IndusInd Tiger
KeepA lifetime-free card that quietly became India's cheapest Maharaja Club pipe.
What it's worth to you — net annual value
Welcome: None — lifetime free, no joining bonus
How these numbers are computed →
Spend tiers, milestones and fee waivers included, at our house ₹/point. Portal and category multipliers can push higher — run your exact number →
The take
Tiger spent its first years as a free lounge pass with a rewards program nobody redeemed — then June 2026 added 1:1 transfers to Air India Maharaja Club and changed the math. The slab engine is the catch and the trick: spends earn 1 point per ₹100 until ₹1 lakh in the anniversary year, then 2, then 4, then 6 beyond ₹5 lakh — so light spenders get a limp 0.8% while anyone pushing ₹1L a month blends past 3.7% in Maharaja value, on a card that costs nothing, ever. Respect the plumbing: transfers cap at 25,000 points a month via IndusMoments with a ₹100 redemption fee, cash-outs floor at ₹0.40 (5,000 points/month max), the KrisFlyer 10:3 route is a decoy, and points die 24 months after accrual. Free card, real miles, patience required.
What's good
- Lifetime free — no joining, annual or add-on fee, no spend gates on lounge
- 1:1 Air India Maharaja Club transfers since Jun-2026 (25k points/month cap)
- 6 RP/₹100 above ₹5L/year ≈ 4.8% marginal in Maharaja value
- 1.5% forex — among the lowest on any free card
- 2 domestic lounge visits/quarter + 2 international/year (Priority Pass)
Watch out
- 0.8% on the first ₹1L of the year — the engine only wakes past ₹5L
- Points expire 24 months from accrual; ₹100 fee per redemption
- Cash redemption floor ₹0.40/pt, capped 5,000 points a month (since Sep-2024)
- KrisFlyer at 10:3 (₹0.33/pt) — transfer to Maharaja or don't transfer at all
- No slab multiplier on rent/insurance/utility/govt/education; 1% rent fee
What earns, what doesn't
IndusInd publishes no MCC exclusion table for Tiger. Community consensus (CardMaven): fuel earns nothing; rent, insurance, utilities, government, education and real estate earn the BASE 1 RP/₹100 but are shut out of the 2x/4x/6x slab multiplier — on a card whose entire pitch is the multiplier, that's a de-facto ~0.8% cap on those categories.
- Fuel · excluded Zero points; 1% surcharge waiver on ₹400–₹4,000 txns (official MITC)
- Wallet loads · excluded Not addressed in any Tiger doc; IndusInd standard practice zeroes wallet loads — community mapping, flag
- Rent & property management · reduced Base 1 RP/₹100 only, no slab multiplier (community); plus 1% + GST fee per rent txn (official MITC)
- Utilities (electricity/water/gas) · reduced Base 1 RP/₹100 only, no multiplier — community, flag
per IndusInd Bank T&C (community-sourced) · rank every card by spend category →
Where the miles go
Ratios read card points : partner miles — 2:1 means 2 points become 1 mile. Never the other way round.
Lounge access
Opens 588 of 644 tracked lounge doors across 245 airports — see the full map →
Can you get it?
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.
IndusInd 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 IndusInd Bank MITC — figures marked (community) aren't in the PDF; the issuer won't say · filter the ranking by what you can get →
The fine print
What the MITC actually says — the rates, fees and cutoffs the brochure skips.
Lifetime free — joining, annual and add-on all Nil. Reward points valid 24 months from accrual (in the MITC itself). Priority Pass visits billed up to US$27/person/visit (Tiger MITC; the bank-wide SOC quotes US$35); rent txns 1% + GST; DCC 2% + GST eff 15-Jun-2026 per the master SOC (co-brand MITC still shows 1%); card replacement ₹100. Benefits may be withdrawn if the card sits unused 90+ days. IndusInd publishes no income/age criteria for Tiger — Bajaj Capital co-brand, digital-first.
per the official IndusInd Bank MITC · reviewed 10 Jul 2026
What's changed for this card
Full tracker →Devaluations and buffs that touch this card directly, its issuer, or the points and programs it earns and transfers to.
- 1 Jun 2026AU, YES and IndusInd points open transfers to Maharaja ClubAU/YES/IndusInd points locked in closed loops → Maharaja routes: IndusInd Tiger 1:1 (Pinnacle 2:1, Legend 4:1); AU Zenith+ 3:2, other AU cards 6:1; YES Marquee/Reserv 15:1
Three banks joined Air India's transfer roster at once — and the ratios are the whole story. The lifetime-free IndusInd Tiger gets the only honest 1:1 (capped 25k/month); AU Zenith+ lands a genuinely good 3:2 that triples what AU points were worth; everything else — Pinnacle 2:1, Legend 4:1, the AU 6:1 crowd, YES at a punitive 15:1 — is a decoy dressed as a partnership.
- 1 Apr 2026Maharaja Club gets cheaper awards and faster creditingHigher award costs; slow points crediting → Domestic awards from 1,500 pts; credited within 2 hours
A rare buff. Air India's post-merger programme drops domestic award flights to 1,500 points, cabin upgrades to 4,000, credits Star Alliance miles within two hours, and eases Platinum to 60 flights. The transfer target Indian card geeks care about actually got better.
- 28 Mar 2026KrisFlyer quietly cuts its own dynamic 'Access' award ratesAccess dynamic awards priced as launched in Nov 2025 → Access rates cut up to 10.9% (economy/PE), 3.9% (J/F)
Barely five months after introducing dynamic 'Access' award pricing alongside a broader Saver-chart devaluation, KrisFlyer moved the goalposts again on 28 March 2026 — this time devaluing the dynamic tier itself by up to 10.9% in economy and premium economy. For Indian cardholders funnelling HDFC Infinia, Axis Atlas or ICICI points into KrisFlyer, this is the second haircut in under half a year on the same currency, and it came with the usual zero warning.
- 10 Jan 2026SBI Card splits domestic lounges into tiers, adds entry feesUniform domestic lounge list, free swipe-in access → Set A/Set B lounge tiers by card, plus ₹2–25 entry charges
From 10 January 2026, SBI Card sorts its domestic lounge network into a Set A (top cards like Club Vistara SBI Card, Apollo SELECT) and a broader Set B (PRIME, Pulse, Titan SBI Card and others) — and bolts on a non-refundable ₹2 authorization charge plus a ₹25 validation hold on every visit. It's marketed as an expansion since more airports are covered, but the fine print is a two-tier system with new friction at the gate, right after SBI had already pulled complimentary air accident insurance six months earlier.
- 1 Nov 2025KrisFlyer devalues premium and Star Alliance awardsOld saver/advantage rates → Biz/First Saver +5%, Advantage +15%, Star Alliance +5–12%
The single most important transfer target for Indian points — HDFC, Axis, Amex and HSBC all feed it — got pricier. Business and First saver awards rise 5% (Zone 10 up to 20%), Advantage awards jump 15%, and Star Alliance redemptions cost 5–12% more. The ₹2/mile sweet spots just got harder to reach.
- 25 Mar 2025IndusInd hikes redemption fee to ₹149, caps cash-outs at 50%₹100 + GST per redemption; full points balance redeemable as statement credit; fractional points on multiplier spends → ₹149 + GST per redemption (Avios, Pioneer and EazyDiner cards exempt); cash redemption capped at 50% of balance; fractional accrual gone; points clawed back on unpaid dues
IndusInd found four ways to shave the same rewards program at once: the redemption toll rose ₹100 to ₹149 + GST, cash redemptions now stop at half your points balance, fractional accrual on multiplier spends quietly ended, and points earned on a statement you don't pay get rescinded. Pinnacle and Legend holders take the full hit; the Avios card — where the points leave for BA and Qatar anyway — is pointedly exempt.
- 7 Mar 2025Legend loses lounge access entirely1 complimentary domestic lounge visit per quarter → No complimentary lounge access at all
A year after halving Legend's lounge visits, IndusInd came back and took the rest. From 7 March 2025 the card offers no complimentary lounge access, domestic or otherwise — on a product still marketed with a ₹5,000 joining fee. The lifetime-free Legend crowd shrugs; anyone who paid for this card on the strength of its airport perks got a two-step lesson in how IndusInd sunsets a benefit.
- 1 Dec 2024HSBC TravelOne arrives — a 20-partner airmiles cardNo mainstream HSBC airmiles card in India → ₹4,999 card, 4X travel/forex, 1:1 to Avios & KrisFlyer
HSBC's serious play for Indian miles chasers: 4 points per ₹100 on flights, travel aggregators and forex, and instant 1:1 transfers to British Airways and Qatar Avios plus ~20 airline/hotel partners including KrisFlyer and Air India — all from the app. A genuine sub-₹5k alternative to Atlas. (Welcome-offer window opened 1 Dec 2024.)
Go deeper
Sources
Every fact on this page is checked against these documents — the issuer's own paperwork first. Spot something stale? The PDF wins, and we re-verify.
- official Product page checked 12 Jul 2026
- official MITC PDF checked 12 Jul 2026
- official Benefit guide PDF checked 12 Jul 2026
- community LiveFromALounge — 1:1 Maharaja route checked 12 Jul 2026
- community CardMaven review — Visa Signature checked 12 Jul 2026
- official IndusInd UPI/RuPay FAQ — Tiger absent from RuPay list checked 11 Jul 2026
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