card. In all probability they will decline but you can raise Ombudsman complaint against them and try.

 

[Priyankjn51]

Hi luffy,
I will response to your query one by one as I am two card holder of SBI bank so can relate your concern

I can relate your concern as below
1. Credit limit increase issue
2. Lifetime free card
3. Card upgrade
4. Credit impact on closing as this is oldest card

So I will answer one by one so that you will get thorough understanding

1. Credit limit increase - So SBI have an system to increase credit limit in which it have to verify your income documents. Normally they have their own algos but if you write them so they provide you a link of adhoc credit limit increase where you can provide your income documents and then they will be assessed. I personally used this and this will work if you have eligibility as per your documents.

2. Lifetime free Credit Card - I am a regular user of SBI card and there is no concept regarding LTF in SBI. But I will suggest you a way to get it probably. It is not must but it is worth to give it a try.
In SBI card app you have an option to close the credit card. Click on that then choose the reason as Annual fees issue.
Your card will not be closed directly, first you will get a call from an executive then you will be asked for reason. Tell them you can't pay annual fees and then they will most probably waive it off once it's deducted. So ideally your card will be free for the year and you have to repeat this every year.

3. Card Upgrade - So, I will suggest first to increase your limit of the card then you will be only eligible for upgrade.
When you have limit increased you can write directly to SBI Card email team. If you are eligible they will let you know for sure.

4. Closure impact on Cibil - so yes when you close your oldest credit card it impact your Cibil, Experian,Crif or Equifax scores because this parameter is having high impact on scoring calculation although their algorithms are quite confidential and we can't exactly judge the impact basis on a single factor but if you use the suggestion mentioned above you will be able to use this card as free and hence there is no need to close.


I am mentioning two link here for reference and supporting the above statements.

Credit limit increase
****.sbicard.com/adhocCLI

Customer care email
Customercare@sbicard.***

Thank you