Getting your first credit card in India is mostly a question of avoiding three mistakes: paying a fee you never earn back, chasing a reward rate that only applies to spending you don’t do, and picking a card you can’t actually get approved for. This guide covers five beginner cards and, more usefully, what each one is genuinely bad at.
Last verified: 7 September 2026. Every fee, reward rate and benefit below was checked against the issuer’s own product page on that date. Two of these cards changed their terms in 2026 — HDFC MoneyBack+ on 15 May and Axis MY ZONE on 28 August — so anything written about them before those dates is out of date.
CardShala carries no referral links on this page and none of these cards paid for a mention. Card terms change without notice, so check the issuer’s Most Important Terms & Conditions before you apply. This is information, not financial advice.
How to pick your first card
Before the list, the four things that actually decide whether a first card works for you:
- Can the fee waiver be met by your real spending? A fee waiver at ₹1,00,000 of annual spend makes a card effectively free if you put ₹9,000 a month on it. If you spend ₹3,000 a month, it is simply a ₹499 card.
- Does the accelerated category match where your money goes? 10X on Swiggy is worth nothing if you cook at home. Look at last month’s bank statement, not at the card’s marketing.
- Can you actually get it? One card on this list is invite-only. Two have income floors. Applying and being rejected leaves a hard enquiry on your credit report.
- How do you get the value out? Value credited automatically beats points that need a portal, a minimum balance and a redemption fee.
1. Amazon Pay ICICI Bank Credit Card
Joining fee: Nil. Annual fee: Nil. Genuinely lifetime free — ICICI lists both as Nil on the card’s own fees page.
What you earn: 5 reward points per ₹100 on Amazon if you are a Prime member, 3 per ₹100 if you are not, 2 per ₹100 at 100-plus partner merchants, and 1% on everything else. Points land as Amazon Pay balance, so there is no redemption portal to fight with. Forex mark-up is 1.99%, unusually low for a free card. Fuel surcharge is waived on all fuel purchases.
The catch: ICICI states plainly that this is an invite-only programme. You cannot simply apply and expect approval — you need to be eligible in ICICI’s system, which usually means an existing relationship or an Amazon-side invitation. Stated eligibility is age 21 or above with a monthly income of at least ₹30,000. And be precise about what these are: reward points redeemable as Amazon Pay balance, not true cashback. The value is locked inside Amazon.
Best for: anyone who already shops heavily on Amazon and can get an invite. If you can’t, move on rather than applying speculatively.
2. IDFC FIRST Millennia Credit Card
Joining fee: zero. Annual fee: zero. Lifetime free.
What you earn: this is a tiered reward-point card, not a flat-percentage card — a distinction most write-ups get wrong. You get 10X reward points on dining, travel, international spends and anything you spend on your birthday; 3X on other eligible spends; and only 1X on utility bills, insurance premiums, railway spends and FASTag recharges. Welcome benefits are a ₹500 gift voucher and up to ₹1,000 cashback on your first EMI. There is a 25% discount on movie tickets and a 1% fuel surcharge waiver.
The underrated bit: IDFC advertises an APR starting at 8.5% per annum. Most cards in this segment start far higher. You should still clear your balance in full every month — but if you are going to make a mistake with a first card, this is the cheapest card on which to make it. For a beginner that number matters more than any reward rate on this page.
The catch: the 1X tier catches a lot of ordinary Indian household spending — electricity, insurance, FASTag — so the headline 10X applies to a narrower slice than it first appears. Stated eligibility is an annual income of ₹3 lakh or more. Adding UPI to the card costs ₹199 plus GST as a one-time activation, separate from the card itself being free.
Best for: a first card where the downside is capped. Low rate, no fee, decent rewards on dining and travel.
3. SBI SimplyCLICK Credit Card
Annual fee: ₹499 plus taxes. Renewal fee: ₹499 plus taxes from the second year, reversed if your spends in the previous year were ₹1,00,000 or more.
What you earn: 10X reward points with a specific partner list — Apollo 24×7, BookMyShow, Cleartrip, Dominos, IGP, Myntra, Netmeds, Swiggy, Yatra, Gyftr and Tata Cliq. 5X reward points on all other online spends. 1 reward point per ₹100 on everything offline. The welcome benefit is an Amazon.in e-gift card worth ₹500 on payment of the annual fee. Milestone benefits are ₹2,000 e-vouchers (Cleartrip or Yatra) at ₹1 lakh and again at ₹2 lakh of annual online spends. Fuel surcharge waiver of 1% on transactions between ₹500 and ₹3,000, capped at ₹100 per statement cycle.
Correcting a common error: Amazon is not on the 10X partner list. A great many articles still say it is. Amazon spends earn the 5X online rate. Check that partner list against your own regular merchants before deciding this card is for you.
The catch: the milestone vouchers need online spends specifically, and the fee waiver needs ₹1,00,000 across the year. If your card spending is mostly offline and under ₹8,000 a month, you will pay the fee and earn 1 point per ₹100.
Best for: heavy online spenders whose merchants appear on that partner list.
4. HDFC MoneyBack+ Credit Card
Joining and renewal membership fee: ₹500 plus applicable taxes. Spend ₹50,000 or more in the year before your renewal date and the renewal fee is waived.
What you earn: 10X CashPoints — HDFC states this as up to 2.5% value back — on Amazon, Flipkart, Swiggy, Reliance Smart SuperStore and BigBasket. 2 CashPoints per ₹200 on everything else. Paying the joining membership fee gets you 500 reward points. There is a milestone gift voucher worth ₹500 for spends of ₹50,000 in a calendar quarter, and a 1% fuel surcharge waiver on transactions between ₹400 and ₹5,000, capped at ₹250 per statement cycle. CashPoints can be redeemed against flight and hotel bookings through SmartBuy, and there is a 10% additional discount on Swiggy Dineout.
Important: HDFC changed this card’s terms with effect from 15 May 2026. If you are comparing against an older review, the numbers will not match.
The catch: the fee waiver needs ₹50,000 across a year, but the quarterly voucher needs ₹50,000 per quarter — a very different bar. Those two numbers look alike and are not. The base rate of 2 CashPoints per ₹200 is modest once you step outside the five accelerated merchants.
Best for: households whose grocery and delivery spending is concentrated on those five merchants.
5. Axis Bank MY ZONE Credit Card
Joining fee: ₹500. Annual fee: ₹500. Axis does not publish a spend-based waiver for this card on its fees table.
What you earn: 4 EDGE Reward Points for every ₹200 spent. The real value sits in the benefits rather than the points — a complimentary SonyLIV Premium annual subscription worth ₹1,499, buy-one-get-one on movie tickets (100% off the second ticket, booked through the District app), a flat ₹120 off Swiggy food delivery, and Cleartrip discounts of 7% on flights up to ₹2,000 and 18% on hotels up to ₹4,000, each usable once a month. It also carries one complimentary airport lounge visit per calendar quarter, which is unusual at this fee.
Correcting a common error: the movie buy-one-get-one runs through the District app. Older articles say Paytm Movies. Axis also updated this card’s terms and conditions with effect from 28 August 2026, so treat anything written before then with suspicion.
The catch: with no published fee waiver, the ₹500 is a real annual cost. The SonyLIV subscription covers it on paper — but only if you would otherwise have paid for SonyLIV. If you wouldn’t, that ₹1,499 is not money you saved.
Best for: people who go to the cinema regularly and travel just often enough to use four lounge visits a year.
Comparison
| Card | Joining / annual fee | Fee waiver | Headline earn rate | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Amazon Pay ICICI | Nil / Nil | Not applicable | 5 pts per ₹100 on Amazon (Prime), 1% elsewhere | Invite only |
| IDFC FIRST Millennia | Nil / Nil | Not applicable | 10X dining, travel, international; 3X other; 1X utilities | ₹3 lakh income floor |
| SBI SimplyCLICK | ₹499 + taxes | ₹1,00,000 annual spend | 10X on 11 named partners, 5X other online | Amazon is not a 10X partner |
| HDFC MoneyBack+ | ₹500 + taxes | ₹50,000 annual spend | 10X on five merchants, 2 pts per ₹200 other | Terms changed 15 May 2026 |
| Axis MY ZONE | ₹500 / ₹500 | None published | 4 EDGE points per ₹200 | Terms changed 28 Aug 2026 |
Which one would I actually start with?
If you can get the Amazon Pay ICICI invite and you shop on Amazon, take it. Free is free, and the 1.99% forex mark-up is a real bonus on any foreign transaction.
If you can’t, the IDFC FIRST Millennia is the sensible default — and not for the reason most lists give. It is free, so there is no fee to earn back, and its interest rate floor of 8.5% means a missed payment in your first year costs a fraction of what it would on any other card here. A first card should be forgiving before it is rewarding.
The three fee-charging cards are worth it only if your actual spending clears their specific bars. Pull up last month’s statement and check before you apply.
Frequently asked questions
What credit score do I need for my first credit card in India?
If you have never borrowed, you may have no score at all rather than a bad one, and issuers assess first-time applicants on income and employment instead. Two of the cards here publish income requirements: Amazon Pay ICICI states a monthly income of at least ₹30,000, and IDFC FIRST Millennia states an annual income of ₹3 lakh or more.
Is a lifetime free card always the better choice?
For a first card, usually yes. A fee-charging card only makes sense once you know your monthly spending will clear its waiver threshold. Until you have a few months of card statements to look at, you are guessing.
How many credit cards should I apply for at once?
One. Each application creates a hard enquiry on your credit report, and several in a short window makes you look like someone urgently seeking credit. Apply for one, use it for six to twelve months, then consider a second.
Do reward points expire?
On most Indian cards, yes — expiry periods and redemption minimums vary by issuer and are set out in each card’s Most Important Terms and Conditions. This is one reason the Amazon Pay ICICI card is simple to live with: value arrives as Amazon Pay balance rather than sitting in a rewards account waiting to be redeemed.
What should I do in the first six months with a new card?
Pay the full statement balance by the due date every month, not the minimum due, and keep your usage below roughly 30% of your limit. Those two habits build a credit history faster than any reward strategy, and they cost nothing.
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