#166

YES Bank SELECT

Downgrade

The lounge is the product. The 0.5% around it is the price you pay for it.

₹2,100

a year at ₹40,000 a month, after the fee

Verified · 2 documents

Skip the arithmetic — the board, ranked → · nothing to sign up for

What it's worth to you, after the fee

₹1,300
at ₹0.25L/month
₹2,100
at ₹0.4L/month
₹5,300
at ₹1L/month

Welcome: None published

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 →

Breaks even only by erasing its fee at ₹9,000 a month

At ₹9,000 a month — ₹1,08,000 a year — on the everyday mix this card returns ₹500 gross (earn ₹500) against a fee of ₹0 — the ₹599 is waived, the spend having cleared ₹1,00,000 a year = ₹500 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.

2 notes on the card itself: how it is issued · the network variants

YES Bank · Visa · entry

Visa Mastercard
₹599 + GST
Annual fee1
₹1,00,000 spend
Fee waiver

Best real exit: Air India Maharaja Points at ₹0.05/pt (15:1 transfer).

The take

Sold as YES PROSPERITY EDGE until the bank renamed it, SELECT is the volume card on the YES shelf — the one you are most likely to be offered, and the one that most deserves the honest answer. Offline spend earns 0.5%. Online earns 1.0%. Utilities and streaming earn a quarter of a percent. Forex is 3.50%, which the product page presents as a feature and is simply the Indian norm. The points are YES Rewardz, worth ₹0.25 only inside YES's own travel portal and ₹0.10 as statement credit, with a 15:1 Air India route that returns about ₹0.07 a point — a decoy, not an exit. What is real is one complimentary domestic lounge visit a quarter once you have spent ₹50,000 in the previous one, for a ₹599 fee that waives at ₹1 lakh a year. The card also advertises an international lounge programme; read it twice, because it is a Priority Pass membership on request with every single visit charged at US$27 — a card, not a quota. If the domestic door is what you want, YES Essence opens it at half the spend gate. If it is not, almost anything else on this board pays you better.

Your renewal — keep, downgrade or cancel

This card reaches break-even by ERASING its fee, not by out-earning it: the waiver is the decision.

₹1,00,000 annual spend erases that fee
₹9,000/mo is where the waiver, not the earn, saves it

the whole desk — your spend, what changed, the downgrade →

Keep, downgrade or cancel

₹599/yr at stake · 5 spend bands

The charge ₹599/yr

The waiver ₹1,00,000 of spend in the year before renewal — about ₹8,333 a month — and the renewal fee is not charged.

Break-even ₹9,000 a month — ₹1,08,000 a year — is where this card's value crosses its fee, and it gets there by erasing the fee at the waiver rather than out-earning it.

At your spend

₹1,300 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

₹5,300 a year, net of the fee, at ₹12,00,000 of annual spend — this clears the waiver, so no fee is charged

₹16,000 a year, net of the fee, at ₹36,00,000 of annual spend — this clears the waiver, so no fee is charged

₹26,700 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 →

The downgrade

YES 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

  • One complimentary domestic lounge visit a quarter, after ₹50,000 of spend in the previous one
  • ₹599 joining waived at ₹10,000 in the first month; ₹599 renewal waived at ₹1 lakh a year
  • 8 RP/₹200 online ≈ 1.0% at the portal value of ₹0.25
  • Buy-one-get-one movie tickets, up to ₹150 off the second, once a calendar month — YES never says on which app
  • Buy-one-get-one at coffee outlets inside select malls

Watch out

  • 0.5% offline and 0.25% on utilities and streaming — one of the thinnest earn grids we carry
  • 3.50% forex, quoted on the product page as though it were a benefit; a further 1% DCC applies on rupee-billed foreign transactions
  • The "international lounge" is a Priority Pass MEMBERSHIP with zero free visits — every entry costs US$27 + GST
  • YES Rewardz pay ₹0.25 only on portal flights/hotels; statement credit pays ₹0.10, so 1.0% online becomes 0.4%
  • The Maharaja Club exit at 15:1 (≈₹0.07/pt) pays less than not transferring at all
  • Zero points on rent, wallet, fuel, government, marketing, insurance, education, railways, toll, ferry and jewellery since 15-Jun-2026
  • ₹100 + GST per redemption request, plus ₹99 + GST per flight booked with points

What these points actually fly

YES Rewardz (YES CC Rewardz) move to Air India Maharaja Points — and that programme prices every award dynamically. There is no published chart to quote, so we quote nothing: an estimate is not a seat.

what the cards that DO reach a chart can fly — 2,196 corridors priced →

What earns, what doesn't

10 sourced rules · 8 pay zero

YES rebuilt this list on 15-Jun-2026, and the change is the story: insurance and education used to be "Select categories" earning a reduced 2 points per ₹200, and are now excluded outright, along with railways, toll, ferry and jewellery. After the revision only two MCCs survive as Select categories — 4899 (cable/streaming) and 4900 (utilities). Whole card capped at 5,000 reward points a statement cycle.

Fuel excluded — Zero YES Rewardz Points (MCCs 5172, 5541, 5542, 5983, 9752); a 1% fuel-surcharge waiver applies instead, capped ₹125 a statement cycle — and YES levies its own 1% fee on a fuel transaction above ₹10,000
Rent & property management excluded — Zero points (MCC 6513), and YES charges 1% of the transaction — minimum ₹1 up to ₹1,000, minimum ₹199 above it — on at most 5 rent transactions per 30 days
Government / tax excluded — Zero points across a 14-code list: 9034, 9211, 9222, 9223, 9311, 9399, 9402, 9405, 9700, 9701, 9702, 9751, 9754, 9950
Utilities (electricity/water/gas) reduced — A Select category at 2 points per ₹200 vs 4 points per ₹200 on ordinary offline spend, and capped at 150 points a statement cycle (MCC 4900). YES also levies 1% + GST on every utility transaction once the previous calendar month's utility spend passed ₹25,000
Insurance excluded — Zero points w.e.f. 15-Jun-2026 (MCCs 6300, 6381) — until then insurance was a Select category earning the reduced rate
Education excluded — Zero points w.e.f. 15-Jun-2026 (MCCs 8211, 8220, 8241, 8244, 8249, 8299, 7911) — until then it was a Select category. A 1% fee also applies to education paid through third-party apps, capped ₹5,000 a calendar month; paying the college or school direct carries no fee
Wallet loads excluded — Zero points (MCC 6540 and any third-party wallet irrespective of MCC); 1% fee on a load above ₹2,000, capped ₹5,000 a transaction
Groceries & supermarkets not applicable
Dining & food delivery not applicable
Telecom reduced — 2 points per ₹200 vs 4 points per ₹200 on ordinary offline spend — MCC 4899 (cable, satellite and streaming) is the only Select category besides utilities left after 15-Jun-2026, and it carries no cap of its own on points
Jewellery / gold excluded — Zero points w.e.f. 15-Jun-2026 (MCCs 5094, 5944)
Forex / international spends not applicable
UPI (RuPay-on-UPI only) not applicable
EMI conversions / merchant EMI excluded — Post-purchase EMI and Instant EMI both earn zero
  • Fuel · excluded Zero YES Rewardz Points (MCCs 5172, 5541, 5542, 5983, 9752); a 1% fuel-surcharge waiver applies instead, capped ₹125 a statement cycle — and YES levies its own 1% fee on a fuel transaction above ₹10,000
  • Rent & property management · excluded Zero points (MCC 6513), and YES charges 1% of the transaction — minimum ₹1 up to ₹1,000, minimum ₹199 above it — on at most 5 rent transactions per 30 days
  • Wallet loads · excluded Zero points (MCC 6540 and any third-party wallet irrespective of MCC); 1% fee on a load above ₹2,000, capped ₹5,000 a transaction
  • Utilities (electricity/water/gas) · reduced A Select category at 2 points per ₹200 vs 4 points per ₹200 on ordinary offline spend, and capped at 150 points a statement cycle (MCC 4900). YES also levies 1% + GST on every utility transaction once the previous calendar month's utility spend passed ₹25,000

per YES Bank T&C · rank every card by spend category →

Does your spend count toward the fee waiver?

not published — and we say which

₹1,00,000 a year is the bar that waives the ₹599 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. YES Bank states what the YES Bank SELECT earns and does not earn, but has not published which spend categories count toward the fee waiver — the ₹1,00,000 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

1 program

Ratios read card points : partner miles — 2:1 means 2 points become 1 mile. Never the other way round.

Air India Maharaja Club
15:1 up to 7 working days
Exists, barely — 15 Rewardz points per Maharaja point is ₹0.07/pt against the ₹0.25 booking rate. A decoy for Marquee/Reserv; listed so nobody discovers it the expensive way.

every YES Bank route, side by side → · the YES Rewardz (YES CC Rewardz) hub →

Lounge access

77 of 793 tracked doors
1 visit/quarter (4/yr, primary cardmember)
Domestic
None free — a Priority Pass MEMBERSHIP on request (Mastercard) or LoungeKey entry (Visa), but every visit costs US$27 + GST, so there is no quota
International
Chargeable
Guests

Gate: ₹50,000 spend in the previous calendar quarter

Opens 77 of 793 tracked lounge doors across 42 airports , via Visa, Mastercard India — see the full map →

Can you get it?

income, age and the route in

The cutoffs and the actual route in — not the "apply now" button, the door that opens.

Route Direct application
Income · salaried ₹50,000/month net salary (official product page)
Income · self-employed ITR ₹7,50,000/yr and above (official product page)
Age band 21–60

Direct application — no invite list, no banking relationship required.

A straight public application at ₹50,000 a month net salary or a ₹7.5 lakh ITR, age 21 to 60. Two siblings share the fee grid and the lounge gate without getting their own page: Select for NRI, and Select issued against a fixed deposit — the FD route also buys a materially cheaper 2.49% a month on revolving credit against the standard card's 3.99%. As everywhere on this shelf, holding any other YES credit card disqualifies you from the online form.

per the official YES 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.

Forex markup 3.50% + GST w.e.f. 15-Jun-2026 (2.75% before) — a 75-basis-point jump in one step, plus a separate 1% DCC markup
APR 3.99%/mo (47.88%/yr); 2.49%/mo (29.88%/yr) on the NRI and fixed-deposit variants
Late fee Nil if outstanding ≤₹500; else 10% of statement balance, max ₹1,350 per statement
Cash advance 2.5%, min ₹650 (min hiked from ₹500 w.e.f. 15-Jun-2026)
Add-on card Nil
Overlimit ₹550 + GST flat — overlimit facility reintroduced 1-Jun-2026, eligibility-based
Redemption fee ₹100 + GST per redemption request, plus ₹99 + GST per flight booked with points

₹599 joining waived at ₹10,000 within a month, ₹599 renewal waived at ₹1,00,000 a year; the same grid covers Select for NRI and Select issued against FD. Domestic lounge access gated on ₹50,000 of prior-quarter spend; no international lounge feature. Utility points capped at 150 per statement cycle; utility 1% transaction fee past ₹25,000/month. "Select was earlier known as YES Prosperity Edge".

per the official YES Bank MITC · reviewed 10 Jul 2026

What's changed for this card

8 dated changes

Full tracker →

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 2026
    Partner major Axis Bank
    Axis EDGE brings Accor back, drops ITC, and adds Cathay, Miles & More and Hilton
    Accor 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 2026
    Partner moderate Vietnam Airlines
    Vietnam Airlines Lotusmiles opens a broad SkyTeam status match — up to Elite Plus
  • 20 Aug 2026
    Partner moderate Air India (Maharaja Club)
    IHG Hotels & Resorts becomes a Maharaja Club earning and conversion partner
  • 6 Aug 2026
    Buff minor Maximize
    MaxCoins' full transfer catalogue surfaces — Accor at 2:1 re-prices the coin to ₹1.08
  • 3 Aug 2026
    Partner major SBI Card
    SBI drops Etihad Guest from the MILES transfer table — the last SBI door into the programme
  • 2 Aug 2026
    Buff minor Air India
    Flipkart SuperCoins into Maharaja Club improve to 2:1
  • 26 Jul 2026
    Partner moderate Air India
    Air India's quiet network retreat: Tokyo moves, Paris and San Francisco go, Malé pauses
  • 15 Jun 2026
    Fee moderate YES Bank
    YES's ₹100 redemption fee reaches Marquee and Reserv

Every YES Bank change we've dated → 7 events since 2023, 6 of them nerfs — worst year 2026.