Bank of Maharashtra SBI Card PRIME

PRIME or ELITE at Bank of Maharashtra?

Bank of Maharashtra customers can get two SBI co-brands, and the difference is mostly about how reachable the fee waiver is. The Bank of Maharashtra SBI Card ELITE costs ₹4,999 and needs ₹10 lakh of yearly spend to reverse it. PRIME costs ₹2,999 + GST, about ₹3,540 with tax, and the renewal fee goes away at ₹3 lakh a year. That is ₹25,000 a month, a bar many families already cross.

PRIME also has something ELITE does not: 20 Reward Points per ₹100 on utility bills paid by standing instruction. This is the Bank of Maharashtra version, not the plain SBI Card PRIME or any other PRIME variant.

The 5% utility lane, and its fine print

At SBI's usual 4 points to ₹1, 20 points per ₹100 is about 5% back on electricity and similar utility bills. The catch is the setup. The bill has to run as a standing instruction on the card; a one-off payment may earn the normal rate. Our record also does not show a cap on this lane, so check the MITC before you move large bills.

Other spends:

• Dining, grocery and departmental stores: 10 points per ₹100, about 2.5%.
• Everything else: 2 points per ₹100, about 0.5%.
• Fuel: nothing.
• Birthday: 20 points per ₹100 for three days, the day before, on and after.

A year that clears ₹3 lakh

₹3,000 a month of bills on standing instruction earns about ₹1,800 a year. ₹15,000 a month on dining and groceries adds about ₹4,500. ₹7,000 a month of other spend adds about ₹420. That totals roughly ₹3 lakh of spend, so the renewal fee is waived, and about ₹6,700 in points comes back.

Cross ₹50,000 in a quarter and you also get a ₹1,000 Pizza Hut e-voucher. Reach ₹5 lakh in a year and there is a ₹7,000 Yatra.com or Pantaloons voucher.

Our record shows no joining-fee waiver, so plan on paying ₹3,540 in year one.

Two things PRIME holders get billed for

Priority Pass in India. You get 8 domestic and 4 international lounge visits a year. The Priority Pass visits are for lounges abroad. Users report being charged over ₹2,400 a visit after swiping Priority Pass at Indian lounges. At home, use the card itself. Our SBI lounge access guide has the details.

A renewal fee that posts anyway. Some users say the fee was debited even after they met the spend condition for the waiver. Track your spend by card year, and raise a request if the reversal does not appear.

So, is BoM PRIME worth ₹2,999?

Yes, if you bank with Bank of Maharashtra, spend ₹25,000 a month and can route utility bills through standing instructions. No, if your spend is mostly online: Cashback SBI Card pays 5% there for ₹999. Forex is not confirmed for this co-brand, and older data shows 3.5%, so it is not a travel card for abroad.

Credit Card Information Compiled by: Abhijeet Kumar | Reviewed by: Anmol Ratan Sachdeva