Best Cash Back Credit Cards in India

EDITORIAL PICKS - BEST CASH BACK CREDIT CARDS

The SBI Ola Money Credit Card
CreditHita picked for: No Annual Fee
If you spend a lot of money on Ola cabs then SBI Ola Money Credit Card is for you. SBI Ola Money credit card offers a solid 7% cashback rewards on Ola rides with no annual fee and charges a fee from the second year onwards, and the renewal fee can be waived if you spend ₹1 Lakh in any calendar year. This card offers a very good burn rate, paying ₹1 for every reward point.

Amazon Pay ICICI Credit Card
CreditHita picked for: No Annual Fee
If you spend a lot of money on Amazon shopping Amazon Pay ICICI Credit Card is for you. Amazon Pay ICICI credit card gives you 3% cashback on your purchases on Amazon.in website. Exclusively for Amazon Prime customers, this card offers an additional 2% more cashback making a total of whooping 5% cashback on your online shopping giving you a 5% discount on every product you buy. One caveat is that this credit card is not for everyone and by invitation only. There is no upper limit on the rewards earned from this card with no expiry date on your accumulated earnings.

American Express Membership Rewards Credit Card
CreditHita picked for: Welcome Bonus and Monthly Bonus points
American Express Membership Rewards Credit Card has a joining fee of ₹1,000 + GST and a renewal fee of ₹4,500 + GST from the second year onwards. The renewal fee is waived off if you spend more than ₹1,50,000 in the previous year. You get 2 membership reward points for every ₹100 spent on most of your spendings except on fuel, insurance payments, and utility payments. Spend ₹1,000 4 times a month and get 1000 bonus points for the first 5 months. Earn a welcome gift of 4,000 bonus membership rewards points.

Redeem your Points from the fabulous 18 and 24 Karat Gold Collection
18,000 MR points / 18 Karat Gold Collection

• Taj voucher worth ₹9,000
• American Express Domestic Travel e-voucher worth ₹7,000
• Amazon e-voucher worth ₹7,000
• Statement Credit worth ₹6,000

24,000 MR points / 24 Karat Gold Collection

• Taj voucher worth ₹14,000
• Tanishq voucher worth ₹10,000
• Statement Credit worth ₹9,000

American Express SmartEarn Credit Card
CreditHita picked for: Fair Joining Fee and bonus categories (Flipkart, Uber, Amazon, Swiggy)
If you spend a lot of money shopping on Flipkart and Amazon, ride on Uber cabs and order food on Swiggy regularly then American Express SmartEarn Credit Card is for you. It has a joining fee of ₹495 + GST and the renewal fee ₹495 + GST is waived off if you spend more than ₹40,000 in the previous year. You get a welcome gift of ₹500 cashback of statement credit when you spend ₹10,000 in the first 90 days.

Earn 10X Membership Rewards Points on all your spending on Flipkart and Uber for every ₹50 spent. There is a monthly max limit for 10X rewards at 500 points per merchant. Earn 5X Membership Rewards Points on Amazon, Swiggy, BookMyShow and more for every ₹50 spent. There is a monthly max limit for 5X rewards at 250 points per merchant. You get 1 membership reward points for every ₹100 spent on all other spendings except on fuel, insurance payments, and utility payments.

Axis Bank Flipkart Credit Card
CreditHita picked for: Fair Joining Fee and Cash Back
has a joining fee of ₹500 + GST and the renewal fee ₹500 + GST is waived off if you spend more than ₹2,00,000 in the previous year. You earn a 5% cashback on Flipkart, Myntra, and 2GUD spends and a 4% cashback on MakeMyTrip, Goibibo, Uber, PVR, Curefit, and UrbanClap spends. You get a 1.5% cashback on all other spendings. Enjoy 4 complimentary lounge visits to selected airport lounges.

As a signup bonus, you get ₹3,300 worth of joining activation benefits that includes a ₹500 worth voucher from Flipkart, unlimited access to Gaana Plus membership for 6 months and 50% off for the next 6 months subscription, ₹500 off on domestic hotel on Goibibo on a minimum booking of ₹2,000, ₹500 off on domestic hotel on Makemytrip on a minimum booking of ₹2,000, 15% cashback up to ₹500 on your first transaction on Myntra, 20% instant discount up to ₹400 for new Urban Clap customers


Cash-back card: Earn while you spend when you use a cashback card on everyday spendings like shopping, paying utility bills, and telephone bills. Whenever you pay by cash or debit card instead of your cashback credit card, you are missing out an opportunity to save the money to your pocket.

WAYS TO REDEEM CASHBACK CARD POINTS

Statement of credit: One of the simplest ways of redemption methods is to ask your issuer to convert your cashback rewards into a statement of credit. With the statement of credit, you can redeem cashback rewards to lower your bill. For example, if you have accumulated ₹1,000 in cashback rewards and you have a ₹10,000 due on your credit card, then you can redeem the ₹1,000 as a statement credit so you pay the remaining ₹9,000. This simplicity and clear value realization make cashback reward cards a popular option for credit card shoppers.

Direct deposit: You can redeem your cashback as a direct deposit, log on to your credit card account and redeem your points to be deposited directly into your bank account.

Redeem gift cards: You can convert your cashback into gift cards, log on to your credit card account and choose to redeem your rewards points to gift cards for your favorite brand.

TYPES OF CASHBACK CARDS

Flat rate: Some credit cards offer a flat reward rate on every eligible purchase. Say ₹1 on every ₹100 spent.

Bonus categories: Some cards offer higher reward rates on purchases made in specific categories. For example, Citi Cash Back Card from Citi gives cardholders a 5% cashback on all your utility bill payments.

Rotating bonus categories: Issuers will rotate bonus categories every quarter but you need to enroll and activate to receive the bonus rewards. If you miss to enroll into these bonus categories then most of the time you will still get the normal reward rate of 1%. These bonus categories will have a cap on rewards, after hitting the cap in rewards the reward rate will fall back to default rate.

Pros of owning a cashback card

• Cashback cards offer high rewards in certain bonus categories.
• Cashback cards offer unlimited 1% cashback on all spendings outsides of bonus categories.
• Cashback cards offer rotating bonuses for a limited time period and for a limited amount.
• You can redeem your cashback for things like Gift Cards, statement credits and more.

Cons of owning a cashback card

• Cashback cards require enrollment into highly rewarded categories to receive a high level of cashback and these categories change time to time.
• Issuers put a monthly cap on total rewards that can be earned in reward categories.
• Cashback cards offer a lower burn rate on rewards compared to travel cards.
• Some of the best cashback credit cards have annual fees and high APR

CASH-BACK BONUS CATEGORIES

Grocery: These cards offer high reward rates on all grocery shopping. If you see Bank of Baroda Easy Credit Card, it offers 5 reward points for every ₹100 spent on Grocery, Departmental store puchases.

Restaurants: These cards offer high rewards when you dine-in. So if you are a foodie and spend money on restaurants. Standard Chartered Ultimate Credit Card gives you up to 25% discount at top 250 restaurants in India.

Fuel stations: Credit cards in these categories offer a fuel surcharge waiver or huge cashback on fuel spendings. Standard Chartered Super Value Titanium Credit Card gives 5% cashback on fuel.

Utility bill: These cards give good reward points when you pay your utility bills. Standard Chartered Super Value Titanium Credit Card gives 5% cashback on telephone bills and utility bills.

Online shopping: If you regularly shop online then watch out for amazing offers offered by credit cards designed for online shoppers. American Express SmartEarn Credit Card gives Earn 10X Membership Reward Points on all your spending on Flipkart.

Movie ticket purchase: These cards offer great deals on movie tickets. Cards in this category offer “buy one get one” free movie ticket every month or offer high reward rates on money spent on movie tickets. Citi Cash Back Card card provides 5% cashback on movie tickets.

How much can you earn with Standard Chartered Manhattan Platinum Credit Card?

Standard Chartered Manhattan Platinum Credit Card gives 5% cashback on supermarket spending. If you spend ₹10,000 in grocery shopping every month, you’ll earn ₹6,000 per year in the supermarket category (5% of ₹1,20,000). You’ll also earn 3x rewards when you use your credit card for all other expenses.

If you are looking for two great cashback credit cards?

We recommend Standard Chartered Manhattan Platinum Credit Card, Citi Cash Back Credit Card. These cards give you a good rate of return. Citi Cash Back Card gives 5% cashback on utility bill payments, movie ticket purchases, telephone bill payments,0.5% on all other spendings. Standard Chartered Manhattan Platinum Credit Card gives 5% cashback on supermarket spending and 3x rewards when you use your credit card for all other expenses.

You need to know if your cashback card has a reward limit

Some of the cards will have a cash back limit on a certain amount for every month. Amazon Pay ICICI Credit Card provides earn 5% cash back on Amazon.in for Amazon Prime customers and without a cap but Standard Chartered Super Value Titanium Credit Card has a cap on fuel, telephone bill and utility bill, so it’s good to know which categories have a cap on the credit card. Standard Chartered Super Value Titanium Credit Card Standard Chartered Super Value Titanium Credit Card offers 5% cashback on fuel with a maximum limit of ₹200 per month, 5% cashback on telephone bills with a maximum limit of ₹200 per month, 5% cashback on utility bills with a maximum limit of ₹100 per month.

REWARDS EARNED CAN COMPENSATE THE APR

If you want to only pay the minimum due and keep a rest of the balance on your credit card, APR (annual percentage rate) could cancel out the rewards you’ve earned. So pay your balance every month on time, you can avoid a late fee and interest charges. But if you want to carry a balance, you look for a credit card that offers the lowest APR or high rewards that can compensate the interest charges you owe on the balance.

OVERSPENDING FOR A CASHBACK BONUS

As cashback cards offer bonuses and rewards it is highly possible that you tend to spend on unwanted purchases, so you need to keep a watch on your spendings while using cashback credit cards. Signup bonuses come with a risk of overspending too as most welcome bonuses have a conditional spend of a certain amount within a few days of activating the card.

MIX AND MATCH CARD USAGE

Using the right card for the right category can maximize your benefits and one card does not fit for all types of spendings. Based on your spending habits, find your high spending categories and find the cards that offer high rewards on those categories. In general, most people spend on groceries, utility bills, movie tickets. For example, if you spend more money on movie tickets find a card that gives a buy one get one offer discounts on coke and popcorn. ICICI Coral credit card offers 2 complimentary movie tickets every month under the Buy One Get One Free offer