IDFC First Bank Credit Cards

IDFC FIRST Bank has rebuilt its credit-card book aggressively since the 2020 post-merger relaunch and now ships one of the deeper lifetime-free stacks in Indian banking — Millennia, Classic, Select, Wealth and WOW! are all ₹0/₹0 with materially different category mechanics. The paid lineup layers a metal-card tier above the free cards, with Ashva (₹2,999), Mayura (₹5,999) and the invite-only Gaj (₹12,500) plus FIRST Private at the top. A handful of FD-backed cards (WOW! Black, EARN) sit outside the retail ladder.

The architecture is unusually threshold-driven. Almost every paid and lifetime-free IDFC FIRST card uses the same core mechanic: a base earn rate (typically 3 points per ₹150 or ₹200) on the first ₹20,000 of eligible monthly spend, then a 10× step-up on incremental spend above the threshold. The structure rewards heavy users while capping exposure on light users — a conscious choice that keeps the lifetime-free cards economically viable for the bank. Birthday spends sit in the 10× bucket on most products, which is a clean bonus for users who concentrate discretionary spend around the birthday month.

IDFC FIRST Reward Points redeem at ₹0.25 per point through the FIRST Rewards Gallery and Pay with Points at merchant terminals — lower than SmartBuy or iShop, but the headline rate is offset by the 10× incremental mechanic. At ₹20,000/month of qualifying spend the effective rate on incremental spend works out to roughly 1.67% on Wealth/Select and 2.5%+ on Mayura's app-based hotel and flight bookings. Rent, education, wallet loads and government payments earn only the 3× base rate and are excluded from the 10× threshold calculation on most products.

Mayura is the inflection point in the lineup. At ₹5,999 it adds zero forex markup (a rare benefit at that fee tier) and the 30×/50× multiplier on in-app flight and hotel bookings is one of the highest accelerated-travel rates in the market — capped only by monthly spend thresholds rather than hard reward caps. For ₹3L+ annual travel-heavy spenders who can route bookings through the bank's own app, Mayura competes directly with HSBC TravelOne and Axis Atlas at a materially lower fee. For lighter users the lifetime-free tier (Millennia, Select, Wealth) carries the lineup.