Best Credit Cards in India for Cashback, Travel, UPI, Fuel & Everyday Spending

Quick Answer

There is no single best credit card for everyone.

The right card depends on where you spend most:

Credit-card value depends heavily on your actual spending pattern, reward exclusions and whether you pay the full statement balance on time every month. Interest and fees can easily wipe out rewards if you revolve a balance.

Best Broad Online Cashback Card — CASHBACK SBI Card

Annual fee: ₹999 + taxes
Renewal waiver: annual spends of ₹2 lakh
Best for: users who spend heavily online across many different merchants.

Current reward structure

From 1 April 2026:

• 5% cashback on eligible online spends
• 1% cashback on eligible offline spends
• maximum ₹2,000 online cashback per statement cycle
• maximum ₹2,000 offline cashback per statement cycle
• maximum total cashback: ₹4,000 per statement cycle

Important exclusions include categories such as:

• utilities
• insurance
• fuel
• rent
• wallets
• education
• jewellery
• railways
• government transactions
• tolls
• digital gaming
• merchant EMI / Flexipay EMI

Why it is recommended

The main strength is merchant-agnostic online cashback rather than forcing you into one shopping ecosystem.

Trade-off

The April 2026 cashback caps materially reduce value for very high spenders.

Best for

Users with diversified online shopping who can stay within the cashback caps.

Skip if

Most of your spending falls in excluded categories such as utilities, insurance, education or rent.

View CASHBACK SBI Card

Best Dining, Grocery & Everyday Cashback — HSBC Live+

Joining fee: ₹999
Annual fee: ₹999
Renewal waiver: annual spends above ₹2 lakh
Best for: dining, food delivery, grocery, shopping and utility-heavy households.

Current cashback

• 10% accelerated cashback, capped at ₹1,200 per month, on eligible:
  • dining
  • food delivery
  • grocery
  • shopping
  • utility spends
• 1.5% unlimited cashback on most other eligible spends

Why it is recommended

If a large share of your monthly budget goes to food, groceries and household spending, HSBC Live+ can be more useful than a generic rewards card.

Trade-off

The 10% category cashback is capped at ₹1,200 per month, so high spenders hit the ceiling quickly.

Skip if

Your main spending is travel, online shopping outside the accelerated categories or categories excluded by HSBC.

View HSBC Live+

Best No-Annual-Fee Card for Amazon — Amazon Pay ICICI Bank Credit Card

Joining fee: ₹0
Annual fee: ₹0
Best for: frequent Amazon users who want a simple no-fee cashback card.

Current rewards

• 5% back on eligible Amazon India purchases for Prime members
• 3% back for non-Prime members on eligible Amazon purchases
• 2% back on eligible Amazon Pay partner merchants
• 1% back on most other eligible purchases
• rewards are credited as Amazon Pay balance
• no expiry on eligible earnings
• no stated overall earnings cap

Why it is recommended

It is one of the easiest cards to keep long term because there is no annual fee.

Trade-off

The strongest value is concentrated inside the Amazon ecosystem.

Also note that ICICI describes the programme as invite-only.

Skip if

You rarely use Amazon or Amazon Pay.

View Amazon Pay ICICI Bank Credit Card

Best Travel Rewards Card — Axis Bank ATLAS

Joining fee: ₹5,000
Annual fee: ₹5,000
Best for: frequent travellers who understand airline/hotel points.

Core rewards

• 2 EDGE Miles per ₹100 on eligible base spends
• 5 EDGE Miles per ₹100 on eligible:
  • TRAVEL EDGE bookings
  • direct airline spends
  • direct hotel spends

Milestones

Current milestone structure can award up to 10,000 additional EDGE Miles at:

• ₹3 lakh
• ₹7.5 lakh
• ₹15 lakh annual spends

Annual tier benefits vary by spend level.

Travel benefits

• domestic and international lounge access depending on tier
• miles transfer programme
• travel-focused redemption ecosystem

Why it is recommended

ATLAS is built around travel rewards rather than cashback, which can produce better value for frequent travellers who know how to redeem miles.

Trade-off

Its value depends heavily on:

• hitting meaningful spend levels
• avoiding excluded categories
• transferring/redeeming miles intelligently

Redemption and miles-transfer fees also apply.

Skip if

You prefer simple statement cashback or spend less than the thresholds needed to unlock the card's stronger benefits.

View Axis Bank ATLAS

Best Mid-Premium Travel Card — HDFC Bank Regalia Gold

Joining fee: ₹2,500 + taxes
Renewal fee: ₹2,500 + taxes
Renewal waiver: ₹4 lakh annual spends
Best for: users who want lounge access and travel benefits without entering ₹5,000–₹12,500 annual-fee territory.

Current rewards

From 15 May 2026, HDFC revised the base earn to:

5 Reward Points per ₹200 on eligible spends

Accelerated reward programmes continue separately.

Lounge benefits

• up to 3 domestic lounge visits per calendar quarter after meeting the preceding-quarter spend requirement
• up to 6 international lounge visits per calendar year through Priority Pass

Milestones

HDFC offers flight-voucher milestones at selected annual-spend levels.

Why it is recommended

It sits in a useful middle ground between mass-market cashback cards and expensive premium travel cards.

Trade-off

Domestic lounge access now depends on spending eligibility, and the card only makes sense if you use its travel benefits.

View HDFC Regalia Gold

Best Invite-Only Premium Card — HDFC Bank INFINIA Metal Edition

Joining fee: ₹12,500 + taxes
Renewal fee: ₹12,500 + taxes
Renewal waiver: ₹10 lakh annual spends
Availability: By invitation only
Best for: very high spenders who can use premium travel and SmartBuy benefits.

Core benefits

• 5 Reward Points per ₹150 on eligible spends
• up to 10X Reward Points on eligible SmartBuy spends
• unlimited global airport-lounge access for primary and add-on cardholders
• first-year Club Marriott membership
• concierge
• golf
• ITC hotel benefits

Why it is recommended

For eligible high spenders, INFINIA remains one of India's most feature-rich premium reward cards.

Trade-off

The card is expensive, invite-only, and its value depends on understanding the HDFC reward ecosystem.

Skip if

You cannot naturally spend enough to justify the annual fee or mainly want straightforward cashback.

View HDFC INFINIA Metal

Best UPI / Tata Ecosystem Card — Tata Neu Infinity HDFC Bank Credit Card

Joining fee: ₹1,499 + taxes
Renewal fee: ₹1,499 + taxes
Renewal waiver: ₹3 lakh annual spends
Best for: Tata ecosystem users and people who want rewards on eligible RuPay-credit-card UPI payments.

Tata rewards

• 5% back as NeuCoins on eligible non-EMI Tata-brand spends
• 1.5% back as NeuCoins on eligible non-Tata spends
• additional Tata Neu / NeuPass benefits can increase rewards on selected categories

UPI rewards

On the RuPay variant:

• 0.5% NeuCoins on eligible UPI spends using any UPI ID
• an additional 1% NeuCoins when paying through Tata Neu UPI
• total UPI rewards capped at 500 NeuCoins per calendar month

Lounge benefit

Domestic lounge vouchers are linked to quarterly spending requirements.

Why it is recommended

It is one of the more compelling cards if you already spend across Tata brands and want credit card on UPI.

Trade-off

NeuCoins are ecosystem rewards, not direct cash, and several categories are excluded.

View Tata Neu Infinity

Best Fuel Card for IndianOil Users — IndianOil Axis Bank Credit Card

Joining fee: ₹500
First-year annual fee: Nil
Annual fee from second year: ₹500
Annual-fee waiver: annual spends above ₹3.5 lakh, subject to exclusions
Best for: users who regularly refuel at IndianOil.

Fuel benefits

• around 4% value back at eligible IndianOil fuel outlets through EDGE REWARD Points
• 1% fuel surcharge waiver on eligible fuel transactions
• welcome fuel-reward benefit on qualifying initial transactions

Other rewards

• 1% value back on eligible online shopping through accelerated points
• base EDGE REWARD earning on other eligible spends
• BookMyShow discount

Why it is recommended

The card is inexpensive and clearly focused on one use case: IndianOil fuel spending.

Trade-off

It is much less attractive if you regularly refuel at another fuel company.

View IndianOil Axis Bank Credit Card

Other Cards Worth Considering

HDFC Millennia

Useful for people who spend heavily with selected online brands such as Amazon, Flipkart, Myntra, Swiggy and Zomato.

Current structure includes:

• 5% cashback-equivalent Reward Points on selected merchants
• 1% on other eligible spends
• ₹1,000 annual fee
• renewal waiver at ₹1 lakh annual spends
• cashback redemption cap of 3,000 Reward Points per calendar month

American Express Platinum Travel

Historically attractive for users who optimise milestone rewards at ₹4 lakh annual spending.

However, American Express is temporarily pausing acceptance of new card applications in India while updating its domestic card-issuing technology platform.

For that reason, it is not included as a current primary pick.

How to Choose the Right Credit Card

1. Start with your largest monthly categories

Look at the last 3–6 months of spending.

Separate:

• online shopping
• groceries
• dining
• travel
• fuel
• utilities
• insurance
• UPI
• Amazon/Tata ecosystem spending

Then choose a card that rewards your real behaviour.

2. Subtract the annual fee

A card giving ₹3,000 of rewards with a ₹2,500 annual fee may be worse than a no-fee card giving ₹2,000.

Compare net value, not headline reward rate.

3. Read exclusions and caps

A “5% cashback” card may exclude:

• utilities
• rent
• education
• insurance
• fuel
• government payments
• EMI

and may cap cashback per month.

Those details often matter more than the headline percentage.

4. Do Not Carry a Revolving Balance for Rewards

Credit-card finance charges can be extremely high.

For example, Axis currently lists 3.75% per month / 55.55% per annum on the IndianOil Axis card for retail purchases and cash balances.

No normal cashback or miles programme compensates for paying such interest.

If you cannot pay the full statement balance by the due date consistently, rewards should not be the reason to take a card.

5. Do Not Spend More Just to Waive the Fee

A ₹1,000 fee is cheaper than making unnecessary purchases worth tens of thousands of rupees.

Fee waivers are useful only when you would naturally cross the threshold anyway.

Best Card by Spending Pattern

Mostly online shopping

CASHBACK SBI Card

Grocery + dining + food delivery

HSBC Live+

Mostly Amazon

Amazon Pay ICICI

Frequent airline/hotel travel

Axis ATLAS

Occasional travel + lounges

HDFC Regalia Gold

Very high annual spend

HDFC INFINIA Metal, if invited

UPI + Tata brands

Tata Neu Infinity RuPay

IndianOil fuel

IndianOil Axis

How These Picks Were Chosen

The shortlist is based on current official issuer pages and 2026 programme changes.

The comparison considers:

• annual and renewal fees
• renewal-waiver thresholds
• reward/cashback rate
• reward caps
• exclusions
• lounge/travel benefits
• UPI capability
• reward redemption flexibility
• current application availability

No card is labelled universally “best” because actual value depends on a person's spending pattern and ability to pay in full.

Credit-card approval, credit limit and card variant are always subject to issuer eligibility and underwriting.

Primary Sources

• SBI CASHBACK Card: https://www.sbicard.com/en/personal/credit-cards/cashback-sbi-card.html
• SBI April 2026 cashback revision: https://www.sbicard.com/sbi-card-en/assets/docs/pdf/cashback-revised.pdf
• HSBC Live+: https://www.hsbc.bank.in/credit-cards/products/live-plus/
• Amazon Pay ICICI Bank Credit Card: https://www.icicibank.com/personal-banking/cards/credit-card/amazon-pay-credit-card.html
• Amazon Pay ICICI FAQ: https://www.icicibank.com/personal-banking/cards/credit-card/amazon-pay-credit-card/amazon-pay-faq
• Axis Bank ATLAS: https://www.axis.bank.in/cards/credit-card/axis-bank-atlas-credit-card
• HDFC Regalia Gold: https://www.hdfc.bank.in/credit-cards/regalia-gold-credit-card
• HDFC Regalia Gold fees: https://www.hdfc.bank.in/credit-cards/regalia-gold-credit-card/fees-and-charges
• HDFC Regalia Gold May 2026 reward update: https://www.hdfc.bank.in/content/dam/hdfcbankpws/in/en/personal-banking/discover-products/cards/credit-cards/regalia-gold-credit-card/pdfs/regalia-gold-travel-edge-tnc.pdf
• HDFC INFINIA Metal: https://www.hdfc.bank.in/credit-cards/infinia-credit-card
• HDFC Tata Neu Infinity: https://www.hdfc.bank.in/credit-cards/tata-neu-infinity-hdfc-bank-credit-card
• HDFC Tata Neu Infinity fees: https://www.hdfc.bank.in/credit-cards/tata-neu-infinity-hdfc-bank-credit-card/fees-and-charges
• IndianOil Axis Bank Credit Card: https://www.axis.bank.in/cards/credit-card/indianoil-axis-bank-credit-card
• HDFC Millennia: https://www.hdfc.bank.in/credit-cards/millennia-credit-card
• American Express Platinum Travel: https://www.americanexpress.com/in/credit-cards/platinum-travel-credit-card/