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Keep Invite only ICICI Bank

1838 Reserve ICICI Bank Credit Card

₹1.75 lakh a year for 3% back, zero forex, a club card and a concierge — and no lounge.

What it's worth to you, by monthly spend

−₹1,64,200 a year at ₹30,000 a month, after the ₹1,75,000 fee

−₹1,48,000 a year at ₹75,000 a month, after the ₹1,75,000 fee

−₹1,21,000 a year at ₹1.5 lakh a month, after the ₹1,75,000 fee

−₹67,000 a year at ₹3 lakh a month, after the ₹1,75,000 fee

₹5,000 a year at ₹5 lakh a month, after the ₹1,75,000 fee

Reward rate 3% on everyday spend, before the fee

Verified 3 sources

Our verdict: keep (ranked #588)

The 1838 Reserve has stopped being a rumour.

Our full review 5 good · 6 bad

ICICI teased it in August with a ₹1.75 lakh price and nothing else; its own terms, updated on 9 October 2026, now put the card at the top of the fee table — ₹1,75,000 to join, ₹1,75,000 a year from the second year, and no spend that waives it. That is ₹50,000 more to join than the Diamant, until now the top of ICICI's fee table, and seventeen and a half times the Diamant's ₹10,000 renewal. What the same document gives you for the money is the plumbing of a private-banking card: no foreign-currency markup and no dynamic-currency-conversion fee at all, interest at 20% a year against the 45% every ordinary ICICI card charges, no cash-advance fee and no redemption fee. ICICI's product page, unlisted but live, supplies the rest: 3% back in Reward Points at home and 2% abroad, a Visa card issued with Times Internet, and a stack of memberships ICICI values at more than the fee — The Quorum Club with reciprocal access to 280-odd private clubs, a Crib Life concierge, Harrods Gold tier, Accor Plus Explorer, four Truefitt & Hill services a year. What it does not list is an airport lounge. At ₹75,000 a month the 3% returns ₹27,000 a year against a ₹1,75,000 fee, so the maths only closes if you would buy those memberships anyway. It is invite-only, through your ICICI relationship manager.

What's good

  • 3% back in Reward Points on domestic spends and 2% on international, per ICICI's product page
  • Zero foreign-currency markup and no dynamic currency conversion fee, per ICICI's MITC
  • The Quorum Club membership with access to 280+ private clubs in 52 countries, a Crib Life concierge, Harrods Gold tier and Accor Plus Explorer
  • Interest at 1.67% a month (20% a year) on revolving credit and cash, against 3.75% a month on standard ICICI cards
  • No cash-advance fee and no reward redemption fee

Watch out

  • ₹1,75,000 to join and ₹1,75,000 a year from year two, and ICICI says no spend waives the renewal
  • No airport lounge access — ICICI's MITC states that domestic or international lounge access "is not available" on this card; the only airport benefit is two fast-track security entries at select international airports
  • International spends earn 2%, less than the 3% at home
  • Relationship-based and invite-only: ICICI may downgrade, withdraw or discontinue the card if you stop maintaining its minimum relationship value
  • No points on fuel, rent, wallet loads or EMI; utilities, telecom, government, tax, education and insurance share a 10,000-point cap a month
  • No add-on cards, and ₹5,000 to replace the card

Rewards

About 3.0% back on everyday spend, paid in ICICI Reward Points worth ₹1.00 each. Rewards stop above ₹30,00,000 of spend a month.

ICICI prints this card's return as a percentage — 3% at home, 2% abroad — and lists the rewards catalogue as the way to spend it (health and beauty, travel and luggage, shopping vouchers, electronics, home appliances, fashion). We carry the points at ICICI Reward Points' ₹1.00 house value, which is what makes ICICI's 3% a 3%. The one airline exit is Air India Maharaja Club at 6:1 (minimum 2,000 points), about ₹0.17 a point against the ₹1.00 house value — the 1:1 rate is Emeralde Private Metal and Times Black only — and no hotel transfer is published.

Rates by category 2 categories
Category rates
SpendBack
International spends2.0%
Fuel, rent, e-wallet loads and EMI0.0%

At ₹1.00 a point.

Category rules: not published. We have not found where this card earns less.

Fees & charges

₹1,75,000/yr, plus GST.

Pays for itself at ₹4,90,000 a month

At ₹4,90,000 a month (₹58,80,000 a year), on everyday spending this card returns ₹1,76,400 (rewards ₹1,76,400) against its ₹1,75,000 fee, so it comes out at ₹1,400 a year, the lowest spend where it comes out ahead. How we find the break-even

Keep, downgrade or cancel?

Here is the fee, the spend that clears it, and everything that has moved under this card since you last decided.

Break-even: ₹4,90,000 a month (₹58,80,000 a year) is where its value passes the fee.

Downgrade: ICICI Bank publishes no card you can step down to, so we name none. That leaves keep or cancel.

Called to cancel? Tell us what the bank offered · Calendars of upcoming changes

All charges 6 of 7 published
This card's own charges (MITC)
ChargeWhat the bank saysOur read
Forex markupNil — "No Mark-up fee will be levied on 1838 Reserve ICICI Bank Credit Card"; no DCC fee eitherFree
Interest (APR)1.67%/mo (20%/yr) on revolving credit and cash advances — a card-specific carve-out from the standard 3.75%/mo (45%/yr)
Cash withdrawal feeNil — 1838 Reserve expressly excluded from the 2.5% (min ₹500) feeFree
Add-on card feenot published
Reward redemption feeNil — 1838 Reserve exempt from the ₹99 redemption handling feeFree

From ICICI Bank's most important terms and conditions, checked 10 Jul 2026.

The late payment fee and over-limit fee are ICICI Bank's standard, the same on most of its cards: ICICI Bank's standard charges.

Fee ₹1,75,000 to join and ₹1,75,000 a year from year two, with "NA" in the annual-fee-reversal column. Issued as a relationship-based product that ICICI may downgrade or withdraw if the minimum relationship value lapses. Card replacement ₹5,000. Reward caps — 100,000 points a statement cycle overall, 10,000 across utilities, insurance, education and government, 90,000 on everything else; no points on fuel, rent, wallet loads or EMI — but no earn rate. The lounge section states that domestic or international lounge access is not available on this card. First appears in the MITC last updated 09-Oct-2026; unchanged in its 16-Oct-2026 re-issue.

The document

Who can get it Invite only
Eligibility
RuleWhat the bank says
How you get itInvite only
Income, salariednot published
Income, self-employednot published
Agenot published

From ICICI Bank's terms document.

Invite-only — there is no public application form. The bank calls you.

Turned down? The closest matches: ICICI Times Black.

Lounges

No lounge access: opens 0 of 792 lounges we track. Find a card that gets you in.

Transfer partners

Moves to 1 airline and hotel programme. Best value: Air India Maharaja Points at ₹0.17 a point (6:1).

Where 1838 Reserve ICICI Bank Credit Card gets its own ratio
PartnersYour points : milesListed for ICICI Reward Points
Air India Maharaja Points6:11:1

Ratios read your points : partner miles, so 2:1 means 2 of your points become 1 mile. The listed ratio is the one the currency's own page shows.

1 of ICICI Reward Points's 2 live routes are not open to this card: iShop (ICICI travel portal).

All 2 transfer partners for ICICI Reward Points · Every ICICI Bank transfer, side by side

What these points can fly

ICICI Reward Points move to Air India Maharaja Points and iShop (ICICI travel portal), which price every award seat by demand. No published chart, so no price we can quote.

Welcome & milestones

Welcome: A night at a Lohono Stays Platinum Villa (₹50,000), a Marshall, Smeg or Le Creuset gift from Tata CLiQ Luxury (₹25,000) and a Klook museum experience for two (₹7,500), per ICICI's product page — claimed in the 1838 Reserve app after the joining fee is paid.

Spend milestones: none published.

What changed

  • ICICI's September lounge list drops four doors and adds Bhogapuram Lounge
Every change, before and after 8

: MakeMyTrip ICICI card drops its forex markup and DCC fee from 10 Nov (about the MakeMyTrip ICICI Bank, not in force yet)

: ICICI Bank joins the PM SVANidhi credit-card scheme with a lifetime-free card (about the ICICI Bank PM SVANidhi Credit Card)

: Amazon Pay ICICI's 5% now covers Amazon.in travel (about the Amazon Pay ICICI Bank)

: ICICI drops Times Black from its bigger fuel-surcharge waiver (about the ICICI Times Black)

Changed

ICICI's September lounge list drops four doors and adds Bhogapuram

Before

The prior edition opened Bhubaneswar's landside Bird Lounge, Vadodara's Premium Lounge, Visakhapatnam's Airr Lounge and Bar, and Dehradun's landside Bird Lounge, and filed Ahmedabad T2 international as The Lounge opposite Gate 3

After

Those four rooms are gone. Bhubaneswar keeps O'Vetra near Gate 8, Dehradun keeps Carnations in the security hold, Vadodara is off the list, and Visakhapatnam's rows are Encalm domestic and international at Bhogapuram. Ahmedabad T2 international is Adani Silver Lounge - International, Gate 08, and it is not asterisked

Changed

ICICI un-reserves Mumbai's Adani Silver lounge — the whole Annexure-1 board gets in

Before

Row 57 of ICICI's consolidated domestic lounge list read '* Adani Silver Lounge / Terminal 2 / International', and the asterisk footnote confined it to 'Diamant, Emerald Private Metal and Times Black Credit Card customers' — three cards, two of which we carry

After

The August-2026 edition renames the row 'Adani Silver International Lounge', keeps it at row 57 and drops the asterisk. The footnote itself is unchanged, so an unasterisked row means what it means everywhere else on this list: every card on Annexure 1 gets it, at that card's own quarterly quota

: Vietnam Airlines Lotusmiles opens a broad SkyTeam status match — up to Elite Plus (a program these points reach)

: IHG Hotels & Resorts becomes a Maharaja Club earning and conversion partner (a program these points reach)

Every ICICI Bank change (16 since 2019, 9 of them cuts) · All changes across cards

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Alternatives

More about this card 5 pages

Sources

Last checked . Every fact on this page comes from these 3 documents; the bank's own are marked official.

  1. Official ICICI's 1838 Reserve product page — 3% domestic and 2% international in Reward Points, Visa, invite-only, the welcome and membership benefits, no fee waiver read 12 Oct 2026
  2. Official ICICI Bank credit-card MITC (updated 9 Oct 2026) — the ₹1,75,000 fee row, zero forex and DCC, 20% interest, the reward caps, no lounge access and the relationship clause read 24 Oct 2026
  3. Community Card Insider on the August 2026 teaser — an express-your-interest page, an October date and invite-only access read 12 Oct 2026
How we work out the yearly value

We price the card on an everyday mix of spending (30% groceries · 10% utilities · 20% travel · 6% fuel · 34% everything else), using this card's own rules for each kind of spend. Then we add milestone bonuses and take off the fee.

This figure does not count a card's bonus categories (they need you to shop a certain way); our rankings add each card's best bonus category on a realistic share of spend. Our comparisons use this same figure.

Our method in full · Try your exact spend

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