IndusInd PAYBACK Credit Card vs ICICI Bank HPCL Gold (2026)
ICICI Bank HPCL Gold vs IndusInd PAYBACK Credit Card: which wins?
₹25,360ranking value a year at ₹3L a month, to IndusInd PAYBACK Credit Card
Skip the duel — the board, ranked → · nothing to sign up for
Same points, and neither card transfers anywhere — the redemption catalogue is the ceiling for both, so this one is decided on earn and fee, nothing else: 0.5% at ₹249 once to join against 0.3% at ₹500/yr.
IndusInd PAYBACK Credit Card out-earns ICICI Bank HPCL Gold at every spend level we model, from ₹25k to ₹5L a month.
Every metric, row by row — 10 compared
Head to head
| IndusInd PAYBACK Credit Card | Metric | ICICI Bank HPCL Gold |
|---|---|---|
| closed | Our rank | closed |
| ₹0/yr · ₹249 joining (one-time) — wins this row | Fee — joining · annual (+ GST) | ₹500/yr |
| None | Fee waiver | None |
| not published | Forex markup | not published |
| not published | APR | not published |
| 0.5% — wins this row | Headline earn rate | 0.3% |
| PAYBACK Points (now Zillion Coins) | Currency | PAYBACK Points (now Zillion Coins) |
| ₹0.25/pt | House value | ₹0.25/pt † |
| — | Welcome benefit | — |
| 0 of 793 | Lounge doors opened | 0 of 793 |
† ICICI Bank HPCL Gold: i-mint points at the house ₹0.25 — one unit under three names, i-mint to PAYBACK on 1 July 2011 to Zillion in May 2023, all three run by Loyalty Solutions & Research, which renamed the balance rather than converting it. One i-mint point per ₹100 is 0.25%. HPCL fuel is NOT in that figure — see the earn comment.
Neither issuer publishes an income floor for these two, and the door is the same on both sides: IndusInd PAYBACK Credit Card and ICICI Bank HPCL Gold are both closed to new applications, and only grandfathered holders still have it. How people actually get each one is on its card page.
Gold marks the better side of a row. House value is our ₹-per-point mark for each card's currency — the full valuation index →
The ₹ face-off at ₹1L/₹3L/₹5L a month
Ranking-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. This is the ranking model, the one that orders the board; each card page prints the earn-rate-only net annual value instead, which reads lower for any card with an accelerator (both models, side by side). Tune it to your own spend in the calculator.
IndusInd PAYBACK Credit Card out-earns ICICI Bank HPCL Gold at every spend level we model, from ₹25k to ₹5L a month.
How the gap moves with spend — a 20-step sweep from ₹0.25L to ₹5L/month
How the gap moves with spend
IndusInd PAYBACK Credit Card leads at all 20 steps, but not by the same amount: ₹4,155 at ₹0.25L a month, ₹26,100 at ₹5L — the gap fans out with spend, widest at ₹5L (₹26,100).
IndusInd PAYBACK Credit Card pays 2 annual spend milestones, the first at ₹2,00,000 a year, and ICICI Bank HPCL Gold pays none; IndusInd PAYBACK Credit Card runs a 5.0% booster on Movie bookings, where ICICI Bank HPCL Gold earns one flat rate.
IndusInd PAYBACK Credit Card draws above the line, ICICI Bank HPCL Gold below · ₹0.25L to ₹5L a month, step by step
| Monthly spend | IndusInd PAYBACK Credit Card | ICICI Bank HPCL Gold | In front |
|---|---|---|---|
| ₹0.25L | ₹4,405 | ₹250 | IndusInd PAYBACK Credit Card by ₹4,155 |
| ₹0.5L | ₹6,310 | ₹1,000 | IndusInd PAYBACK Credit Card by ₹5,310 |
| ₹0.75L | ₹8,215 | ₹1,750 | IndusInd PAYBACK Credit Card by ₹6,465 |
| ₹1L | ₹10,120 | ₹2,500 | IndusInd PAYBACK Credit Card by ₹7,620 |
| ₹1.25L | ₹12,025 | ₹3,250 | IndusInd PAYBACK Credit Card by ₹8,775 |
| ₹1.5L | ₹13,930 | ₹4,000 | IndusInd PAYBACK Credit Card by ₹9,930 |
| ₹1.75L | ₹15,835 | ₹4,750 | IndusInd PAYBACK Credit Card by ₹11,085 |
| ₹2L | ₹17,740 | ₹5,500 | IndusInd PAYBACK Credit Card by ₹12,240 |
| ₹2.25L | ₹19,645 | ₹6,250 | IndusInd PAYBACK Credit Card by ₹13,395 |
| ₹2.5L | ₹21,550 | ₹7,000 | IndusInd PAYBACK Credit Card by ₹14,550 |
| ₹2.75L | ₹23,455 | ₹7,750 | IndusInd PAYBACK Credit Card by ₹15,705 |
| ₹3L | ₹25,360 | ₹8,500 | IndusInd PAYBACK Credit Card by ₹16,860 |
| ₹3.25L | ₹27,265 | ₹9,250 | IndusInd PAYBACK Credit Card by ₹18,015 |
| ₹3.5L | ₹29,170 | ₹10,000 | IndusInd PAYBACK Credit Card by ₹19,170 |
| ₹3.75L | ₹31,075 | ₹10,750 | IndusInd PAYBACK Credit Card by ₹20,325 |
| ₹4L | ₹32,980 | ₹11,500 | IndusInd PAYBACK Credit Card by ₹21,480 |
| ₹4.25L | ₹34,885 | ₹12,250 | IndusInd PAYBACK Credit Card by ₹22,635 |
| ₹4.5L | ₹36,790 | ₹13,000 | IndusInd PAYBACK Credit Card by ₹23,790 |
| ₹4.75L | ₹38,695 | ₹13,750 | IndusInd PAYBACK Credit Card by ₹24,945 |
| ₹5L | ₹40,600 | ₹14,500 | IndusInd PAYBACK Credit Card by ₹26,100 |
Transfer reach — 0 shared live routes
Transfer reach
Both cards earn PAYBACK Points (now Zillion Coins), 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 →
What to watch out for — 6 points
What to watch out for
IndusInd PAYBACK Credit Card · 5 more →
- Discontinued — IndusInd's own page is headed "Payback Credit Card (Discontinued)" and shows it only as a reference for existing cardholders
- PAYBACK is a coalition programme run by another company, not an IndusInd scheme — the points reach no airline and no hotel
- PAYBACK is now Zillion, and payback.in is a dead domain — a balance from this card lives at zillionrewards.in or nowhere
ICICI Bank HPCL Gold · 4 more →
- CLOSED — ICICI publishes no product page for this tier and its live credit-card listing routes only to HPCL Coral and HPCL Super Saver
- The fee is the higher one in the family: ICICI's August 2026 MITC says a joining and annual fee of ₹500 "shall continue as communicated at the time of sourcing" for the Coral, Silver, Titanium, Gold and Platinum variants, while the surviving three carry a ₹199 line of their own
- No spend-based fee reversal is published for this tier — the ₹50,000 bar in ICICI's fee table belongs to the Platinum, Titanium and Coral row
The call
For the ₹1L/month spender, IndusInd PAYBACK Credit Card nets ₹10,120 against ₹2,500 — a ₹7,620 gap. At ₹5L/month, IndusInd PAYBACK Credit Card nets ₹40,600 against ₹14,500 — a ₹26,100 gap. Lounge chasers get no tiebreak here: both open 0 of 793 tracked doors.
Our standing verdicts: IndusInd PAYBACK Credit Card — Cancel; ICICI Bank HPCL Gold — Cancel. IndusInd PAYBACK Credit Card takes 5 of the 5 rounds we can score — that's the overall call. Your spend pattern can overrule us: run your exact numbers →
Common questions — 5 answered
Straight answers
Which is better, IndusInd PAYBACK Credit Card or ICICI Bank HPCL Gold?
IndusInd PAYBACK Credit Card. IndusInd PAYBACK Credit Card takes 5 of the 5 rounds we can score. IndusInd PAYBACK Credit Card out-earns ICICI Bank HPCL Gold at every spend level we model, from ₹25k to ₹5L a month.
IndusInd PAYBACK Credit Card or ICICI Bank HPCL Gold — which earns more at ₹3L a month?
At ₹3L a month, IndusInd PAYBACK Credit Card nets ₹25,360 against ₹8,500 — a ₹16,860 gap. Those are ranking-value figures: everyday spend at the card's base rate plus a realistic slice at its best accelerator, net of the fee.
Which costs less to hold, IndusInd PAYBACK Credit Card or ICICI Bank HPCL Gold?
IndusInd PAYBACK Credit Card — ₹0/yr · ₹249 joining (one-time) against ₹500/yr. IndusInd PAYBACK Credit Card waives its fee at no spend level — there is no waiver; ICICI Bank HPCL Gold at no spend level — there is no waiver.
Which gets you into more airport lounges, IndusInd PAYBACK Credit Card or ICICI Bank HPCL Gold?
Lounge chasers get no tiebreak here: both open 0 of 793 tracked doors.
How current is this comparison?
Both card records were last re-verified against their issuers' own documents on 2026-08-23. Every figure on this page — the ranking values, the fee rows, the lounge counts, the transfer ratios — is recomputed from those records each time the site builds, so a devaluation changes the call the day we log it.
Verified against IndusInd Bank and ICICI Bank's own documents on · the ranking model, at our house ₹/point
Every document behind this page — 8 of them, each with the day we read it
- official IndusInd PAYBACK product page, archived 22 July 2024 — the discontinuation notice, the ₹249 one-time joining fee, the PAYBACK partnership and the coalition-stacking mechanic
- official Zillion programme terms — PAYBACK India under its current name and operator, with the three-year coin expiry and the ban on transferring coins to anyone else
- official ICICI Bank's own co-branded credit-card index (archived 03-Jan-2012) — the page that lists "ICICI Bank HPCL Gold" as a card in its own right, with its exclusive features
- official ICICI's current credit-card MITC — the only live document that still names the HPCL Gold variant, and the ₹500 joining-and-annual figure it attaches to it
- official ICICI's live credit-card listing — every HPCL link on it goes to HPCL Coral or HPCL Super Saver, and no Gold or Silver page exists
- official ICICI Bank's press release of 19 November 2004 (archived 25-Nov-2010) — the launch date, the million-card milestone, and the product features in the bank's own words
- official The loyalty programme's own FAQ, published on payback.in during the changeover (archived 01-Jul-2011) — it names i-mint and PAYBACK in one document and says the points were renamed, not converted
- official HPCL's own page for the programme, archived 24-Oct-2013 — the partner's description of the co-brand and the confirmation that it ran in Gold and Silver tiers