Amazon Great Indian Festival 2025: 5 Reasons to Use the Amazon ICICI Credit Card This Sale

The Amazon Great Indian Festival 2025 is almost here. The sale starts on September 23, with Prime members getting in a day early on September 22. Everyone’s talking about the discounts, but just as important is how you choose to pay. The right payment method can stretch your savings further or make the checkout experience smoother.

Amazon Pay and ICICI Bank have renewed their co-branded credit card partnership ahead of the sale, adding a few updates and keeping the familiar perks. Here’s a closer look at what’s changed, and why it could matter this festival season.

1. Lower Forex Fees for International Payments

From October 11, 2025, the forex markup on this card drops from 3.5% to 1.99%. If you’ve ever bought from an overseas seller on Amazon or swiped your card abroad, you know that extra 3.5% hurts. Cutting it almost in half doesn’t eliminate the fee, but it makes international purchases easier to justify.

For shoppers, this isn’t just about buying foreign products during the sale. Think of it as a year-round benefit that kicks in right after the festival rush. If you’ve planned holiday travel in November or December, the card becomes cheaper to use for hotels, meals, or shopping abroad. It’s a subtle change, but one that can add up quickly.

2. Cashback Now Extends to Travel

The biggest addition is cashback on flights and hotels booked through Amazon Pay. Until now, the card’s highlight was 5% unlimited cashback for Prime members and 3% for non-Prime on Amazon shopping (excluding Gold Coins). With this update, the same benefit applies to travel.

That changes how the card fits into your wallet. Earlier, it was mainly a “shopping card.” Now it overlaps with travel cards too. If you’re booking tickets for a Diwali trip or reserving a hotel for New Year’s, you earn back the same way you do when buying a smartphone during the sale. It folds travel into the same rewards ecosystem, cutting the need to juggle multiple cards.

3. No Joining or Annual Fees

The card continues to have no joining fee and no annual fee. That might sound like a minor detail, but it’s part of why more than five million people have signed up since 2018.

During the Great Indian Festival, when you’re already calculating discounts, exchange bonuses, and cashback, you don’t want to add one more variable: “Will I pay this back in annual fees later?” Here, you don’t. Whatever you save is net savings, not something you’ll lose to a yearly charge. It’s straightforward, and that simplicity has always been the appeal.

4. Everyday Spending Still Gets Covered

Festival deals come once a year, but your card use doesn’t stop there. This one still offers:

• 2% cashback on Amazon Pay categories like recharges, subscriptions, and gift cards (excluding rent, tax, and education)
• 1% cashback on other spends outside Amazon (excluding fuel, rent, tax, education, utilities, and international spends)
• A 1% fuel surcharge waiver on fuel spends

In short, it doesn’t become a card you put away once the festival sale is done. It continues to chip back a little on daily expenses, whether that’s topping up a subscription, grabbing a gift card, or paying for fuel. Add the fact that onboarding and renewals are fully digital, and it’s built to be easy to manage.

5. No-Cost EMI for Big Buys

Festival sales are when a lot of people pull the trigger on big-ticket purchases—phones, appliances, even furniture. Paying for them all at once isn’t always practical. This card offers a 3-month no-cost EMI on eligible Amazon purchases, all year round.

During the Great Indian Festival, where discounts are already steep, pairing them with an EMI option lets you manage your budget better. You don’t pay extra interest, and you don’t delay the purchase. It’s a simple way to spread the cost without getting penalized.