IndusInd Tiger
KeepA lifetime-free card that quietly became India's cheapest Maharaja Club pipe.
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: None — lifetime free, no joining bonus
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.
2 notes on the card itself: how it is issued · the network variants
Our #1 for Lifetime free; joint #1 for Lounges (3 cards level); #2 for First travel card — 3 of the 23 questions this desk ranks.
Best real exit: Air India Maharaja Points at ₹0.80/pt (1:1 transfer).
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 route — stealth-cut from 10:3 to 4:1 around end-2025 — is a decoy, and points die 24 months after accrual. Free card, real miles, patience required.
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
₹4,000 a year at ₹3,00,000 of annual spend
₹13,200 a year at ₹6,00,000 of annual spend
₹37,900 a year at ₹12,00,000 of annual spend
₹1,36,600 a year at ₹36,00,000 of annual spend
₹2,19,300 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
IndusInd 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
- 25 Aug 2026 Vietnam Airlines Lotusmiles opens a broad SkyTeam status match — up to Elite Plus a program these points reach
- 20 Aug 2026 IHG Hotels & Resorts becomes a Maharaja Club earning and conversion partner 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
- 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 stealth-devalued to 4:1 (₹0.28/pt) between Sep-2025 and Jan-2026, capped 10k points/month — transfer to Maharaja or don't transfer at all
- No slab multiplier on rent/insurance/utility/govt/education; 1% rent fee
- 2% DCC fee (+GST) from 15-Jun-2026 when a foreign merchant bills in rupees — always pay in local currency to keep the 1.5% forex
What these points actually fly
You hold this — the numbers below are your own points.
These points feed 21 programmes that publish an award chart. Cheapest verified seat per cabin, priced in YOUR points with this card's own ratio already applied:
- Delhi → Singapore Economy 76,000 IndusInd Reward Points via Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer at 4:1 the play
- Bengaluru → Singapore Business 180,000 IndusInd Reward Points via Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer at 4:1
- Mumbai → Delhi First 320,000 IndusInd Reward Points via Air Canada Aeroplan at 12.8:1 (through Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer → Marriott Bonvoy) the play
What earns, what doesn't
13 sourced rules · 3 pay zero
IndusInd publishes no MCC-numbered table for Tiger, but the official product page names the categories (re-read 2026-08-05, verbatim): "Accelerated Reward points will not be accrued on transactions done at select MCC categories such as fuel, utility bill payments, insurance premium, government services, Educational Institutes, Real Estate and rental payments. Fuel transactions will not accrue any reward points." So those categories still earn the BASE 1 RP/₹100 — they are only shut out of the 2x/4x/6x slab multiplier, which on a card whose entire pitch is the multiplier is a de-facto ~0.8% ceiling. Fuel alone earns zero. Wallet, telecom, jewellery and EMI are NOT named either way and stay community-inferred.
- 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 — "rental payments" and "Real Estate" named on the official product page; plus 1% + GST fee per rent txn (official MITC)
- Utilities (electricity/water/gas) · reduced Base 1 RP/₹100 only, no slab multiplier — "utility bill payments" named on the official product page
Where the miles go
2 programs
Ratios read card points : partner miles — 2:1 means 2 points become 1 mile. Never the other way round.
every IndusInd Bank route, side by side → · the IndusInd Reward Points hub →
Lounge access
735 of 793 tracked doors
Opens 735 of 793 tracked lounge doors across 294 airports , via Visa, Priority Pass India, Priority Pass Global — 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.
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 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.
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
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.
- 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
- 18 Aug 2026Amex India re-rates Virgin Atlantic upward — 2:1 becomes 5:4, the first MR buff in years
- 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 IndusInd Bank change we've dated → 10 events since 2016, 8 of them nerfs — worst year 2025.
Verified against IndusInd Bank's own documents on · the net-annual-value engine, at our house ₹/point
Every document behind this page — 8 of them, each with the day we read it
- official Product page — the Magnificent Rewards slab grid (1× up to ₹1,00,000 of anniversary-year spend, 2× to ₹2,50,000, 4× to ₹5,00,000)
- official MITC PDF — joining, annual and add-on fees all Nil; 3.5% per month / 42% p.a; interest; 1.5% foreign-currency mark-up + GST; ₹100 rewards-redemption fee
- official Benefit guide PDF — the same 1/2/4/6 slab table and its ₹6L illustration (20,000 RP), 1 RP = ₹0.40 cash credit, one complimentary golf game or lesson a quarter
- official Bank Maharaja redemption T&C — 100 RP = 100 Maharaja Points, 25k/month cap
- official Bank KrisFlyer redemption T&C — table now reads 400 RP = 100 miles (4:1; URL slug preserves the old 400x120)
- community LiveFromALounge — 1:1 Maharaja route
- community CardMaven review — Visa Signature
- official IndusInd UPI/RuPay FAQ — Tiger absent from RuPay list