Magnet Cards

About Magnet Card

Magnet is a fintech-powered card program offering a single product: a secured, FD-backed credit card issued in partnership with SBM Bank India. Rather than qualifying on income and credit history, applicants open a fixed deposit through the Magnet app, with the credit limit set as a percentage of that FD - making it a practical option for students, first-time cardholders, or anyone building credit history from scratch.

How the FD-Backed Structure Works

Instead of an income and credit-score check, Magnet requires you to open a fixed deposit through its app - your credit limit is then set as a percentage of that deposit amount (commonly 80-100% of the FD value, though exact ratios vary and should be confirmed on the card's own page). This flips the usual approval logic: rather than proving repayment capacity through income documents, you're demonstrating it by locking in savings upfront. The FD continues earning its own interest throughout, so the "cost" of holding the card is mainly opportunity cost on that locked capital, not a direct fee.

Who Should Consider This Card

This structure suits three groups particularly well: students and young professionals with no income history to show a bank, anyone rebuilding credit after a rejection or default elsewhere, and NRIs or first-time earners who haven't yet built a domestic credit file. If you already qualify easily for an unsecured card with better headline rewards, an FD-backed product like this one is unlikely to be your best option - it exists specifically to solve the accessibility problem, not to compete on reward rate.

How Magnet Compares to Other Secured/FD-Backed Cards

Magnet isn't the only FD-backed option on this site - Bank of Maharashtra's secured card and IDFC First Bank's zero-forex-markup Wow! card follow a similar structural logic. The differentiator for Magnet is its fintech-first delivery: the entire application, FD opening, and card management happens through the Magnet app rather than a traditional bank branch process, which may suit digitally-native applicants better than a branch-based secured card application.

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