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Credit card devaluations in India: how to protect your rewards

Updated 30 Oct 2026 · by SwipeWise editorial team · how we write

A devaluation is any change that makes a card worth less to you: a lower reward rate, a new cap, new exclusions, a stricter lounge condition or a higher fee. Issuers can change terms by giving notice, and a card can change more than once in a year.

What usually changes

  • Rates and caps. A rate is cut, or a monthly cap is added to a rate that had none.
  • Exclusions. Categories such as utilities, rent, insurance, fuel, gift cards or government payments stop earning rewards.
  • Lounge access. Free visits become conditional on spending in the previous quarter, or the number of visits is reduced.
  • Redemption. Points are worth less, minimum redemption blocks change, or a fee is added to redeem.
  • Fees. The annual fee rises, or the spend needed to waive it goes up.

How to spot a change early

  1. Read the notices your bank emails or posts in net banking. Look for the words “with effect from”.
  2. Compare the current MITC with the one you saw when you applied. Banks usually date these documents.
  3. Check community discussion for early reports, but confirm with the bank before acting on a rumour.
  4. Watch our rule-change tracker. We label each entry as official or aggregator-sourced so you know how much to trust it.

How to limit the damage

  • Do not rely on a single card. Keep a plain backup that earns something on every category.
  • Redeem points regularly instead of letting a large balance sit; a later cut then affects less.
  • Do not pay a fee up front for a benefit you have not used yet. Wait until you have seen the renewal terms.
  • Rerun your numbers after each change. A card can stay worth keeping at a lower rate, or become a poor choice.

What to check before you apply

  • Whether the headline benefit depends on a merchant, a portal or a cap.
  • When the terms were last updated.
  • Whether the bank describes its right to change terms in the MITC.

Limits

We can only report changes we find. Our tracker covers a small set of cards and some entries rely on secondary sources. Always confirm with the issuer. Use the calculator to see how a change affects your own spending.

Real examples from the last two years

Each is taken from an official issuer document, named in brackets. Most are also in our rule-change tracker.

  • SBI Cashback, 1 April 2026. SBI’s notice caps 5% online cashback at ₹2,000 per statement cycle and 1% offline cashback at ₹2,000, ₹4,000 in all, and adds digital gaming, tolls and government payments to the exclusions (SBI Card revised terms). The notice does not state the earlier cap, so we do not quote one. Who is hurt depends on spend: at ₹40,000 a month online, 5% is ₹2,000 and the cap does not bind; at ₹1,00,000 a month, 5% would be ₹5,000 but the cap holds it at ₹2,000, ₹3,000 a month or ₹36,000 a year below an uncapped 5%.

  • HDFC Millennia, 1 December 2023. HDFC’s T&C state that complimentary domestic lounge access is no longer available on the card from this date. The same document describes a separate quarterly milestone: a ₹1,000 voucher on ₹1 lakh of net spend in the calendar quarter (HDFC Millennia T&C, PDF file named 20 July 2026).

  • HDFC Regalia Gold, 1 July 2026. HDFC’s feature-change notice makes 3 domestic lounge visits per calendar quarter depend on ₹60,000 or more of spend in the preceding quarter, from the quarter starting 1 July 2026, and sets the base earn at 5 points per ₹200 from 15 May 2026 (HDFC Regalia Gold product feature change).

  • HSBC Live+, 26 July 2026. HSBC’s page states that from 26 July 2026 shopping on Amazon and Flipkart earns 1.5% cashback, that the 10% tier is capped at ₹1,200 a month in total, and that a 10% Myntra cashback, listed among its welcome gifts, runs until 31 October 2026 (HSBC product page, re-read 31 October 2026).

  • Amazon Pay ICICI, 11 October 2025. Education, international spends and utility bills outside Amazon stopped earning rewards (ICICI T&C, last updated 12 October 2026).

  • Amex Membership Rewards Credit Card, 15 November 2026. The 50% annual fee waiver at ₹90,000 spend is withdrawn, while the product page still shows it (Amex India consumer experience updates, read 30 October 2026).

  • Airtel Axis Bank, 12 April 2026. Axis’s cashback terms make the 25% on Airtel bills in the Airtel Thanks app capped at twice the 1% base cashback you earned in the same statement cycle, and the 10% on other utility bills capped at one times it. With no other spend the two rates earn nothing; with ₹10,000 of other spend (₹100 of base cashback) a 25% reward on a ₹1,500 bill, ₹375, is held to ₹200 (Axis Airtel cashback T&C).

  • Axis Bank, 28 August 2026. Axis’s revision notice raises the dynamic currency conversion markup from 1.5% to 3.5%, puts bridge, road and toll spends outside rewards, moves gift cards into a separate category that earns nothing and does not count toward fee waivers, and sets a ₹1,300 late fee above ₹50,000 (Axis generic T&C revision).

  • OneCard (Federal Bank terms), 15 July 2026. Reward points stop accruing on bills and utilities (Federal Bank One T&C).

  • Amex Platinum Travel, 1 October 2026. Two domestic lounge visits a quarter now require ₹70,000 of spend in Q3 2026 and ₹1 lakh in each preceding quarter after that (Amex India product page, read 30 October 2026).

  • IndusInd Legend, 7 March 2025. Complimentary lounge access discontinued (IndusInd Legend page, read 30 October 2026).

The pattern: caps and exclusions are cut far more often than headline rates, so a card’s advertised percentage can survive while its value falls.

If a change is announced with a future date, note it and decide before it takes effect. Redeeming earned points before a redemption-value cut is one of the few moves fully in your hands.

Sources

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