Kotak Cashback+
KeepFive percent online, three on fuel — and all of it stops at ₹750 a month.
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: Not published — Kotak lists no welcome or activation benefit for this card on the product page or in its Key Fact Statement
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 utilities 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 for itself at ₹14,000 a month
At ₹14,000 a month — ₹1,68,000 a year — on the everyday mix this card returns ₹800 gross (earn ₹800) against its ₹750 fee = ₹0 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 #224
Why #224 Two fives and a three that all drain into one 750-point-a-month bucket, on a 0.5% floor — the lowest base rate of any card in this tranche. It is here for the accelerators, which are genuinely good on a narrow slice of spend, and no higher because the base is thin, the points expire in a year and there is no airport benefit at all.
This card redeems its points at the TOP of the Kotak range — ₹1 a point against the statement, against a ₹0.25 house value across the shelf — but only in one direction and on one platform. Kotak's own words: "Accrued points can only be redeemed as cashback against statement outstanding. 1 point = ₹1. Minimum 500 points required for redemption", on the Kotak Unbox platform. And they die faster than the rest of the Kotak book: "Unclaimed cashback will expire in 1 year", against 24 months on the ordinary Kotak rewards programme.
The take
Kotak built this card around a single number and then capped it hard. The accelerators are good and specific: 5% on online groceries and food deliveries, 5% on online movie tickets and OTT subscriptions, and — genuinely rare in this market — 3% on fuel at any station, with the 1% surcharge waiver on top of that. The trouble is that all three drain into one bucket of 750 points a billing cycle, which at Kotak's own ₹1-a-point redemption is ₹750 a month, reached at ₹15,000 of accelerated spend if you run it all at 5%. And Kotak's FAQ is unusually blunt about what happens next: "Accelerated categories will earn no reward points once the capping of 750 reward points/billing cycle is met" — not the base rate, nothing. Underneath sits a 0.5% floor, which Kotak does say is unlimited, and which is the lowest base in this whole tranche. Read the channel words carefully, because they do most of the work: the 5% is online groceries and online entertainment, and Kotak states that "Offline grocery, dining, and entertainment purchases will earn base cashback". The restricted list is long — rent, B2B, utilities, insurance, education, government, wallets, online gaming and EMI all earn zero — and insurance being on it is worth noting, because the Prime version of this same card pays 0.5% on insurance up to ₹25,000 a cycle. Then the redemption, which is the tightest part: points come back only as statement cashback, only through Kotak Unbox, only above 500 points, and "unclaimed cashback will expire in 1 year" — half the life of an ordinary Kotak point. There is no lounge access, no transfer partner and no programme these points can reach. A grocery-and-fuel card with a hard monthly roof.
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
₹750/yr at stake · 5 spend bands
The charge ₹750/yr
The waiver ₹2,00,000 of spend in the year before renewal — about ₹16,667 a month — and the renewal fee is not charged.
Break-even ₹14,000 a month — ₹1,68,000 a year — is where this card's value crosses its fee.
At your spend
₹1,400 a year, net of the fee, at ₹3,00,000 of annual spend — this clears the waiver, so no fee is charged
₹2,700 a year, net of the fee, at ₹6,00,000 of annual spend — this clears the waiver, so no fee is charged
₹5,400 a year, net of the fee, at ₹12,00,000 of annual spend — this clears the waiver, so no fee is charged
₹16,200 a year, net of the fee, at ₹36,00,000 of annual spend — this clears the waiver, so no fee is charged
₹27,000 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
Kotak Mahindra 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
- 8 Sep 2026 Flying Blue splits award tickets into Light / Standard / Flex — a 25% rise for the same product a program these points reach
- 1 Jun 2025 Kotak's June-2025 fee wave washes over the premium deck issuer-wide
- 12 Feb 2025 RBI lifts Kotak's ten-month card-issuance ban 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
- 5% on online groceries and food deliveries, and 5% on online movie tickets and OTT subscriptions
- 3% cashback on fuel at any station — most Indian cards pay nothing on fuel at all
- 0.5% on everything else, and Kotak's own FAQ calls that leg unlimited
- 1% fuel-surcharge waiver on ₹500–₹4,000 transactions, up to ₹3,500 in an anniversary year
- ₹750 annual fee waived on ₹2,00,000 of retail spend in the anniversary year
Watch out
- All three accelerated rates share ONE ceiling of 750 points a billing cycle — about ₹750 a month, or ₹15,000 of 5% spend
- Past that ceiling the accelerated categories earn NOTHING, not even the 0.5% base — Kotak says so in its own FAQ
- The 5% is online only: Kotak states that offline grocery, dining and entertainment purchases earn the base rate instead
- Rent, B2B, utilities, insurance, education, government, wallets, online skill-based gaming and EMI earn zero
- Points expire in ONE year — half the 24 months an ordinary Kotak reward point gets
- Redemption is one-way and one-platform: statement cashback only, via Kotak Unbox, and only above 500 points
- The base rate is 0.5%, the lowest in this tranche — the card is worth holding only for the categories it accelerates
- No lounge access and no transfer partner — these points reach no airline and no hotel
- The joining fee has no waiver condition at all: Kotak's Key Fact Statement prints 'NA' against it and levies it within 90 days of issuance
What these points actually fly
No live transfer route takes Kotak 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
12 sourced rules · 7 pay zero
Kotak states the restricted list by category and applies it by MCC: "The restrictions will be based on the Merchant Category Codes (MCCs), which are 4-digit numbers assigned to merchants or businesses by card networks". The 5% legs are CHANNEL rates — "Offline grocery, dining, and entertainment purchases will earn base cashback" — and all three accelerators share ONE ceiling of 750 points a billing cycle, past which they earn nothing at all, not even the 0.5% base.
- Rent & property management · excluded On Kotak's restricted-category list — rent earns nothing
- Wallet loads · excluded Wallet loads earn nothing
- Fuel · accelerated 3% on fuel at any station — rare in this market, since most Indian cards pay nothing on fuel. Shares the 750-point bucket, and the 1% surcharge waiver sits on top for ₹500–₹4,000 transactions up to ₹3,500 an anniversary year
- Utilities (electricity/water/gas) · excluded Utilities earn nothing on this card
per Kotak Mahindra Bank T&C · rank every card by spend category →
Does your spend count toward the fee waiver?
not published — and we say which
₹2,00,000 a year is the bar that waives the ₹750 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. Kotak Mahindra Bank states what the Kotak Cashback+ earns and does not earn, but has not published which spend categories count toward the fee waiver — the ₹2,00,000 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
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?
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.
Open, applied for directly at Kotak. The fee was the one thing our own market census could not settle — Kotak's all-cards comparison grid showed ₹0 joining against ₹750 annual, while the card's product page showed ₹750 on both — and the card's own Key Fact Statement resolves it in favour of the product page: Joining Fee ₹750, Annual Fee ₹750, Add-on Card Fee NIL, "Condition for Joining Fee Waiver: NA", "Condition for Annual Fee Waiver: ₹2 lakhs retail spends per annum". The KFS adds two details worth planning around. The joining fee "is levied within 90 days of card issuance and will be billed in the subsequent billing statement" — so it does not hit on day one. And the waiver rules bend for relationship customers: "Waiver of fees for Credit Cards linked to Programme is subject to maintaining eligibility of respective Programme", and a customer downgraded from a higher programme loses that waiver and pays.
Kotak Mahindra 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 Kotak Mahindra 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
4 of 7 MITC rows published
What the MITC actually says — the rates, fees and cutoffs the brochure skips.
THIS ROW SETTLES A FEE CONFLICT our own market census left open: Kotak's all-cards grid showed ₹0 joining against ₹750 annual while the product page showed ₹750 on both, and the card-specific Key Fact Statement resolves it for the product page — "Kotak Cashback+ Credit Card | ₹750 | ₹750 | NIL | NA | ₹2 lakhs retail spends per annum", under columns labelled "Joining Fee" and "Annual Fee" that are NOT inverted the way SBI's are. Equal figures, so no separate joiningFee (§61). The KFS adds two things the page does not: "Joining fees is levied within 90 days of card issuance and will be billed in the subsequent billing statement", and the waiver bends for relationship customers — "Waiver of fees for Credit Cards linked to Programme is subject to maintaining eligibility of respective Programme", with a downgrade reinstating the fee. EARN: 5% on online groceries and food deliveries, 5% on online movie tickets and OTT subscriptions, 3% on fuel at any station, 0.5% unlimited on everything else. ONE CEILING HOLDS ALL THREE ACCELERATORS: 750 points a billing cycle, and Kotak's FAQ is blunt about the consequence — "Accelerated categories will earn no reward points once the capping of 750 reward points/billing cycle is met", not even the base rate. The 5% is a CHANNEL rate: "Offline grocery, dining, and entertainment purchases will earn base cashback". Restricted categories earning zero: rent, B2B, utilities, INSURANCE, education and government, wallet, online skill-based gaming, EMI — note insurance is excluded here and is NOT excluded on the Prime variant. Points are ₹1 each, redeem only as statement cashback, and "unclaimed cashback will expire in 1 year" against 24 months on the ordinary Kotak programme. Fuel surcharge 1% on ₹500–₹4,000, max ₹3,500 an anniversary year. Visa and RuPay variants; on RuPay, UPI-on-credit-card spends earn the 0.5% base. NO LOUNGE.
per the official Kotak Mahindra 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.
- 30 Sept 2026Dream Different's unredeemed reward points expire after 30 September 2026Reward points accrued on the Dream Different Credit Card up to 31 March 2026 sitting in the account with no stated expiry date → A hard forfeiture date — "After 30th September, 2026, any unredeemed Reward Points will automatically expire"
The second half of the note that closed the programme is the part holders can still act on. Kotak's cardholder agreement gives every Dream Different point accrued up to 31 March 2026 a six-month redemption window that shuts on 30 September 2026, after which unredeemed points are forfeited outright. At the agreement's own conversion rate of 25 paise per point, a year of the card's headline 4-points-per-₹100 online earn on ₹1 lakh of online spend is roughly 4,000 points, about ₹1,000 — small money, but money that becomes zero on 1 October. Points redeem against the Kotak catalogue (flights, hotels, vouchers, merchandise) or as a statement credit through the rewards portal or the contact centre, each with its own minimum, so a last-week redemption risks missing the date on processing alone.
- 8 Sept 2026Flying Blue splits award tickets into Light / Standard / Flex — a 25% rise for the same product
- 1 Sept 2026Kotak's Dream Different joining fee goes ₹250 → ₹424 and the waiver disappears
- 1 Sept 2026Kotak halves dynamic currency conversion on Dream Different, 3.5% to 2%
- 1 Apr 2026Kotak discontinues the reward points programme on Dream Different
- 1 Jun 2025Kotak guts Privy League Signature and pulls it from sale
- 1 Jun 2025Kotak's June-2025 fee wave washes over the premium deck
- 12 Feb 2025RBI lifts Kotak's ten-month card-issuance ban
Every Kotak Mahindra Bank change we've dated → 8 events since 2022, 5 of them nerfs — worst year 2026.
Verified against Kotak Mahindra 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 Kotak Cashback+ product page — the 5%/5%/3%/0.5% grid, the 750-point monthly ceiling on the accelerated legs, and the ₹1-a-point statement-only redemption
- official Key Fact Statement — Joining Fee ₹750 and Annual Fee ₹750 in two separately labelled columns, waived at ₹2 lakh of retail spend