ICICI Bank Platinum Chip Credit Card
KeepICICI's free-forever entry card: 0.5%, a fuel waiver at HPCL, and no fee to ever justify.
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
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 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 #240
Why #240 Free forever and honest about it, but 2 points per ₹100 redeeming at ₹0.25 is 0.5% into a voucher catalogue with no airline or hotel at the far end.
ICICI Reward Points on an entry card redeem at ₹0.25 apiece, a quarter of the ₹1.00 house value the Emeralde Private earns on iShop travel. ICICI publishes no per-point figure for the Platinum Chip itself, but the identically-programmed Rubyx membership kit states it outright — "Each reward point is equivalent to ₹0.25 when redeemed for cash" — and the points buy vouchers across health and beauty, travel and luggage, shopping, home appliances, electronics and fashion. Our reward rate already prices the ₹0.25 in.
The take
There is a specific kind of card that earns its place by never asking for anything, and this is ICICI's. No joining fee, no annual fee, no spend threshold to clear, no waiver to remember — ICICI's own page calls it "a cost-free Credit Card" and means it. What you get for nothing is two Reward Points per ₹100 on retail and one per ₹100 on utility and insurance, which at the ₹0.25 an entry-tier ICICI point redeems for is 0.5% and 0.25% respectively. That is not a rewards engine. It is a floor, and the honest use of the card is as a no-cost credit line that quietly accrues voucher points while you carry something better for the spend that matters. The one benefit with real edges is the fuel surcharge waiver: 1% back on transactions between ₹400 and ₹4,000 at HPCL pumps, for the primary and supplementary cardholder both. There is no lounge access, no milestone, no welcome benefit and no transfer partner — the points buy catalogue vouchers and stop there. Two things to watch. ICICI's MITC carries an exception saying that where its no-fee-no-benefits rule applies, the Platinum Chip can attract a joining or annual fee of ₹99, so a variant of this card is priced; confirm what you are being issued. And the forex markup is 3.5%, which is the Indian norm and a reason to leave this card at home. Take it as a free line of credit with a fuel perk. Do not take it as a points 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
₹1,300 a year at ₹3,00,000 of annual spend
₹2,700 a year at ₹6,00,000 of annual spend
₹5,300 a year at ₹12,00,000 of annual spend
₹16,000 a year at ₹36,00,000 of annual spend
₹26,700 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
ICICI Bank 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
- 10 Sep 2026 ICICI's September lounge list drops four doors and adds Bhogapuram issuer-wide
- 29 Aug 2026 ICICI un-reserves Mumbai's Adani Silver lounge — the whole Annexure-1 board gets in issuer-wide
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
- No joining fee and no annual fee — ICICI's own page prints Nil against both
- 2 Reward Points per ₹100 on retail spends and 1 per ₹100 on utility and insurance
- 1% fuel surcharge waiver at HPCL pumps on transactions between ₹400 and ₹4,000, for primary and supplementary cardholders alike
- Points redeem against a voucher catalogue spanning travel and luggage, electronics, fashion, home appliances and health and beauty
- Open to salaried and self-employed applicants from ₹20,000 a month
Watch out
- 0.5% on retail and 0.25% on utility and insurance — Reward Points here are worth ₹0.25, not the ₹1.00 ICICI's Emeralde Private reaches
- ICICI's MITC names an exception under which the Platinum Chip can carry a joining or annual fee of ₹99 — confirm the variant you are issued
- No lounge access, no welcome benefit, no milestone and no transfer partner — the points buy vouchers and nothing else
- 3.5% foreign-currency markup
- The fuel surcharge waiver is HPCL-only
- ICICI Reward Points expire three years after issuance
What these points actually fly
ICICI Reward Points move to Air India Maharaja Points and iShop (ICICI travel portal) — and those price every award dynamically. There is no published chart to quote, so we quote nothing: an estimate is not a seat.
what the cards that DO reach a chart can fly — 2,196 corridors priced →
What earns, what doesn't
10 sourced rules · 3 pay zero
A lifetime-free card living entirely inside ICICI's bank-wide reward rules, which the MITC states once and applies to every variant: no points on cash, rent, e-wallet reload or fuel, and per-statement-cycle rupee caps on utility, insurance and grocery. Platinum Chip sits in the ₹40,000 / ₹40,000 / ₹20,000 band with the Coral cards. Two dates matter: government transactions were folded INTO the utility bucket on 5-Feb-2024, and a transportation cap of ₹10,000 a cycle arrived on 1-Feb-2026. Base earn is 2 Reward Points per ₹100 at ₹0.25 a point; the reduced categories pay 1.
- Fuel · excluded Zero reward points — "No reward points will be provided for transactions falling under the Fuel category" (MCC 1361, 3851, 5172, 5541, 5542, 5983, 9752, 5555), and Platinum Chip is not on the MITC's four-card exception list. What is left is a 1% surcharge waiver on fuel transactions of ₹400 to ₹4,000 at HPCL pumps
- Rent & property management · excluded Zero reward points — "No reward point will be extended for the transaction routed from 6513 MCC for all credit cards", and ICICI files rent as MCC 7014, 7407, 5271 and 6513
- Wallet loads · excluded Zero reward points — "No reward points will be provided for transactions falling under the E-Wallet Reload category", a rule the MITC exempts only Amazon Pay ICICI from
- Utilities (electricity/water/gas) · reduced 1 RP per ₹100 vs 2 RP per ₹100 on retail — half the retail rate — and only on the first ₹40,000 of utility spend a statement cycle (w.e.f. 15-Nov-2024). ICICI's utility MCC block is wide — 4899, 4900, 4901, 3887, 4897, 5416, 5417, 4812, 4813, 4814, 4815, 4821, 4896, 4902 and 3886. Separately, a 1% fee applies to utility transactions
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.
Openly available with a live Apply Now on ICICI's own product page. It is the bottom rung of the ICICI consumer ladder, below the ₹500 Coral, and the same reward table runs through both — Coral adds lounge access and a milestone ladder for its fee, while this card adds nothing and charges nothing.
per the official ICICI Bank 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
3 of 7 MITC rows published
What the MITC actually says — the rates, fees and cutoffs the brochure skips.
Lifetime free — ICICI's own page prints "Joining Fee- Nil / Annual Fee- Nil" and calls it "a cost-free Credit Card". 2 Reward Points per ₹100 on retail and 1 per ₹100 on utility and insurance, redeeming at ₹0.25 apiece against a voucher catalogue with no airline or hotel behind it. 1% fuel surcharge waiver on transactions between ₹400 and ₹4,000 at HPCL pumps, for primary and supplementary cardholders alike. No lounge access, no welcome benefit, no milestone. ICICI's MITC carries an exception under which a ₹99 variant of this card can exist — confirm the variant you are issued. Visa and Mastercard forms share one fee line ("The Cards will have the same pricing irrespective of the network variant opted for").
per the official ICICI Bank 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.
- 10 Sept 2026ICICI's September lounge list drops four doors and adds Bhogapuram
- 29 Aug 2026ICICI un-reserves Mumbai's Adani Silver lounge — the whole Annexure-1 board gets in
- 25 Aug 2026Vietnam Airlines Lotusmiles opens a broad SkyTeam status match — up to Elite Plus
- 20 Aug 2026IHG Hotels & Resorts becomes a Maharaja Club earning and conversion partner
- 6 Aug 2026MaxCoins' full transfer catalogue surfaces — Accor at 2:1 re-prices the coin to ₹1.08
- 3 Aug 2026SBI drops Etihad Guest from the MILES transfer table — the last SBI door into the programme
- 2 Aug 2026Flipkart SuperCoins into Maharaja Club improve to 2:1
Every ICICI Bank change we've dated → 10 events since 2019, 7 of them nerfs — worst year 2026.
Verified against ICICI Bank's own documents on · the net-annual-value engine, at our house ₹/point
Every document behind this page — 2 of them, each with the day we read it
- official The card's own product page — Nil joining fee, Nil annual fee, 2 Reward Points per ₹100 on retail and 1 on utility and insurance, the HPCL fuel waiver and a 3.5% forex markup
- official ICICI's card MITC — the fee table, and the exception under which a ₹99 variant of the Platinum Chip can exist