Club Vistara IDFC FIRST
KeepSpend it through 30 September 2026. Then it stops — ₹4,999 still on the page, 2.4% into Maharaja Points until that date.
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: 1 Premium Economy ticket voucher, 1 one-class upgrade voucher, Maharaja Club Silver membership and 3 months of EazyDiner Prime on the joining fee — and the ticket voucher, the upgrade voucher and the Silver renewal again on every annual fee. Plus up to 6,000 bonus Maharaja Points (2,000 per ₹30,000 cycle) across billing cycles 2, 3 and 4, first year only
Priced on the everyday mix — 30% groceries · 10% utilities · 20% travel · 6% fuel · 34% everything else — with this card's published category rules applied. 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 for itself at ₹18,000 a month
At ₹18,000 a month — ₹2,16,000 a year — on the everyday mix this card returns ₹5,200 gross (earn ₹5,200) against its ₹4,999 fee = ₹200 net — the first rung at or above ₹0. 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 #784
Why #784 Closed to new applications, and now dated. IDFC's own notice ends the programme on 30 September 2026 and stops every transaction on 1 October. Ranked on what it is worth to somebody who can still spend it until that date: 2.4% straight into Maharaja Points, eight domestic and four international lounges, and a Premium Economy voucher every ₹1,50,000, against a ₹4,999 fee the closure letter leaves in place.
Maharaja Points at the house ₹0.80. IDFC prints the earn per ₹200, not per ₹100: "6 Maharaja points on spends up to Rs. 1,00,000 in a billing cycle and 4 Maharaja points for all spends above Rs. 1,00,000 … Earn of Maharaja point will be calculated per Rs. 200." That is 3 points per ₹100 on the first ₹1 lakh of a cycle and 2 above it — 2.4% and 1.6% at ₹0.80.
The take
IDFC's Vistara co-brand outlived the airline. Vistara merged into Air India, Club Vistara wound into the Maharaja Club, and IDFC rewrote the card around the surviving programme rather than retiring it: the tier it grants is Maharaja Club Silver, the points it pays are Maharaja Points, and they land in a Maharaja Club account. What it will not do any more is take a new application — the product page opens with "We are no longer accepting new applications for Club Vistara IDFC FIRST credit card" and points you at the IndiGo dual card instead. The programme itself now has a last day. IDFC's cardmember notice, linked from that page, ends it on 30 September 2026 and stops every transaction on 1 October — online, international, cash and standing instructions. The same page's FAQ says a clear account closes that day; a balance or a running EMI keeps the account open only for statements and repayment until it is cleared. Maharaja Points earned on eligible spends through 30 September move to the linked Maharaja Club account, and they do not lapse because the card closed. The notice and the FAQ describe that ending. They do not name another card. For somebody still holding it through 30 September, the arithmetic is good. Six Maharaja Points per ₹200 is 3 per ₹100, and at ₹0.80 a point that is 2.4% back on everything up to ₹1,00,000 in a billing cycle, dropping to 1.6% above that. Twelve lounge visits a year — two domestic per quarter and one international per quarter — as long as you spent ₹20,000 in the month before, and the international ones run on a DreamFolks card rather than the credit card itself. Four rounds of golf and twelve lessons. Trip cancellation cover of ₹10,000 across two claims a year. And the milestone ladder is the real draw: a Premium Economy ticket voucher at ₹1,50,000 of annual spend and four more by ₹12,00,000, on top of the one that arrives with each fee payment. Two things to watch. The fee did not go away. Axis waived the annual fee on every surviving Vistara card from April 2025; IDFC's ₹4,999 is still on the product page, and the closure notice does not waive it, so a fee that falls due is still ₹4,999 — you have to actually take the vouchers to break even. There is no renewal after 30 September. The bank ends the card. And the earn rate on the categories most people spend on is 1 point per ₹200: fuel, utilities, rent, insurance, wallet loads, railways and FASTag all pay 0.4%, with government payments, education, jewellery and gift vouchers joining them on 17 April 2026.
Your renewal — 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.
Keep, downgrade or cancel
₹4,999/yr at stake · 5 spend bands
The charge ₹4,999/yr
Break-even ₹18,000 a month — ₹2,16,000 a year — is where this card's value crosses its fee.
At your spend
₹2,200 a year, net of the fee, at ₹3,00,000 of annual spend
₹9,400 a year, net of the fee, at ₹6,00,000 of annual spend
₹23,800 a year, net of the fee, at ₹12,00,000 of annual spend
₹62,200 a year, net of the fee, at ₹36,00,000 of annual spend
₹1,00,600 a year, net of the fee, at ₹60,00,000 of annual spend
Everyday earn plus milestones, minus the fee — the same model as the value panel above, so the two cannot disagree. run your exact spend →
Your copy of this card
You hold this card.
Kept on this device, in your browser. It is never sent to us, never synced, and nothing else on the site reads it yet.
The downgrade
IDFC FIRST 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
- 9 Sep 2026 IDFC FIRST Bank zeroes forex markup on every credit card issuer-wide
- 25 Aug 2026 Vietnam Airlines Lotusmiles opens a broad SkyTeam status match — up to Elite Plus 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
- 2.4% into Maharaja Points — 6 per ₹200 on the first ₹1,00,000 of each billing cycle
- 8 domestic and 4 international lounge visits a year, on ₹20,000 of spend the month before
- Up to 5 Premium Economy ticket vouchers a year, from ₹1,50,000 of annual spend
- A Premium Economy voucher, a one-class upgrade voucher and Maharaja Club Silver on every fee payment
- 2.99% forex — well under the 3.5% Indian norm
- 4 complimentary golf rounds and 12 lessons a year, plus 50% off beyond them
- Cancel-for-any-reason cover up to ₹10,000 across 2 flight or hotel claims a year
Watch out
- Programme ends 30 September 2026. From 1 October the card takes no transactions — online, international, cash or standing instructions
- A clear account closes on 1 October 2026. A balance or a running EMI stays open only until it is paid, then closes
- Add-on cards and the FIRST Digital card on this account stop working on 1 October 2026
- IDFC's closure notice and the product-page FAQ describe that ending. They do not name another card
- CLOSED — IDFC is no longer accepting new applications for this card
- ₹4,999 every year with no spend waiver. Unlike Axis, IDFC has NOT waived the annual fee on its surviving Vistara card
- Fuel, utilities, rent, insurance, wallet loads, railways and FASTag earn 1 point per ₹200 — 0.4%
- Government payments, education, jewellery and gift vouchers dropped to the same 1-per-₹200 rate on 17 April 2026
- Both lounge quotas need ₹20,000 of spend in the previous month; the international ones need a DreamFolks card, not this one
- Above ₹1,00,000 of spend in a billing cycle the rate falls from 6 to 4 points per ₹200
- Since 18 June 2026 points stop entirely once a billing cycle's spend passes your credit limit — anything beyond it earns nothing
- Utility spends above ₹20,000 a cycle, FASTag above ₹10,000 and railway above ₹25,000 attract a 1% surcharge
- Maharaja Points are earned directly and cannot be transferred anywhere else — no IDFC card has a transfer partner
What these points actually fly
No live transfer route takes Air India Maharaja Points into a programme that publishes an award chart. These points buy catalogue and portal redemptions, not award seats — so this page has no flight to show you, and will not invent one.
what the cards that DO reach a chart can fly — 2,196 corridors priced →
What earns, what doesn't
2 sourced rules
The card is closed to new applications and the product page says so, but IDFC still prices it for existing holders and cut four categories on it in April 2026. The education and government rows are asserted here.
- Government / tax · reduced Cut to 1 point per ₹200 vs the 6 points per ₹200 the card's first spend tier pays, effective 17 April 2026 — Maharaja Points, 0.4% at ₹0.80 apiece. Government payments lead IDFC's own line, verbatim and with the bank's spelling — "Effective 17th April'26 – 1 Maharaja Point on Government Payments, Education, Jewellary and Gift Vouchers (GVs)" — against "Maharaja Point earn rate calculated on spend of every Rs. 200". A cut, but not a zero, which is more than most of the market pays on a tax challan. No cap is published on the reduced band
- Education · reduced Cut to 1 point per ₹200 vs the 6 points per ₹200 the card's first spend tier pays, effective 17 April 2026. IDFC's own line, verbatim and with the bank's spelling — "Effective 17th April'26 – 1 Maharaja Point on Government Payments, Education, Jewellary and Gift Vouchers (GVs)" — against "Maharaja Point earn rate calculated on spend of every Rs. 200". No cap is published on the reduced band
per IDFC FIRST Bank T&C · rank every card by spend category →
Lounge access
62 of 793 tracked doors
Gate: ₹20,000 of spend in the previous month, on BOTH quotas, w.e.f. 1 May 2024
Opens 62 of 793 tracked lounge doors across 30 airports , via DreamFolks — see the full map →
Can you get it?
the route in — no cutoffs published
The cutoffs and the actual route in — not the "apply now" button, the door that opens.
Closed to new applications — existing cardholders keep the card; there is no way in.
You cannot. IDFC's product page still carries the standing notice that new applications are closed, and it points applicants at the IndiGo IDFC FIRST Dual Credit Card. Holders have a last spend date. The cardmember notice linked from that page ends the programme on 30 September 2026. You can keep using the card until then, inside the existing terms and your credit limit. From 1 October 2026 it takes no transactions. The product-page FAQ says a clear account closes that day; an outstanding balance or a running EMI keeps statements and repayment going until the dues are cleared, and the account closes after that. Move standing instructions and subscriptions off this card before 30 September. Maharaja Points earned through that date transfer to the linked Maharaja Club account. The notice and the FAQ describe that ending. They do not name another card.
IDFC FIRST Bank publishes no income or age cutoffs for this card. Blank means blank — we don't invent numbers to fill a grid.
per the official IDFC FIRST 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
7 of 7 MITC rows published
What the MITC actually says — the rates, fees and cutoffs the brochure skips.
MITC §1 has TWO columns, "Commencement / Joining Fee (₹)" and "Yearly /Annual Fee (₹)", and is NOT inverted: "Club Vistara IDFC FIRST Credit Card · ₹4,999 · ₹4,999 · ₹499". The equal pair is why the card carries no `joiningFee` key. THE CARD IS CLOSED TO NEW APPLICATIONS — the product page says so outright — but IDFC has NOT waived the renewal the way Axis did on its Vistara cards, so ₹4,999 is still levied on existing holders and this row still prices it. Fuel-surcharge waiver: "Not Applicable". The card is in the image-personalisation exclusion list.
per the official IDFC FIRST 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.
- 9 Sept 2026IDFC FIRST Bank zeroes forex markup on every credit card
- 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
- 26 Jul 2026Air India's quiet network retreat: Tokyo moves, Paris and San Francisco go, Malé pauses
Every IDFC FIRST Bank change we've dated → 11 events since 2023, 7 of them nerfs — worst year 2026.
Verified against IDFC FIRST Bank'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 Cardmember notice — the programme ends 30 September 2026 and the card takes no transactions from 1 October
- official Product page — closed to new applications; programme ends 30 September 2026; 6 Maharaja Points per ₹200 up to ₹1 lakh a cycle
- official Bank-wide MITC — ₹4,999 joining and ₹4,999 annual, ₹499 add-on, 2.99% forex and no fuel-surcharge waiver
- official IDFC's May-2026 cardmember notice — from 18 June 2026 Maharaja Points stop at the credit limit for the cycle, and redemption is Maharaja Club only