AU Small Finance Bank Launches Credit Card Services

AU small Finance bank – one of the popular small finance bank in the country has come up with a range of credit card offerings to the public. It’s probably the only small finance bank in the country to provide independent credit card services. Here’s everything you need to know about the recent credit card launch.

The Cards

AU small finance bank has launched 4 different credit card variants to cater various set of customers. Here’s a quick look into those cards with the respective joining fees:

Zenith (Fee: Rs.7,999+GST – waived on 1.25L spend)
Vetta (Fee: Rs.2,999+GST – waived on 40K spend)
Altura+ (Fee: Rs.499+GST- waived on 20K spend)
Altura (Fee: Rs.199+GST- waived on 10K spend)

The good news about AU Small finance bank credit cards is that they do have joining fee waiver on spends within 90 days, along with annual fee waiver based on annual spends, similar to Bank of Baroda credit cards.

So ideally these cards are all free for you, as long as you could meet their respective spend criteria, which is pretty good in my opinion.

Are they good?

The card names somehow doesn’t sound like a finance product. It sounds more like the names of household accessories. For ex: Marvella RO, AO Smith, Elgi Ultra, Elgi Ultra Grind+, etc. Do you feel so too?
The design is average in my opinion. Their debit card design (AU Royale Debit Card) is far better.
The benefits are decent on premium variants but not competitive enough in that price range. The purchase protection benefit on Zenith is a good one.
The rewards are good on specific type of spends on premium cards. For ex, Zenith gives 5% back on Dining, 2.5% on grocery. Even Vetta is good with 2.5% back on utility spends. Reward rate on regular spends are poor across all cards, but milestone benefits makes up for it, to an extent.

Overall, the premium variants are pretty good, especially because it comes with fee waiver on spends apart from decent benefits.

The entry-level cards are nowhere closer to the aggressive competition in that space. So its better to skip them for good, even if you’re offered for free. But this might change once their merchant offers goes aggressive, just like BOB cards in recent times.

We may have a detailed review of above cards later sometime, if required.

How to Apply?

I don’t see any live application process for now, so you may show interest via call/email/website and take it from there.

I did a quick call to check whether they issue cards across India – YES is what I heard. But the rep. on call put me on a long hold without any reason. Hmm, strange!

I was said that I should get a callback in 24-48 hrs and fortunately the above line connects directly to the human and they’re decent in handling the call.