Lifetime-free credit cards with lounge access in India
Which lifetime-free Indian cards give free lounge visits, and the ₹20,000–₹75,000 of spend most ask first. Every card, its visits and its condition.
In this guide 5 sections
1 words below are dotted: tap one for its meaning in the glossary.
Of the 120 lifetime-free personal credit cards Indian banks issue today, 36 include free airport lounge visits. Only two give you both domestic and international visits with no spend condition, no deposit and no profession rule, and the one to get is IndusInd Tiger — 2 domestic visits a quarter on Visa and 2 international visits a year on Priority Pass. The other is Unity Bank’s BharatPe card, on RuPay’s smaller network. The famous “unlimited lounge” free card, Scapia, asks for ₹20,000 of spend in the previous month before it opens a single door.
That spend condition is the thing to read. Since 2024 most big Indian issuers have moved lounge access behind a spend bar — Axis in May 2024, ICICI in January 2025, HDFC’s Regalia Gold in July 2026 — ₹20,000 last month, ₹50,000 last quarter, ₹75,000 last quarter — so “lifetime free with lounge access” now usually means “free, and the lounge costs you a spending habit.” Below is every lifetime-free card with lounge visits, split by what each one asks of you. “Lifetime free” here means no joining fee and no annual fee, ever — not a fee that is waived if you spend enough. Every row is read from the issuer’s own lounge terms; the source is on each card’s page.
No spend condition at all
| Card | Domestic visits | International visits | What it takes |
|---|---|---|---|
| IndusInd Tiger | 2 a quarter (Visa) | 2 a year (Priority Pass, outside India) | nothing |
| Unity Bank BharatPe | 2 a quarter (RuPay) | 2 a year (RuPay, outside India) | nothing |
| IDBI Royale Signature | 1 a quarter (Visa) | none | nothing |
| J&K Bank Platinum Privilege | 1 a quarter | none | nothing |
| LIC IDFC FIRST Classic | 1 a quarter + 2 railway lounge visits a quarter | none | nothing |
| Standard Chartered Priority Visa Infinite | 4 a quarter | 2 a month (Priority Pass) | Priority Banking clients only; the international visits need ₹30 lakh with the bank |
| AU CA Metal · AU CS | 2 a quarter | none | Chartered Accountants / Company Secretaries; the card must be used in the quarter |
| IOB novio Select | 2 a quarter (RuPay) | 2 a year (RuPay) | a ₹25,000 fixed deposit secures the card |
| IOB novio Platinum | 1 a quarter (RuPay) | 1 a year (RuPay) | a fixed deposit, ₹10,000 per novio’s page |
| DCB novio Select | 1 a quarter (RuPay) | none | a ₹25,000 fixed deposit |
The fixed-deposit cards are a real option for a first card: the deposit earns interest, the card builds a credit history, and the lounge visits are not conditional on spend.
A monthly spend bar
| Card | Domestic visits | International visits | Spend needed |
|---|---|---|---|
| Scapia (Federal Bank) | unlimited | none | ₹20,000 in the previous month (it was ₹10,000 until 27 February 2026) |
| Scapia (Axis Bank) | unlimited, or a meal, shop or spa credit instead | none published | ₹20,000 in the previous billing cycle |
| IDFC FIRST Wealth | 1 a quarter + 4 railway a quarter | 1 a quarter | ₹20,000 in the previous month |
| IDFC FIRST Select | 1 a quarter + 4 railway a quarter | none | ₹20,000 in the previous month |
| LIC IDFC FIRST Select | 2 a quarter + 4 railway a quarter | none | ₹20,000 in the previous month (the railway visits need nothing) |
A quarterly spend bar
| Card | Domestic visits | International visits | Spend needed in the previous quarter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Federal Bank Signet | 1 a quarter | none | ₹20,000 |
| BOBCARD Premier (FD Backed) | 1 a quarter | none | ₹20,000 |
| YODDHA · SENTINEL · RAKSHAMAH BOBCARD | 2 a quarter | none | ₹20,000 (Army, Assam Rifles, Coast Guard) |
| UJJIVAN SFB Elite BOBCARD | 2 a quarter | none | ₹25,000 |
| Federal Bank Imperio | 2 a quarter | none | ₹40,000 |
| ICAI Exclusive · ICSI Diamond BOBCARD | 3 a quarter | none | ₹40,000 |
| ixigo AU | 2 a quarter + 8 railway a year | 1 a year (Priority Pass, issued on request) | ₹50,000 for the airport visits; railway visits need nothing |
| YES Bank Zagg | 2 a quarter | none | ₹50,000 |
| LIC Axis Bank Signature | 2 a quarter | none | ₹50,000 over the previous 3 months (waived for a new card’s first months) |
| Fibe Axis Bank | 1 a quarter | none | ₹50,000 over the previous 3 months (waived for a new card’s first months) |
| Federal Bank Celesta | 2 a quarter | 2 a year, no spend needed | ₹60,000 for the domestic visits |
| ICICI Parakram | 1 a quarter | none | ₹75,000 |
| ICICI Parakram Select | 2 a quarter | 1 a year (Priority Pass) | ₹75,000 for the domestic visits |
Lounge access with a catch you should know
- Paytm AU gives up to 12 airport visits a year, but only as QR passes issued when you book a return flight of ₹5,000 or more on Paytm Travel.
- ICICI Bank Alumni, PNB Kiwi and YES BANK novio say they include lounge access but publish no visit count. ICICI and YES set a ₹50,000–₹75,000 quarterly spend bar; PNB says ₹50,000 without saying over what period. We treat a visit count nobody will print as no visit count.
Which one to get
If you fly a few times a year and do not want to think about spend, get IndusInd Tiger. It gives you a domestic and an international lounge allowance with nothing to unlock, on Visa and Priority Pass, the two networks with the most doors. If you already spend ₹20,000 a month on a card, Scapia is the better card. Its domestic access is unlimited once the bar is met, and it charges 0% forex on top. If you are new to credit and have no history, a fixed-deposit card like IOB novio Select gets you lounge visits from day one.
Before you rely on any domestic visit, check the airport. Several of these cards open only the issuer’s own list of rooms, not the whole Visa or RuPay network. The lounge map shows which card opens which door at each Indian airport. For cards with a fee that give more lounge per rupee, see the lounge ranking; for what every card, free or not, asks before its lounge visits open, see lounge access spend criteria. For lifetime-free cards ranked by what they pay back in rewards, see the lifetime-free board.
Method: lifetime-free means our fee data shows no joining fee and a ₹0 annual fee, the same test the lifetime-free board uses. Cards counted are personal (not business) cards still issued on the day this page was built, on application or by invitation; a card counts as having lounge visits when its lounge row grants any airport visit, domestic or international; the Standard Chartered Priority card and the profession BOBCARDs are among the invitation or eligibility-restricted ones. Visits and spend conditions come from each card’s row in our lounge data, which cites the issuer’s lounge programme document or product page. “None” means the issuer’s own terms give the card no international visits, not that we failed to look.
Related guides
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Airport lounge access spend criteria in India: every card, every condition
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Which Indian credit cards still give airport lounge access with no spend condition, and what the rest ask: ₹20,000 a month, ₹50,000 or ₹75,000 a quarter.
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Credit cards on a ₹15,000–₹30,000 salary: what banks print
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Every Indian credit card whose bank publishes a salary bar of ₹30,000 a month or less: the bar, the fee, what it earns, and which to pick first.
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Credit cards for the self-employed in India: the published income bars
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Every Indian credit card whose bank publishes an income bar for the self-employed: the yearly ITR figure, the fee, and the cards that need no income proof.
Sources
Every figure in the boxes and tables above is read from our own data on each build . The writing was last checked against it on ; where the two disagree, the data wins. Report an error