The CardBuzz blog
Card-by-card write-ups from our team, features, fees, lounge access and who each card actually suits. For the numbers after every cap and exclusion, head to the card pages.
6352 posts · Page 350 of 530 · View the full archive
How-To GuidesRenew or upgrade? Deciding when the renewal-fee notice arrives
The renewal-fee notice is the one moment each year when inertia meets arithmetic. Most cardholders either auto-pay the fee without thinking or threaten to close in irritation. There's a better third option to evaluate fi
How-To GuidesRenewal and retention offers: how to ask for them
Banks would rather keep a paying customer than acquire a new one, and renewal time is when that preference becomes money on the table. Retention offers — fee waivers, bonus points, statement credits — exist at nearly eve
How-To GuidesTokenized cards and expiry: what changes when the card is renewed
RBI's card-on-file tokenization rules changed how Indian merchants store your card details: instead of your real 16-digit number, they hold a token issued by the card network. That raises an obvious question at renewal t
How-To GuidesSaved cards and autopay mandates when your card number changes
Credit cards are the invisible plumbing behind half your monthly finances — OTT subscriptions, SIPs, insurance premiums, wallet auto-loads. When the card number changes (loss, theft, damage, or an issuer-initiated reissu
How-To GuidesReplacing a lost, stolen or damaged credit card: the full process
Losing a card is stressful, but the recovery process in India is well-drilled and mostly digital. What matters is the order of operations: block first, sort out liability second, and get the replacement reissued without
How-To GuidesCard renewal fees: when to pay, when to negotiate, when to walk away
The renewal-fee notice lands a month or two before your card's annual anniversary, and it forces a decision many cardholders postpone: is this card still worth paying for? The answer is arithmetic plus honesty, and the f
How-To GuidesYour credit card is expiring: what actually happens next
The expiry month printed on your card is approaching, and a reasonable question follows: does the card just stop working, and what do I need to do? In India, the renewal process is largely automatic, but the details matt
How-To GuidesDocumenting a year of card spends: statements, Form 26AS and audit trails
By March, your credit cards have recorded twelve months of your financial life — every grocery run, flight, premium, fee and refund. That record is useful far beyond nostalgia: it supports your tax filing, substantiates
How-To GuidesInsurance premiums and year-end: timing renewals for 80C and rewards
Insurance premiums sit at the intersection of two March deadlines: the tax deduction window closing on March 31, and credit-card fee years, milestones and reward cycles resetting around the same time. A premium is often
How-To GuidesSplitting big spends across March and April: the statement-cycle trick
A large purchase landing on a single statement does two unhelpful things: it spikes your reported credit utilisation, and it concentrates rewards, fee-cycle progress and cash outflow into one billing period. When a big s
How-To GuidesCIBIL health check before the new financial year
April is when India shops for loans — home loans before the monsoon moving season, car loans around new launches, personal loans for the wedding season ahead. Every one of those applications runs into your credit report.
How-To GuidesClosing or downgrading cards at year-end: the portfolio cleanup ritual
Every credit card portfolio accumulates dead weight: the card you opened for a welcome bonus and never used again, the one whose benefits quietly changed, the premium card whose fee you keep paying out of inertia. The fi