YES Bank RESERV
Downgrade3% online and six international lounges — trapped in a ₹0.25 portal you can't transfer out of.
What it's worth to you — net annual value
Welcome: None published — the lounge stack, not a sign-up bonus, is the pitch
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
The RESERV is YES Bank's cheaper Marquee, and it inherits both the appeal and the trap. Three percent back on online spends, 1.5% offline, a dozen domestic and six international lounge visits — all under a ₹2,499 fee waived at ₹3 lakh — reads like a lot of card for the money. Then you meet YES Rewardz. Those points are worth ₹0.25 only against flight and hotel bookings inside YES's own portal; cash them as statement credit and the rate falls to ₹0.10, turning the 3% into 1.2%. The only airline exit is a decoy 15:1 Maharaja route, the online accelerated rate caps at 36,000 points a cycle, and domestic lounge access demands ₹1 lakh of spend in the previous quarter. If you will genuinely book travel through the YES portal and you want the six international lounges, it earns its keep. Everyone else should look at BOBCARD Eterna, which pays a higher rate as real statement credit at the same fee.
What's good
- 3% on online spends, 1.5% offline — ₹2,499 fee waived at ₹3L
- Joining fee waived on ₹40,000 spend within 30 days; 8,000-point benefit on paid renewals
- 12 domestic (₹1L prior-quarter gate) + 6 international lounge visits a year
- 2% forex markup — low for a sub-₹2,500 card
- Online accelerated earn up to 36,000 points/cycle (≈₹3L online)
Watch out
- YES Rewardz points are ₹0.25 only on portal flights/hotels (capped 2,00,000 points/month); statement credit pays ₹0.10 (1.2% online)
- The lone Maharaja route (15:1, ≈₹0.07/pt) is a decoy — effectively a closed loop
- Domestic lounge access needs ₹1 lakh of spend in the previous quarter
- No published welcome bonus; points expire 36 months from earning; ₹100 + GST per redemption since 15-Jun-2026
- Outclassed at the same fee by BOBCARD Eterna's 3.75% statement credit
What earns, what doesn't
RESERV mirrors Marquee's YES Rewardz architecture: 24 RP/₹200 online (3%), 12/₹200 offline (1.5%), 6/₹200 'select' categories (0.75%). Online accelerated caps at 36,000 RP/statement cycle. Exclusions follow YES's post-Apr-2025 list. Points redeem at ₹0.25 (portal travel) / ₹0.10 (statement).
- Fuel · excluded Zero RP; 1% surcharge waiver (YES standard) — community, flag
- Rent & property management · excluded Zero RP + 1% rent fee (YES-wide since 1-Apr-2025) — community, flag
- Wallet loads · excluded Zero RP + 1% fee on wallet loads (YES MITC) — community, flag
- Utilities (electricity/water/gas) · reduced 'Select category' 6 RP/₹200 (0.75%); utility RP capping per YES MITC — community, flag
per YES 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
Gate: ₹1L gate (domestic)
Opens 129 of 644 tracked lounge doors across 70 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.
Direct application, modest gate: ~₹18L/yr is the community-reported income context, and the official MITC waives the ₹2,499 joining fee on ₹40,000 spend in 30 days. Worth knowing the ancestry: RESERV is the renamed YES First Exclusive — the banking-relationship card — so if you hold a YES First relationship, ask your banker for their pricing before filling the public form.
per the official YES 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.
Fee ₹2,499 + GST joining and renewal (official MITC fee grid); joining fee waived on ₹40,000 spend in 30 days, renewal waived at ₹3L annual spend. 24 RP/₹200 online (3%), 12/₹200 offline (1.5%), 6/₹200 select (0.75%, utility points capped 750/cycle); online accelerated capped 36,000 RP/statement cycle. YES Rewardz points are ₹0.25 on portal travel (capped 2,00,000 points/month), ₹0.10 as statement credit; the lone Maharaja route at 15:1 is a decoy. 12 domestic lounge (₹1L prior-quarter gate) + 6 international/yr. Reserv was earlier YES First Exclusive. Income/age community.
per the official YES 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.
- 15 Jun 2026YES's ₹100 redemption fee reaches Marquee and ReservMarquee and Reserv exempt from the ₹100-per-redemption fee; card reissuance ₹100–₹200 by variant → ₹100 fee on every redemption request, premium cards included, plus a ₹99 booking fee on YES Rewardz flights; reissuance ₹199; fuel-surcharge waiver window revised
The exemption that let Marquee and Reserv holders pretend the ₹100 redemption fee was someone else's problem is gone. From 15 June 2026 every YES card pays ₹100 per redemption request, and booking a flight through YES Rewardz — the only place the points are worth their ₹0.25 — stacks a ₹99 booking fee on top. On a card whose whole pitch is settling 4.5% online earnings in portal travel, YES now charges you twice at the exit.
- 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.
- 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 Apr 2025YES lounge gate triples to ₹1 lakh on Marquee and Reserv₹35,000 of quarterly spend unlocked domestic lounge access → ₹1,00,000/quarter for Marquee and Reserv; ₹75,000 for First Preferred/Business; ₹50,000 for Elite+, Select and BYOC
The quarterly spend needed to keep domestic lounge access nearly tripled overnight — ₹35,000 to a flat ₹1 lakh on Marquee and Reserv. That's ₹4 lakh a year of spend just to hold on to a benefit the brochure still lists as complimentary. The unlimited international access survives, but the domestic doors now belong to YES's heaviest spenders only.
- 1 Apr 2025Government and ad spends stop earning on 13 YES cardsGovernment, marketing and advertising transactions earned reward points → Zero points on those categories across Private, Marquee, Reserv, Elite+, Select and eight more; the overlimit facility dies 1 May 2025
Another quiet trim: from 1 April 2025, government, marketing and advertising payments earn nothing on thirteen YES cards, Marquee and Reserv included. A month later the bank switched off the overlimit facility entirely — transactions past your limit now simply decline. Individually small, but it's the fourth exclusion round in eighteen months, and the direction of travel is unmistakable.
- 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.)
- 1 Dec 2024YES caps travel redemptions at 70% of the invoiceFlights and hotels on YES Rewardz bookable fully with points → Points cover at most 70% of any booking; monthly redemption caps of 3 lakh (Marquee), 2 lakh (Reserv), 1 lakh (others); finance charges hiked to 3.99%/month on many cards
The one redemption that makes YES Rewardz points worth ₹0.25 — portal flights and hotels — now legally cannot settle a full booking: 70% of the invoice is the ceiling, so every redemption forces cash out of your pocket alongside the points. Monthly caps (3 lakh points on Marquee, 2 lakh on Reserv) box in the big balances, and finance charges quietly climbed to 3.99% a month. The earn rates YES advertises didn't move; the exits all narrowed.
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 11 Jul 2026
- official MITC PDF (V18, 23-Jun-2026) checked 11 Jul 2026
- community CardInsider review (₹2,499 waived at ₹3L; 24 RP/₹200 online; 2% forex; 12 dom + 6 intl lounges) checked 12 Jul 2026
- community TechnoFino — renewal network choice MC/Visa/RuPay checked 11 Jul 2026
- community CardMaven forum — zero RP on UPI for core RuPay cards checked 11 Jul 2026
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