IRCTC card- get railway tickets for free
IRCTC has released a credit card in collaboration with SBI. According to their advertisement tagline they are offering the only credit that can give you free train travel tickets. Even though the tickets are not free, they are offering a large variety of price reductions and loyalty points. See the details of the card
Benefits
If you are a person traveling in Indian Railway and booking a lot of tickets through IRCTC, this card will be of very much use. The benefit of this card are
1. While purchasing you will get 350 bonus points. Each point is equivalent to Rs.1 in case of booking tickets from IRCTC. Also for every Rs.125 you use for shopping, traveling etc using this card, you will get Rs.1 each which can later be used for purchasing tickets
2. You can get 10% of your AC railway ticket fare back except for third AC(3A)
3. No transaction charge for booking any ticket. Usually a charge of minimum 10 will be charged for every ticket you are booking. It will not be reduced
4. You will also get Rs.10 lakh insurance protection against accidents occurring while traveling in Indian Railway.The only condition is that you should be traveling with a valid ticket
5. You can get petrol from IndianOil corporation pumps without transaction charge for certain limit of purchases
6. This card offers all facilities available in any credit card. It offers balance transfer from other credit cards to this card with small charges. Also offers addon card, (which you can give to your family members. They can also purchase from the same account using the card). Also you can enjoy the features of common visa cards like international acceptance, unlimited number of withdrawal from visa enabled ATMs, SMS alerts on your phone etc
Charges and Fees
Joining charge-Rs.500 for first year. In coming years Rs.300 each
Interest free Credit period - 22 days to 50 days
Interest rate- 3.32% per month or 40% per year.
Other Credit cards worth considering
The service charge for this credit card is a bit high as you can get credit cards of banks like HDFC for free. HDFC is offering credit card free of cost for corporate job holders (especially for people working in IT field). But if you feel that you can book enough ticket to compensate this yearly charge, you can go for IRCTC card
- Tips to get tatkal ticket from railway site IRCTC
Different ways to get confirmed tatkal ticket from IRCTC. Tatkal booking starts at 8.00 am in the morning. In this time there will be a very large number of people trying to get tatkal ticket from railway stations and through internet - IRCTC waiting lists and chances of confirmation
Read details about different types of waiting lists in IRCTC railway ticket booking. Also read details about ticket confirmation chances for different waiting lists