Kotak Mahindra wants to woo India's wealthy with Solitaire banking—Is it worth it?

Mint

4 days ago

If you have a crore in the bank, congratulations—you're an affluent Indian. That's the benchmark Kotak Mahindra Bank uses to determine eligibility for its new Solitaire program. For salaried individuals, the threshold is a little lower at ₹75 lakh.
Other types of financial relationships also count toward eligibility—such as mutual funds invested through Kotak, or having a loan or demat account—though some adjustments may apply. Once you qualify, the bank is ready to roll out a red carpet of benefits. But are these perks compelling enough to justify locking in such a large sum?
Here's a deep dive.
What's on offer
At the heart of the program is a pre-approved loan of up to 3x the size of your banking relationship, capped at ₹7.5 crore. So, if you have a ₹1 crore fixed deposit with Kotak, you could be eligible for a home loan worth ₹3 crore. While paperwork like property documents is still required, the loan approval process is expected to be smoother.
What's more, Kotak considers combined family relationships, which includes your spouse, parents, and minor children. Even better—benefits extend to them. For instance, your father running a traditional grocery business may also enjoy the perks if the family's combined assets meet the eligibility threshold.
You also get a credit card borrowing limit starting at ₹10 lakh. Then there is a dedicated customer care helpline only for affluent customers and dedicated 'investment specialists' who will help with investing your money.
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Kotak is actively promoting its 'SIP + SWP' (Systematic Investment Plan + Systematic Withdrawal Plan), Aspire, as a dynamic retirement strategy, moving beyond traditional insurance policies. This approach leverages SIPs for staggered investments and SWPs for systematic withdrawals, allowing clients to build a robust retirement corpus by benefiting from stock market growth.
Explaining this plan, Rohit Bhasin, president, head of affluent, NRI and business banking and chief marketing officer, Kotak bank said combining an SIP and SWP can help the customer define the amount they want to receive every month at a pre-defined age. 'This isn't about retirement alone. The idea is to build a second source of income that this product can help you achieve."
Solitaire credit card
The biggest highlight of the Solitaire package may well be the Kotak Solitaire Card, a super-premium travel credit card. It's currently free for Solitaire customers—but if your relationship dips below the eligibility level and you're downgraded, a ₹25,000 annual fee kicks in.
The card is issued to the primary account holder, with up to three add-on cards for family members.
You can earn rewards upto 10% of your spends on flight tickets and hotels booked via Kotak's dedicated platform called Unbox. The platform is also used to redeem the reward points by booking flights and hotels or transferring them to partner airline and hotel partner programs.
The bank currently has eight airline partners, including Qatar, Etihad, British Airways etc and two hotel partners, Marriott and Accor. Air India transfers are available at a 1:1 ratio. For other partners, the transfer ratio is 2:1, except for Marriott, which allows transfers to airmiles at a 3:1 ratio.
For all other transactions, including travel bookings done outside of Unbox, you will earn 3 reward points per ₹100 spent, translating into 3% reward earning rate. However, payments done towards utilities, insurance, rent, fuel, and education fee are excluded from earning any rewards at all. Notably, Solitaire is one of the few premium cards that will earn reward on tax payments–the 3% base reward apply.
The maximum value of reward points you can earn from travel bookings on Unbox is capped at ₹1 lakh per month. To reach this cap, you would need to spend ₹10 lakh solely on travel bookings. Once you hit this limit, a lower base reward rate of 3% kicks in for all subsequent transactions during the month.
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If you're looking to redeem points on non-travel categories—such as vouchers—each point carries a redemption value of ₹0.5. Frederick D'Souza, business head of credit cards at Kotak Mahindra Bank, said the option to purchase and redeem vouchers directly on the Unbox platform will be rolled out soon.
You also get unlimited lounge access, both domestic and international, for the primary and add-on card holders. On top of that, four guest lounge entries per year are allowed—handy for travelling friends or family members who don't hold an add-on card.
The perks don't stop at travel. You might get early access to concerts and events, from Ed Sheeran to Peppa Pig. And for foreign usage, there's zero forex markup and just a 1% cash withdrawal fee abroad (no interest if paid on time).
So, should you get it?
Sumanta Mandal, founder, TechnoFino, an online platform that reviews credit cards and other banking products, said for those who already have a solid banking relationship with Kotak should get the card.
'Since it's free, the customer should get it. It offers unlimited lounge access and has zero forex."
But if you don't, it may not be worth locking in a crore just for a card—especially if you're already holding premium offerings from rival banks.
'If you own an Infinia or Axis Magnus Burgundy and don't have an existing relationship with Kotak bank, I wouldn't recommend locking away ₹75 lakh– ₹1 crore just for the credit card," said Mandal.
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