ICICI Bank is offering cash back of up to 10% for those who use its free Pockets prepaid payment card on platforms such as Flipkart, Amazon and Reliance Retail.
Pockets prepaid card is a free card that is delivered to anyone who installs ICICI Bank’s wallet app — Pockets — and makes a request for the card.
The card looks similar to any other debit or credit card and can be used both at point-of-sale swipe machines or on online transactions. The card, however, cannot be used at an ATM.
AMAZON, FLIPKART CASH BACK
The biggest offers seem to be on the Amazon and Flipkart platforms.
On Amazon, the card can fetch you ‘up to 6.5%’ in terms of cashback, but the exact figure will depend on the category of the item purchased, the company said.
On Flipkart and Infibeam, the return is up to 7.5%, while it is 5.7% on AliExpress and 8.25% on Shopclues.
Other coupons should not be used with the offer, it said.
The amount will be credited within 90 days, but will show up in the wallet app within 72 hours with a ‘pending’ status.
There is no ‘upper limit’, the bank said. The offers on e-commerce platforms like Flipkart and Amazon are only available when the purchase is made on the mobile website, and not on the desktop.
However, at Reliance Retail stores — including Reliance Digital and Fresh — the upper limit is Rs 150.
WALLET PROMOTION
Banks such as ICICI and Axis used to give similar coupons on their debit and credit cards in the early days of e-commerce, but have slowly wound up most of such schemes in the last two 
years.
However, they are now fighting to ensure that as many people as possible use their wallets.
ICICI Bank has taken the novel route of giving a free physical prepaid card to anyone who downloads their wallets, which can be used to make purchases at physical and online stores when wallet payment is not possible or is simply inconvenient.
The bank is also giving free UPI IDs to anyone who downloads the app.
Banks such as ICICI and Axis face emerging competition from wallet players like PayTM and Airtel Money, who have been given banking license by the RBI and can offer most of the retail services that banks can, except for taking deposits.
Airtel Payments is even offering an interest rate of 7.25% for all its payment account holders — nearly twice the rate offered by banks.