BOBCARD Eterna card
#31

BOBCARD Eterna

Keep

3.75% online as real statement credit, unlimited lounges, and free if you sign before August.

BOBCARD (Bank of Baroda)·Mastercard·premium
Mastercard Visa RuPay — UPI-linkable — UPI earns the offline rate
0.8%
Effective reward rate
₹2,499 + GST
Annual fee
₹2,50,000 spend
Fee waiver

What it's worth to you — net annual value

₹14,000
at ₹1L/month
₹32,000
at ₹3L/month
₹50,000
at ₹5L/month

Welcome: 10,000 bonus points (₹2,500) on ₹50,000 spend within 60 days; lifetime-free for applications through 31 Jul 2026 (standard fee ₹2,499)

Active offers: BOBCARD Eterna LTF window — ₹2,499 joining + annual fee at zero (ends in 13 days)

How these numbers are computed →

Spend tiers, milestones and fee waivers included, at our house ₹/point. Portal and category multipliers can push higher — run your exact number →

The take

For once the small print flatters the card. Eterna's headline — 15 reward points per ₹100 on online, dining, travel and international spends — is worth a genuine 3.75% because those points redeem as flat statement credit at ₹0.25 each: no portal, no transfer gymnastics, no expiry games. That's cashback wearing a travel card's jacket, and until 31 July 2026 BOBCARD is handing the ₹2,499 fee back as a lifetime-free offer. Add unlimited domestic lounge visits once you've put ₹40,000 through it the previous quarter, plus a 2% forex markup, and the near-free maths is hard to argue with. The catches are real: the accelerated rate caps at 5,000 points a statement cycle (about ₹33,000 of accelerated spend), offline collapses to 0.75%, a long special-MCC list — supermarkets, insurance, education, government, even train and bus fares — earns nothing at all, and there is no international lounge or airline transfer — the points are cash, not miles. But as an almost-free 3.75% online card with unlimited lounges, it is one of the best value plays we rank.

What's good

  • 3.75% on online/dining/travel/international — paid as flat ₹0.25 statement credit, not portal points
  • Lifetime-free for applications through 31 Jul 2026 (standard fee ₹2,499, waived at ₹2.5L)
  • Unlimited domestic lounge visits at ₹40k prior-quarter spend
  • 2% forex; 10,000-point welcome and 20,000-point milestone at ₹5L

Watch out

  • Accelerated earn capped at 5,000 points/statement cycle (≈₹33k of accelerated spend)
  • Offline/general spends earn 0.75%; supermarkets, insurance, education, govt, hospitals, rail/bus/toll and fast food earn ZERO
  • No international lounge and no airline/hotel transfer partners — the points are cashback, not miles
  • 1% processing fees on rent, wallet loads, big fuel and big utility transactions (official KFS)

What earns, what doesn't

Eterna's earn is a two-tier split per the official rewards T&C (w.e.f. 01-Apr-2026): 15 RP/₹100 (3.75%) on ecom/dining/travel/international, 3 RP/₹100 (0.75%) core on everything else — and ZERO on Annexure-1 MCCs (supermarkets, insurance, education, government, hospitals, rail/bus/toll, rent, wallet, charity, fast food). The old 1.5 RP 'special' tier is gone. 5X points cap at 5,000 RP/statement cycle. 'full' below means the accelerated 15 rate; 'reduced' means the 3 core tier. Rent/wallet/fuel add 1% processing FEES on top of zero earn (official KFS).

Fuel excluded — Effectively zero (surcharge-waiver txns don't earn); 1% processing fee on fuel ≥₹10k (official KFS)
Rent & property management excluded — Zero earn (Annexure 1, MCC 6513) + 1% processing fee (official)
Government / tax excluded — Zero earn — Annexure 1 MCCs 9211/9222/9311/9399/9402/9405 (official rewards T&C)
Utilities (electricity/water/gas) reduced — Core 3 RP/₹100 (0.75%) only — MCC 4900 barred from the 5X tier; 1% fee on utility txns ≥₹50k (official)
Insurance excluded — Zero earn — Annexure 1 MCCs 5960/6300 (official rewards T&C)
Education excluded — Zero earn — Annexure 1 MCCs 8211–8299 (official rewards T&C)
Wallet loads excluded — Zero earn (Annexure 1, MCCs 6539–6543) + 1% processing fee on wallet loads (official)
Groceries & supermarkets excluded — Zero earn — supermarkets/convenience/variety/retail (5261/5331/5411/5499) sit in Annexure 1 (official rewards T&C)
Telecom reduced — Core 3 RP/₹100 (0.75%) — telecom is absent from Eterna's Annexure-1 list (official rewards T&C)
Jewellery / gold reduced — General 3 RP/₹100 unless online — inferred, flag
Forex / international spends full — International spends earn the 15 RP/₹100 (3.75%) accelerated rate; 2% + GST markup
UPI (RuPay-on-UPI only) reduced — RuPay variant on UPI earns the OFFLINE rate — 3 RP/₹100 (0.75%), never the 15X online rate; standard category exclusions apply (CardInsider + official rewards T&C)
EMI conversions / merchant EMI excluded — EMI conversions earn nothing — community, flag
  • Fuel · excluded Effectively zero (surcharge-waiver txns don't earn); 1% processing fee on fuel ≥₹10k (official KFS)
  • Rent & property management · excluded Zero earn (Annexure 1, MCC 6513) + 1% processing fee (official)
  • Wallet loads · excluded Zero earn (Annexure 1, MCCs 6539–6543) + 1% processing fee on wallet loads (official)
  • Utilities (electricity/water/gas) · reduced Core 3 RP/₹100 (0.75%) only — MCC 4900 barred from the 5X tier; 1% fee on utility txns ≥₹50k (official)

per BOBCARD (Bank of Baroda) T&C · rank every card by spend category →

Lounge access

Unlimited
Domestic
International
Guests

Gate: ₹40k prior-quarter spend

Opens 73 of 644 tracked lounge doors across 41 airports — see the full map →

Can you get it?

The cutoffs and the actual route in — not the "apply now" button, the door that opens.

Route Direct application
Income · salaried ₹12L+/yr net (official application guidelines)
Income · self-employed ₹12L+/yr net (official application guidelines)
Age band 25–55 (official application guidelines, relaxations at BOBCARD discretion)

Direct application — no invite list, no banking relationship required.

per the official BOBCARD (Bank of Baroda) MITC — figures marked (community) aren't in the PDF; the issuer won't say · filter the ranking by what you can get →

The fine print

What the MITC actually says — the rates, fees and cutoffs the brochure skips.

Forex markup 2% + GST — Eterna/Tiara carve-out (most other BOBCARDs 3.5%)
APR 3.25%/mo (39%/yr) — Eterna/Tiara carve-out; other BOBCARDs pay 3.75%/mo (45%/yr)
Late fee Nil <₹100; ₹100 (₹100–500); ₹400 (₹501–1,000); ₹750 (₹1,001–10,000); ₹950 (₹10,001–25,000); ₹1,100 (₹25,001–50,000); ₹1,300 (>₹50,000)
Cash advance 2.5%, min ₹500
Add-on card Nil — no joining/annual fee on add-on cards
Overlimit 2.5%, min ₹600
Redemption fee Statement-credit redemption at ₹0.25/point; no per-request fee published

Standard fee ₹2,499 + GST, but LIFETIME-FREE for applications in rolling limited-period windows (currently through 31 Jul 2026); non-LTF joining fee waived at ₹25k in first 60 days, renewal waived at ₹2.5L anniversary spend. 15 RP/₹100 (3.75%) on online/dining/travel/international, 5X capped 5,000 RP/statement cycle; 3 RP/₹100 (0.75%) other; Annexure-1 special MCCs (supermarkets, insurance, education, govt, hospitals, rail/bus/toll, charity, fast food) earn ZERO per rewards T&C w.e.f. 01-Apr-2026. Eterna points are evergreen (no expiry). Unlimited domestic lounge (Mastercard) at ₹40k prior-quarter spend; no international lounge. 1% processing fees on rent, wallet loads, utility ≥₹50k (cap ₹3,000) and fuel ≥₹10k. KFS dated 05-May-2026.

per the official BOBCARD (Bank of Baroda) MITC · reviewed 10 Jul 2026

What's changed for this card

Full tracker →

Devaluations and buffs that touch this card directly, its issuer, or the points and programs it earns and transfers to.

  • 5 May 2026
    Buff moderate BOBCARD (Bank of Baroda)
    Eterna's lifetime-free window rolls forward yet again
    ₹2,499 joining + ₹2,499 annual fee (LTF offer due to lapse) Zero joining and annual fees for new applicants, extended to 30 Jun 2026 — since pushed to 31 Jul

    BOBCARD keeps extending the deadline on its best acquisition offer: Eterna — 3.75% statement-credit value on online spends and unlimited domestic lounges — stays lifetime-free for new applicants. The offer opened in early 2026 with a 31-March fuse and has been rolled forward twice; every extension is a louder hint that the ₹2,499 fee isn't coming back soon. Sign before the music stops.

  • 1 Apr 2026
    Fee moderate BOBCARD (Bank of Baroda)
    BOBCARD reprices rail, toll and app-routed education
    No processing fee on railway/toll/bus bookings; telecom (MCC 4814) earned zero points 1% fee on railway bookings ≥₹30k, all toll & bus ≥₹5k, and education via Cred/Paytm/PhonePe-type apps; telecom now earns core points

    BOBCARD's April-2026 notice gives with one hand and clips with the other. Telecom spends finally earn core points (3 RP/₹100 on Eterna), but big-ticket rail bookings, every toll and bus charge over ₹5,000, and tuition routed through third-party apps now carry a 1% fee — and the notice restates the long zero-earn MCC list, from supermarkets to hospitals. One, Uni and the Scapia co-brand are explicitly exempt.

  • 5 Jan 2026
    Launch moderate BOBCARD (Bank of Baroda)
    BOBCARD and Etihad Guest deal two co-brands — the last pipe in
    Etihad Guest earn from Indian card spend dying with the SBI co-brands (closing 31 Mar 2026) Guest (₹2,500) and Guest Premium (₹5,000): 2 miles/₹100, 0% forex, double welcome miles for sign-ups till 28 Feb

    As SBI walked away from Etihad and Axis prepared to drop the transfer route, BOBCARD picked up the whole franchise: two Mastercard co-brands earning Guest miles directly, with the Premium doing 2 miles/₹100, 6 on etihad.com, 0% forex and a milestone ladder to 40,000 miles a year. Launch-window sign-ups before 28 February got doubled welcome miles. For anyone flying AUH out of India, this is now the only game in town.

Go deeper

Sources

Every fact on this page is checked against these documents — the issuer's own paperwork first. Spot something stale? The PDF wins, and we re-verify.

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