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Paying rent with a credit card: fees versus rewards

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

Landlords rarely accept cards, so rent is usually paid through a payment platform that charges its own fee. Before the platform fee, the card itself decides most of the outcome. Of the 57 cards in our data, only four carry a reward rate for rent, and several charge a fee on it.

What cards do with rent

From the issuers’ documents listed under Sources:

  • A fee and no rewards.
    • Axis ACE: 1% on rent plus GST, no cashback on rent, and rent does not count toward its annual-fee waiver.
    • IDFC FIRST Millennia and Power+: 1% of the transaction, minimum ₹249 per transaction, on domestic rent.
    • HSBC TravelOne and Live+: 1% processing fee plus applicable taxes.
    • AU Zenith+: 1% with a minimum of ₹99 per transaction on domestic rent.
    • YES Bank Elite+: 1% or ₹199, whichever is higher, on rent above ₹1,000 (plus GST), limited to 5 rent transactions in 30 days.
    • BPCL SBI Card Octane: SBI Card’s MITC lists a ₹199 processing fee on all rent payment transactions.
    • Amazon Pay ICICI: 1% fee on rent payments, and no reward points on rent since 18 Jun 2024.
  • A fee on rent through third-party apps.
    • HDFC Millennia: the card’s T&C (20 Jul 2026) charge 1% when rent is paid through services such as CRED, Paytm or Cheq, capped at ₹3,000 per transaction. Rent earns no CashPoints.
    • IndianOil HDFC Bank: 1% on rent transactions, capped at ₹3,000 per transaction, and no Fuel Points on rent.
    • HDFC Regalia Gold: 1% on rent through third-party merchants from the second rental transaction in a calendar month, and no reward points on rent.
  • Nothing at all. Some cards simply exclude rent from rewards, for example SBI SimplyCLICK and Axis Atlas.
  • A reduced reward, with a fee.
    • IndusInd Legend: 0.70 reward points per ₹100 on real estate and rental payments. IndusInd’s MITC values a point at ₹0.50 when converted to cash credit, and charges 1% plus GST on rent through third-party merchants.
    • Standard Chartered Ultimate: 3 points per ₹150 on the property management and rent MCCs, at Re 1 a point, with a 1% fee plus taxes on rent. The fee is charged by the 15th of the following month.
    • IndusInd EazyDiner Platinum and Standard Chartered EaseMyTrip also carry a rent reward rate in our data. For EaseMyTrip this is by default, because its T&C do not list rent as excluded; they do not say rent earns. For EazyDiner the rate is on IndusInd’s page, but IndusInd’s premium-card MITC (read 31 October 2026) also charges a 1% fee plus GST on third-party rent payments and exempts only a list of top-tier cards that does not include EazyDiner Platinum, so the fee outweighs the 0.14% reward.

These rules work by merchant category code, not by what the payment is for. Standard Chartered and Axis name MCC 6513 for rent; HSBC’s exclusions list MCCs 6513, 7012 and 7349; ICICI’s MITC applies its 1% fee to rent on any MCC. A platform payment may therefore be coded differently from a direct rent payment, so check how your first one appears on the statement.

Worked example: ₹25,000 monthly rent

The card-side fee on ₹25,000, with GST taken at 18% on every fee (GST on credit card fees and charges); some issuers’ documents say “plus tax” and some do not, so the GST column is an assumption.

CardRent fee ruleFeeWith 18% GSTOver 12 months
Axis ACE1%₹250₹295₹3,540
IDFC FIRST Millennia1%, min ₹249₹250₹295₹3,540
AU Zenith+1%, min ₹99₹250₹295₹3,540
YES Bank Elite+1% or ₹199, higher₹250₹295₹3,540
BPCL SBI Card Octaneflat ₹199₹199₹234.82₹2,817.84

Each of these cards earns nothing on the rent itself, so the fee is the whole cost. ₹25,000 x 1% = ₹250; 18% x ₹250 = ₹45; ₹250 + ₹45 = ₹295; ₹295 x 12 = ₹3,540. For Axis ACE, ₹3,00,000 of yearly rent also counts for nothing toward the ₹2 lakh fee waiver, so the fee has no offset.

IndusInd Legend. Rewards = ₹25,000 / ₹100 x 0.7 = 175 points. At ₹0.50 each that is ₹87.50. The 1% fee plus GST is ₹295. Net = ₹87.50 - ₹295 = -₹207.50 a month, or -₹2,490 a year, if the payment is coded as rent and no platform fee is added.

Standard Chartered Ultimate. Rewards = ₹25,000 / ₹150 x 3 = 500 points = ₹500. The rent fee is 1% plus tax: ₹250 + ₹45 = ₹295. Net = ₹500 - ₹295 = ₹205 a month, or ₹2,460 a year. The card’s annual fee is ₹5,000, so this does not make it a rent card; it only means the rent leg is not a loss before any platform fee.

Adding a platform fee

If you pay through a platform, its fee comes on top of any issuer fee. Platforms set and change their own rates, so we do not quote one; take the figure from the platform’s own pricing page at the time of payment. The test is:

net per month = reward value - card fee with GST - platform fee with GST

Standard Chartered Ultimate leaves ₹205 after the card fee. ₹205 / ₹25,000 = 0.82% including GST, and ₹205 / 1.18 = ₹173.73, which is 0.69% of ₹25,000 before GST. So a platform fee above about 0.69% before GST turns the month into a loss.

Illustration with made-up platform rates, not any platform’s price: a platform fee of 0.5% would be ₹125 plus ₹22.50 GST = ₹147.50, leaving ₹205 - ₹147.50 = ₹57.50. A platform fee of 1% would be ₹250 plus ₹45 GST = ₹295, leaving ₹205 - ₹295 = -₹90. For a card that gives no rewards on rent, any platform fee is a pure cost on top of the card fee.

The float

Paying rent on a card delays the cash leaving your account by the interest-free period. The IndianOil HDFC Bank page lists up to 50 days. RBI’s credit card Master Direction defines the interest-free credit period as holding only if you pay the entire outstanding by the due date, and requires MITCs to say it is suspended if any balance from the previous month’s bill is outstanding. A missed full payment ends the gain: HSBC’s MITC for the Platinum and Live+ cards states finance charges of 3.75% a month, which on ₹25,000 is about ₹937.50 for a month (simple monthly arithmetic; issuers compute daily).

Other points

  • A ₹25,000 payment uses 42% of an assumed ₹60,000 limit until you repay (₹25,000 / ₹60,000). See credit utilisation and CIBIL score.
  • Issuers change rent terms. The documents below show Axis’s rent fee from 5 Mar 2023, Standard Chartered’s from 2 Apr 2023, IndianOil HDFC Bank’s ₹3,000 cap from 1 Aug 2024 and Amazon Pay ICICI’s rent exclusion from 18 Jun 2024. RBI’s Master Direction requires changes in charges to be made with prospective effect and at least one month’s prior notice.

Before you try it

  1. Find rent in the MITC or fee table of your card: reward, exclusion or fee.
  2. Get the platform’s fee with GST shown before payment.
  3. Check whether rent counts toward fee waivers and milestones.
  4. Work out net per month: rewards minus card fee minus platform fee.
  5. Make sure you can pay the full bill by the due date.

See the rent payment cards list, run your numbers in the calculator, or read the methodology.

Sources

All accessed 2026-10-30.

Try it with your own numbers. Open the calculator

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