Know before you swipe.
Credit card devaluations, rule changes and reward guides for India. The fine print that quietly costs you points.
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Axis cut Air India transfers by 75%. Here is what each card can still move.
Axis Bank has moved Air India, Flying Blue and Qantas into Group A, the transfer group with a quarter of the yearly allowance. Accor is back at a worse rate, Hilton and Miles & More are new, and ITC is gone. Here is the yearly Air India ceiling on each card, before and after.
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UPI gets a 0.4% fee on 15 October. Here is who actually pays it.
From 15 October, merchants pay 0.4% on UPI payments above ₹2,000. You pay nothing and apps cannot add a platform fee. Credit on UPI is left out because it already costs merchants far more, and that is the part that decides what your RuPay card earns.
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Amex is changing five things before 11 October. Two of them cost you money.
American Express India withdraws two services and revises its card terms between 16 September and 11 October. The emergency replacement card goes, and the 50% annual fee waiver on the Membership Rewards Credit Card is reported to go with it.
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Scapia Axis Bank Credit Card: why the 10% rewards are actually 2%
Axis Bank launched the Scapia Axis Bank Credit Card on 3 September 2026 with zero forex markup and no annual fee. The advertised 10% and 20% rewards are Scapia Coin counts, not returns. Here is the real rate, and why the RuPay variant earns half.
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Amex Platinum Travel milestones change on 10 September: what each spend level loses
American Express is removing the ₹1.9 lakh milestone on the Platinum Travel Credit Card and swapping 22,500 points for a bigger Taj voucher. Here is what each spend level actually loses, why the deadline is earlier than it looks, and the spend at which the card stops covering its own fee.
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Amex Reward Multiplier ends 30 September 2026: what each card loses
American Express is discontinuing Reward Multiplier in India from 30 September 2026. Here is the per-card earn rate Amex publishes, the 25,000 point monthly ceiling on the bonus, what survives the cutoff, and the purchases most likely to earn nothing in the rush before it.
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Credit card cashback caps: why your 5% card stops paying at ₹1,000
Most Indian cashback credit cards cap the accelerated rate at a few hundred rupees a month. Here is what the caps actually are on the Axis ACE, HDFC Millennia and HSBC Live+, and the spend level where 5% quietly becomes 1.25%.
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HSBC zero forex markup offer 2026: what it actually saves you
HSBC has waived the forex markup on all its credit cards from 15 August to 15 September 2026. The real saving is 4.13%, not 3.5%, because GST rides on the markup. Dates, exclusions and what to do before the window shuts.
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What is an MCC code, and why your card paid 1X instead of 5X
Your card rewards a four-digit merchant category code (MCC), not the shop you paid. That is why the same purchase can pay 5X or 1X, and how to check a category before you spend.
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