HSBC RuPay Platinum
KeepThe only free RuPay card whose UPI spend turns into airline miles.
a year at ₹40,000 a month, after the fee
Skip the arithmetic — the board, ranked → · nothing to sign up for
What it's worth to you, after the fee
Welcome: A ₹250 Amazon eGift Voucher for a video-verified online application, offer period to 31 October 2026 — HSBC's ₹500 introductory cashback, the 2-month EazyDiner membership and the ₹250 UPI cashback all ran out on 31 August 2026 and were not replaced
Priced on the everyday mix — 30% groceries · 10% utilities · 20% travel · 6% fuel · 34% everything else — with this card's published category rules applied: it earns nothing on utilities and fuel here, so that spend is dropped, not paid at the headline, and stops pacing milestones and the waiver. Plus milestones, minus the fee. No accelerator credit — the ranking model on /compare adds ~20% of spend at the card's best accelerator, so its ₹ for this card reads higher.
How these numbers are computed — and why the rankings show a bigger one →
Spend tiers, milestones and fee waivers included, at our house ₹/point. Portal and category multipliers can push higher — run your exact number →
Pays from the first rupee
At ₹1,000 a month — ₹12,000 a year — on the everyday mix this card returns ₹100 gross (earn ₹100) against its ₹0 fee = ₹100 net — at or above ₹0 from the first rung we price. The ladder runs in ₹1,000 steps to ₹1,00,000 a month and ₹10,000 steps to ₹5,00,000; figures are rounded to the hundred, and the accelerator is never credited.
3 notes on the card itself: how it is issued · the network variants · why it ranks #76
Why #76 Same override as its Visa twin, for the same reason and after the same correction: the 2026-08-23 transfer-grid fix took this card from 1.33% to 0.67% and sent its ranking score down by more than a hundred places on the day. It keeps its place because the score prices earn alone, and what this card is for is not earn — it is the only lifetime-free RuPay card in India whose credit-card-linked UPI spend lands in a currency that can leave for an airline. Half a rate on a free card that reaches Etihad still beats a full rate that reaches nothing.
Best real exit: Accor Live Limitless (ALL) at ₹1.07/pt (2:1 transfer, above house value).
The take
Admitted on a technicality and we will say so: the only thing that makes this a travel card is that its points can leave. But that technicality is worth something. HSBC Reward Points convert in the HSBC India app into the same twenty-route transfer stable TravelOne and Premier feed — Air India, Etihad, British Airways, Singapore Airlines and more — and this is the only lifetime-free RuPay card in India that earns them off credit-card-linked UPI spend. UPI-on-credit is the fastest-growing earn surface in the market and almost nothing else on it pays in a currency that reaches an airline. Size the rate honestly, though, because HSBC prints a different grid for this card than for the fee-paying ones: its own rewards page charges TWO points per mile on all eleven partners TravelOne moves 1:1, three into United, four into Turkish and Hainan, ten into a Shangri-La point. So 2 reward points per ₹150 is 1.33 points per ₹100 on the statement and 0.67% once they are miles — for a fee of nothing, which is still the deal. Everything else is thin, and you should not buy it expecting otherwise. There is no lounge access at all, no travel accelerator, no portal multiplier — the 6× Travel with Points line lives on HSBC's Visa Platinum page and not on this one — and forex is the full 3.5% even though JCB will take the card in 160 countries. The travel-adjacent perks are a Cleartrip coupon worth up to ₹6,000 and a fuel-surcharge waiver HSBC values at ₹3,000 a year. Hold it as a free UPI earner that quietly feeds a transfer balance you spend elsewhere; do not hold it as your travel card.
Your renewal — keep, downgrade or cancel
This card is lifetime free. There is no fee due, no renewal to weigh, and nothing to cancel to save.
Keep, downgrade or cancel
nothing due at the anniversary · 5 spend bands
The charge ₹0 — lifetime free
At your spend
₹1,700 a year at ₹3,00,000 of annual spend
₹3,400 a year at ₹6,00,000 of annual spend
₹6,700 a year at ₹12,00,000 of annual spend
₹20,200 a year at ₹36,00,000 of annual spend
₹33,600 a year at ₹60,00,000 of annual spend
Everyday earn plus milestones, with no fee to subtract — the same model as the value panel above, so the two cannot disagree. run your exact spend →
The downgrade
HSBC publishes no document naming a card you can step down to, so we name none — an invented product change is a phone call you would waste. That leaves keep or cancel, and the numbers above are the whole of it.
What has changed under this card
- 23 Sep 2026 Axis EDGE brings Accor back, drops ITC, and adds Cathay, Miles & More and Hilton a program these points reach
- 15 Sep 2026 Wyndham splits its three flat free-night tiers into four a program these points reach
- 8 Sep 2026 Flying Blue splits award tickets into Light / Standard / Flex — a 25% rise for the same product a program these points reach
We price what is in force today — a change that has not happened yet is not in these numbers. the full archive for this card →
If you call to cancel
What the bank offers to keep you is the one fact this desk cannot compute. We are collecting those reports — dated, and only in aggregate — before publishing any: an offer one reader was made is not one you are owed. Called about this card? Tell us what they offered →
The desk publishes subscribable .ics feeds for the dates it knows — offer deadlines, devaluations, expiry audits. Your renewal date is not one of them: only your statement knows it.
What's good
- Lifetime free — NIL joining and NIL annual fee on the primary and add-on cards
- Earns reward points on credit-card-linked UPI payments, which most rivals do not
- 2 reward points per ₹150 into HSBC Reward Points, convertible in-app to airline miles and hotel points — at 2 points per mile, not 1
- 48 days of free credit — three more than the RuPay Cashback card gets
Watch out
- This card's transfer grid is HALF TravelOne's: 2 points per mile on the eleven partners TravelOne moves 1:1, 3:1 into United, 4:1 into Turkish and Hainan, 10:1 into Shangri-La
- NO lounge access and no travel accelerator — the transferable currency is the entire travel case
- Forex is 3.5%, so the JCB acceptance in 160 countries is expensive acceptance
- No Travel-with-Points multiplier: the 6× is published on HSBC's VISA Platinum page, not this one
- The earn denominator is ₹150, not ₹100
- RuPay on this card cannot do international 3DS e-commerce, EMI at the OTP page, pre-authorisation holds (including hotel blocks) or MOTO transactions
What these points actually fly
You hold this — the numbers below are your own points.
These points feed 23 programmes that publish an award chart. Cheapest verified seat per cabin, priced in YOUR points with this card's own ratio already applied:
- Bengaluru → Colombo Economy 13,000 HSBC Reward Points via Avios (BA / Qatar / Finnair) at 2:1 the play
- Chennai → Colombo Business 28,000 HSBC Reward Points via Avios (BA / Qatar / Finnair) at 2:1 the play
- Mumbai → Delhi First 100,000 HSBC Reward Points via Air Canada Aeroplan at 4:1 (through Accor Live Limitless (ALL)) the play
What earns, what doesn't
13 sourced rules · 9 pay zero
- Fuel · excluded Zero reward points — HSBC's Rewards Programme exclusion table names 5541, 5983, 5172, 5542 and 5552, which is every code in this category. And a second clause closes the loophole from the other side: "For transactions eligible for surcharge waiver, reward points will not be awarded." The waiver itself runs on fuel purchases of ₹400–₹4,000, capped at ₹250 a calendar month, and is withheld for the first 90 days after card issuance
- Rent & property management · excluded Zero reward points — "Real Estate and Managers 6513". 7349 is not named, so the exclusion as written is narrower than the category, and the tariff sheet charges a separate 1% processing fee on rental payments
- Wallet loads · excluded Zero reward points — HSBC names only 6540, so 6539 and 6541 sit outside the exclusion as written
- Utilities (electricity/water/gas) · excluded Zero reward points — utilities head HSBC's exclusion table. Only MCC 4900 is named, so 4899 and 4816 are outside the exclusion as written
Where the miles go
20 programs
Ratios read card points : partner miles — 2:1 means 2 points become 1 mile. Never the other way round.
every HSBC route, side by side → · the HSBC Reward Points hub →
Lounge access
0 of 793 tracked doors
No lounge access. This card opens exactly 0 of 793 tracked lounge doors — board with the crowd, or find a card that doesn't →
Can you get it?
income, age and the route in
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 HSBC MITC — figures marked (community) aren't in the PDF; the issuer won't say · filter the board by what you can get →
The fine print
7 of 7 MITC rows published
What the MITC actually says — the rates, fees and cutoffs the brochure skips.
One MITC, stamped "Rupay (MITC) 7/26", covers both HSBC RuPay cards in side-by-side columns. RuPay Platinum prints NIL against the joining fee, NIL against the annual fee and NIL for add-ons — published zeros, not an unsourced blank — and gets 48 days of free credit against the Cashback card's 45, the only place the two columns differ apart from the fee. Bounced cheque, dishonoured SI or failed NACH ₹500. Cash payment at an HSBC branch or drop box ₹100. Rental payments carry a 1% processing fee plus taxes. Balance transfer 10.99%–15.99% a year plus a 1.5% processing fee, min ₹200. No lounge entitlement appears anywhere in this document. Eligibility also requires residence in one of HSBC's 21 named sourcing cities. RuPay on this card cannot do international 3DS e-commerce, EMI at the OTP page, pre-authorisation holds including hotel blocks, or MOTO transactions.
per the official HSBC MITC · reviewed 10 Jul 2026
What's changed for this card
8 dated changes
Devaluations and buffs that touch this card directly, its issuer, or the points and programs it earns and transfers to. Every one is dated here; the tracker carries each one's before → after and the write-up.
- 23 Sept 2026Axis EDGE brings Accor back, drops ITC, and adds Cathay, Miles & More and HiltonAccor and Marriott off the grid since 2 April 2026; Club ITC live; no Cathay, Miles & More or Hilton → Accor live at the punished rates; ITC removed; Cathay, Hilton and Miles & More live; Marriott still gone
Axis's own Travel EDGE terms, re-read 25 September 2026, already show the grid that went live on 23 September. Accor ALL is back, and not at the old Atlas 1:2: EDGE Miles convert at 2:1 (Olympus 1:2) and EDGE Rewards at 5:1, with Magnus for Burgundy at 5:2 and only Burgundy Private still at 5:4. Club ITC is off the table. Three partners are new. Cathay Asia Miles sits on that same punished grid. Hilton Honors is the ordinary one: EDGE Miles 1:2, EDGE Rewards 5:2, Burgundy 5:4. Lufthansa Miles & More is the exception on Atlas, which converts 1:1 there while every other standard airline on that card is 1:2; the EDGE Rewards side of Miles & More is the ordinary 5:2. Marriott stays removed. Qatar Privilege Club was already back. Flying Blue, Air India and Qantas moved into Group A, which is the capped group. The Axis Rewards credit card's Amex network is advertised as joining-fee and annual-fee nil for a limited period; there is no separate Amex variant on this board, so that offer is not modelled as a fee change.
- 15 Sept 2026Wyndham splits its three flat free-night tiers into four
- 8 Sept 2026Flying Blue splits award tickets into Light / Standard / Flex — a 25% rise for the same product
- 1 Sept 2026HSBC Live+ switches on its international lounge visit, and adds a 1GB global eSIM
- 1 Sept 2026HSBC's RuPay Platinum welcome suite lapses — ₹500 cashback, EazyDiner and the UPI ₹250 all end together
- 1 Sept 2026HSBC's RuPay Cashback welcome suite lapses — ₹500 cashback, EazyDiner and the UPI ₹250 all end together
- 31 Aug 2026HSBC's 0% forex window on the RuPay Cashback card closes
- 25 Aug 2026Vietnam Airlines Lotusmiles opens a broad SkyTeam status match — up to Elite Plus
Every HSBC change we've dated → 9 events since 1987, 6 of them nerfs — worst year 2026.
Verified against HSBC's own documents on · the net-annual-value engine, at our house ₹/point
Every document behind this page — 4 of them, each with the day we read it
- official Product page — no joining and no annual fee, 2 reward points per INR150 convertible in-app to airline miles and hotel loyalty points, and reward points on credit-card-linked UPI payments
- official Introductory-offer T&C — the ₹500 cashback applied only to cards applied for between 15 July 2025 and 31 August 2026
- official This card's own transfer grid — the fifteen airlines and five hotel groups it names, at 2 reward points to 1 mile, 3 to 1 into United, 4 to 1 into Turkish and Hainan
- official Shared RuPay MITC tariff sheet — RuPay Platinum joining NIL and annual NIL, 3.5% on foreign currency, and 48 days of free credit