CardShala

Last verified: 17 September 2026 against each issuer’s own page (sources at the bottom).
CardShala carries no referral links on this page and none of these cards paid for a mention. This is not financial advice. Check the issuer’s page before you apply, because terms change often.

Search “lifetime free RuPay credit card” and you get lists of ten or eleven cards. At least two cards on those lists are not free. One charges Rs 99 + taxes a year. Another charges Rs 499 a year. We checked the bank documents.

This post covers four RuPay cards with no joining fee and no annual fee. It also covers the two “free” cards that are not free. For each one we work out what you actually get back on UPI, in rupees. At the end there is a worked example on a tier 2 city spending pattern, where a big part of the month’s money earns nothing at all.

The short answer

• Most of your UPI goes to local shops: Kiwi (YES Bank Klick). About 1.5% back on Scan & Pay.
• You want one free card for UPI and your other spends: Axis Bank SUPERMONEY. 1% back, with up to 3% on part of your UPI spends.
• You travel and your UPI payments are big: Scapia Federal. About 1%, but only on payments of Rs 500 or more, and only as travel credit.
• Skip for now: HDFC Bank UPI RuPay. “3%” on HDFC’s page works out to 0.75% in cash, and the card is not free.

Card	Fee	UPI value back (our maths)
Kiwi (YES Bank Klick)	Nil	1.5% Scan & Pay, 0.5% online
Axis Bank SUPERMONEY	Nil	1%, up to 1.5% blended
Scapia Federal (RuPay)	Nil	1% as travel credit, Rs 500+ payments only
Jupiter Edge+ CSB	Nil	0.7% as cash, 1% on Jupiter’s own categories
HDFC Bank UPI RuPay	Rs 99 + taxes	0.25% to 0.75%
YES Bank PaisaSave RuPay	Rs 499 a year	Not reviewed here

Two things to know before you pick one

RuPay credit cards on UPI work only when you pay a shop or business. You cannot use one to send money to a friend. YES Bank says this plainly in its Klick card guide.

“5% rewards” rarely means 5 rupees per Rs 100. Every card below pays in points, coins or “Jewels”, and each one has a rupee value. We convert everything to rupees, and we tell you the value we used each time.

1. Kiwi RuPay credit card (YES Bank Klick)

Fee: Nil joining fee, nil annual fee. YES Bank calls it a lifetime free card. It is a virtual card only, so no plastic card arrives. You apply through the Kiwi app. Kiwi also offers cards from AU Small Finance Bank and PNB. This section covers the YES Bank one.

What you earn: The UPI cashback comes from Kiwi, not YES Bank. On Scan & Pay you get 6 Kiwis per Rs 100. Online UPI payments get 2 Kiwis per Rs 100. Kiwi values 1 Kiwi at Rs 0.25, so that is 1.5% and 0.5%. Only payments in multiples of Rs 100 count. YES Bank separately gives 2 YES Rewardz per Rs 200 on non-UPI card spends.

The maths: you pay Rs 8,000 a month at local shops by Scan & Pay. That earns 480 Kiwis, worth Rs 120. You can only cash out in blocks of 500 Kiwis (Rs 125), so this month’s Kiwis wait until next month.

The catch: The reward programme belongs to the Kiwi app. YES Bank’s page says anything Kiwi runs is Kiwi’s responsibility, and that the partner may charge a platform fee. Kiwi can change the rewards without the bank changing anything. Monthly rewards are capped at 1% of your credit limit. No Kiwis on utilities, government payments, insurance, fuel or telecom. If you already hold a YES Bank credit card, you cannot get this one. The 5% rate you see in ads needs Kiwi Neon, which costs Rs 999 + GST.

Best for: Anyone whose spending is mostly at local shops with QR codes, which describes most tier-2 and tier-3 towns.

2. Axis Bank SUPERMONEY RuPay credit card

Fee: Nil joining fee, nil annual fee, nil add-on fee. Axis calls it a lifetime free card. Existing Axis credit card holders can only get it if they already have the Flipkart Axis Bank card. Axis’s page says the card’s terms were updated with effect from 28 August 2026.

What you earn: 3% cashback on UPI QR payments made through the super.money app. 1% cashback on everything else, including UPI through other apps and normal card swipes. Payments under Rs 100 earn nothing. Cashback comes to your statement automatically, so there are no points to redeem. You also get a 1% fuel surcharge waiver on Rs 400 to Rs 4,000 fuel payments, up to Rs 400 per statement cycle.

The catch: The 3% has a cap, and it is an unusual one. Your 3% cashback in a cycle cannot be more than the 1% cashback you earned on your other spends that cycle. If you only use super.money, you earn very little. There is one small relief in the terms: if your other cashback is below Rs 100 and your super.money cashback is above it, the super.money cashback is capped at Rs 100 rather than at the smaller number.

The maths on Rs 15,000 a month. You pay Rs 11,250 elsewhere and earn Rs 112.50. You pay Rs 3,750 by QR on super.money, and 3% of that is Rs 112.50, which is exactly at the cap. Your total is Rs 225, or 1.5%. That is the best split. Keep your super.money QR spends to about one-third of your other spends. Anything above that earns 0%.

No cashback on fuel, rent, wallet loads, insurance, education, government payments, jewellery, EMIs, telecom, gift cards or tolls.

Best for: Someone who wants one free card for UPI and everything else, and who doesn’t mind a little planning to get the extra 0.5%.

3. Scapia Federal Bank credit card (RuPay variant)

Fee: Zero joining fee and zero annual fee, according to Federal Bank. You get the RuPay card together with a Visa card, and both appear on one statement.

What you earn: On the RuPay card, 5% in Scapia Coins on UPI, online and offline spends of Rs 500 or more. Five coins are worth Rs 1, so 5% in coins is 1% in value. Scapia’s own travel bookings earn 20% in coins. Federal Bank says unlimited domestic lounge access is available when you spend Rs 20,000 in the previous month. There is zero forex markup on international spends.

The maths: Rs 10,000 a month in payments of Rs 500 or more earns 500 coins, worth Rs 100 off a trip.

The catch: Coins can only be used for travel bookings inside the Scapia app. You cannot get them as a statement credit. The Rs 500 minimum hurts too. A Rs 180 kirana bill or a Rs 60 chai payment earns nothing. If you don’t travel, the coins have no use.

Best for: People who travel a few times a year and whose UPI payments are mostly large bills rather than small daily ones.

4. Jupiter Edge+ CSB Bank RuPay credit card

Fee: Jupiter’s terms say no annual fee applies. Replacing a physical card costs Rs 249.

What you earn: 5% in Jewels on everyday spends, including UPI. Jupiter calls this a limited-period offer. Select shopping merchants earn 50% in Jewels (capped at 10,000 Jewels a cycle), and flights booked on Jupiter earn 25% (capped at 5,000 Jewels). A Jewel is worth Rs 0.14 as cash or statement credit, and Rs 0.20 on Jupiter’s own categories.

The maths: Rs 10,000 of UPI earns 500 Jewels. As cash that is Rs 70 (0.7%). If you spend them in Jupiter’s categories, it is Rs 100 (1%).

The catch: The terms change on 10 October 2026. After that, the 50% shopping rate needs more than Rs 15,000 of spends in the billing cycle, and anything less earns 5%. The 5% itself is labelled “limited period”. Jewels also depend on you paying at least the minimum due on your latest bill. Pay the full bill every month anyway, because interest will wipe out any reward on this list.

Best for: People who already use the Jupiter app. For everyone else, Kiwi or Axis SUPERMONEY pays more in cash.

The “free” cards that are not free

HDFC Bank UPI RuPay credit card

Fee: Rs 99 + applicable taxes to join, and the same to renew. HDFC’s own FAQ says: “No, the UPI RuPay credit card is not free.” The renewal fee is waived if you spend Rs 25,000 or more in the year before renewal.

What you earn: HDFC advertises “3% CashPoints” on groceries, supermarkets, dining and PayZapp, 2% on utilities and 1% on everything else. Those percentages are CashPoints, not rupees. HDFC’s own terms give an example: Rs 9,000 at 3% earns 270 CashPoints. As a statement credit, 1 CashPoint is worth Rs 0.25, so 270 CashPoints is Rs 67.50.

So “3%” pays 0.75% in cash, “2%” pays 0.5%, and “1%” pays 0.25%. Each category is capped at 500 CashPoints (Rs 125) per calendar month. You also need 2,000 CashPoints (Rs 500) before you can redeem anything.

The catch: It costs money every year unless you spend Rs 25,000, and it pays less than the free cards above.

Best for: Mostly nobody. The one exception is someone who is already heavy on PayZapp and wants an HDFC relationship.

YES Bank Paisabazaar PaisaSave RuPay credit card

YES Bank’s own terms document (version CMITC_V18_07082026) lists a nil joining fee but an annual fee of Rs 499. The annual fee is waived if you spend Rs 1,20,000 in a year. That is Rs 10,000 every month. It is a fine card for some people, but it does not belong on a lifetime-free list.

What this looks like on a Tier 2 salary

Every one of these cards is written about as if you live in Bengaluru and spend on Swiggy, Myntra and flights. Here is a month that looks more like Tier 2 like Bilaspur or Raipur. Say you spend Rs 18,000 a month:

Where the money goes	Amount	Earns anything?
Kirana, sabzi, chai, autos by QR	Rs 6,000	Yes
Petrol	Rs 3,000	No, fuel is excluded everywhere
Online shopping	Rs 3,000	Yes
School fees	Rs 2,500	No, education is excluded
Electricity bill	Rs 1,800	No on Axis and Kiwi
Eating out, medicines, odds and ends	Rs 1,300	Yes
Mobile recharge	Rs 400	No, telecom is excluded

Only Rs 10,300 of that Rs 18,000 can earn anything. Nearly half your month is fuel, fees, bills and recharges, and the exclusion lists on these cards rule all of it out. That is the part the “5% cashback” videos never mention.

Now run the two best cards on that Rs 10,300.

Axis SUPERMONEY, played properly: put Rs 7,725 through any UPI app or the card, and Rs 2,575 through super.money QR. You earn Rs 77.25 at 1%, plus Rs 77.25 at 3%, which is exactly where the cap sits. Total Rs 154.50 a month, or Rs 1,854 a year.

Kiwi, without thinking about it: Rs 6,000 of shop QR payments earns 360 Kiwis, and Rs 3,000 of online UPI earns 60 Kiwis. At Rs 0.25 a Kiwi that is Rs 105 a month, or Rs 1,260 a year. Less than Axis, but you don’t have to plan anything.

Scapia, on this pattern: only payments of Rs 500 or more count. A Rs 60 chai and a Rs 240 sabzi bill earn nothing. If Rs 4,000 of your month clears the Rs 500 bar, you get 200 coins, worth Rs 40 off a trip. Fine if you travel. Useless if you don’t.

So the real gap between the best free RuPay card and an average one, on a tier-2 spending pattern, is about Rs 50 a month. Worth picking correctly, because the card is free. Not worth switching banks, chasing an app, or paying a membership fee for.

Which one should you get?

If this is your first card, read our guide to the best credit cards for first-time users first. A RuPay UPI card works best as a second card next to it.

If you already have a card and want a free one for UPI, pick based on how you pay. Small, frequent QR payments point to Kiwi. A mix of UPI and card swipes points to Axis SUPERMONEY. Large payments plus a trip or two a year point to Scapia. Whichever you pick, pay the full bill every month. HDFC, for example, charges 3.6% a month on its UPI RuPay card. That is more than double the best cashback on this list, every month.

Frequently asked questions

Which RuPay credit card is lifetime free?

As of 17 September 2026, the issuers list these with no joining or annual fee: Axis Bank SUPERMONEY, YES Bank Klick (through Kiwi), Scapia Federal, and Jupiter Edge+ CSB. HDFC Bank UPI RuPay charges Rs 99 + taxes a year. YES Bank PaisaSave RuPay charges Rs 499 a year.

Can I send money to a friend using a RuPay credit card on UPI?

No. RuPay credit cards on UPI only work for payments to merchants. Payments to people are not allowed.

Which free RuPay card gives the most cashback on UPI?

On our maths, Kiwi (YES Bank Klick) at 1.5% on Scan & Pay, valuing 1 Kiwi at Rs 0.25 as Kiwi states. Axis SUPERMONEY can also reach 1.5% overall if you keep super.money QR payments to about a third of your other spends.

Is the HDFC UPI RuPay credit card free?

No. HDFC charges Rs 99 + applicable taxes as joining and renewal fee. The renewal fee is waived if you spend Rs 25,000 or more in a year.

Do I get rewards on UPI payments under Rs 100?

Usually not. Axis SUPERMONEY and HDFC UPI RuPay both need Rs 100 or more. Kiwi counts only multiples of Rs 100. Scapia’s RuPay card needs Rs 500 or more.

Sources, checked 17 September 2026: Axis SUPERMONEY product page, Axis SUPERMONEY terms, YES Bank Klick page, Kiwi rewards policy, Federal Bank Scapia page, Scapia Coins, Jupiter Edge+ CSB terms, HDFC UPI RuPay fees, HDFC CashPoints terms, YES Bank MITC.