IDFC FIRST Gaj
KeepThe ₹12,500 invitation: 0% forex, ₹1 points and a flat 3.3% with no gate to clear.
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
Read the ₹0.4L figure carefully: ₹12,500 of its ₹26,300 gross is a voucher or a hotel night, not points — worth that only if you would have bought it anyway.
Welcome: 12,500 RP on joining-fee payment (₹12,500 at the ₹1 travel value) + a 25%-off 5-star hotel voucher worth up to ₹5,000 on ₹1L spent in 60 days — once per customer
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 ₹12,800 gross (earn ₹300 + milestones ₹12,500) against its ₹12,500 fee = ₹300 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 #11
Why #11 Ranked above Mayura and Ashva, which is where IDFC put it: flat 5 RP/₹150 with no ₹20k statement-tier hoop, points worth ₹1.00 on in-app travel (2x Mayura, 2.5x Ashva) and 0% forex. Nudged up, and still held BELOW its own value score, for the reason that produces the score: the whole number rests on redeeming at ₹1.00 inside IDFC's own app. This card has no transfer partners at all, so a holder who books anywhere else collects ₹0.25 a point — a quarter of it — and that single-exit risk is what the enthusiast desks are reacting to when they call it one of the worst cards of its year. We think that verdict is far too harsh on a 0%-forex card with a ₹1 point and the best flat everyday rate IDFC has ever paid. We also will not rank it on a redemption path the reader has to stay inside to collect.
Denied or downgraded? The head-to-heads: HDFC Infinia Metal, ICICI Emeralde Private Metal, HDFC Diners Club Black Metal, HSBC Premier (Metal), IDFC FIRST Private, Axis Magnus, IDFC FIRST Mayura, RBL Nova, IDFC FIRST Ashva, IDFC FIRST Diamond Reserve.
Gaj redeems the IDFC point at ₹1.00 on flight and hotel bookings in the app's Travel & Shop section — FOUR TIMES the ₹0.25 house value, and the top rung on IDFC's ladder alongside FIRST Private — but ₹0.25 on vouchers, products or "pay with points". earn.base is scaled UP to that ₹1.00 reality, so the rate below collapses to a quarter of itself the moment you redeem for anything but app travel; points can only cover 70% of a booking, and 1.5L a month / 3L a year of them.
The take
Gaj — IDFC stylises it "Gaj:" — is the top of the metal trilogy and the only rung you can't apply for: ₹12,500 + GST a year, by invitation, aimed at the bank's private-banking clients. What the extra ₹6,501 over Mayura buys is the point itself. Gaj redeems at ₹1.00 on in-app flight and hotel bookings, double Mayura's ₹0.50 and 2.5× Ashva's ₹0.40, and it earns a flat 5 RP per ₹150 on everything with no ₹20,000-a-statement gate to clear first — a genuine 3.3% on ordinary spend, the best everyday rate any IDFC card has ever paid. App hotel bookings run 50 RP per ₹150, which is the 33.33% the marketing shouts about, and it's real. The lounge sheet matches Mayura's (4 Indian including a guest, 4 global, plus 4 railway, all per quarter), the forex is the same 0%, and the extras are heavier: up to 24 golf rounds a year, a free 3rd night at ITC Hotels and Elivaas villas, ₹50,000 of trip-cancellation cover. The catch is IDFC's usual one — this is a closed loop with zero transfer partners, the ₹1 lives only inside the app, covers at most 70% of a booking, and collapses to ₹0.25 the second you cash out.
Your renewal — keep, downgrade or cancel
This card covers its own renewal fee at any spend we model — the question is what else you hold, not whether to keep it.
Keep, downgrade or cancel
₹12,500/yr at stake · 5 spend bands
The charge ₹12,500/yr
The waiver ₹10,00,000 of spend in the year before renewal — about ₹83,333 a month — and the renewal fee is not charged.
Break-even It clears its own fee at every spend we model, from ₹1,000 a month up. The question here is whether you use it, not whether it pays.
At your spend
₹8,600 a year, net of the fee, at ₹3,00,000 of annual spend
₹17,200 a year, net of the fee, at ₹6,00,000 of annual spend
₹34,400 a year, net of the fee, at ₹12,00,000 of annual spend — this clears the waiver, so no fee is charged
₹1,03,200 a year, net of the fee, at ₹36,00,000 of annual spend — this clears the waiver, so no fee is charged
₹1,72,000 a year, net of the fee, at ₹60,00,000 of annual spend — this clears the waiver, so no fee is charged
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
- 9 Sep 2026 IDFC FIRST Bank zeroes forex markup on every credit card issuer-wide
- 18 Jun 2026 IDFC FIRST bolts a 24-month expiry onto reward points that were lifetime-valid issuer-wide
- 18 Jun 2026 Gaj stops earning past your credit limit
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
- ₹1 per point on in-app flight and hotel bookings — double Mayura, 2.5× Ashva
- Flat 5 RP per ₹150 on everything ≈ 3.3% — no ₹20k statement gate to clear first
- 50 RP per ₹150 on app hotel bookings ≈ 33.3%, the fattest closed-loop rate in India
- 0% forex on a metal Visa Infinite; 4 Indian + 4 global + 4 railway lounge visits a quarter
- Points never expire, and the FIRST Digital RuPay UPI add-on is free (₹199 on every other IDFC card)
- Pay the ₹12,500 renewal and 12,500 points come straight back — IDFC prices them at ₹12,500
Watch out
- Invite-only for private-banking clients — there is no public route that gets you approved
- Closed loop: zero airline or hotel transfer partners, like every other IDFC card
- The ₹1 is portal-locked and pays at most 70% of a booking; cash out and it's ₹0.25
- Bonus points cap at 15,000/month — LOWER than Mayura's 25,000 — and redemptions at 1.5L/month, 3L/year
- Lounges, golf and the multipliers all need ₹20,000 spent the previous month; the ₹12,500 fee is only waived at ₹10L annual spend
- 18-Jun-2026: no reward points on spends beyond your credit limit in a billing cycle
- The 12,500 renewal points come "upon successful payment" of the fee — clear the ₹10L waiver instead and there is nothing to pay and nothing credited
What these points actually fly
No live transfer route takes IDFC FIRST Reward 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
13 sourced rules · 2 pay zero
Gaj's rewards T&C publishes its own MCC table, so every row below is from the issuer rather than inferred. Base earn is a flat 5 RP/₹150 with no ₹20k statement tier — the categories below are the carve-outs from it. Every reduced rate is written as "X RP/₹150 vs 5 RP/₹150" on purpose — earn.base (6.67) is scaled to the ₹1 app-travel redemption while these notes quote raw RP, so a lone rate would be halved by that markup; the two-rate form is exact. Points redeem at ₹1 on IDFC app travel, ₹0.25 elsewhere.
- Fuel · excluded Zero RP (MCC 5172/5541/5542/5552/5983); 1% surcharge waiver on ₹200–₹5,000 txns, cap ₹300/cycle; 1% fee once fuel spends pass ₹30,000/cycle
- Rent & property management · reduced 1 RP/₹150 vs the 5 RP/₹150 base (MCC 6513) ≈ 0.67% at the ₹1 travel value; plus a 1% fee, min ₹249, on domestic rent txns
- Wallet loads · reduced 1 RP/₹150 vs the 5 RP/₹150 base (MCC 6540) — earns where most premium cards zero out, but at a fifth of base
- Utilities (electricity/water/gas) · reduced 1 RP/₹150 vs the 5 RP/₹150 base (MCC 4812/4813/4814/4816/4821/4829/4899/4900). Gaj is the ONLY IDFC card whose 1% utility fee starts at ₹50,000 a cycle — every other variant starts at ₹20,000
per IDFC FIRST Bank T&C · rank every card by spend category →
Does your spend count toward the fee waiver?
not published — and we say which
₹10,00,000 a year is the bar that waives the ₹12,500 fee. A different question from the one above — earning points and counting toward a threshold are separate rules, and issuers write them separately.
Not published. IDFC FIRST Bank states what the IDFC FIRST Gaj earns and does not earn, but has not published which spend categories count toward the fee waiver and the milestones — the ₹10,00,000 bar. We won't guess it from the earn table or from a sibling card: Axis published three cards' rules on one day and all three lists differed. If you hold this card and have it in writing from the issuer, send us the document and we'll source it.
Lounge access
129 of 793 tracked doors
Gate: ₹20k spend in the previous calendar month
Opens 129 of 793 tracked lounge doors across 54 airports and 19 railway stations , via DreamFolks, DreamFolks Railway — 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.
Invite-only — there is no public application form. The bank calls you.
IDFC's own card listing badges Gaj "Invite Only" and the product hero says "By invitation only"; the launch announcement (29 Dec 2025) placed it squarely with FIRST Private Banking clients, one rung below the ₹50,000 FIRST Private. There is an application-and-approval flow behind the invitation, and it ends with an unusual step: the ₹12,500 + GST joining fee is charged upfront and must be PAID before the metal card is dispatched or the digital card activates — non-refundable, and the benefit is once per customer, so closing and reapplying forfeits the 12,500-point sweetener.
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.
Fee ₹12,500 joining and ₹12,500 annual, waived on ₹10L of eligible spend in the previous card anniversary year (net spends exclude fuel, EMI, fees, GST, loan-on-card, balance transfer, cash and reversals). Invite-only, and the joining fee must be PAID upfront before the metal card is dispatched — non-refundable. Metal card replacement ₹4,000. Fuel-surcharge waiver capped ₹300/cycle. Gaj is the ONLY IDFC card whose 1% utility fee starts at ₹50,000 a cycle rather than ₹20,000; rent draws 1%, min ₹249. The FIRST Digital RuPay add-on carries no joining, annual or add-on fee when attached to Gaj. IDFC publishes no income or age criteria for Gaj — left blank rather than guessed. MITC effective 18-Jun-2026.
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.
- 9 Sept 2026IDFC FIRST Bank zeroes forex markup on every credit cardA per-card markup table — Nil on a few premium cards, 1% to 3.5% on the rest → NIL on foreign-currency transactions and on dynamic and static currency conversion, bank-wide
IDFC's retail credit-card MITC, re-saved 9 September 2026, replaces the old per-card forex table with one NIL row covering foreign-currency transactions and dynamic and static currency conversion. The commercial and corporate MITCs, re-saved 7 September, print Nil or 0% for the business and corporate cards. Ashva's brochure, re-issued 10 September, says the same and also cuts that card's international earn from 5 reward points per ₹150 to 2X. A widely reported 26 October cut to international reward earning is not in any of those documents, so it is not on the cards. Cards that were already Nil — Mayura, Gaj, WOW, WOW Black, FIRST Private, Diamond Reserve — did not move.
- 18 Jun 2026Mayura's app-travel multipliers cut to 40X hotels, 25X flights
- 18 Jun 2026LIC IDFC FIRST Select's app-travel bonus cut to 20% hotels, 8% flights
- 18 Jun 2026Ashva's app-travel multipliers cut to 40X hotels, 25X flights
- 18 Jun 2026IDFC FIRST bolts a 24-month expiry onto reward points that were lifetime-valid
- 18 Jun 2026IDFC FIRST Select's 10X moves to categories, app travel bonus cut
- 18 Jun 2026Gaj stops earning past your credit limit
- 18 Jun 2026FIRST Wealth's app-travel bonus falls from 33% to 20%
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 — 7 of them, each with the day we read it
- official Domestic lounge list — the 48 rooms the four quarterly visits can be spent at, addresses and terminals included
- official Product page + FAQs (₹12,500 joining and annual, waiver at ₹10L; ANNUAL FEE PAYMENT BENEFIT of 12,500 RP worth up to ₹12,500 credited on paying the renewal when the waiver)
- official Rewards T&C PDF (5 RP/₹150 base, 3 RP/₹150 international, 1 RP/₹150 on rent/utilities/govt/education; bonus is ADDITIVE — Base (A) 5 + Bonus (B) 45/20 = Total (A+B) 50/25 RP
- official 18-Jun-2026 change notice PDF (rewards earned only on spends up to your credit limit per billing cycle)
- official Bank-wide MITC (₹12,500/₹12,500; add-on ₹4,000 joining / ₹2,000 annual; NIL forex; ₹199 cash advance; ₹99 redemption fee; ₹4,000 card replacement; 1% utility fee past)
- official Benefits T&C PDF (VISA Infinite; ITC Hotels "stay 3 pay 2" via promocode ITCVIS — a Visa offer, not a membership)
- community Launch coverage, 29 Dec 2025 — invite-only for FIRST Private Banking clients