Confused by seeing so many credit card options across all the banks? Looking for a list of the best credit cards in India in 2023 to choose from and apply for? Here is a list of the best cards for reward points, cashback, miles, lounge access, free vacations, and more.
Most of us need around 3 to 4 credit cards to maximize the rewards and benefits offered by them. I have 18+ active credit cards right now but 90% of my spending is on 4 of these cards. I use the rest only in specific cases like for great spending offers. So, while we can hold as many cards as we want the focus should be on a select few to take complete advantage of them. Each of the below-listed cards also has its linked detailed review to read through before you apply.
Best Entry-Level Credit Cards in India: 2023
This list is for someone starting off with credit cards and looking for something simple. Entry-level credit cards are best suited for spending less than Rs 2 lakhs. The cards in this segment will:
- Be easy to get approved for
- Have low or zero annual fee
- Have lower salary requirements for eligibility
- Provide rewards such as cashback/statement credit/vouchers
SBI Card Cashback
The latest entrant in the market makes it onto our list. With 5% cash back on any online merchant spends, this is one of the best cards for cashback credit card lovers. The downside of the Cashback card is that it will not be eligible for 10% instant discount offers on e-commerce websites.
- Joining Fee: NIL – Free for the first year
- Annual Fee: Rs 999+GST
- Cashback: 1% to 5%
- Annual Fee Waiver: Rs 2 Lakhs spend in a membership year
- Notable Features: 5% cashback on online merchant spends
- Check review and apply: SBI Cashback Card Review
Axis Bank Ace
Ace comes with a 2% to 5% unlimited cash back on transactions. The only point that we need to note is that Google Pay bill payments using this card are not available on iOS yet. So, iOS users lose out on 5% cashback. This card is invite-only from Google Pay for now.
- Joining &Annual Fee: Rs 499+GST
- Cashback: 2% to 5%
- Annual Fee Waiver: Rs 2 Lakhs spend in a membership year
- Notable Features: No caps on cashback, 5% cashback on utility bills for Android users
- Check review and apply: Axis Ace Credit Card Review
Amex Membership Rewards Credit Card
This is an entry-level credit card that can give rewards on par with some of the premium cards. We get 1000 bonus MR points on Rs 1500 X 4 transactions and Rs 20000 spent every month. With the Gold Collection redemption, the reward rate is between 5% to 8%.
- Annual Fee: Rs 4500+GST
- Rewards: 1% to 8%
- Rewards Redemption: Gold Collection, Transfer to Marriott Bonvoy or Airline partners
- Annual Fee Waiver: Rs 1.5 Lakhs spend in a membership year
- Check review and apply: Amex MRCC Review
HDFC Bank Millennia
Millennia is an attractive cashback credit card from HDFC Bank. We get 5% cashback on Amazon, Flipkart, and Myntra spend. All other spendings including wallets get 1% cashback. Millennia is also eligible for Smartbuy cashback up to Rs 1000 per month.
- Annual Fee: Rs 1000+GST
- Rewards: 1% to 6%
- Rewards Redemption: Statement Credit
- Annual Fee Waiver: Rs 1 Lakh spend in a membership year
- Check review and apply: HDFC Bank Millennia Credit Card Review
Best Premium Credit Cards in India: 2023
This list is for cards that offer reward points along with some lifestyle benefits. These offer more value than entry-level credit cards and are suitable if annual spending is more than 4 Lakhs. The cards in the segment will:
- We will need a higher salary eligibility criteria (preferably > Rs 6 Lakhs per annum)
- May have a higher fee that might not have waiver criteria
- Provide lifestyle benefits with better rewards than entry-level credit cards
IDFC First Bank Wealth
IDFC First Wealth does not have the high rewards that few others on this list have. But, it is LTF without any strings. For the LTF price, we get up to 2.5% rewards with some good benefits. Some of the complimentary benefits are railway lounge access, roadside assistance, and airport spa access. As always, we also get domestic and international airport lounge access.
- Joining and Annual Fee: NIL (Lifetime Free – LTF)
- Rewards: Up to 2.5%
- Rewards Redemption: Statement Credit, Gift Vouchers
- Notable Features: Complimentary airport spa and railway lounge access
- Check review and apply: IDFC First Wealth Credit Card Review
HDFC Bank Regalia
Regalia is one of the oldest cards on this list. It still holds its own against many new entrants in this list. While the base reward rate might seem low, HDFC Bank has Smartbuy and other spending offers to boost the return. Get Regalia only if it is offered LTF and keep it for an upgrade to the future HDFC super-premium credit card.
- Joining/Annual Fee: LTF with spend conditions or Rs 2500+GST
- Rewards: 1.3% to 6%
- Best Rewards Redemption Options: Smartbuy Flights/Hotels, Airmiles transfer
- Annual Fee Waiver: Rs 3 Lakhs spend for paid cards (not applicable for LTF)
- Notable Features: Good milestone benefits, Complimentary International Airport Lounge Access
- Check review and apply: HDFC Bank Regalia Review
HDFC Bank Diners Club Privilege
Diners Club Privilege is on par with Regalia above in terms of base rewards. But, we get some extra features like monthly milestone benefits and select memberships. Diners Club acceptance is an issue in offline stores. This is something to consider when getting this card. Get the Diners Privilege only if it is offered LTF and keep it for an upgrade to the future HDFC super-premium credit card.
- Joining/Annual Fee: LTF with spend conditions or Rs 2500+GST
- Rewards: 1.3% to 6%
- Best Rewards Redemption Option: Smartbuy Flights/Hotels, Airmiles transfer
- Annual Fee Waiver: Not required for LTF, Rs 3 Lakhs spend for paid cards
- Notable Features: Good milestone benefits, Complimentary International Airport Lounge Access
- Check review and apply: HDFC Bank Diners Privilege Review
Amex Gold Charge
Amex Gold charge is an exception in this list. It is not a credit card but a charge card. But, it is worth getting this card for its milestone benefits and other offers.
- Joining Fee: Rs 1000+GST
- Annual Fee: Rs 4500+GST
- Rewards: 1% to 2.5%
- Best Rewards Redemption Options: 18/24 Karat Gold Collection, Marriott Bonvoy Points Transfer
- Annual Fee Waiver: Varies every year with different offers
- Notable Features: Charge Card will give you a higher spending limit
Axis Bank Select
Axis Select offers decent rewards with some very good merchant benefits. It has great offers on Swiggy, BookMyShow, and BigBasket which add up to significant savings.
- Joining/Annual Fee: Rs 3000+GST
- Rewards: 1% to 5%
- Rewards Redemption Options: EDGE Rewards Portal, Points Transfer
- Annual Fee Waiver: Rs 6 Lakhs spend in a membership year
- Notable Features: Swiggy and BookMyShow discounts, Complimentary Airport Lounge Access
- Check review and apply: Axis Bank Select Card Review
Best Super Premium Credit Cards in India: 2023
These are the cards that everyone wants but few get them thanks to the stringent criteria. The super-premium credit cards can offer you every benefit that you wanted and more. For the cards in this segment:
- The salary should be high (preferably > Rs 15 Lakhs per annum)
- Annual spending should be close to 10 Lakhs
Axis Bank Magnus
Axis Magnus has now become the #1 choice for points and miles enthusiasts. Axis Bank recently added the option to transfer EDGE Reward Points to partner airlines and hotel loyalty programs. We have multiple transfer partners and a great transfer ratio as well. With the milestone benefit, Magnus is better than Infinia/DCB for miles and points redemption.
- Joining/Annual Fee: Rs 10000+GST
- Rewards: 1.2% to 17.2%
- Best Rewards Redemption Options: Transfer to Airmiles and hotel loyalty programs
- Annual Fee Waiver: Rs 15 Lakhs spend in a membership year
- Notable Features: Unlimited Airport Lounge Access for Primary card, Accelerated rewards on Grab Deals and Travel Edge
- Check review and apply: Axis Magnus Review
HDFC Bank Infinia
The HDFC Bank Infinia is in a league of its own when it comes to super-premium credit cards. 3.3% base rewards, up to 33% Smartbuy rewards, and many other offers ensure Infinia retains its crown. We also had the recent Metal Edition launch with some good extra features. Till the much-rumored Infinia Reserve/Galaxia is launched, Infinia will continue to be a good option.
- Joining/Annual Fee: Rs 12500+GST
- Rewards: 3.3% to 33%
- Best Rewards Redemption Options: Smartbuy Flights/Hotels, Airmiles Transfer
- Annual Fee Waiver: Rs 10 Lakhs spend in a membership year
- Notable Features: Unlimited Airport Lounge Access for Primary and Add-on cardmembers, 1RP=Rs 1 redemption for Tanishq GV/Apple Products
- Check review and apply: HDFC Bank Infinia Review
HDFC Bank Diners Club Black
Diners Club Black is the second card from HDFC Bank in the super-premium segment. The card is on par with Infinia with some minor differences in rewards and redemption. If offline store acceptance is a non-issue and spends are less than 10 Lakhs then DCB is the card to get.
- Joining/Annual Fee: Rs 10000+GST
- Rewards: 3.3% to 33%
- Best Rewards Redemption Options: Smartbuy Flights/Hotels, Airmiles Transfer
- Annual Fee Waiver: Rs 5 Lakhs spend in a membership year
- Notable Features: Unlimited Airport Lounge Access for Primary and Add-on cardmembers
- Check review and apply: HDFC Bank Diners Club Black Review
Axis Bank Reserve
Axis Reserve is a great option for international spending and also has some lucrative benefits. Axis Reserve also gets the same list of transfer partners with the same transfer ratio. While Reserve does not get the 25K EDGE RP milestone benefit as Magnus, it has other things in its favor. Get this only if you have significant international spending to take advantage of the return.
- Joining/Annual Fee: Rs 50000+GST
- Rewards: 1.5% to 15%
- Best Rewards Redemption Options: Transfer to Airmiles and hotel loyalty programs
- Annual Fee Waiver: Rs 25 Lakhs spend in a membership year
- Notable Features: Unlimited Airport Lounge Access for Primary card, Accelerated rewards on Grab Deals, Luxury Airport Transfer
- Check review and apply: Axis Bank Reserve Review
Best Travel/Airline Credit Cards
All the cards we covered till now are all-purpose cards for both earning and redeeming points. The redemption value depends on the option we choose – travel, gift vouchers, or cash back. We also have travel credit cards that offer better value if the rewards are used for flights/hotels. This list has travel and airline-focused credit cards.
Amex Platinum Travel
Milestone benefits and Taj vouchers are the highlights of the Amex Plat Travel credit card. If Taj vouchers are not useful for you, then there are other options as well. We get at least 48000 MR points every year including regular and milestone MR points. These can be transferred to Marriott Bonvoy or one of the airline travel partners as AirMiles.
- Joining Fee: Rs 3500+GST
- Annual Fee: Rs 5000+GST
- Rewards: Up to 8.5%
- Best Rewards Redemption Options: Taj Vouchers
- Annual Fee Waiver: Varies every year
- Notable Features: Rs 34000 worth of Taj Vouchers as rewards for spending Rs 4 Lakhs in a year
- Check review and apply: Amex Platinum Travel Credit Card Review
Axis Bank Vistara Signature Credit Card
Axis Bank Vistara Signature credit card is below the Infinite in the range of Vistara Axis cards. But, this one is more suitable than the Infinite in many aspects if we leave out the CV Gold benefit on Infinite. We get complimentary premium economy tickets on milestone spends plus Club Vistara Silver membership.
- Joining Fee: Rs 3000+GST
- Annual Fee: Rs 3000+GST
- Rewards: Up to 4%
- Best Rewards Redemption Options: Vistara Flights
- Annual Fee Waiver: None
- Notable Features: Premium Economy award tickets and CV Silver membership
- Check review and apply: Axis Bank Vistara Signature Credit Card Review
Best Fuel Credit Cards
Fuel credit cards are not a good fit for most. I used to load my Paytm wallet with Amex credit cards and use them for fuel. This is restricted now with the Paytm wallet changes. If your monthly expenses on fuel are close to Rs 10000 then have a look at the SBI BPCL Credit Card Octane. For all other cases, go with any of the above cards and skip this segment.
BPCL SBI Credit Card Octane
- Joining/Annual Fee: Rs 1499+GST
- Rewards Rate: 2.5% TO 7.25%
- Rewards Redemption Options: Fuel
- Annual Fee Waiver: Rs 2 Lakhs spend in a membership year
- Check review and apply: BPCL SBI Card Octane Review
Worthy Mentions
Axis Vistara Infinite
This is a good card if Vistara operates on the routes that you are planning to fly on. The fee is reasonable for the benefits it offers. Take this card if you want to experience business class on domestic routes. The challenge is finding availability for those business class award seats. Check out the review.
AU Bank LIT Credit Card Review
This LTF credit card can give some of the cards in this list a run for the money. The only issue is we need to pay extra to get those rewards. Check out this card only if you can plan your spending and then activate/deactivate the features as and when required.
Amex Platinum Charge
Amex Platinum charge card is a part of the super-premium segment. The card offers many lifestyle benefits, higher hotel loyalty memberships, and access to exclusive lounges. So, it is suitable for someone who plans to travel to partner hotels to take advantage of the status. If you can extract equal benefits for these fees or are good with paying the fees, opt for this card.
With taxes, the fees come close to 71000. The first-year benefits are good for the fees. It is from the second year onwards that we need to evaluate this card. I would not count the cashback offers given by Amex in the past year as they were an exception, not a rule.
Final Thoughts
This is the list of cards that I think are worth checking out and applying for across all banks and credit cards. The decision to get a card depends on what you intend to use the rewards for and whether the card will help you do that. So, do check the redemption options to see if you are getting a good value out of your spending. The next thing to check would be the annual fee. The card should offer a good return on spending including the annual fee (if not waived).
Hope this list helps you in getting a card that gives you a rewarding experience. 🙂
Any other card you think should be a part of this list? Do comment and let me know!
Frequently Asked Questions
The best cashback credit card is the SBI Cashback card. It offers 5% cashback on all online merchant spending except rent and utility bills.
Axis Magnus has a great reward and points transfer rate if you are interested in air miles. It also has an exhaustive list of partners to which you can transfer your points.
There is no such limit except limits put on how many cards can we hold per issuer. For example, Axis Bank allows us to hold 3 credit cards at any point in time.
Following policy changes announced by Standard Chartered Bank will be instrumental in SCB ULTIMATE(ly) losing edge over its competition.
Customers who have been loyal to SCB Ultimate being consistent in delivering its promised 3.3% returns without devaluation (for this many years ), irrespective of expenses would surely feel the pain.
Moreover, the annual renewal cost of Rs. 5000/- + 18% GST and fewer GVs in Reward Points Redemption Options at a cost of Rs. 99 + 18% GST will additionally bring down the “Reward Rate” value proposition.
SCB Ultimate would surely end up as a CASE STUDY for management students on how a stable product can be KILLED overnight, just by copying and pasting policies from competition, without realizing their end effects. Including Supermarkets in the list of impacted transactions is testimony of reckless product management.
Effective 2 April, 2023:
1) Transactions on Utilities, Supermarkets, Insurance, Property Management, Schools & Government payments will now earn 3 reward points on every INR 150 spent.
(Reward Rate Reduced by 1.3% to 2% instead of 3.3%)
2) No reward points will be earned on Fuel transactions. However, you will now enjoy a surcharge waiver of 1% on fuel spends. Fuel surcharge waiver amount will be capped at INR 1000 per month.
(Reward Rate Reduced by 2.3% to 1% instead of 3.3%)
3) You will be charged a 1% processing fee (plus applicable taxes) for rental payments made using Standard Chartered credit cards.
(Reward Rate Reduced by 1.18% to 2.12% instead of 3.3%)
Which card provide best reward for 10L+ of insurance spends per year ? I currently use SBI cashback card for it
You may need to look into milestone cards like Vistara or Platinum Travel.
Thumbs up
Very nice illustration… I think….Sbi cashback will make flipkart axis and amazon icici useless..
Can you tell me best credit card for utility payments and insurance premium payments.
The best option is to use Amazon Pay for these cases. We can buy Amazon Pay GV at discount from Smartbuy and Grab Deals.
I have been using SCB Ultimate and Axis Magnus for almost 5 years. SC is the most uncomplicated card. The entire process of RP on spend is to confuse the user. RP can be just 20 Paise in some cases and can be 1 Rupee in others. As a CC user, its almost impossible to keep track of conversion ratio. From that perspective, SC makes it extremely easy to calculate. If you are spending 12 Lac a year on card ( school fees+insurance+ others), you straight away get 40K vouchers spread across categories. I end up taking Big Basket vouchers and that takes care of lot of monthly spends. Now, 40k vouchers is worth 60K gross salary. The issue with SC card is almost zero travel benefits. You just get lounge access and the quality of lounges has ben going down now and the lounges in general are now over crowded. If you are frequent flyer( avg 1 trip per month), the concierge service/ meet and greet is the most important one. Thats where Axis Magnus scores ahead of lot of other cards. Axis Vistara vouchers are a waste. In most of the cases, the vouchers can not be used because free seats/award seats are not available. All in all, CCs are best for heavy spenders( 15Lac-18 Lac per year) to truly enjoy rewards. Else, it serves just the credit benefit.
Am totally surprised why not in 2023 axis atlas can you describe and elaborate please
Atlas is a good for specific use cases. If it is about Miles, Magnus and Reserve can rack them up a whole lot faster with Grab Deals and Gyftr.
You have mentioned there are other redemption options other than Taj Vouchers on Amex Travel Platinum, what are those? Also is it possible to get the annual fees waived for this card?
The other option is Flipkart vouchers but at a reduced value for each MR point. All details including fee waiver are mentioned in the detailed review linked in the list above.
Thanks for the post.
I think below cards shouldn’t be in this list in 2023:
– SBI SimplyClick //except 10% very hard to reach 2L, if Cashback present
– SC Smart //no use when one has Ace or Cashback.
– HDFC Regalia, DCB & Privilege //less usage with Magnus and travel cards
– Axis Select & Flipkart //least benefits among Axis cards
Considering better reward rates and benefits in other cards these do not serve any purpose nowadays.
You can add the below cards, if requirement satisfies:
– IDFC Wealth : Better lounge support compared to Regalia or Privilege.
– Axis Myzone : For Select Swiggy alternative and LTF most cases.
– AU LIT : If used properly, it provides more cashback.
Ignored 10% cards because in that case we have to list all bank cards, and considering if person hold one of these cards then will other card in this list serve any purpose.
I’m thinking that best cards means those cards should be in our wallet, no matter (this require frequent edits in this post according to changes in that bank).
Hi Phani. Thank you for going through the list. Gave some thought while including some cards in this list. Retaining the above cards for below reasons but may be will have a look later to reduce the list a bit.
– SimplyCLICK only for taking advantage of sales. Cashback card is still quite hard to get for most people and it will not help during sale season.
– Agree on SC Smart. No major use for now with other cards. Will remove this one.
– Regalia, DCB and Privilege are all there for one reason – future upgrade to Infinia or may be the next one. Expecting HDFC Bank to bounce back soon.
– Select – only for its partner offers
– FK Axis – Still a good cashback card. Its LTF for many and gives 1.5% on offline spends compared to Cashback card.
– IDFC Wealth – Yes, a good card for LTF. I will add this one as it makes sense.
– MyZone – Good only if LTF which comes up now and then.
– AU LIT – Find it rather complicated. We need to spend and optimize quite a bit on that. Would rather prefer taking a super premium card with that fee. But, will add under Worthy Mentions section.
Thank you again for all the feedback. It helps. 🙂