Credit Card Rewards on Rent Payments: Restrictions and Capping

Rent payment has been one of the easiest ways to achieve milestones and fee waiver spends on credit cards. Not only that, when we pay rent by credit card we get extra cashback/rewards/vouchers with many offers. No wonder, everyone has started paying their rent by credit card. Unfortunately, many have also been misusing this feature. The result – banks have started capping and reducing rewards on rent payments. Being a ‘genuine’ rent payer myself, I have started keeping track of these changes. In this post, I would be updating the rewards offered by various credit cards and their variants as and when I come to know of them. If you find something missing or incorrect, do comment on the same.

IndusInd Bank Credit Card Rewards on Rent Payments

IndusInd Bank was one of the first to cap rewards on rent payments.

Variant	Rewards
InterMiles Co-branded credit cards	1 InterMiles / Rs 100
All other credit cards	0.7 RP / Rs 100

Axis Bank Credit Card Rewards on Rent Payments

For now, Axis Bank has removed rewards for rent payment transactions only on its entry-level cash back credit cards.

Variant	Rewards/Cashback
Flipkart Axis Bank and Ace Credit Card	NIL (Zero)
MY Zone, Neo, IOCL, Aura, Advantage, Privilege, Select, Magnus, Signature, and Atlas Credit card	Regular Rewards for up to Rs 50000 rent payment transaction
Reserve and Burgundy Credit Card	Regular Rewards for up to Rs 1 Lakh rent payment transaction

RBL Bank Credit Card Rewards on Rent Payments

RBL Bank has not capped rewards for rent payments so far but has introduced some rules on it. The rules make sense and there is nothing to worry about for genuine rent payers.

Maximum 1 transaction/month
Minimum Value of Rs 5000
Maximum Value: 50% of the credit limit

IDFC First Bank Credit Card Rewards on Rent Payments

IDFC First Bank has reduced rewards on rent payment transactions to 3X.

Variant	Rewards
All IDFC First Bank Credit Cards	3X Rewards ~ 0.75%

HDFC Bank Credit Card Rewards on Rent Payments

HDFC Bank has introduced a capping of reward points that can be earned on rental transactions. This will be effective 23-Jul-2022.

Variant	Rewards
Infinia and DCB	2000 RP/month
Regalia and Diners Club Privilege	1000 RP/month
Millennia and Moneyback+	500 Cash Points

My Thoughts

While it is disappointing to see caps on rent payment rewards, I can understand why banks are doing this. In the long run, genuine rent payers and rent payment services will be the ones who will lose. I wish banks would have tied up with select services like RedGirraffe. Verification and biller id functionalities can reduce misuse to a large extent. But for now, expect banks to slowly stop allowing rent payments just like Amex does.

If you are paying rent by credit card, there are still a few options like HDFC Bank and Citibank to get rewards. Do check out the latest payment offers to get extra rewards/cashback.