Customised credit cards or BYOC: What it is, how it works, and who it’s best for | Mint

While there are credit cards for almost every spending need these days, is it possible to have one that matches your specific personal requirements? Build Your Own Credit Card (BYOC) or customised credit card allows you to do just that. BYOC enables you to customise various aspects of your credit card to suit your preferences and needs. You can choose the reward structure, card design and billing cycle. Here is a primer on how BYOC or customised credit cards work, its features and advantages.

What is a customised credit card and how does it work?

As the name implies, a customised credit card allows you to choose the reward structure, card design and billing cycle. It also offers the flexibility of redeeming reward points in ways that benefit you the most. You will have a credit card that will represent your spending needs.

With a customised credit card, you have the freedom to choose a lot of things—right from the card material to your perks. You can select the card material—plastic, eco-friendly or metal, wrap your card with an image from the card issuer’s picture gallery, customise merchant offers according to your needs that can be changed.

What are the advantages?

A customised credit card offers several advantages to the user. It is a lot more flexible than regular credit cards. For instance, you can get rewards in the dining/food category in one cycle and switch to groceries in the next cycle.

The biggest benefit is that you can personalise it by choosing specific reward categories, a particular card design and setting spending limits to align with your lifestyle. It offers the user flexibility as she/he is in a position to choose the billing cycle, reward categories and spending limits to suit unique financial requirements.

You can also maximise rewards that will result in enhanced cashbacks and points adding value to your financial transactions. Card issuers charge a small monthly/quarterly fee for availing features such as cashbacks and rewards in chosen categories.

How can you get a customised credit card?

Several issuers now offer customised credit cards. The standard eligibility norms will apply for these cards. All you need to do is to choose the card that suits your requirements. Here is a list of popular credit cards that offer users the customisation option.

HDFC PIXEL Play Credit Card

This card allows you to customise benefits to fit your lifestyle. You can select merchants of your choice to earn cashback, choose card design, and select your preferred billing cycle date.

Eligibility

For salaried:

Age: Minimum 21 years and maximum 60 years

Income: Gross Monthly Income should be more than ₹25000

For self employed:

Age: Minimum 21 years and maximum 65 years

Income: ITR (Income Tax Return) showing income of more than ₹6 lakh per annum

Fees and charges

Joining/Renewal Membership Fee – ₹500 plus applicable taxes

Spend ₹1 lakh or more in a year, before your credit card renewal date and get your renewal fee waived

Cardholders will have flexibility to change their billing cycle only once, as per their convenience by raising a service request.

AU LIT Credit Card

This card allows personalisation with custom features. You can select features as per your lifestyle and choose pricing as per your need. You can switch features on/off as you wish but it comes with a set of conditions that you must follow. You should also pay a fee for availing/switching the feature. You can also manage and track features in real time.

Feature duration: “All features, activated by cardholders, are valid for 90 days effective from the day they are activated. For example, if a cardholder chooses the feature(s) on April 5, 2022, the feature(s) will be valid until July 3, 2022, with April 5th being considered as the first day,” AU Small Finance Bank said in its note about the LIT Credit Card.

“Each feature will be designated as auto renewal and will be renewed after 90 days by default, unless explicitly disabled by cardholders. For example, in the preceding scenario, the feature would be automatically renewed on July 4, 2022. Additionally, features cannot be deactivated within 90 days of activation,” it said.

“If a cardholder wants to disable auto-renewal of their subscribed features, they may switch-off the same on LIT feature activation page by visiting 0101 Mobile Banking after 7 days from date of feature activation. Once disabled, the feature would not be auto-renewed post 90 days of existing feature duration,” the bank said.

Feature pricing: “Pricing shown against each feature during the feature selection journey is applicable for 90 days. Feature fees for 90 days would be levied on the day cardholder opts in for the feature except in case of feature selected during application process, in which fee is levied from the date of card issuance,” AU Small Finance Bank said.

AU LIT credit card has no annual and joining fee.

The age for the primary card holder in the group. The cardholder should be a ‘Resident Indian’.

Self employed: 25 years to 65 years

Salaried: 21 years to 60 years

Add-on cardholders should be over 18 years of age.

YES BANK BYOC (Build Your Own Card) Credit Card

The bank allows you to pick your card material, a pre-loaded image for wrapping the card from the bank’s picture gallery, customise merchant offers as per your needs and perks. It levies a monthly fee for availing rewards and cashbacks in specified categories.

Eligibility

Age: Between 21 and 60 years of age

Minimum net salary of ₹25000 per month or ITR showing income of more than ₹7.5 lakh per year.
If you are already holding any YES BANK Credit Card, you are not eligible for this card. If you want a RuPay variant you can apply for Virtual RuPay Card.

Fees and charges

One-time fee – Chargeable in the first statement:

Eco-Friendly Card Fee: ₹249 plus taxes

Metal Card Fee: ₹3499 plus taxes

Monthly fee – Chargeable as per perks and active merchant plans

Card Perk (Core Benefit) Fee: BYOC Cashback : ₹99 plus taxes

BYOC Rewards : ₹49 plus taxes

The subscription plan can be changed anytime but the plan will come into effect from the next statement cycle and will be charged as per the statement cycle.

Allirajan M is a journalist with over two decades of experience. He has worked with several leading media organisations in the country and has been writing on mutual funds for nearly 16 years.