SBI Cashback Credit Card Review: Best Card in 2024?

To deep dive into SBI Cashback Credit Card Review, let’s know about it past. When SBI Cashback credit card was launched in the market in 2022, it was a blast and personally was not able to believe that SBI could launch a such credit card in the country that gives flat 5% cashback on all online spending unlike Amazon ICICI or Axis Flipkart which gives 5% cashback on respective merchants.

I applied SBI cashback card just after launch and got the card with a good credit limit of Rs.120000 on the first go it’s self. SBI cashback card with 5% cashback on online spending, and features like free lounge access was just unbelievable at a nominal fee of Rs.999 + 18% GST. 

👉Apply for SBI Cashback Credit now

But now many things have changed, and some limitations have come into play for the Cashback SBI credit card. So should we consider the SBI cashback card in 2024? Let’s find out with a detailed review of the SBI cashback card. 

SBI Cashback Card Overview

*Online Spends will be identified basis the online indicators sent by Card Networks (VISA, Rupay, Etc.) and acquirer. Any transaction not categorized as online would be termed as offline.

SBICard Cashback Credit Card is one the best Cashback Credit Card in the country with a nominal annual fee. There is some cards like Flipkart Axis Credit card, Amazon Pay ICICI card, Axis Ace credit card but  have restrictions on merchants while Cashback SBI card gives 5% cashback on online spending without any merchant restriction. Still, there are some areas where you will not earn cashback like many other cards like spending on Rent payments, wallet loading etc. 

At 5% cashback rate on online spends, its even better than some super premium credit cards if you just look at the reward rate on online spending.

Rewards and Benefits:

• Flat 5% cashback on online spends.
• 1% cash back on offline spends.
• *Exclusions – No cashbacks on following spends like Rent payment, wallet load, merchant EMI, jewellery, school/education fees, utility/insurance payments, gift cards/vouchers, train tickets. These categories have 0 cashback.
• The cashback is capped at Rs.5000 per month/billing cycle. It means once you reaced Rs.5000 cashback in a month then online + offline combined no more cashback on incremental spends.
• Cashback auto credited in next month’s statement. No redemption fee will be charged.
• Now free lounge access has been removed.

CardsBanking thoughts on SBI Cashback Card

So compared to the competition which hardly gives 2-3% return on online spending here SBI is giving 5% cashback with its cashback card. So you can say even in 2024 still SBI cashback card is father of all credit card in terms of online spends. This is the one and only card on this planet that gives you Rs.5000 cashback on online spens of INR 1 Lakh every month.

Cashback SBI Card Major Devaluation

At the time of launch, SBI cashback credit card was a masterstroke by the bank in the history of the Indian credit card market. Before this card, no any Bank had ever thought of launching any credit card with a flat 5% cashback on online spends but yes SBI did that and it deserves applause. 

With time people started misusing the card for business transactions as 5% cashback is big enough for doing this non-personal transaction. Also, people had used this card for some fraudulent activity like money rotation via online spends and getting 5% cashback. At the end bank noticed these transactions and came with major devaluation which are the following: 

Maximum Cashback Reduced 

SBI reduced the maximum monthly cashback from Rs.10000 to Rs.5000. So now you can earn max of Rs.5000 as cashback on combined spends of online and offline. For example, if you spends Rs.1 lakh online then here you have already earned Rs.5000 as per 5%. So after Rs.11 lakh spends even you some amount on offline or online then you will not earn any cashback. But I think spending Rs.1 Lakh every month for personal usage is still very good as many of general credit card costumes not able to achieve the spending every month. 

Lounge Access Removed

By the end of the year 2023, many Banks have either removed the free lounge access or made high spending targets to get that for the beginner and mid-premium cards. SBi is also one of them banks that removed the free lounge access from its SBI Cashback credit card. Initially, at the time of launch, there were 4 free lounge access per year. 

Cashback with Discount Joy

I have personally used the SBI cashback credit card just after getting the card in 2022 in Amazon’s Great Indian sale where I had got a 10% instant discount and also the 5% cashback. So overall around 15% savings. But after 6 months of the card launched SBI cashback card was not removed from getting the sale instant discount. Personally seen this on Amazon and Flipkart. But a recent update from the SBI card company, now you can get enjoy sale discounts such as 10% during the sale period on Amazon and Flipkart but you will not receive the 5% cashback amount. Still a better option as at least you will save 10% instead of 5%. 

Exclusion categories Increased:

There are some exceptions from the beginning but now SBI has added more categories where spends don’t earn any cashback. Check here in detail. 

Despite the numerous devaluations, For me the SBI Cashback credit card still sits on the first position and remains a very formidable credit card package; provided you use it exclusively for online spending with any merchant restrictions. You can shop on all popular e-commerse sites like Amazon, Flipkart, Myntra, Nykaa, Zomato, Swiggy, Croma, TataCliq, Reliance Digital, Bigbasket etc and get a flat 5% on all purchases. Further, you get 5% cashback on all flight and hotel bookings done online. SBI card company has mentioned that there are no merchant restrictions (outside of the ones mentioned above in the table) means that as long as the merchant MCC is not in the exclusion category you will earn a 5% cashback.

CardsBanking Pro-Tip – Use the SBI Cashback card on Tata Neu App to shop on BigBasket. You will save 10% in form of 5% cashback + 5% Neu Coins.

The SBI cashback card will also allow you to get an effective 1% cashback on forex spending. On forex spending you will have to pay forex charges of 3.5% + 18% GST but in return you will get 5% cashback. 

SBI Cashback Credit Card Limit

I have heard that many people are getting too low credit limits like Rs.10000 – Rs.15000 as SBI is well known for giving poor credit limits in the past. Even i had got only Rs.22000 limit on the SimplyClick credit card (Closed the card in 2022). But when I got the SBI cashback card and opened it, I was really surprised at how SBI could give me a Rs.120000 limit on the first go. If you are holding any other SBI card then there are chances that you will get low limit. But if you are applying for your first SBI credit card, then expect a good credit limit on your SBI cashback card too. 

However credit limit for any credit card depends on many important factors such as your Income, Credit score, relation with the bank, no of credit cards that you are already holding etc. The credit limit is not fixed for everyone so somebody can get a very low credit limit and somebody can get a high limit depending on the bank’s internal criteria eligibility.  

Even if you get a low credit limit initially then with good usage and timely bill payment bank may offer you a higher limit via pre-approved credit limit enhancement offers. 

How to Apply SBI Cashback Card?

SBI Cashback Credit Card can be applied only online through their newly developed Sprint onboarding system. There is no option yet for offline processes like other SBI credit card like SimplySave, SimplyClick etc. 

Apply Cashback SBI Card now.

SBI Cashback Credit Card Review 2024: Final Verdict

I can say the SBI cashback card is the SUN of our credit card solar system where other cards like Amazon ICICI, Flipkart Axis, etc revolve around, With 5% Cashback literally on almost all online spending, SBI Cashback Credit Card is indeed the best cashback credit card in India. However, if you are a credit card geek and keeping other cards like Airte Axis, Axis ACE, and Amex MRCC then you can keep cashback SBI card limited to online spends and use other cards on their respective most rewarding categories. 

I had never imagined that SBICard would go this aggressively on entry-level cards. While this is great, I wish to see such aggressiveness from other banks as well.

However, I think that 5% cashback upto 5000 INR a month is not going to last long. As we have already seen it reducing from INR 10000 to INR 5000 monthly cashback capping. So we can expect that SBI will go further in reducing max cashback.