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How to read a credit card MITC before you apply

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

Every card issuer in India publishes a document called the Most Important Terms and Conditions, or MITC. It is usually a PDF linked from the card’s page, and it is the closest thing to a fact sheet you will get. Marketing pages highlight the best case. The MITC lists the rules. Reading it for ten minutes can save you from paying a fee or missing a reward you assumed you would get.

Terms change from time to time, so always read the current MITC on the issuer’s own website, not a summary on a third-party page, including ours.

Start with fees and charges

Look for the table of fees. The items worth noting are:

  • Joining fee and annual fee, and whether GST is added on top.
  • Renewal fee if it differs from the joining fee.
  • Finance charge, usually quoted per month and per year. This applies if you carry a balance past the due date.
  • Late payment fee, which often depends on the outstanding amount in slabs.
  • Cash advance fee, usually charged together with interest from the withdrawal date, with no interest-free period.
  • Foreign currency mark-up, which matters if you shop on international sites or travel.
  • Over-limit, cheque/payment-return and card replacement charges.

A small example. Suppose a card shows a fee of ₹500 plus GST. If GST is 18%, the real cost is ₹590. The rate here is only an illustration; check the current GST treatment on the issuer’s document.

Find the reward rules, not just the reward rate

A headline such as “5% back” is rarely the whole story. In the rewards section, look for:

  • What a point or cashback unit is worth. Points can be redeemed at different values for vouchers, statement credit or travel. The rate quoted may assume the best redemption option.
  • Monthly or quarterly caps. If a category is capped at, say, ₹1,000 per month in rewards, spending beyond the matching amount earns nothing extra.
  • Exclusions. Fuel, rent, wallet loads, government payments, insurance, utilities, education and EMI conversions are commonly excluded or earn at a lower rate. Look for the exact list.
  • Expiry. Points may lapse after a set period.
  • Eligible merchants. Some rewards apply only on the issuer’s partner platform, not on every store.

Our calculator lets you enter your own monthly spend so a cap or exclusion shows up in the net result rather than as a surprise later.

Check the fee-waiver condition

Many cards waive the next year’s fee if you spend a stated amount in the card year. Read exactly how that year is counted (from card issue date or from the first fee date), and which spends count toward the target. Our annual fee waiver guide covers the maths.

Understand billing and interest

Look for the billing cycle, the statement date, the due date and the interest-free period. Paying the total amount due by the due date normally avoids finance charges on purchases. Paying only the minimum amount due usually leaves the rest attracting interest, and the interest may be calculated from the transaction date. The MITC should state how it is computed.

For example, if you spend ₹20,000 and pay only a minimum of ₹1,000, the remaining balance generally keeps accruing a monthly finance charge. The exact figure depends entirely on the issuer’s rate, so use their document rather than a guess.

Other clauses people skip

  • Surcharges on fuel, rent or utility payments.
  • Add-on and supplementary card rules and fees.
  • Lounge access: how many visits, and whether a minimum spend in the previous quarter is needed to unlock them.
  • Insurance and cover limits, which are often subject to separate policy terms.
  • Grievance and escalation steps, including the nodal officer’s details.
  • Closure process and any pending-reward forfeiture.

Three real clauses, read closely

A cap measured in spend, not rewards (ICICI Coral). The ICICI MITC (header: last updated 9 October 2026) has a table, effective 15 November 2024, saying reward points accrued per statement cycle will be capped for certain categories. For the Coral card it lists ₹20,000 for grocery and departmental spend and ₹40,000 each for utility and insurance spend. A second table, effective 1 February 2026, lists ₹10,000 for transportation transactions on Coral. The table gives rupee figures without saying in that line whether they are spend or points, so confirm the unit before you work out what a category earns. Caps are per statement cycle, not per calendar month, so check the dates.

A “5%” that is really ten merchants (HDFC Millennia). HDFC’s T&C (published 20 July 2026) give 5% CashPoints only at ten named merchants (Amazon, BookMyShow, Cult.fit, Flipkart, Myntra, Sony LIV, Swiggy, Tata CLiQ, Uber, Zomato) with one cap of 1,000 CashPoints a month, and only for non-EMI spends. The cap is reached at ₹20,000 a month across all ten (₹20,000 × 5% = ₹1,000). Other spends earn 1%, also capped at 1,000 CashPoints a month, and fuel, EMI, wallet loads, rent and government transactions are excluded.

A website and an MITC that do not cover the same ground (AU Zenith+). AU’s Zenith+ page offers a welcome benefit of a brand voucher worth ₹5,000 or 5,000 reward points and up to 2 points per ₹100 on dining, travel and international spends, but the page text we read does not state a rupee value per point. The AU MITC (last updated 12 October 2026) lists a reward-points redemption fee of ₹99 plus GST in its schedule of charges, without tying it to a variant in the text we read, and says reward terms are bound by the Card Member Agreement, a separate document. So the earning rate, the point value and the cost of redeeming sit in different places; read all of them.

What to check before you apply

  1. Total first-year cost including GST, and the fee from year two.
  2. Reward value per ₹100 after caps and exclusions, for the categories you actually spend in.
  3. Whether the fee waiver target is realistic for your normal spending.
  4. Finance charge, late fee and forex mark-up in case you slip once.
  5. Redemption options and any expiry on points.
  6. Eligibility criteria such as income and age, which are requirements, not promises of approval.

An honest note on limits

An MITC is written for compliance, so it can be dense and slightly different from the website copy. If the two disagree, the MITC is generally the one that governs, but ask the issuer to confirm in writing if you are unsure. Issuers can revise terms with notice, so a card that suited you last year may need a fresh look. Nothing here is financial advice. For how we compare cards, see our methodology, and browse options at /cards.

Sources

Try it with your own numbers. Open the calculator

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