RBL Nova
KeepA quarterly-milestone machine: ₹40,000 a year in vouchers, if you can feed it ₹3 lakh a quarter.
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: ₹12,500 Taj Experiences or Luxe gift card on joining-fee payment — refunds the fee in year one
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 and 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 for itself at ₹63,000 a month
At ₹63,000 a month — ₹7,56,000 a year — on the everyday mix this card returns ₹12,700 gross (earn ₹12,700) against its ₹12,500 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 #18
Why #18 Held below its own value score, deliberately, and left there. The ₹64,000 our model reads at ₹1,00,000 a month is mostly not points — it is ₹40,000 a year of gift vouchers on a gate that wants ₹3 lakh in EVERY calendar quarter, so an even ₹1L-a-month spender collects none of it and a ₹12 lakh year that arrives unevenly collects part. Strip the vouchers and what is left is 2 points per ₹100 into five programmes at 2:1 — half rate, worth ₹0.50 a mile against the flat ₹1 the RBL portal already pays, so the transfers are the worse door. Enthusiast opinion on the whole Nova family is openly hostile; we do not share the verdict, but we do not rank it on the voucher line either.
Best real exit: Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer at ₹0.55/pt (2:1 transfer).
The take
RBL's first genuine points-transfer card arrives swinging. The ₹12,500 metal Visa Infinite opens with a ₹12,500 gift card that wipes the fee in year one, then a quarterly milestone that pays ₹10,000 for every ₹3 lakh you spend in a calendar quarter — up to ₹40,000 a year, roughly 3x the fee. Everyday earn is a flat 2% (4 Reward Points per ₹200 at a genuine ₹1 a point), rising to a headline 6% on flights and hotels booked through RBL's own portal. And unlike the closed-loop points on RBL's older cards, Nova points finally leave the building — 2 points to 1 mile into Air India Maharaja Club, Singapore KrisFlyer, AirAsia and Qatar Avios. The asterisks are real: those 2:1 transfers are worse than simply redeeming at ₹1, the base 2% is ordinary for a ₹12,500 card once the welcome is spent, and the whole thing only sings if you can clear ₹3 lakh every quarter. Hit that bar and funnel your travel through the portal, and Nova is one of the better-value new premium cards of 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
₹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 ₹63,000 a month — ₹7,56,000 a year — is where this card's value crosses its fee.
At your spend
−₹7,500 a year, net of the fee, at ₹3,00,000 of annual spend
−₹2,400 a year, net of the fee, at ₹6,00,000 of annual spend
₹20,200 a year, net of the fee, at ₹12,00,000 of annual spend — this clears the waiver, so no fee is charged
₹1,00,500 a year, net of the fee, at ₹36,00,000 of annual spend — this clears the waiver, so no fee is charged
₹1,40,800 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
RBL 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
- 21 Aug 2026 Club ITC pays up to 50,000 bonus Green Points for spreading 10 nights across all five brands 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
- ₹12,500 Taj/Luxe welcome gift card refunds the joining fee in year one
- ₹10,000 gift card every quarter you spend ₹3 lakh — up to ₹40,000 a year
- 6% value back on flights & hotels via the RBL Nova portal; flat 2% everywhere else
- Nova points transfer 2:1 to Air India Maharaja, KrisFlyer, AirAsia & Qatar Avios
- 12 domestic + 12 international lounge visits a year, plus 4 international guest visits
Watch out
- 2:1 airline transfers (₹0.50/mile) are worse than redeeming points at the flat ₹1 — transfer only for a specific award
- The ₹40,000 milestone needs ₹3 lakh EVERY calendar quarter (₹12L/year); miss a quarter, lose that ₹10,000
- Base earn is a flat 2% — ordinary once the year-one welcome is spent
- 2% forex — and the ₹12,500 only goes away at ₹10 lakh of annual spend, which is ₹83k a month
- Fuel, utilities, insurance, education, rent, wallet loads, government payments and EMI earn NO points — RBL's exclusion list is long
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:
- Bengaluru → Colombo Economy 13,000 RBL Reward Points (Nova/Lumière) via Avios (BA / Qatar / Finnair) at 2:1 the play
- Chennai → Colombo Business 28,000 RBL Reward Points (Nova/Lumière) via Avios (BA / Qatar / Finnair) at 2:1 the play
- Mumbai → Delhi First 80,000 RBL Reward Points (Nova/Lumière) via Air Canada Aeroplan at 3.2:1 (through Club ITC → Marriott Bonvoy) the play
What earns, what doesn't
13 sourced rules · 7 pay zero
Nova earns 4 RP/₹200 base and 12 RP/₹200 (6% at ₹1) on flights/hotels via the RBL Nova portal. RBL DOES publish Nova's exclusion list on the official card page: Fuel & Auto, Utilities, Insurance, Quasi-Cash, Real Estate/Rental, Wallet/Service Providers, Government Services, Contracted Services, Cash, Miscellaneous, Bills2Pay, EMI — the Quasi-Cash / Contracted Services / Miscellaneous buckets are unusually broad (verified 2026-07-22). Visa Infinite.
- Fuel · excluded "Fuel & Auto" in the official rbl.bank.in exclusion list; 1% fuel surcharge waiver
- Rent & property management · excluded "Real Estate/Rental" in the official rbl.bank.in exclusion list
- Wallet loads · excluded "Wallet/Service Providers" in the official rbl.bank.in exclusion list
- Utilities (electricity/water/gas) · excluded "Utilities" in the official rbl.bank.in exclusion list
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. RBL Bank states what the RBL Nova earns and does not earn, but has not published which spend categories count toward the fee waiver — 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.
Where the miles go
5 programs
Ratios read card points : partner miles — 2:1 means 2 points become 1 mile. Never the other way round.
every RBL Bank route, side by side → · the RBL Reward Points (Nova/Lumière) hub →
Lounge access
680 of 793 tracked doors
Opens 680 of 793 tracked lounge doors across 271 airports , via 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.
Nova launched on 17 November 2025 as the entry into RBL's new premium line and, per the launch coverage and the product page's application flow, is open to apply — though some early aggregator write-ups tagged it invite-only, so confirm the route when you apply. The ₹12,500 renewal goes to NIL on eligible annual spends of ₹10 lakh or more (RBL's MITC), and the year-one welcome gift card covers the joining fee outright. RBL publishes no separate income or age cutoff for Nova.
RBL 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 RBL 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
5 of 7 MITC rows published
What the MITC actually says — the rates, fees and cutoffs the brochure skips.
Fee ₹12,500, renewal NIL on eligible annual spends of ₹10L+ (MITC §A(i)). Forex/DCC 2%. APR 3.4%/mo (40.8%/yr) — the dedicated Lumière/Nova/Insignia line. First 2 add-on cards Nil, ₹3,000 each beyond. Exempt from the ₹99 redemption fee.
per the official RBL 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
- 22 Aug 2026RBL relaunches the Shoppers Stop co-brand as a Gold / Platinum / Black trio
- 21 Aug 2026Club ITC pays up to 50,000 bonus Green Points for spreading 10 nights across all five brands
- 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
Verified against RBL Bank's own documents on · the net-annual-value engine, at our house ₹/point
Every document behind this page — 5 of them, each with the day we read it
- official RBL Bank launch press release (17 Nov 2025) — Visa Infinite metal, ₹12,500 fee, 6% travel-portal value back, 10% dining, golf
- official Official product page — ₹12,500 Taj Experiences/Luxe welcome gift card, "Earn 4 Reward Points for every INR 200 spent on purchases anywhere"
- official RBL MITC §A(i) — "Nova™ · INR 12,500 · INR 12,500 (NIL on eligible annual spends of INR 10 Lakh or more)"; The spend waiver the card page does not spell out
- community CardInsider — 4 RP/₹200 base, 12 RP/₹200 travel, 1 RP = up to ₹1, 4 transfer partners at 2:1, 12+12 lounges, 2% forex
- official Air India Maharaja Club — RBL Reward Points transfer partner page