SBI credit card to charge a fee of Rs 99 + tax on all EMI purchases from Dec 1

SBI credit card in its email to its customers has informed that processing fees of Rs 99 plus taxes will be levied on all EMI purchase transactions with effect from Dec 1, 2021. The processing fee will be levied for all EMI purchase transactions done at merchant outlets, e-commerce websites and app using SBI credit cards. This is likely to hit the burgeoning purchases being made by cardholders using EMI payment options offered by merchant websites such as ‘Buy Now Pay Later’( BNPL) etc. It may make BNPL purchases using SBI credit cards more expensive.

The credit card company, in an email sent to customers today, has said:
Dear Cardholder, We would like to inform you that with effect from 01 Dec 2021, Processing Fee of Rs. 99 + applicable taxes will be levied on all Merchant EMI transactions done at Merchant outlet/website/app. We thank you for your continued patronage. Please click here to know more about Merchant EMI Processing Fee.

To understand this, suppose you buy a mobile phone from an e-commerce platform under its EMI scheme. If you make the payment using an SBI credit card, then the card company will charge you Rs 99 plus taxes as processing fees. This fee will be reflected in your credit card statement along with the EMI amount.

This processing fee is over and above the interest amount the card provider charges. Sometimes merchants give discounts on such transactions by paying the interest amount which makes it appear zero cost EMI to customers. Even in such transactions, this processing fee will be an added cost.

This processing fee will be levied only on those transactions that are successfully converted into EMI transactions. However, processing fees will be reversed only in case the EMI transaction is cancelled.

Applicability of processing fee on EMI transactions will be informed to the SBI credit cardholders via charge slips (for offline transactions)/payment page (for online transactions) by merchants.