IRCTC HDFC Bank Credit Card

HDFC Bank · Open to apply

HDFC's IRCTC co-brand card: 5 Reward Points per ₹100 on train tickets booked on the IRCTC website and Rail Connect app, plus an extra 5% cashback on IRCTC bookings through SmartBuy, 1 point per ₹100 elsewhere, 1% railway ticket fee reversed, a ₹500 voucher on ₹30,000 spent in a quarter and 8 IRCTC Executive Lounge visits a year. Points can be spent only on train tickets through SmartBuy (₹1 each, up to 70% of the fare). Fee ₹500, waived at ₹1.5 lakh spend a year.

Annual fee
₹500 + GST a year
Joining fee
₹500 + GST
Fee waiver
Annual fee waived on ₹1,50,000 spend per card year
Base rate
1 Reward Point per ₹100 on other spends: 1 Reward Points per ₹100 (about 1% at cash value)
Lounges
Railway: 2 visits a calendar quarter
Forex markup
3.5%
Data
From bank documents, checked 6 Nov 2026

Main earn rates

  • 5 Reward Points per ₹100 on train tickets on the IRCTC website and Rail Connect app: 5 Reward Points per ₹100 (about 5% at cash value)
  • 5 Reward Points per ₹100 on IRCTC train tickets through SmartBuy: 5 Reward Points per ₹100 (about 5% at cash value)
  • Extra 5% cashback on IRCTC train tickets through SmartBuy: 5% in SmartBuy CashBack on top of the base rate (about 5% at cash value)

Earns nothing on

  • No Reward Points on fuel
  • No Reward Points on wallet, gift card or prepaid card loads or voucher purchases
  • No Reward Points on rent, government payments or property management services
  • No Reward Points on education
  • No Reward Points on online skill-based gaming (from 1 July 2025)
  • No Reward Points on cash advances

Where the sources disagree

  • expiry of Reward Points: The product page and FAQ say points are valid for 2 years from the date of earning. The T&C says they expire 2 years after the customer's last transaction that earned or used points. The MITC says 2 years from accumulation for all other variants. The product page and MITC reading is shown.
  • welcome benefit wording: The product page says a ₹500 gift voucher on activation, with one transaction in the first 37 days. The T&C describes it as a voucher for lifetime-free cards issued from 1 October to 31 December 2025 and says cards issued up to 30 September 2025 get none when the card is lifetime-free, first-year-free or fee-reversed. A card that pays its joining fee is assumed to get the voucher.

Terms the calculator does not value

  • Reward Points can be spent only on train tickets booked through SmartBuy, up to 70% of the fare at ₹1 a point, with ₹99 + GST per redemption. The calculator values every point at ₹1, which holds only if the cardholder books enough train tickets to use them.
  • The 1% railway ticket fee reversal is up to ₹1,000 a month, which covers ₹1,00,000 of train spend; GST on the fee is not said to be reversed. The calculator charges no fee on train tickets.
  • The T&C does not say whether the 1,000 point a month cap on 5X counts the base point as well; the whole 5 points are counted. The cap on "other spends" (1,000 points a month) is as written, although categories with their own caps (groceries 1,000, utilities and telecom 2,000, insurance 2,000, UPI 500) are listed separately.
  • Merchant EMI principal earns 1 point per ₹100 but Smart EMI and Dial an EMI do not. The calculator has no EMI split, so EMI is not entered as an exclusion.
  • SmartBuy accelerated cashback in the "Other credit card" column (flights, hotels, vouchers and merchants) is not entered: the card's own T&C describes only the IRCTC cashback.
  • The first-year-free and lifetime-free offers some applicants get through partner campaigns are not modelled.

Sources

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