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The portal desk

The multiplier is the headline. The cap is the story.

Issuer portals are where Indian cards earn their keep — 10X here, 12X there, 33% back on a hotel if you hold the right metal. They're also where issuers hide the fine print: every multiplier below runs into a monthly cap, and the cap decides what the portal is actually worth. So each cell shows one number — the capped effective ₹-rate at the value the card really redeems, not the value the brochure implies — and each tier gets the cap math spelled out in rupees. No published number, no row.

Sources last verified 2026-07-11. Caps bind accelerated points only — base earn survives every cap.

HDFC SmartBuy

HDFC Bank · HDFC Reward Points

The portal that made Infinia famous — 33% back on hotels is still the single best standing rate in the country. But HDFC has spent 2026 squeezing it: the voucher game that let you print 15,000 points a month died on 1 July, capped at 3,000. Flights and hotels remain the play; vouchers are now a ₹22,500-a-month side dish.

Card tier FlightsHotels (MMT / Cleartrip)Brand vouchersTrains (IRCTC) Monthly cap
Infinia / Infinia Metal
HDFC Infinia Metal
16.67% 5X 33.33% 10X 16.67% 5X 10% 3X 15,000 pts/mo
Diners Club Black / DCB Metal
HDFC Diners Club Black Metal
16.67% 5X 33.33% 10X 10% 3X 10% 3X 10,000 pts/mo
Regalia Gold (mid-tier)
HDFC Regalia Gold
6.67% 5X 13.33% 10X 6.67% 5X — 4,000 pts/mo
Diners Club Privilege
HDFC Diners Club Privilege
6.67% 5X 13.33% 10X 6.67% 5X — 4,000 pts/mo
Everything below (Millennia & co.)
Listed for the cap, not the strategy. If your HDFC card isn't above this line, SmartBuy is a coupon site, not an engine.
 — — — — 1,000 pts/mo
The cap math — max ₹ per month, per tier

Infinia / Infinia Metal

  • Bonus cap 15,000 points/month = ₹15,000 of accelerated value, tops.
  • At 10X on hotels (mmt / cleartrip), you hit it by ~₹50,000 of monthly spend.
  • Brand vouchers sub-cap: 3,000 bonus points — exhausted by ~₹22,500.

15,000 bonus RP/month overall; brand vouchers sub-capped at 3,000/month since 1 Jul 2026.

Diners Club Black / DCB Metal

  • Bonus cap 10,000 points/month = ₹10,000 of accelerated value, tops.
  • At 10X on hotels (mmt / cleartrip), you hit it by ~₹33,500 of monthly spend.
  • Brand vouchers sub-cap: 3,000 bonus points — exhausted by ~₹45,000.

10,000 bonus RP/month overall; vouchers sub-capped at 3,000/month — and only 3X, vs Infinia's 5X.

Regalia Gold (mid-tier)

  • Bonus cap 4,000 points/month = ₹2,000 of accelerated value, tops.
  • At 10X on hotels (mmt / cleartrip), you hit it by ~₹16,500 of monthly spend.
  • Brand vouchers sub-cap: 3,000 bonus points — exhausted by ~₹28,000.

4,000 bonus RP/month + a 2,000/day gate; vouchers sub-capped at 3,000/month.

Regalia Gold can't reach the ₹1 house value — its points redeem at ₹0.50 on SmartBuy flights/hotels (₹0.65 Gold Catalogue). Rates here use ₹0.50.

Diners Club Privilege

  • Bonus cap 4,000 points/month = ₹2,000 of accelerated value, tops.
  • At 10X on hotels (mmt / cleartrip), you hit it by ~₹16,500 of monthly spend.
  • Brand vouchers sub-cap: 3,000 bonus points — exhausted by ~₹28,000.

shares Regalia Gold's band — 4,000 bonus RP/month + a 2,000/day gate; vouchers sub-capped at 3,000/month.

Privilege points redeem at ₹0.50 on SmartBuy flights/hotels — half the house value, the same haircut band as Regalia Gold. Rates here use ₹0.50.

Everything below (Millennia & co.)

  • Bonus cap 1,000 points/month = ₹1,000 of accelerated value, tops.

1,000 bonus points/month, mostly paid as cashback-style credit — outside this desk's travel catalog.

Caps apply to ACCELERATED points only — base earn continues past every cap. The HDFC Marriott co-brand sits outside these multipliers entirely, and the Tata Neu cards get bonus NeuCoins instead — capped at 1,000 a month and explicitly outside the 5X/10X structure.

offers.smartbuy.hdfcbank.com · cardinsider.com · cardmaven.in · livefromalounge.com

Axis Travel Edge

Axis Bank · Axis EDGE Miles

Axis caps spend, not points — the accelerated rate lives up to ₹2 lakh of portal spend a month and then steps down, which is a more honest ceiling than HDFC's. Magnus at 5X is the highest raw print here; Atlas's 5 EDGE Miles per ₹100 is the cleaner story because it also covers direct airline and hotel bookings, no portal detour required.

Card tier Travel Edge + direct airlines/hotels Monthly cap
Atlas
Axis Atlas
10% 2.5X ₹2,00,000 spend/mo
Magnus
Axis Magnus (legacy)
12% 5X ₹2,00,000 spend/mo
Magnus for Burgundy
Axis Magnus for Burgundy
24% 5X ₹2,00,000 spend/mo
Horizon
Axis Horizon
5% 2.5X no published cap
The cap math — max ₹ per month, per tier

Atlas

  • Accelerated rate covers ₹2,00,000 of monthly spend — 10,000 points, worth ₹20,000.
  • Past the cap: 2 EDGE Miles/₹100 (the base rate) past ₹2L of monthly travel spend.

the 5 EM/₹100 travel rate covers Travel Edge AND direct airline/hotel spend, up to ₹2L/month combined.

Magnus

  • Accelerated rate covers ₹2,00,000 of monthly spend — 60,000 points, worth ₹24,000.
  • Past the cap: 35 EDGE RP/₹200 (17.5/₹100) past ₹2L of monthly portal spend.

60 EDGE RP per ₹200 (5X of base) on Travel Edge, up to ₹2L portal spend/month.

Magnus for Burgundy

  • Accelerated rate covers ₹2,00,000 of monthly spend — 60,000 points, worth ₹48,000.
  • Past the cap: 35 EDGE RP/₹200 past ₹2L of monthly portal spend.

same ₹2L/month accelerated-spend ceiling as Magnus.

Same 60 RP/₹200 portal earn as Magnus, but Burgundy's 5:4 transfer ratio doubles each point to ~₹0.80 — the premium lives in the card, not the house value.

Horizon

No cap published — the ceiling is your credit limit and the issuer's mood.

no published cap on the 5 EM/₹100 travel rate.

Horizon transfers at 1:1, not Atlas's 1:2 — an EDGE Mile in its hands is worth ~₹1, half the house value.

Reserve has no published standing Travel Edge multiplier — only the long-dead 2022 launch promo — so it gets no row, and neither does SELECT, whose 2X retail rate is the whole published story. The Miles & More co-brands earn Lufthansa's currency directly and never touch EDGE multipliers. GrabDeals (the shopping side, "up to 50X") rotates merchant rates monthly; we don't print numbers with a four-week half-life.

axisbank.com · axis.bank.in · livefromalounge.com · cardinsider.com

ICICI iShop

ICICI Bank · ICICI Reward Points

The quiet SmartBuy rival — 12X on hotels is 36% back on an Emeralde Private Metal, the fattest single cell in this entire matrix, and the 18,000-point monthly cap is roomier than anything HDFC allows. The catch is the cliff below the top tier: legacy cards run the same multipliers into ₹0.25 points and collect a ₹99 redemption fee for the trouble.

Card tier FlightsHotelsShopping vouchers Monthly cap
Emeralde Private Metal
ICICI Emeralde Private Metal
18% 6X 36% 12X 18% 6X 18,000 pts/mo
Times Black
ICICI Times Black
12% 6X 24% 12X 12% 6X 15,000 pts/mo
Sapphiro, Rubyx & other legacy ICICI cards
ICICI Sapphiro , ICICI Bank Rubyx
3% 6X 6% 12X 3% 6X 15,000 pts/mo
The cap math — max ₹ per month, per tier

Emeralde Private Metal

  • Bonus cap 18,000 points/month = ₹18,000 of accelerated value, tops.
  • At 12X on hotels, you hit it by ~₹54,500 of monthly spend.

18,000 accelerated RP/month, 10,000/day — the most generous cap of the four portals.

Times Black

  • Bonus cap 15,000 points/month = ₹15,000 of accelerated value, tops.
  • At 12X on hotels, you hit it by ~₹68,000 of monthly spend.

15,000 accelerated RP/month, 8,000/day.

Sapphiro, Rubyx & other legacy ICICI cards

  • Bonus cap 15,000 points/month = ₹3,750 of accelerated value, tops.
  • At 12X on hotels, you hit it by ~₹68,000 of monthly spend.

15,000 accelerated RP/month, 8,000/day — a cap you'll never feel at ₹0.25/point.

Legacy ICICI points redeem at ~₹0.25 — the 6X/12X multipliers survive, the value doesn't. Rates here use ₹0.25.

Watch the 2.5% card-payment processing fee on select voucher brands — pay by net banking or the "discount" eats itself. Emeralde Private Metal and Times Black skip ICICI's ₹99-per-redemption fee; every legacy card pays it. Co-brands (MakeMyTrip, Emirates, Adani One) don't ride the multipliers at all — iShop pays them a flat ~4% cashback capped at ₹1,100 a month, a consolation prize, not an engine.

icici.bank.in · cardinsider.com · cardexpert.in · paisabazaar.com

Amex Reward Multiplier

American Express · Amex Membership Rewards

One multiplier per card, portal-wide — flights and hotels via MakeMyTrip, 200+ brand vouchers via ShopWise (Gyftr's replacement since 1 Feb 2026), Apple to Tanishq. The numbers look tame next to SmartBuy until you notice the cap: 25,000 bonus MR a month, per card, on everything. Nobody else lets you print ₹12,500 of transferable points monthly without a sub-cap in sight.

Card tier All Reward Multiplier partners Monthly cap
Platinum Charge
Amex Platinum Charge
6.25% 5X 25,000 pts/mo
Gold Charge
Amex Gold Charge
5% 5X 25,000 pts/mo
Platinum Travel / Platinum Reserve
Amex Platinum Travel , Amex Platinum Reserve
3% 3X 25,000 pts/mo
MRCC / SmartEarn
Amex Membership Rewards Card
2% 2X 25,000 pts/mo
The cap math — max ₹ per month, per tier

Platinum Charge

  • Bonus cap 25,000 points/month = ₹12,500 of accelerated value, tops.
  • At 5X on all reward multiplier partners, you hit it by ~₹2,50,000 of monthly spend.

25,000 bonus MR/month per card, across the whole portal.

Gold Charge

  • Bonus cap 25,000 points/month = ₹12,500 of accelerated value, tops.
  • At 5X on all reward multiplier partners, you hit it by ~₹3,12,500 of monthly spend.

25,000 bonus MR/month per card, across the whole portal.

Platinum Travel / Platinum Reserve

  • Bonus cap 25,000 points/month = ₹12,500 of accelerated value, tops.
  • At 3X on all reward multiplier partners, you hit it by ~₹6,25,000 of monthly spend.

25,000 bonus MR/month per card, across the whole portal — both cards ride the same 3X band.

MRCC / SmartEarn

  • Bonus cap 25,000 points/month = ₹12,500 of accelerated value, tops.
  • At 2X on all reward multiplier partners, you hit it by ~₹12,50,000 of monthly spend.

25,000 bonus MR/month per card — at 2X you'd need ₹12.5L of monthly portal spend to feel it.

The separate Reward Xcelerator programme (up to 20X on ~20 luxury brands, Platinum Charge and up) runs its own brand list and isn't part of this standing matrix.

americanexpress.com · cardinsider.com · cardexpert.in

How to read this

The percentage is multiplier × the card's raw points per ₹100 × the ₹/point that tier actually realizes — the house value by default, a documented haircut or premium where one provably applies (Regalia Gold's ₹0.50, Horizon's 1:1, Burgundy's 5:4). Caps bind the accelerated points only; base earn continues. Rates that rotate monthly — GrabDeals merchants, Amex Xcelerator brand lists — don't get cells, because a matrix of expired numbers is worse than no matrix. Route the points afterwards with the transfer optimizer.