IRCTC BOBCARD
Downgrade10% back on train tickets that you can only claw back ₹250 at a time — a rail coupon with rail lounges.
What it's worth to you — net annual value
Welcome: 500 bonus reward points on spending ₹5,000 within the first 60 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
The IRCTC BOBCARD does exactly one thing and charges you ₹500 to join plus ₹350 a year to keep doing it: up to 40 reward points per ₹100 on train tickets booked at irctc.co.in, which sounds like 10% back until you read how the points cash out. BOBCARD reward points are worth a flat ₹0.25 — as statement credit or as IRCTC Travel Points against a future 1AC/2AC/3AC/CC/EC fare — and you can redeem at most 1,000 of them (₹250) per statement cycle, so the headline 10% is quietly throttled to about ₹3,000 a year of realised value. Everything else earns the base 2 RP/₹100 (0.5%), the forex markup is a full 3.5%, and there is no airport lounge. What it does give a regular rail traveller is genuinely useful: 4 railway lounge visits a year, a 1% waiver on IRCTC's transaction charge, and a fuel surcharge waiver. Hold it if you live on the rails; there is nothing here for anyone else.
What's good
- Up to 40 RP/₹100 (~10%) on IRCTC train tickets — the reason to hold it
- 1% waiver on IRCTC's transaction/convenience charge on every rail booking
- 4 complimentary railway lounge visits a year (max 1 per quarter)
- 1% fuel surcharge waiver (₹500–₹3,000 txns, ₹100/statement cap)
Watch out
- Reward points are ₹0.25 flat, and redemption is capped at 1,000 RP (₹250) per statement cycle — the 10% is throttled
- 0.5% on everything that isn't a train ticket; 3.5% forex markup and no airport lounge
- ₹500 joining + ₹350 annual fee with no spend-based waiver published
- Points expire 2 years from membership registration; IRCTC ticket redemption is primary-cardholder-fare only
What earns, what doesn't
Base 2 RP/₹100; 4 RP/₹100 at grocery/departmental stores; up to 40 RP/₹100 on IRCTC train tickets (irctc.co.in). BOBCARD publishes no full MCC exclusion table for this card — treatments below follow BOBCARD standard practice and are flagged. Reward points redeem at ₹0.25, capped 1,000 RP/statement cycle.
- Fuel · excluded Zero RP; 1% fuel surcharge waiver ₹500–₹3,000, cap ₹100/statement (official)
- Rent & property management · excluded Rent excluded — BOBCARD standard, community, flag
- Wallet loads · excluded Wallet loads excluded — BOBCARD standard, community, flag
- Government / tax · excluded Government payments excluded — BOBCARD standard, community, flag
per BOBCARD (Bank of Baroda) T&C (community-sourced) · rank every card by spend category →
Lounge access
Gate: 4 railway-lounge visits/year (max 1/quarter)
Opens 21 of 662 tracked lounge doors across 19 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.
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.
Joining ₹500 + GST, annual ₹350 + GST, no spend-based waiver published. Up to 40 RP/₹100 on IRCTC train tickets (irctc.co.in), 4 RP/₹100 grocery/departmental stores, 2 RP/₹100 other. Welcome 500 RP on ₹5,000 spend in 60 days. 4 railway lounge visits/year (max 1/quarter); no airport lounge. 1% waiver on IRCTC transaction charge; 1% fuel surcharge waiver ₹500–₹3,000 (cap ₹100/statement). Point redemption valid only on 1AC/2AC/3AC/CC/EC IRCTC fares, primary-cardholder fare only; points lapse 2 years from membership registration. RuPay. APR/late-fee slabs and income/age follow BOBCARD standard — verify against the card-specific MITC.
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 2026Eterna'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 2026BOBCARD reprices rail, toll and app-routed educationNo 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 2026BOBCARD and Etihad Guest deal two co-brands — the last pipe inEtihad 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.
- official BOBCARD IRCTC product page — ₹500 joining / ₹350 annual, 40 RP/₹100 IRCTC, 4 railway lounge visits/yr, IRCTC charge waiver, RuPay checked 21 Jul 2026
- official IRCTC co-brand card document — reward-point value ₹0.25, redemption cap 1,000 BoB RP / 250 IRCTC Travel Points per cycle, 1AC/2AC/3AC/CC/EC only, 2-year point validity checked 21 Jul 2026
- community CardInsider — 2 RP/₹100 base, 4 RP grocery, 500 RP welcome at ₹5k/60d, 3.5% forex, eligibility (21–65, ₹3.6L salaried / ₹4.8L self-employed) checked 21 Jul 2026
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