Credit Card Rewards Calculator (India): Best Card for Your Spending

About the Credit Card Rewards Calculator (India): Best Card for Your Spending

Enter what you spend in a month, by category, and the calculator works out what each credit card in its list would earn you in a year: the cashback or points on every category after the card’s monthly or quarterly caps, its milestone vouchers, the fuel surcharge it refunds, less its annual fee (after any spend-based waiver) plus GST, the foreign currency markup on what you spend abroad, rent fees and redemption fees. Cards are ranked by that net value, for a typical year or for the first year with its joining fee and welcome benefit, and the calculator also finds the best way to split your spending between two cards.

Every card’s rules come from the bank’s own product page, terms and conditions and schedule of charges, each shown with its source and the day it was last checked. Banks change their terms often, so every value can be edited on the page, and you can add a card that is not listed. Nothing you enter leaves your browser. Without a pass you see a free preview of your own result: the highest net value in full and the top three cards of the ranking, with every other figure hidden until you unlock it with a Pro pass. This is an estimate from published terms, not advice.

Common uses

• Choose your first credit card, or a second one for the spending your card rewards badly.
• Check whether a card with an annual fee pays for itself at your spending.
• See how much more spending would waive your card’s renewal fee.
• Plan which card to use for each category once you hold two.

How the net value is worked out

• Rewards: each category earns at the card’s rate for it — cashback, or points times what a point is worth when redeemed the way you choose (statement credit, travel, vouchers). Caps per month, statement cycle or quarter are applied; spend beyond a cap earns nothing more unless the card’s terms give a lower rate after it.
• Milestones and yearly benefits: vouchers and bonus points for spend thresholds, at the share of face value you set (100% by default).
• Fees: the joining fee in the first year and the renewal fee later, each with 18% GST, unless your spending reaches the card’s waiver.
• Costs of spending: the foreign currency markup with GST on spends abroad, fees on rent payments where the bank charges them, redemption fees, and the fuel surcharge the pump adds to card payments (refunded by cards with a waiver, up to their limit).
• Net value = rewards + benefits − fees and costs. The ranking puts the highest first; the effective return is the net value divided by what you spend on the card.

Where the card terms come from

Each card’s fees, earn rates, caps, exclusions, milestones and redemption values are read from the bank’s own pages: the product page, the reward or cashback terms and conditions, and the Most Important Terms and Conditions (MITC) with the schedule of charges. The Reserve Bank of India’s Master Direction on credit and debit cards requires card issuers to give a Key Fact Statement with the application, to send the MITC and to show the details of rewards and cashback on their website, and lets them change terms with 30 days’ notice. So the figures here can go out of date: each card shows when it was last checked and links to its sources, and every value is editable.

Why a card earns less than its headline rate

• Caps: “5% cashback” usually stops at a monthly or quarterly amount, and the rest of that spending earns nothing extra.
• Excluded categories: most cards pay nothing on fuel, rent, wallet loads and government payments, and many exclude utilities, insurance and education.
• Partner channels: some rates need a particular app or portal — bills through Google Pay or the Airtel Thanks app, bookings on a bank’s travel portal.
• Point values: a point’s value depends on how it is redeemed; statement credit is often worth far less than travel bookings.
• Fees and markups: a ₹1,000 fee plus GST costs ₹1,180 unless your spending waives it, and a 3.5% markup plus GST costs about 4.13% of what you spend abroad.

Using two cards

Many people keep one card for the categories it pays best on (Amazon, Swiggy, fuel) and another for everything else. The calculator tries the best cards in pairs and moves each category to the card that adds more to the pair’s total, counting each card’s own caps, waivers and milestones on the spending it gets. A second card is worth it only when the gain beats the trouble of managing two bills.

Limitations

• An estimate from published terms and the spending you enter, not advice, and not an offer of any card. Approval, credit limits and eligibility are the bank’s decision.
• Spending is taken as the same every month; caps per statement cycle are treated as caps per month, and minimum transaction amounts are not checked.
• Some rates apply to named merchants only; where the calculator’s categories are broader, the card’s notes say how they were counted.
• Lounge access, insurance covers and partner discounts are listed but not valued, and limited-period offers are left out.
• Interest, late fees and EMI charges are not included: paying the full statement every month is assumed.

Privacy

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