SBI card will charge extra for each transaction from December 1

EMI transaction with SBI credit card is getting costlier from December 1 onwards. SBI cards will be charging a decent amount on every EMI purchase irrespective of the amount and the tenure. Already most SBI cardholders have received a mail. Those who are yet to receive it would get it by this fortnight, sources said.

Costlier EMI transaction

SBI credit card holders have to pay a price for each EMI transaction. Each EMI transaction shall come with a processing fee of Rs 99 plus applicable taxes. This fee shall be applicable on all EMI transactions done via merchant outlets, e-commerce websites and app using SBI credit cards or even using YONO app.

With this new charge all EMI transactions along with ‘Buy Now Pay later’ or BNPL transactions would also go up.

SBI cards called ‘Processing fee’ mandatory for all EMI and BNPL transactions. Industry insiders said, “Recently EMI and BNPL transactions have witnessed a quantum jump both in the number of transactions and amount of money involved. So, banks are already charging from the customers, and SBI cards are the new addition.”

In case of ‘zero cost EMI’ offer from the merchant, SBI cards would also charge Rs 99 plus applicable taxes from the buyer.

The mail

SBI Cards have already sent mails to subscribers stating that they would charge from December 1.

The email said, “Dear Cardholder, We would like to inform you that with effect from December 1 2021, Processing Fee of Rs. 99 + applicable taxes will be levied on all Merchant EMI transactions done at Merchant outlet/website/app.”

Further, in case the transaction is not converted into EMI transaction, then any processing fee charged by SBI shall be reversed by the company.

Credit card market

The penetration of credit cards is low in the country. Less than 5% of the total account holders have credit cards, according to RBI data. The total number of credit cards issued in India stands at 6.3 crore, whereas the number of debit cards issued stood at 9.3 crore till September 2021.

HDFC Bank is the market leader with the highest share of 23.61%. SBI Card’s share is at 19.17%, while ICICI Bank comes third with a 17.57% share.

Private lender Axis bank has a market share of 11.36% and comes at number four. The top four credit card players have a market share of 71.71%.