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While a lot of us get bombarded with credit card offers left, right and centre; my partner can’t seem to get a credit card at all. I am writing about our effort in getting one for her and seeking advice from you folks about how to get it done.

Background and history:
While she comes from a relatively wealthy business family, they were never much into credit cards. And in the distant past, they had some sour banking relationships, or so I hear. Also, as with typical Indian family businesses, the names of the kids are associated with the businesses the moment they become adults and any adventures by the business washes off on the kids accounts as well.

Current Status:
Fast forward to today, she now has a job, a stable income and pretty decent spending power. She needs a credit card for the benefits that they bring. She has tried applying several times at multiple banks; but keeps getting rejected. As of now, she uses my add-on credit cards and pays the bills but it obviously doesn’t help her credit history.
Recently, Standard Chartered did approve a credit card for her, but with a paltry credit limit that suffices less than 20% of her monthly expenses. None of the app based/co-branded CCs (Amazon, Zomato, PayTM, Flipkart, etc.) are offered to her. Bigger banks like SBI and ICICI have also rejected applications without providing any reason.

Her CIBIL score is 729 which is good enough for CRED to accept her, but apparently not enough for a CC rl:

Someone in the know told us that her PIN code was blacklisted. Well, that pin code is indeed shared with some areas which might have a high rate of defaulters, but PIN codes in Mumbai are huge and cover large swathes of people and area. And its unlikely that no one in that whole pin code is offered a card!
Anyways, we changed her address to her current address, which is also my address, but even that hasn’t helped. The catch-22 is that to improve your credit worthiness, first you need credit, for which you need to be creditworthy. :confused:

Any inputs and suggestions are welcome. If any banking experts here can chime in, that would be great.

You should post this on the Credit Card thread. That is more active and should get you good responses.

Simple answer would be try for card against FD and move up from there. Else open salary account with a bank which gives you a free starter card by default. I have Kotak and IDFC and both offered a card when made account (IDFC started credit cards fairly recently and aggressively going for market share). Pretty sure HDFC also has base cards which they should offer with a salary account.

Yep! Same. Started with no CC being given to me and then got Kotak 811 Dream Different CC with an FD. Then 6 months later got the Amazon Pay CC with a good credit limit.

Have the admin's merge this with the credit card thread.

Does she have a salaried job with a known company ? If yes, a salary account these days will most probably have a credit card as offer. Also, why does she not try using her official address for applying credit card instead of residence.

Alternate is as mentioned, credit card against FD to start with.

You can start off with this for now. Based on my experience they will gladly increase the limit based on your monthly "usage" of your credit limit

Most logical way to apply for a credit card is to approach the Bank where the salary account is maintained. The salary credits in the account, credit score and IT return should suffice for card approval - unless, the credit bureau throws up an earlier default/settlement.


The latter is a better option - no need to chase the big banks for a card. Most of the new entrants in banking space are looking to expand their card base. RBL Bank is another player in this space - there are several who have enabled credit card application processing and approval online.

Credit score is not as important as say defaults, established pattern of timely payments, history, no of unsecured accounts etc.

I moved to US in my 20s and returned when I was 34 yrs. I thought my salary would afford me a decent credit card if not the most premium one. But everywhere I applied I got rejected. Someone suggested me to get a secured CC against FD. I opened a FD for 50k and got a secured CC for 40k. I used it for 6 months and applied for Amex. Used Amex for another 6 months, then applied for HDFC DCB. Got approved with hefty credit limit.

Ask her to payoff the balance as soon as she approaches the credit limit. She might have to make 4-5 payments every month. Or she can use it like a prepaid card. Ask her to prepay 5x times the credit limit. Then she has 5x spending power.

Keep using SCB for 6-12 months and then apply for a mid-tier card. Use that card for another 6-12 months, and then apply for premium card.

Also if you get rejected, dont apply with multiple other banks. Multiple hard pulls in short timeframe is seen as desperate attempt to get credit.

I presume she doesn't actually want credit but wants to use the card online on Indian and on international websites. If she doesn't really need credit, then she can use the credit card as a pre-paid account. That is, if credit limit is Rs. 20,000, you can transfer Rs. 20K more to increase the "credit" limit to Rs. 40K.


Another option: Ask her to check out this credit card startup called SLICE. Just a couple of weeks back, they got $220 million private equity funding

India’s credit card challenger Slice becomes unicorn with $220M funding from Tiger Global, Insight Partners and Advent
https://techcrunch.com/2021/11/28/sl...llenger-india/

Website: https://www.sliceit.com/

My cousin who had just started his career was also in the same dilemma a few months back.

HDFC came to his rescue. Their ban on issuing new cards has recently been lifted, so they are desperate for new customers. Try them.

Here is your solution,


Buddy, you don't need a credit card to improve your credit worthiness.

IMHO this whole business of Banks making people feel "left-out" if they don't get approved for credit cards is nonsense. It is not worth bothering. Just use the SC CC for a while for transactions and pay them in full on-time every time and you can see them increase the credit limit. Also, wait for some more years and the Bank in which she has her salary credited will send you offers for credit cards. Please don't keep on applying and get rejected since that also goes on record.

Some possiblities that come to mind have been suggested by other members
a) Try HDFC
b) Open an FD and take the free credit card

Alternately, try opening a Paytm bank account, I think by default they offer a credit card (not sure on the limits), while the card itself may not be that great w.r.t points, after a short period of usage, try with the card companies your partner is interested in.

2 points to consider:

1. For immediate solution of getting a credit card, go to a bank which gives credit card against a fixed deposit. Usually the card limit is at around 75% of FD value. So if you put a FD for Rs. 5 lakhs, you can get a card with limit of Rs. 3.75 lakhs.

2. More importantly, login to CIBIL, get your credit report and check why the score is so low at 729. Such low scores usually do not get any unsecured loans like personal loans and credit cards. Such a low score is NOT because of NO credit history but BAD credit history. Check and rectify this.

Boss, credit card days are over & thing of past; use digital currency/credit. I'm not advocating Zest Money, but this is one example of today's digital credit

I had the same problem in my city. No one in my Pin Code had a credit card.

One option for me was to get a Credit Card against FD. Once I did that, and my credit score improved, and my city was taken off the "no credit cards list", I was able to get multiple cars and very good limits.

I suggest you too look for the option of Credit Card against Fixed Deposit Security. Every bank should offer it and you can chose your best bank.

I was in a similar situation. I've been rejected 2 times in the past 2 years. The second time, I escalated to the concerned bank's nodal officer. There has been a positive response from their end, so fingers crossed. You can escalate to the concerned bank's nodal officer & ask as to why they are rejecting the applications.
Rejection by one Bank usually means you don't get approved by other also (if you apply immediately), since it goes on your credit history.