Best Cashback Credit Cards in India – 2024

Cashback credit cards are among the most popular types of credit cards the world over. After all, who wouldn’t like getting a discount on everything one buys, from the essentials to those guilty pleasures? Thus, I have listed down the 17 best cashback credit cards that you can lay your hands on this year.

Best Cashback Credit Cards in India

Criteria for selecting cashback credit cards

The criteria are simple, the cashback credit card should give cashback on most transactions or reward points that can be converted into statement credit easily. Further, the card should be ideally LTF. In case there is an annual fee, the annual spending requirement for a fee waiver should be easily achievable i.e. under 3-4lk a year.

Please note that there is no one single cashback card that fits the bill. Depending on your monthly spending and the category where you spend the best cashback credit card will be different for you than that for your friend. Thus, I have created a new dynamic reward calculator that you use to find out the cashback credit card. More on that later.

Below is the list of the best cashback credit cards in India. I have listed these cashback credit cards in alphabetical order and thus not any ranking as such.

Amex Gold Card

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Snapshot

• 1 MR point for every 50 spent. 1MR is equal to at least 40p. Thus, a reward rate of 0.8% for every 100 spent.
• All categories give reward points except insurance and rent spend.
• 5x reward points on the Amex Reward Multiplier website. Maximum reward points capped at 25,000 a month i.e. monthly spend of 2.5lks.
• You get 1000 bonus reward points for doing 6 transactions of 1000 or more monthly.

Best suited for:

• Buying gift vouchers from the Amex Reward Multiplier portal (4% reward rate).
• Can be one the best fuel cards thanks to the 1000*6 transaction a month feature giving 1000 bonus points, plus 120 regular reward points worth ~450 a ~7.5% reward rate on fuel spends.
• Wallet loads

Avoid spending on:

• Can be used on all categories, but the reward rate declines as the monthly spending increases on this card.

Read full review of the Amex Gold Charge Card here

Amex Gold Card is a charge card and not a credit card per se. Thus, you need to pay your bill in full every month. Further, the Amex Gold card doesn’t stand out to be the primary credit card. However, having said that if you can get past the Amex acceptance issues around you, this card can be one of the ideal fuel credit cards with a ~7.5% reward rate of spending up to 6k per month. Among other things, the option to convert MR points in near cash equivalent Amazon GVs makes Amex card one the best cashbacks credit cards

Amex MRCC

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Snapshot

• 1 MR point for every 50 spent. 1MR is equal to at least 40p. Thus, a reward rate of 0.8% for every 100 spent.
• Earn 1000 bonus reward points for doing 4 transactions of 1500 or more monthly.
• Further, earn another 1000 reward points for monthly spending of 20k or above. Thus, you earn 2000 reward points (valued at least 800) on spending 20k in a month, a cool 4% reward rate.
• All categories give reward points except utility, insurance, rent, and fuel spending.
• 2x reward points on the Amex Reward Multiplier website. Maximum reward points capped at 25,000 a month i.e. monthly spend of 6.5lks.
• Fee waiver at annual spends of 1.5lks

Best suited for:

• Nearly all spend categories thanks to 4*1500 transactions that give 1000 reward points and a monthly spend of 20k gives another 1000 reward points.
• Gift vouchers from the Amex Reward Multiplier portal; gives a 1.6% reward rate
• Can easily double up as primary fuel card thanks to 1500*4 transactions that give 1000 reward points i.e. ~6.7% reward rate.
• Wallet loads.

Avoid spending on:

• Insurance and utilities if you can reach the bonus milestones otherwise.

Read the full review of Amex MRCC here

Without a doubt, the Amex MRCC is among the best cashback credit cards in India. The Amex MR points can be converted into Amazon Vouchers or transferred to hotel and airline programs. Spend just above 20k a month, that’s 2.5lk a year, and enjoy a 4%+ reward rate. In fact, if you redeem for the Amex Gold collection you get an even better reward rate. Apply through the referral link for a First Year Free, and the second year fee is just 1500+ taxes, waived off on 1.5lk annual spends. Direct application? You pay 4500+taxes fee from year two.

Amex Smart Earn

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Snapshot:

• 1 MR point for every 50 spent. 1MR is equal to at least 40p. Thus, a reward rate of 0.8% for every 100 spent.
• Reward point excluded categories include fuel, insurance, utilities, and rent.
• 10x reward points on Zomato, capped at 500 MR points per month i.e. 2500 monthly spends. The reward rate comes at 8%.
• 10x reward points on Flipkart, Uber, BMS, Ajio, Nykaa, PVR, Myntra and Blinkit. Points capped at 500 MR points per month i.e. 2500 monthly spends. The reward rate comes at 8%.
• 5x reward points on Amazon and Paytm Wallet load. Points capped at 250MR points per month i.e. 2500 monthly spends. The reward rate comes at 4%.
• Earn vouchers worth 500 on reaching the spend milestones of 1.2lks, 1.8lks and 2.4lks respectively in a year. Thus get vouchers worth 1500 on spending 2.4lks in a year.
• Fee waiver at just 40k annual spends.

Best suited for:

• Paytm wallet load as it gives a 4% reward rate
• Zomato for 8% reward rate

Avoid spending on:

• Excluded categories i.e. fuel, insurance, utilities, and rent.

Amex SmartEarn credit card is a mass-market cashback credit card from Amex’s stable. This card is an excellent way to experience the Amex ecosystem if you are new to Amex cards. The sweet spot for using an Amex SmartEarn credit card is at 7500 per month across the accelerated reward categories. I suggest that you use this card only for 10x on Zomato, 10x on Uber, and 5x on Paytm wallet. For others, there are credit cards that offer better reward rates.

AU Xcite Ace

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Snapshot:

• 3% cashback on monthly spends of 20k-25k; 2% cashback on monthly spends of 12.5k-20k; 1% cashback on monthly spends of 7.5k-12.5k, 0 cashback below that.
• Cashback is capped at 750 per month thus optimum spending on this card will be at 25k per month
• No cashback on wallet load, fuel, and rental spends
• Lifetime free credit card

Best suited for:

• For monthly spending between 20-25k every month, a decent 3% cashback.

The AU Xcite Ace is a simple cashback credit card. You spend say 20k in a month a flat 3% cashback, spend say 15k a month, a flat 2% cashback. Not much fuss here. However, given that the cashback is capped at 750 per month, no use spending more than 25k a month on this card.

Axis Ace

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Snapshot:

• 2% cashback on included categories.
• 5% cashback on utility bill payments through the Google Pay app. 4% cashback on Swiggy, Zomato and Ola.
• Cashback is capped at 500 per month on the 5% and 4% categories.
• Fuel, insurance, wallet load, fee payment, and government payments earn 0 cashback
• Annual fee of 500+GSt, waived on spending 2lk in a year.
• 4 free domestic lounge access in a calendar year restricted to Bangalore, Chennai, Mumbai, Delhi Kolkata, and Hyderabad airports.

Best suited for:

• Utility bill payment using the GPay app for bill payments of up to 10k per month.
• Offline/physical transactions will earn unlimited 2% cashback

Avoid spending on:

• Fuel, insurance, wallet load, fee payment, and government payments

Read the full review of Axis Ace here

Axis Ace when launched was a no-nonsense pure 2% cashback credit card with unlimited 5% cashback on utility bill payments. With time various restrictions and capping have come in place. However, even today it is one of the best cashback credit cards if used smartly for 5% cashback on utility bill payments and 2% unlimited cashback on offline spending. The current capping of 10k per month on utility bills for 5% cashback is generous enough for a household. Further, not many cards offer a straight 2% cashback on all physical swipes.

Axis Airtel Credit Card

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Snapshot:

• 25% cashback on Airtel mobile, broadband, wifi, and DTH bill payments via the Airtel Thanks app. Cashback is capped at 300 per month.
• 10% cashback on utility bill payments via the Airtel Thanks app. Cashback is capped at 300 per month.
• 10% cashback on spends on preferred merchants (Swiggy, Zomato, and BigBasket). Capped at 500 per month.
• 1% cashback on all other spends. No cash back on Fuel, EMI, wallet load, jewelry spends and rent payment

Best suited for:

• Payment of Airtel bills to the extent of 1200 per month and utility bills to the extent of 3000 per month
• Purchases on Swiggy, Zomato, BigBasket. If one uses the Tata Neu app and orders stuff on Bigbasket using this card, one will get 10% cash back on the card and 5% Neu coins (equivalent to 5% cashback) in the Tata Neu app. A cool 15% discount. 😇

Avoid spending on:

• 1% cashback categories

Read the full review of the Axis Airtel cashback credit card here

Airtel credit card is a solid credit card for someone who prefers a no-nonsense cashback card and has some exposure towards Airtel. Even if you don’t have Airtel services, 10% cashback on utility bill payments and up to 15% cashback on BigBasket purchases are a steal. Probably, the only disappointment to some extent is the 1% cashback. One should seriously consider the Airtel credit card in conjunction with Axis Ace, SBI Cashback, and Amex MRCC to ensure that you get upwards of 5% cash back on nearly every spend.

Axis Flipkart

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Snapshot:

• 5% unlimited cashback on Flipkart purchases, excluding Flipkart Health, Flight and Hotels
• 4% unlimited cashback on Cleartrip, Cult.fit, PVR, Swiggy, Tata Play and Uber
• 1.5% cashback on all other spends.
• No cashback on fuel, gift cards on Flipkart/Myntra, wallet load, insurance, utilities, fees, government, and rent payments
• Annual fee of 500+GST, waived on spending 3.5lk in a year. Rent and wallet spending are not counted towards the annual spending criterion
• 4 free domestic lounge access in a calendar year restricted to Bangalore, Chennai, Mumbai, Delhi Kolkata, and Hyderabad airports.

Best suited for:

• Unlimited 5% cash back on Flipkart purchases
• Unlimited 1.5% cash back on offline purchases

Avoid spending on:

• Exclusion categories

Read the full review of Axis Flipkart here

Axis Flipkart credit card is among the most popular credit cards from Axis Bank. This credit card still offers unlimited cashback without any capping. However, the list of restricted categories is just too long. Further, the most common category of utilities is excluded and the maximum cashback of 5% is only on Flipkart. This restricts the usability of this card. Nonetheless, if you have high spending on Flipkart and other accelerated reward categories, you may consider this cashback credit card.

Bank of Baroda Eterna Credit Card

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Snapshot:

• 0.75% standard reward rate
• 3.75% cashback on online, travel, dining, and international spending. Cashback is capped at 1250/month i.e. spends of ~33k per month
• 1.87% cashback on a long list of spend categories. This includes spending towards transport, telecom, utility, supermarkets, convenience stores, fast food restaurants, insurance, rent, government taxes, and education fees.
• Unlimited domestic lounge access
• Annual fee of 2499+GST. Fee waived on annual spends of 2.5lks

Best suited for:

• International spends. 3.75% cashback on spends of upto 33k, against that forex fee is 2%+GST i.e 2.38%. Thus, you save ~1.4% on forex spending.
• Unlimited domestic lounge access for just 2499+GST 😊

Avoid spending on:

• Everything outside the 3.75% cashback category

BoB Eterna is the flagship credit card from the Bank of Baroda. But given the reward rate it offers; it remains a very mediocre credit card. I suggest one take this card only if it’s LTF as the domestic lounge access program of BoB Eterna is very strong. It offers unlimited domestic lounge access to all the Visa and Mastercard-affiliated lounges in India.

HDFC Millennia

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Snapshot:

• 5% cashback of up to 1000 per month on 10 online merchants i.e. Amazon, BookMyShow, Cult.fit, Flipkart, Myntra, Sony LIV, Swiggy, Tata CLiQ, Uber & Zomato
• 1% cashback on all spends. Cashback is capped at 1000 per month.
• Exclusions are fuel, rent payments, and government-related transactions.
• You get 1000 vouchers from BigBasket/BMS/Pizza Hut/PVR/Uber on spending 100,000 in a calendar quarter.
• Annual fee of 1000+GST, waived on annual spends of 100,000.

Best suited for:

• 10 online merchants where one gets 5% cashback. The good thing is that online merchants are the popular ones and thus one can take benefit of the 5% cashback offer

HDFC Millennia is a decent cashback credit card from HDFC. The good thing is there is no further merchant-level cap for the accelerated cashback benefit. You can very well spend 20k just on Amazon and get 5% cashback of 1000. Further, if used smartly you can get a 4.3% reward rate on quarterly spends of 1lk, i.e. monthly spends of 33k. The way one needs to do this is to max out the 5% cashback every month and spend 40k on the 1% cashback category every quarter. This will give a 3400 cashback on 1lk spending in the quarter, plus a 1000 voucher on achieving quarterly milestones. A cool 4.3% cashback.

HDFC Swiggy Credit Card

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Snapshot:

• 10% cashback up to 1500 per month on Swiggy (Food, Instamart, Dineout and Genie). Not applicable on Swiggy Money, Swiggy Liquor, and Swiggy Minis.
• 5% cashback up to 1500 per month on various online/offline merchants which includes Amazon, Flipkart, Ajio, Ola, Uber department stores, electronic stores, etc
• 1% cashback of up to 500 per month on others.
• Fuel, rent, wallet, and government spending are excluded
• Annual fee of 500+GST, waived off on spending 200,000 in a year

Best suited for:

• Groceries order on Swiggy Instamart/Genie
• Online spending on Amazon, Flipkart, etc

Avoid spending on:

• Utility bill payment

Read the full review of the HDFC Swiggy credit card here

HDFC Swiggy is overall a decent credit card and can give around 2% cashback on all spends if used as a primary card. Further, with smart use, one can get 10%+ on groceries combined with Swiggy offers. The only drawback I feel is that cashback is in the form of Swiggy Money. Thus, it forces you to spend on Swiggy even if you don’t want to.

HSBC Cashback credit card

Snapshot:

• 10% cashback on dining, food delivery, and grocery spend; cashback capped at 1000 per month.
• 1.5% cashback on all other spends
• No cashback on fuel, wallet loads, rental, education fees, government payment, insurance, toll payment.
• 4 complimentary domestic lounge visits per year (1 per quarter).
• Annual fee of 999+GST, waived on annual spends of 200000.

Best suited for:

• 10% cashback categories. The highlight of the HSBC cashback credit card is the 10% cashback includes both Zomato and Swiggy. Further, all grocery spends whether it’s Dmart or Reliance Fresh are included in the cashback. Thus, you are not tied down to a specific brand.

Avoid spending on:

• Other online spends. Many other cards give a better reward rate than 1.5%

The HSBC Cashback credit card is a good cashback credit card. The issue with the HSBC Cashback credit card much like the Amex credit card is the limited serviceability areas. Otherwise, this card can be a strong contender for the secondary card in the wallet.

The 10% cashback of up to 1000 per month means spending of 10k per month. I believe this is quite enough for a household. Another good thing is it includes all food delivery and grocery chains; thus you are not tied to a specific brand, and the probability of maximizing the cashback increases.

ICICI AmazonPay

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Snapshot:

• 5% cashback on all Amazon purchases, flight, and hotel bookings done through Amazon for Prime members. 3% cashback otherwise.
• 2% cashback on payment done through AmazonPay with this card as payment method
• 1% cashback on everything else.
• No cashback on fuel and rental spending.
• Lifetime free credit card.

Best suited for:

• Amazon purchases.

The ICICI AmazonPay credit card is one of the most popular cashback credit cards in India. The good thing about this credit card is that its value proposition has more or less remained intact since its launch. Since this is an LTF cashback credit card, I generally suggest that you keep this card with you. This may not be your go-to credit card but works as a great fallback option in case nothing else works.

IDFC First Select Credit Card

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Snapshot:

• 2% cashback on online spending and 0.6% cash back on offline spending of up to 25k every month
• 2% cashback on all spends above 25k in a month
• No cashback on fuel spending. Rent payment get 0.6% cashback and utility & insurance get 0.2% cashback. However, these spends are not counted towards 10x rewards and 10x threshold calculations
• 4 complimentary domestic lounge access every quarter on a minimum monthly spend of 5k
• Lifetime free credit card

Best suited for:

• If you are convinced that your monthly spending will be substantially higher than 25k every month and you are not really into premium and super premium credit cards

IDFC First Select credit card honestly is a mediocre cashback credit card. Though on paper it looks very attractive, the reward rate is honestly not very great. You get a 2% reward rate only once the monthly spending crosses 25k. That too, adjusted for fuel, rent, utilities, and insurance spending. This means for the first 30-35k spends you earn substantially lower than 2% and only for the small incremental spend do you get 2% cashback. Not to forget that there is a reward redemption fee of 118 on every redemption. So, redeem your reward points in one go to minimize the redemption charges.

IDFC First Wealth Credit Card

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Snapshot:

• 1.5% cashback on online spending and 0.75% cash back on offline spending of up to 30k every month
• 2.5% cashback on all spends above 30k in a month
• No cashback on fuel spending. Rent payment get 0.75% cashback and utility & insurance get 0.25% cashback. However, these spends are not counted towards 10x rewards and 10x threshold calculations
• 4 complimentary domestic and international lounges, spa access every quarter on a minimum monthly spend of 5k
• Lifetime free credit card

Best suited for:

• If you are convinced that your monthly spending will be substantially higher than 30k every month and you are not really into premium and super premium credit cards

Much like the IDFC First Select credit card, the IDFC First Wealth credit card is a mediocre cashback credit card. The cashback is never really 2.5% as a substantial part of monthly spending will fall in 1.5%, 0.75% cashback, or 0.25% cashback category and may not be eligible for 10x calculations. Also do keep in mind the reward redemption fee of 118 rupees for every redemption.

SBI Cashback Credit Card

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Snapshot:

• 5% cashback on online spending and 1% on offline spending. Total cashback (online + offline) is capped at 5000 per month.
• No cashbacks on rent payments, wallet load, merchant EMI, jewelry, school/education fees, utility/insurance payments, gift cards/vouchers, or train tickets.
• Annual fee of 999+GST, waived on annual spends of 200,000.

Best suited for:

• Online international transactions. You get 5% cashback against that you will be charged 4.13% as forex markup. Still, a saving of 0.87% on every rupee spend for international transactions online.
• Online spends

Avoid spending on:

• Offline purchases

Read the full review of the SBI Cashback credit card here

SBI Cashback credit card despite all the devaluations is a simple and powerful cashback credit card. For someone looking for a simple cashback credit card for online spending, this is likely the only credit card you need. SBI Cashback credit card cannot be the primary credit card for you, simply because many commonly used spend categories are excluded from cashback. Thus, if you have 4 cards, SBI Cashback, Axis Airtel, Axis Ace, and Amex MRCC, you can earn ~5% on nearly all spends.

Tata Neu Infinity Credit Card

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Snapshot:

• 10% cashback (5% on the card + 5% on the app) on purchases done through the Tata Neu app. Plus, the brand offers if any
• 5% cashback on utility/insurance bill payments through the Tata Neu app
• 1.5% cashback on all other spends; excludes rent, government spends, fuel, wallet load, and gift voucher purchases.
• Annual fee of 1499+GST, waived on spending 3lk a year’
• 8 domestic lounge access, max 2 per quarter; 4 international lounge access, max 1 per quarter.

Best suited for:

• The Rupay variant can be used for UPI payments; gives 1.5% cashback on UPI spends. Cashback capped at 500 per month
• Utility/Insurance bill payment through the Tata Neu app for 5% cashback
• 10% cashback on BigBasket, medicines (Tata 1mg), and flights (AIX)

Avoid spending on:

• Merchants where you get 1.5% cashback except UPI payment.

Read the full review of Tata Neu Infinity cashback credit card

Tata Neu Infinity Rupay variant credit card is a no-brainer credit card. It has very compelling reasons to own it. 10% cashback on Tata Neu app, 5% cashback on utility/insurance payments, and 1.5% cashback on UPI payments. If there is one Rupay credit card that you need to keep in your wallet then it’s the Tata Neu Infinity Rupay credit card.

Tata Neu Plus Credit Card

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Snapshot:

• 7% cashback (2% on the card + 5% on the app) on purchases done through the Tata Neu app. Plus, the brand offers if any
• 2% cashback on utility/insurance bill payments through the Tata Neu app
• 1% cashback on all other spends; excludes rent, government spends, fuel, wallet load, and gift voucher purchases.
• Annual fee of 499+GST, waived on spending 1lk a year’
• 4 domestic lounge access, max 1 per quarter

Best suited for:

• The Rupay variant can be used for UPI payments; gives 1% cashback on UPI spends. Cashback capped at 500 per month
• Utility/Insurance bill payment through the Tata Neu app for 2% cashback
• 7% cashback on BigBasket, medicines (Tata 1mg), and flights (AIX)

Avoid spending on:

• Merchants where you get 1% cashback except UPI payment.

Read the full review of Tata Neu Plus cashback credit card

Opt for the Tata Neu Plus credit card only if you are not eligible or for some reason don’t want to take the Infinity variant. The Infinity variant is better in every aspect. Nonetheless, the Tata Neu Plus variant is also a decent credit card.

Which is the best cashback credit card for you?

The problem with credit cards, like everything in life is that there is no one size fits all solution. Everyone is different, their spending pattern differ and thus the best cashback credit card also differs. Therefore, I have created this new calculator where you can input your monthly spending across 20 categories and it will show the best 5 cashback credit cards that suit your spending pattern.

Further, the tool has 2 modes, Auto and Manual. Under the Auto mode, the calculator gives the best 5 cashback credit cards as per its calculations. However, you can switch to Manual mode and select the 5 credit cards that you want to compare and check the reward rate/cashback on them.

Do test the calculator to find out the best cashback credit card for your monthly spending and also highlight any errors/mistakes I may have made. Have made this tool entirely on my own, without any external help, thus very much possible that I may have made a mistake here and there.

Conclusion

Given the plethora of options within cashback credit cards, it is difficult to have the best cashback credit cards. I own the following cashback credit cards

Amex MRCC (Apply Now)– I strongly believe that everyone should have this credit card. Given the monthly milestones, one can earn 4% cashback even on categories where the card doesn’t offer any reward points. Used smartly, this card can give a reward rate of 6%+ too.

ICICI AmazonPay – Simple and effective cashback credit card. 5% on all Amazon spend, 2% on payments done through Amazon wallet. Lifetime free. This card remains with me but is not used. More a backup of backup credit. When nothing works, this will work. 😊

Axis Ace (Apply Now)– I took the Axis Ace credit card during its heydays of unlimited 5% on utility bill payments. However, I will now look to close this card and apply for Axis Airtel given my exposure to the Airtel ecosystem.

Tata Neu Infinity credit card (Apply Now)– This is my only Rupay credit card as of now. Thus, all the eligible UPI payments are routed through this. Plus, any purchases done on the Tata Neu app are swiped through this cashback credit card.

Few other cards that are very good cashback credit cards

Axis Airtel (Apply Now)– If you have any exposure to the Airtel ecosystem, then this card is a must-have. 25% cashback on Airtel bill payments, nothing beats that. Even if you don’t have an Airtel connection, a 10% cashback on utility bill payments of up to 3000 per month is a strong reason to apply for this credit card. However, given the strange ways of Axis and Airtel’s working, only the really lucky ones have got this credit card.

SBI Cashback (Apply Now)– As mentioned earlier, despite all the devaluations, the SBI Cashback credit card is still a very decent cashback credit card with 5% cashback on nearly all online spending including online international spending.

HDFC Swiggy (Apply Now) – HDFC Swiggy is also a good cashback credit card with liberal cashback limits across categories. However, since the cashback is in the form of Swiggy Money not many would like it as it restricts you to a specific brand.

What all cashback credit cards do you use and how do you maximize them? Do share your thoughts.

Image Courtesy: Photo by Mathieu Stern on Unsplash 

The Best Cashback Credit Cards in India article was published/updated on 7th Jan 2024. The information/data mentioned here is true to the knowledge of the author. E&OE.