Insurance payments are one of the major expenses that most of us must make every year. For me, insurance premiums for my family run into six digits every year. Thus, it makes sense to use credit cards that give the best reward rate for insurance payments. Here is the list of the best credit cards for insurance payments. I have also included a few credit cards to avoid insurance payments and alternate payment methods.
Best Credit Cards for Insurance Payments
Here are is the list of best credit cards for insurance payments in India.
American Express Credit Cards
Amex MRCC and Amex Platinum Travel
Amex credit cards are generally the best credit cards for insurance payments. However, do note that Amex MRCC, Amex Plat Reserve, and Amex Plat Travel don’t give reward points for insurance payments, but these spends are counted towards milestone spending.
Thus, insurance payments using the Amex MRCC are counted towards monthly milestones 4*1500=6000 spends and 20k spends giving 2k bonus MR points.
Similarly, insurance payments using the Amex Plat Travel are counted towards the annual 4lk spend milestone. I personally use the Amex Plat Travel credit card for insurance payments for my family to earn 40k bonus MR points and a 10k Taj stay voucher.
Amex Platinum and Amex Gold card
The Amex Platinum and Amex Gold cards give reward points for insurance payments. Insurance spends on the Amex Gold card are eligible for the monthly 6*1000 spends giving 1000 bonus MR points.
Amex insurance payment offers
Amex generally runs offers giving 2x-5x points on credit card insurance premium payments from December to March every year. This becomes like a double dip for the cardholders making Amex credit cards one of the best credit cards for insurance payments. Last year Amex offered 5 MR points for every 100 spent on insurance premiums between Dec and March. Typically, January-March is the period when most of us have insurance payments due and thus this offer from Amex becomes very handy. I suggest that you apply for an Amex card right now so that when the offer comes your card is eligible for the offer.
HDFC Credit Cards
All HDFC credit cards give reward points for insurance payments and thus are among the best credit cards for insurance payments. The reward rate depends on the card variant. For example, HDFC Infinia and HDFC Diners Black give a 3.3% reward rate for insurance payments whereas Regalia would give ~1% reward rate.
HDFC Diners Black Metal
HDFC Diners Black Metal would be probably the best credit card for insurance payments as it gives a 3.3% reward rate plus the insurance payments are counted towards the quarterly spend milestone of 4lks. Thus, you get an effective reward rate of 5.5%.
However, do note that there is a cap of 5k reward points on insurance payments per day. Thus, insurance payments of more than 1.5lk in a day won’t fetch you reward points.
HDFC Tata Neu Infinity
The HDFC Tata Neu Infinity is also one of the best credit cards for insurance payments. The HDFC Tata Neu Infinity gives a 5% reward rate on utility and insurance premium payments via the Tata Neu app in the form of Neu coins. These Neu coins can be redeemed for 1coin=1INR of the Tata Neu app.
In case you are not eligible for the HDFC Tata Neu Infinity credit card, look for the HDFC Tata Neu Plus card. Here the reward rate is 2% instead of 5%.
Further, the HDFC Tata Neu credit cards are available in the Rupay variant. Thus, the same cards can be used for credit card payments on UPI too.
HDFC 6E Rewards XL
The HDFC 6E Rewards XL credit card gives a 2% reward rate on the insurance payment with a cap of 2000 reward points per day.
Vistara Credit Cards
Air Vistara is now merged with Air India and the Vistara credit cards are no longer issued. However, for the existing users of the Vistara credit cards, the IDFC Club Vistara credit card gives 1CV points for every 200 spent on insurance. Further, the SBI Vistara card gives a ~1% reward rate in the form of CV points.
Standard Chartered Credit Cards
Standard Chartered credit cards are also among the best credit cards for insurance payments.
Standard Chartered Ultimate
The Standard Chartered Ultimate is as such one of the most rewarding credit cards with a 3.3% reward rate on most spends. However, for insurance payments, it gives a 2% reward rate. Pretty decent. Unlike HDFC credit cards, there is no capping of reward points on insurance payments.
Standard Chartered Smart credit card
The Standard Chartered Smart credit card is a no-nonsense cashback credit card. This credit card gives a 2% reward rate on insurance payments with a cap of 1000 per month.
ICICI Amazon Credit Card
The ICICI Amazon Credit Card has been one of the best lifetime-free credit cards for a long time now and is among the best credit cards for insurance payments. This credit card gives a 2% reward rate on insurance payments if made via Amazon Pay. If payment is made directly on the insurer’s website/app you get a 1% reward rate.
SBI Credit Cards
While many SBI credit cards don’t give reward points for insurance payments, there are still a few that give. SBI Elite and SBI Prime are a few such credit cards from the SBI stable that give reward points for insurance payments.
The reward rate on insurance payments is meagre at only 0.5%. However, these spends are counted towards milestone spending. Thus, the effective reward rate will be higher based on the milestones achieved.
OneCard
OneCard was probably the first fintech credit card in the country and the product has improved significantly since then. The OneCard credit card gives a 0.2-1% reward rate on insurance payments. 0.2% is the standard reward rate, however, you can get a 1% reward rate too, if the insurance spends are among the top-2 spend category for the month.
Hidden Gems
Here are a few hidden gems when it comes to insurance payments. These credit cards are likely not that popular but are among the best credit cards for insurance payments.
HSBC Premier Credit Card
HSBC Premier credit card is only available to Premier banking customers. This credit card offers a 3% reward rate on insurance payments. The highlight of the HSBC Premier credit card is that currently there are no excluded categories for earning reward points.
Federal Scapia Credit Card
The Federal Scapia is famous as a 0% forex credit card. However, this credit card offers a 2% reward rate on insurance payments too. Did you know that?
SBI Air India Signature Credit Card
The SBI Air India Signature Credit Card is truly a hidden gem and probably the best credit card for insurance payments. This credit card offers 4 reward points for every 100 spent on insurance premiums. Further, the insurance spends are counted towards the bonus and milestone spends, where you can get 1lk Air India miles on spending 20lk in a year.
Which credit cards to avoid?
Axis credit cards. Axis credit cards don’t give reward points for insurance payments and thus they are better avoided. Even premium credit cards such as Axis Magnus, and Axis Atlas don’t give reward points for insurance payments.
Most SBI credit cards, don’t give reward points for insurance payments. A few ones that give reward points are discussed above in the article.
How to make insurance payments?
Now that we have discussed the best credit cards for insurance payments, let’s see what the options are for making insurance payments.
Insurance website/app: All insurance websites/app allows you to make payments. However, few insurance companies are now charging convenience fees for making payments using credit cards. A few ones that I know of are HDFC and Tata AIG.
Payment apps: Nearly all payment apps offer insurance premium payments. However, here again, most apps have started charging convenience fees for premium payments.
Do you know any app that doesn’t charge a convenience fee for insurance payment, please do mention it in the comment section below.
Amazon Pay: Amazon Pay is one of the most popular methods to make insurance payments. Thankfully they don’t charge for premium payment as yet. However, Amazon Pay no longer allows insurance premium payment via credit card.
On the flip side, the good thing is you can use your Amazon Pay vouchers to make the payment. Thus, you can use your Axis Bank credit cards to purchase Amazon Pay vouchers and then make insurance premium payments.
Conclusion
While death, taxes and insurance payments are the facts of life, by using the correct credit cards for insurance payments, we can at least earn some reward points and save some money. I have shared a few credit cards that I believe are the best credit cards for insurance payments. What are your go-to credit cards for insurance payments and how do you pay your insurance premiums? Do share in the comments section below, would love to read them.
Image courtesy: Photo by Vlad Deep on Unsplash
This article was published/last updated on 4th Jan 2025.
Disclaimer
In the interest of full disclosure, Credit Cardz may earn a referral bonus for anyone that’s approved through some of the links in this post. However, opinions and views expressed here are of the author's alone and not those of the bank, credit card issuer, or anyone else and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any of these entities.
