Citibank’s Retail Business in India was bought by Axis Bank in 2023. Since then, many of their card members have wondered where they go from here. My advice to everyone has been to stay in until you hear the details from Axis Bank about what they plan to do with these cards and then decide for themselves. It seems that the time is now.

Citi Credit Migration ‘Phase 1’ to be completed in June 2024

As per new documentation that has turned up on the Axis Bank website, it seems Axis Bank employees will see their credit cards and banking relationships with the bank will be transitioned to Axis Bank. This is a “select group of people”, and it also refers to the Axis Bank Employees who are subject to an “early migration” before everyone else is moved over. The document is 28 pages long; however, here is what is important from there.

• Citi Rewards Credit Card will be migrated to the Axis Bank Rewards Credit Card.
• IndianOil Citi Credit Card will be migrated to the Indian Oil Axis Bank Premium Credit Card.
• Citi PremierMiles Credit Card will be migrated to the Axis Bank Horizon Credit Card.

This migration is scheduled to be completed by June 9, 2024.

At the moment, there is no public indication of what will happen to the Citi Prestige and Citi Ultima Infinite Credit Cards.

In terms of Credit Limits, post-migration, Axis Bank says it will grant a single aggregate credit limit across all Citi-branded Credit Card(s) and Axis Bank Credit Cards held by the customer. This limit will be the sum of the Citi-branded Card limits and the Axis Bank aggregate limit currently offered to the customer. None of the cards will be closed post-migration.

Key features of the Axis Bank Rewards Credit Card

Here are the highlights of the Axis Bank Rewards Credit Card

• Unlimited 2 EDGE REWARD Points on every INR 125 spent
• Accelerated 20 EDGE REWARD Points for every INR 125 spent on Apparel & Departmental Stores
• Earn 1,500 EDGE REWARD Points on net spends of INR 30,000 every statement cycle.
• Complimentary lounge access twice per quarter at select domestic airports
• Get a 30% discount on Swiggy twice a month.
• Existing points will transfer at the rate of 1 Reward Point = 1.75 EDGE REWARDS

Key features of the Indian Oil Axis Bank Premium Credit Card

Here are the highlights of the Indian Oil Axis Bank Premium Credit Card

• Earn 6 EDGE Miles on every INR 150 spent at all IndianOil outlets.
• Unlimited 1% fuel surcharge waiver on fuel spends at 35,000+ IndianOil outlets.
• Earn 2 EDGE Miles for every INR 150 spent on groceries.
• 1 EDGE Mile for every INR 150 spent on other categories
• Complimentary lounge access twice per quarter at select domestic airports
• Convert EDGE Miles for free fuel at IOCL Outlets or convert to IOCL XTRAREWARDS
• Existing points will transfer at the rate of 1 Turbo Point = 1 EDGE Mile

Citi PremierMiles Migrating to Axis Bank Horizon Credit Card

It seems that the Citi PremierMiles Credit Card will be migrated to the Axis Bank Horizon Credit Card, which will retain its features but transition to the Axis Bank Rewards System. Here are the summary features.

• Earn 5 EDGE Miles on every INR 100 spent on Axis Bank’s Travel EDGE website & airline spends
• Earn 2 EDGE MILES on every INR 100 spent on other spends
• Enjoy 1,500 EDGE Miles every year on the card anniversary
• Enjoy complimentary access to domestic lounges of up to 8 per quarter and international airport lounges of up to 8 per year
• Enjoy 25% off on dining up to INR 800 at over 4,000 restaurants across India
• 5000 EDGE MILES as welcome gift and 1500 EDGE MILES on renewal.

This is basically seeing the card lose no features at the moment but rather a slight uptick. Citi PremierMiles was India’s first airline-agnostic credit card. Citi had the ability to redeem PremierMiles for INR 0.45 in cash (statement credit), and 2 PremierMiles were transferred into one mile converted. 1 EDGE Mile will translate into 1 INR statement credit and 1 mile, except with the Axis Bank Rewards and miles transfer rules, not the Citi ones (post transfer). How Axis Bank is equalising the value is by putting the transition at 1 PremierMile = 0.45 EDGE Miles.

Similarly, instead of 10 PremierMiles/INR 100 on airline spends, you now earn 5 EDGE Miles/INR 100 spent and for regular spends, you earn 2 EDGE Miles/INR 100 instead of 4 PremierMiles/INR 100 spent. The points accumulated till the migration date will never expire. However, points earned post-migration will expire after three years.

Bottomline

Citi Credit Cards migration will be initiated in June 2024 for a select bunch of Citi Credit Card holders, who are all employees of Axis Bank. The transition for everyone else will be done later in the year. Citi Rewards Credit Card will become Axis Bank Rewards Credit Card; IndianOil Citi Credit Card will become IndianOil Axis Bank Premium Credit Card and Citi PremierMiles Credit Card becomes Axis Bank Horizon Credit Card.

What do you make of the transition of Citibank Credit Cards to Axis Bank?

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