Key facts
- Joining fee
- ₹500 (billed on day 45)
- Annual fee
- ₹500, waived if you spent ₹1.5 lakh in the year before renewal
- Welcome benefit
- HDFC's page lists a ₹500 gift voucher for one transaction within 37 days of issue. The current T&C ties it to cards issued in Oct–Dec 2025, so confirm the offer when you apply.
- On IRCTC
- 5 reward points per ₹100 on the IRCTC website and Rail Connect app, capped at 1,000 points a month
- SmartBuy trains
- Extra 5% cashback on train tickets booked through HDFC SmartBuy, capped at ₹1,000 a month
- Elsewhere
- 1 point per ₹100, capped at 1,000 points a month (500 on UPI)
- Quarterly bonus
- ₹500 voucher for ₹30,000 spend in a calendar quarter
- Redeeming
- 1 point = ₹1, but only on train tickets via SmartBuy: up to 70% of the fare, minimum 100 points, ₹99 + GST per redemption. Points last 2 years.
- Lounge access
- 8 IRCTC Executive railway lounge visits a year (up to 2 a quarter). No airport lounges.
- Fuel
- 1% surcharge waiver on ₹400–₹5,000 transactions, up to ₹250 a cycle
- Forex markup
- 3.5% + GST
- Eligibility
- Salaried 21–60 with ₹12,000 a month, or self-employed 21–65 with ITR above ₹6 lakh
Checked against HDFC IRCTC card page, IRCTC card T&C, HDFC KFS and MITC on 28 Oct 2026. Fees exclude 18% GST.
Good
- 5 points per ₹100 on IRCTC bookings
- 8 railway lounge visits a year
- RuPay, so it works on UPI
- Low ₹500 fee with a waiver
Watch out
- Points only worth ₹1 on SmartBuy train tickets, with a ₹99 + GST fee per redemption
- Monthly caps on every earning category
- No airport lounges
What it's worth
Book ₹4,000 of train tickets a month on IRCTC and you earn 200 points, worth ₹200 when redeemed against train tickets on SmartBuy. Booking through SmartBuy instead adds up to 5% cashback, capped at ₹1,000 a month. Add the railway lounge visits and the ₹500 quarterly voucher at ₹30,000 a quarter, and a regular rail traveller gets several times the fee back.
The catch
Points are worth ₹1 only on train tickets through SmartBuy, each redemption costs ₹99 plus GST, and points can cover at most 70% of a fare. Redeem in bigger batches. Outside rail, 1 point per ₹100 is a weak rate.
This is a RuPay-only card, so it can be linked to UPI (up to 500 points a month on UPI spends).
Who it suits
Anyone who books trains at least a few times a month. Keep a different card for shopping: the SBI Cashback card for online spending, for example.
Applying
After the online form, most banks ask for a short video KYC call. Keep your original PAN card, a white sheet of paper and a pen ready. Here's how to get through it first time, and how to resume if you stopped midway.