IRCTC SBI Platinum Card
Keep₹500 for four railway lounges and up to 10% back on AC fares — with the emphasis on 'up to'.
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: 350 activation bonus Reward Points on a single ₹500+ transaction within 60 days of issuance, credited within 45 days. From year two it is 500 Reward Points on paying the ₹500 renewal — the fee back, exactly.
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 ₹600 gross (earn ₹100 + milestones ₹500) against its ₹500 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
1 Reward Point = ₹1, and only ever against another AC train fare booked on irctc.co.in — no cash, no statement credit, no partner, no transfer. That is why the ₹1 house value holds for a rail traveller and drifts toward nothing for anyone else. Three clocks run on the balance and all three are short: points expire two years from the date you registered the loyalty membership, the balance is forfeited outright if the card goes unused for 13 consecutive months, and it is forfeited 30 days after the card account closes. Points also only reach the IRCTC loyalty account on the 15th of the following month, and only if that account is active — a blocked or suspended loyalty account silently strands everything the card earns.
The take
This is the cheapest ticket into a real travel benefit that India sells, and the arithmetic is disarming: ₹500 a year, and from the second year SBI credits 500 Reward Points for paying it, each worth ₹1 against a train fare. The fee is the fee back. On top of that come four railway lounge visits a year — one a quarter, primary cardholder only, at New Delhi, Jaipur Junction, Agra Cantt, Ahmedabad and Sealdah — where a visit buys two hours, a buffet meal and unlimited coffee for a ₹2 card validation. If you take one AC train a quarter out of any of those five stations, this card is close to free money. Now the honest bit, because "up to 10% value back" is the loudest thing on SBI's page and it is seasonal. SBI's own loyalty chart splits the year: Super-Fast Rewards pays 10 points per ₹100 on tickets whose DATE OF TRAVEL falls between 15 January and 31 March or 15 July and 15 September, and Express Rewards pays 4 the rest of the time. That is 4% for 226 days a year. Blended, the AC accelerator is worth about 6.3%, which is still excellent — it is just not ten. Everything off the rails earns 1 point per ₹125, a denominator nobody else uses and a 0.8% card. Fuel, rent and government payments earn nothing. There is no airport lounge, no forex relief at 3.5%, and the points go precisely one place. Buy it if you ride AC trains. It is a bad general-purpose card and a superb ₹500 one.
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
₹500/yr at stake · 5 spend bands
The charge ₹500/yr
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
₹2,300 a year, net of the fee, at ₹3,00,000 of annual spend
₹4,500 a year, net of the fee, at ₹6,00,000 of annual spend
₹9,000 a year, net of the fee, at ₹12,00,000 of annual spend
₹27,100 a year, net of the fee, at ₹36,00,000 of annual spend
₹45,100 a year, net of the fee, at ₹60,00,000 of annual spend
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
SBI Card 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
- 3 Aug 2026 SBI drops Etihad Guest from the MILES transfer table — the last SBI door into the programme issuer-wide
- 31 Mar 2026 SBI kills both Etihad Guest co-brands and force-swaps holders into MILES issuer-wide
- 10 Jan 2026 SBI Card splits domestic lounges into tiers, adds entry fees 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
- ₹500 a year, and 500 Reward Points credited for paying the renewal — the fee comes straight back
- Up to 10% of an AC-class base fare back as Reward Points, uncapped monthly or annually
- Reward Points count the WHOLE booking — your fare and every co-traveller's on the same ticket
- 4 complimentary railway lounge visits a year (1 a quarter) — 2 hours, a buffet meal and unlimited tea and coffee
- The 1% IRCTC transaction charge on rail bookings at irctc.co.in is waived
- 350 activation bonus Reward Points for one ₹500 transaction inside 60 days
Watch out
- "Up to 10%" is seasonal — SBI's own chart pays 10 points per ₹100 only for travel dates 15 Jan–31 Mar and 15 Jul–15 Sep, and 4 for the other 226 days of the year
- The season is set by the DATE OF TRAVEL, not the date you book — a February trip booked in November still earns 10
- Everything off the rails earns 1 point per ₹125, not per ₹100 — a 0.8% card in ordinary life
- Reward Points redeem ONLY against AC train tickets on irctc.co.in — no cash, no statement credit, no transfer to anything
- Nothing at all on 3E and Sleeper class — the programme starts at 3AC
- You must be one of the passengers on the ticket, and your IRCTC SBI loyalty number must be quoted at booking
- Points post 5 days after the journey and only move to your IRCTC loyalty account on the 15th of the following month — a cancelled ticket earns nothing
- Balance forfeited if the card goes unused for 13 consecutive months, and 30 days after the account closes; points expire 2 years from loyalty registration regardless
- Railway lounge access is primary cardholder only, and SBI's FAQ names just five stations
- No airport lounge access of any kind, and 3.5% forex — this card is for the rails and nothing else
- ₹500 renewal every year with no spend-based waiver, unlike the ₹1,499 Premier tier above it
What these points actually fly
No live transfer route takes IRCTC 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
6 sourced rules · 5 pay zero
Base earn is 1 Reward Point per ₹125, explicitly "for Domestic as well as International Transactions" (T&C §11.3a) — the ₹125 denominator is unusual and works out at 0.8 points per ₹100, worth 0.8% at 1 RP = ₹1. The rail accelerator on irctc.co.in is seasonal, 10 points per ₹100 of AC base fare for travel dates 15 Jan–31 Mar and 15 Jul–15 Sep and 4 the rest of the year. The exclusion rows below are the T&C's own list. RuPay variant is UPI-linkable; SBI publishes no separate UPI earn rate for this card.
- Fuel · excluded Zero points — MCC 5172, 5541, 5542, 5983; the 1% fuel-surcharge waiver on ₹500–₹3,000 transactions (max ₹100 per statement cycle) is all you get, the smallest cap in SBI's co-brand family
- Rent & property management · excluded Zero points — rent accrual discontinued on this card w.e.f. 15 Apr 2024
- Wallet loads · excluded Zero points — e-wallet loading under MCC 6540 and 6541 since 1 Jul 2020
- Government / tax · excluded Zero points — government accrual discontinued on this card w.e.f. 15 Jul 2024
Does your spend count toward the milestones?
not published — and we say which
A different question from the one above — earning points and counting toward a threshold are separate rules, and issuers write them separately.
Not published. SBI Card states what the IRCTC SBI Platinum Card earns and does not earn, but has not published which spend categories count toward the milestones . 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
21 of 793 tracked doors
Gate: A valid train ticket at the door plus a ₹2 card-validation charge; a visit buys 2 hours, air-conditioned seating, one buffet meal, unlimited tea and coffee, Wi-Fi and newspapers
Opens 21 of 793 tracked lounge doors across 19 railway stations , via 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.
Direct application — no invite list, no banking relationship required.
Openly available, and deliberately easy: SBI's live catalogue carries the IRCTC SBI Platinum (productType IRCP) with isOnline "yes", a working Apply Now flow, and a monthly-income band that starts below ₹50,000. It is the base rung of SBI's two-card IRCTC pair — the ₹1,499 Premier above it doubles the railway-lounge quota to eight, adds a spend-based fee waiver and pays on IRCTC air tickets and e-catering too.
SBI Card publishes no income or age cutoffs for this card. Blank means blank — we don't invent numbers to fill a grid.
per the official SBI Card 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 ₹500 + taxes as both the membership charge and the renewal charge, with NO spend-based waiver — the card's own T&C §11.4(d) words it as "the membership fee is of Rs.500 with an renewal fee of Rs.500", and SBI's MITC prints the pair bare while the ₹1,499 Premier row two lines below carries a waiver clause. Paying the renewal credits 500 Reward Points, worth ₹500 against a train fare, so from year two the fee returns itself. Base earn is 1 Reward Point per ₹125 of non-fuel retail — note the ₹125 denominator, not ₹100 — domestic and international alike, which is 0.8 points per ₹100. The rail accelerator is SEASONAL and SBI's "up to 10%" depends on it: the loyalty chart pays 10 Reward Points per ₹100 of base fare on tickets whose DATE OF TRAVEL falls between 15 Jan and 31 Mar or 15 Jul and 15 Sep, and 4 per ₹100 the rest of the year — 139 days at 10% against 226 at 4%. Earning covers 1AC, 2AC, 3AC, Executive Chair Car and AC Chair Car only; 3E and Sleeper earn nothing. Accrual is on the whole booking including every co-traveller's fare, the cardholder must be a passenger, and the IRCTC SBI loyalty number must be quoted at booking. Points post 5 days after the journey, transfer to the IRCTC loyalty account by the 15th of the following month, and are stranded if that loyalty account is blocked, inactive or suspended. 1 Reward Point = ₹1 against an AC train fare and nothing else — no cash, no statement credit, no partner. Balance forfeited after 13 consecutive months of card inactivity and 30 days after account closure; points expire 2 years from loyalty registration. Zero points on fuel (MCC 5172, 5541, 5542, 5983), rent (from 15 Apr 2024), government (from 15 Jul 2024), e-wallet loads (6540, 6541), cash advances, Encash, balance transfers, Flexipay and merchant EMI. The 1% IRCTC transaction charge on rail bookings at irctc.co.in is waived, but not on IRCTC partner sites, and a cancellation debits 1% of the refund. Lounge: 4 railway lounge visits a year, 1 a quarter, primary cardholder only, at five named stations, on a ₹2 card validation — and no airport lounge at all. Fuel-surcharge waiver 1% on ₹500–₹3,000 transactions, max ₹100 per statement cycle.
per the official SBI Card 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.
- 3 Aug 2026SBI drops Etihad Guest from the MILES transfer table — the last SBI door into the programmeSBI Card Travel Credits transferred 1:1 into Etihad Guest, one of eighteen airline partners in §3 of the MILES rewards T&C. At the ₹1/partner-mile anchor that was a full-value exit, and it was the only route left after the two Etihad Guest SBI co-brands were retired. → No Etihad route at all. The MILES rewards T&C now lists seventeen airline partners and Etihad is not one of them — the word does not appear anywhere in the seven-page document. Every other SBI partner survives at the same ratio.
SBI Card's own MILES rewards T&C, re-fetched on 22 August 2026 and carrying a 3 August 2026 ModDate inside the PDF, has one fewer airline in it than the edition this desk read on 2 August. The deletion is provable from the numbering rather than from absence alone: the table's first seven rows are unchanged (Air Canada 3, Air France-KLM 4, Air India 5, British Airways 6, Cathay 7), and every row from position eight onward has moved up exactly one — Thai from 14 to 13, Qantas from 17 to 16. Position eight was Etihad Airways / Etihad Guest / 1:1. All twenty-four other partners we carry, airline and hotel, are still there at the same ratios, so this is Etihad being dropped and not SBI narrowing transfers. The timing matters more than the ratio. SBI phased out the Etihad Guest SBI and Etihad Guest SBI Premier cards from December 2025 and reissued holders onto MILES products, and the transfer route was what made that migration survivable — a Premier holder who had spent six years earning Etihad miles could keep feeding the same account through Travel Credits. That is now closed, and India's remaining pipes into Etihad Guest run through BOBCARD's Etihad co-brands, not through SBI. If you hold SBI Travel Credits earmarked for an Abu Dhabi business seat, they are Aeroplan, Flying Blue, Avios or Maharaja points now. ON THE DATE: SBI publishes no notice and no cut-off. The date here is the day the desk read the change out of SBI's own document; the PDF's internal ModDate puts the edition at 3 August 2026, which is the earliest day we can prove, not an announcement.
- 1 Jul 2026PhonePe SBI SELECT BLACK stops paying on UPI outside PhonePe
- 1 Jul 2026PhonePe SBI PURPLE stops paying on UPI outside PhonePe
- 31 Mar 2026SBI kills both Etihad Guest co-brands and force-swaps holders into MILES
- 9 Mar 2026Paytm SBI Card stops earning on school and education spends
- 9 Mar 2026Paytm SBI Card SELECT stops earning on school and education spends
- 10 Jan 2026SBI Card splits domestic lounges into tiers, adds entry fees
- 1 Dec 2025SBI discontinues the OLA Money card and moves holders onto a house card
Every SBI Card change we've dated → 19 events since 1998, 13 of them nerfs — worst year 2025.
Verified against SBI Card'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 The card's own Terms & Conditions — 1 Reward Point per ₹125, up to 10% value back on AC classes with no monthly or annual cap, and the ₹500 fee that returns 500 points on renewal
- official SBI's IRCTC loyalty chart — the "up to 10%" is two seasons, 10 points per ₹100 on peak travel dates and 4 on the rest, set by the date of travel
- official SBI's railway-lounge FAQ for this card — 4 visits a year, 1 a quarter, primary cardholder only, at five named stations, on a ₹2 card validation
- official SBI's own product record — ₹500 annual and renewal, 1 Reward Point per ₹125, the 350-point activation bonus, 4 railway lounge visits, the 1% IRCTC fee waiver, and isOnline "yes"
- official SBI's MITC — IRCTC SBI Platinum Card ₹500 annual and ₹500 renewal with no spend waiver, and a 3.5% foreign-currency transaction fee