IDFC FIRST Gaj versus IDFC FIRST Private, metric by metric. The metric runs down the centre; each card's values face it from its own side, and a gold edge on the centre line marks the round winner.
IDFC FIRST Gaj	Metric	IDFC FIRST Private
#14	Our rank	#10 — wins this row
₹12,500 + GST — wins this row	Annual fee	₹50,000 + GST
₹10,00,000 spend	Fee waiver	None
Nil — 0% markup on foreign currency, DCC and static-currency-conversion transactions	Forex markup	Nil — 0% markup on foreign currency and DCC transactions
Dynamic 0.71%–3.85%/mo (8.5%–46.2%/yr); overdue rate 3.99%/mo (47.88%/yr) on MAD non-payment	APR	0.75%/mo (9%/yr) — the lowest retail APR in the catalog (official Private page)
3.3%	Effective reward rate	6.7% — wins this row
IDFC FIRST Reward Points	Currency	IDFC FIRST Reward Points
₹0.50/pt †	House value	₹0.50/pt †
12,500 RP on joining-fee payment (₹12,500 at the ₹1 travel value) + a 25%-off 5-star hotel voucher worth up to ₹5,000 on ₹1L spent in 60 days — once per customer	Welcome benefit	50,000 reward points + Club ITC Culinaire (Select) membership on fee payment
156 of 746	Lounge doors opened	711 of 746 — wins this row
not published	Income — salaried	not published
not published	Income — self-employed	not published

† IDFC FIRST Gaj: Gaj redeems the IDFC point at ₹1.00 on flight and hotel bookings in the app's Travel & Shop section — DOUBLE the ₹0.50 house value and 2.5× Ashva's ₹0.40 — and ₹0.25 on vouchers, products or "pay with points". earn.base is scaled UP to that ₹1.00 reality; points can only cover 70% of a booking, and 1.5L a month / 3L a year of them.

† IDFC FIRST Private: Private redeems the IDFC point at ₹1.00 on the FIRST Travel & Shop portal — DOUBLE the ₹0.50 house value — and ₹0.25 everywhere else. earn.base is scaled UP to that ₹1.00 portal reality; it collapses to a quarter of the headline the moment you cash out, points cover at most 70% of a booking, and app-travel redemptions are capped at 6,00,000 points an anniversary year.

Gold marks the better side of a row. House value is our ₹-per-point mark for each card's currency — the full valuation index →

Net annual value face-off

Everyday spend at each card's base rate plus a realistic ~20% at its best accelerator (less for narrow or capped boosters) — milestones, fee waivers and the redemption haircut all at our house ₹/point. That's why the biggest headline rate doesn't automatically win. Tune it to your own spend in the calculator.

IDFC FIRST Gaj IDFC FIRST Private

at ₹1L/month

₹68,786 wins

₹61,982

at ₹3L/month

₹2,06,359

₹2,85,945 wins

at ₹5L/month

₹3,43,932

₹5,09,908 wins

IDFC FIRST Gaj wins under ₹1.25L/month; IDFC FIRST Private takes over above it.

Transfer reach

Both cards earn IDFC FIRST Reward Points, so the partner list is identical — 0 live transfer routes each. The fight is decided on earn and fees, not reach.

Full route maps on each card page, best ₹/point routes on the optimizer →

The call

For the ₹1L/month spender, IDFC FIRST Gaj nets ₹68,786 against ₹61,982 — a ₹6,804 gap. At ₹5L/month, IDFC FIRST Private nets ₹5,09,908 against ₹3,43,932 — a ₹1,65,976 gap. Lounge chasers: IDFC FIRST Private opens 711 of 746 tracked doors to IDFC FIRST Gaj's 156.

Our standing verdicts: IDFC FIRST Gaj — Keep; IDFC FIRST Private — Keep. On our board, IDFC FIRST Private sits at #10 to IDFC FIRST Gaj's #14 — that's the overall call. Your spend pattern can overrule us: run your exact numbers →