Amazon Pay ICICI Credit Card Fuel Offer

As covered in my previous post Amazon Pay ICICI Credit Card Disadvantages there is no reward points for fuel purchase using Amazon Pay ICICI Credit card. But there is a tweak to compensate for reward points lost on fuel purchase.

In fact, you can make more than what you earn as reward for regular/non fuel transactions. The best part is the earnings are credited as cashback to your card (and not as Amazon pay balance which is offered as reward points for normal transaction). In a way, you may count this as Amazon Pay ICICI credit card fuel offer!!

Any time you pay for fuel with Amazon Pay ICICI Credit card, initially you would be charged 1% of transaction amount as surcharge. As per stated benefits of Amazon Pay ICICI Credit card the fuel surcharges levied would be credited back. But ICICI bank has been crediting Rs.10 irrespective of how small is the amount of fuel purchase transaction.

For an illustration:

You fill petrol for Rs.150. You are levied 1% surcharge of Rs 1.50, but the “Reversal of fuel surcharge” is for Rs.10. That is Rs 8.5 more than stated benefit.

You fill petrol for Rs.500. You are levied 1% surcharge of Rs 5, but the “Reversal of fuel surcharge” is still for same Rs.10

Apparently, it looks minimum amount for fuel surcharge reversal is fixed at Rs 10. So If you consider the case of fuel purchase transaction for Rs 150 where you gain Rs 8.5 (Rs 10 – surcharge Rs 1.5), this translates to a cashback of (8.5 / 150) * 100 => 5.66%. Now, that is greater than highest reward of 5% offered for Amazon Prime members for shopping at Amazon.in.

There you go.. you have created your own 5.66% Amazon Pay ICICI credit card fuel offer. This is a straight cashback to your credit card and not Amazon Pay balance offered as reward points for normal transactions. The key here is to split your fuel purchase transactions into multiple smaller ones.

This method goes pretty well for two wheeler. Even if you are fueling your car, you can manage to make transactions in the range of Rs.300 to Rs.600 and make a cashback that is higher than 1% fuel surcharge levied. This may not be a huge benefit, but it is worth knowing it.

Since this is more of a tweak and not an actually listed offer, there is no expiry or last date involved here. It is going to be around as long as surcharge is levied on fuel purchase transactions using credit card!

You may know about all terms and conditions of Amazon Pay ICICI bank credit card by visiting https://www.icicibank.com/Personal-Banking/cards/Consumer-Cards/Credit-Card/amazon-pay-index.page

Does this work for fuel transaction at any Petrol bunk?

Yes. This tweak is verified to hold good at IOCL, HP, BP petrol bunks. Check out the below snips from actual credit card statement for various fuel purchase amounts ranging from Rs.150 to Rs.500.

---

---

---

---

When is the cashback credited, and how to verify it?

The surcharge reversal would reflect in your credit card in a day or two. You can cross check the same by looking at your credit card statement. You would have an entry “Reversal of fuel surcharge”. The above image shows snip of this transaction from credit card’s monthly email statement. You would also be able to check this by looking at your credit card transactions online (ICICI bank’s website / app).

Tax on Credit Card Fuel Transaction Surcharge

While the surcharge for fuel purchase using credit card is 1%, transactions at some of the bunks were levied additional 18% tax on surcharge amount. Effectively increasing the surcharge from 1% to 1.18% including tax on surcharge. While transaction at some of the petrol bunks were not levied any tax on surcharge (leaving surcharge at just 1%).

It is not exactly clear why some transactions attracted tax on fuel surcharge. For e.g In the above statement snips shared, you can spot surcharge being levied for Rs.200 transaction at Bharat Petroleum (third image from top) and Rs.150 transaction at Hindustan petroleum (fifth and the last image above).