SaveSage Credit Card Survey 2025

The SaveSage Credit Card Survey 2025 highlights the growing gap between credit card ownership and actual value extraction, revealing where users lose rewards, perks, and savings.

Credit Card Rewards Behaviour Survey was conducted during February–March 2025, covering 5,000 respondents across nine major cities: Delhi NCR, Bangalore, Kolkata, Mumbai, Chennai, Hyderabad, Pune, Lucknow, and Ahmedabad.

Respondents held between 2 and 7 active credit cards, with annual spends ranging from ₹2 lakh to ₹50 lakh. Participants were selected from the SaveSage user base, with responses collected via online surveys, calls, WhatsApp, and email.

Executive Summary

• Reward Optimisation Gap: 70% of users fail to optimise credit card rewards, leading to significant value loss.
• Redemption Challenges: 50% struggle with redeeming credit card points effectively and choose suboptimal options like cashback.
• Expiry Negligence: 50% let reward points expire due to lack of tracking.
• Lack of Perks Awareness: 60% are unaware of benefits such as lounge access, golf, insurance, and concierge services.
• Spending Behaviour: 55% of daily transactions still happen via UPI or cash.
• Source of Information: 60% rely on social media influencers for credit card knowledge.
• Market Opportunity: 65% are willing to switch their primary credit card for better benefits.

The findings highlight a clear disconnect between high credit card adoption and low awareness or optimisation. Most users miss out on real value due to limited understanding of credit card rewards, perks, and redemption options.

Key Findings

1. How Do Indians Choose Their Credit Cards?

• 60% took whichever card was offered
• 20% applied after a call from a salesperson
• 15% followed bank suggestions
• 5% conducted personal research

Insight: 95% of users rely on external suggestions rather than personal research, leading to poor card selection.

2. Credit Card Spending Habits for Reward Optimisation

• 40% are unaware of rewards
• 33% use the same card for all spends without considering rewards
• 24% consider rewards only for large transactions
• 3% strategically optimise every spend

Insight: 97% of users do not optimise spending for rewards, either due to lack of awareness or convenience, leading to inefficient use of credit card perks.

3. Awareness & Usage of Reward Points

• 40% never check reward points
• 31% check occasionally, once every few months
• 25% check monthly
• 4% track regularly

Insight: 71% rarely or never track their reward point, leading to lost value and unused benefits. Regular tracking could help maximise potential rewards.

4. Reward Redemption Behaviour

• 35% never redeemed points
• 30% prefer cashback for simplicity
• 25% rely on auto-redemption
• 10% optimise redemption value

  Insight: 90% of users either don’t redeem their points or opt for suboptimal redemption methods, such as automatic conversions or cashback, instead of maximising value.

  5. Reward Point Expiry

  • 50% let points expire
  • 25% redeem before expiry
  • 15% redeem randomly
  • 10% hold cards with longer validity

  Insight: 50% of users allow points to expire due to negligence, showing need for better alerts and automation.

  6. Why Users Don’t Optimise Rewards

  • 42% believe rewards are not valuable
  • 37% find redemption complicated
  • 11% lack time
  • 10% don’t know how to maximise value

  Insight: Most respondents cite lack of awareness, complexity, or time constraints as barriers to optimising their rewards, highlighting a need for simplified reward structures.

  7. Awareness of Free Credit Card Perks

  Airport Lounge Access

  • 45% don’t use due to spend thresholds
  • 30% use occasionally
  • 20% never used
  • 5% use monthly

  Golf Lessons

  • 70% are unaware this benefit exists
  • 15% don’t play golf and have never used it
  • 14% don’t know how to redeem this benefit
  • 0.9% have used it at least once
  • 0.1% actively use this benefit

  Airport Spa Access

  • 60% are unaware this benefit exists
  • 38% were denied due to slot unavailability
  • 2% have used it at least once

  Concierge Services

  • 50% are unaware this benefit exists
  • 35% don’t know how to use it
  • 8% have used it at least once with a positive experience
  • 6% have used it once with a negative experience
  • 1% use it frequently

  Insurance Benefits

  • 75% are unaware of coverage
  • 24% know about it but have never used it
  • 0.99% tried claiming but were denied
  • 0.01% successfully claimed

  Insight: Most premium card benefits remain unused due to lack of awareness.This indicates a major gap in user education regarding value-added services and their usage.

  8. Renewal Fee Waivers

  • 54% unaware waivers are possible
  • 30% missed spend thresholds
  • 16% successfully waived fees

9. Credit Card Usage for Large Purchases

• 55% avoid due to fear of debt
• 40% use EMI options
• 5% optimise rewards on large spends

10. Credit Cards vs UPI

• 50% prefer UPI
• 30% use a mix without strategy
• 15% use cards for rewards
• 5% use RuPay UPI credit cards

Insight: UPI remains the dominant payment method (50%), while credit cards are underutilised for everyday transactions. Rupay UPI credit cards could serve as a bridge to encourage better reward optimization.

11. Biggest Credit Card Frustrations

• 50% find redemption complicated
• 30% complain about high fees
• 15% face poor customer support
• 5% struggle to track multiple cards

12. Willingness to Switch Cards

• 65% open to switching for better rewards
• 25% unsure
• 10% loyal to current card

Insight: With 65% of users open to switching cards for better benefits, financial institutions must focus on improving reward structures and customer experience to retain their user base.

13. Where Users Get Credit Card Information

• 60% from social media influencers
• 25% from friends and family
• 10% from bank websites
• 5% not interested

Insight: Heavy reliance on influencers increases misinformation risk.

Industry Perspective

Ashish Lath, Founder and Chief Saver, SaveSage said:

“The findings from this survey validate what we've long believed - that most Indians are leaving real money on the table simply because they don't have the tools or knowledge to optimise their credit card rewards. At SaveSage, we’re committed to changing that. Whether it’s through our AI assistant Savvy or personalised recommendations, our mission is to help every user unlock the full potential of their credit cards and loyalty programs - without the complexity..”