Beware PhonePe SBI Card Reward Capping is per Calendar Month NOT Bill Cycle
I recently learned something about the PhonePe SBI Card the hard way and wanted to share this so others do not lose out on rewards.
Most credit cards calculate reward caps based on your monthly billing cycle. My cycle runs from the 21st to the 20th of the next month. However I discovered that for this specific card the 2000 reward points cap for PhonePe spends actually follows the Calendar Month (1st to 31st).
I made two large insurance payments on April 22nd right at the start of my new bill cycle. I expected the 10% accelerated rewards but SBI rejected the points. They claimed I already hit the cap because of spends I made in early April during my previous bill cycle.
This is extremely confusing because the bank statement shows one thing but the reward logic follows another. Even though my current statement shows very few points earned SBI is refusing to credit the insurance rewards.
Has anyone else faced this issue ?
Is my understanding of the calendar month rule correct or should I continue to fight with SBI to get these rewards points credited ?
It seems like a very sneaky way to limit rewards for people who spend near the end or beginning of a month.