Fuel is a daily expense for everyone, and having a credit card that offers cashback or rewards on fuel purchases can be quite beneficial. For those who spend a significant amount on fuel, it can lead to substantial savings simply by using the right credit card. Let’s explore some of the best fuel credit cards in India for 2024 that rewards fuel purchases & something interesting for those who’re new to this.
Table of Contents
The Issue with Fuel Cards
If you’re looking for traditional fuel cards, I can list at-least 10 of them, something like below:
- Axis Bank IOCL Credit Card
- SBI BPCL Octane Credit Card
- IDFC First Power+ Credit Card
- Stan. Chart. Super Value Titanium
But the concern is that there are 3 major issues with most of these “fuel” marketed credit cards which will ruin your time and energy when you take them. They’re:
- You may not get expected rewards/cashback on fuel spends because sometimes Merchant Category Code (MCC) are not properly updated with the merchant.
- Even if you find the right fuel stations that gives accelerated rewards (let’s say 4%), you’ll find meagre max caps every month.
- Even if you’ve cracked the code for above two concerns, the last trick used by the banks is that you’ll get peanuts when you spend elsewhere other than fuel (like 0.25%). Now, you shouldn’t forget that non-fuel spends are essential to reach the required spend target to get the annual fee waiver. So overall reward rate goes for a toss.
These issues have been repeatedly seen in every fuel credit card ever launched in the country for over a decade. Unfortunately that’s how the business of fuel credit cards work and it may never change.
Not to forget that, managing a separate card for fuel alone is another time & wallet consuming thing. So you shouldn’t be falling for that ideally.
Instead, keep the strategy simple by choosing cards that either gives regular rewards on fuel spends or through milestone spends.
And if that’s not sufficient, there is one more thing you would need to know. Let’s begin with the list of cards before getting there:
AmEx Gold Charge Card
- Reward Rate: ~5%
- Best for: Spends of 6,000 INR / month
- Read review & apply: Amex Gold Charge
Note that Amex has 0% fuel surcharge with HPCL Petrol Stations. The sweet spot is to use Amex Gold Charge for 1,000 INR*6 times a month to earn regular rewards+monthly bonus while enjoying 0% surcharge at HPCL.
AmEx Platinum Charge Card
- Reward Rate: ~1.25%
- Best for: Spends of any volume
- Read review & apply: Amex Plat Charge
While no one should get Amex Platinum Charge just for fuel spends, it doesn’t hurt using it when you already own one.
While there are no cap per se, you’re still limited to the fair usage policy with HPCL to enjoy 0% surcharge.
AmEx MRCC
- Reward Rate: ~5%
- Best for: Spends of 20,000 INR / month
- Read review & apply: Amex MRCC
While Amex Membership Rewards Credit Card doesn’t get you regular points on fuel spends, the monthly bonus is sufficient to give you a handsome return on fuel spends.
Milestone Credit Cards
If above cards doesn’t work for you for whatever reason, there are other ways to choose a card for fuel spends and that’s when you’ll need to explore: milestone credit cards.
You’ll need to pick the credit cards that gives pretty good reward rate on reaching spend milestones. This would include cards like IDFC Vistara, SBI Vistara Prime, SBI Aurum, Amex Travel Card, Amex Reserve.
As of now, Axis Bank has excluded fuel spends for milestone rewards as well (at-least on paper), and other banks might follow anytime.
HP Pay App
If you’re not happy with the returns on above cards, we finally have a golden method that could help you save over 10% on fuel spends, through HP Pay.
HP Pay is a loyalty app by HPCL which can be used to pay for fuel at HPCL outlets. There are two ways to go about it:
- HP Pay Voucher: You shall buy HP Pay fuel vouchers online and add those vouchers to HP Pay app and pay for fuel.
- ICICI FasTag: You’ll need to buy Amazon Pay vouchers, add to amazon pay balance and use it to recharge ICICI Fastag account. Now while paying for the fuel, you can choose ICICI Fastag and pay for your fuel.
The Fastag route is bit complicated but worth it. In fact some POS at HPCL/IOCL can take Fastag fuel payments directly without HP Pay but from my experience it’s rare to find, so HP Pay comes handy.
So both of these HPPay methods are quite lucrative as one can save well over ~10% on fuel spends, for example, you can buy Amazon Pay Vouchers from HDFC Gyftr portal using HDFC Super Premium cards like HDFC Infinia to earn 5X rewards and use them for fuel as mentioned above.
But remember, you may run into issues any-day with this. Recently, ICICI bank disabled fuel spends on Fastag for some users and one needs to call and request to enable it again.
The Fastag route is bit risky because one day they might remove the functionality and you might be left with few thousands on your Fastag Account. So take calculated risks accordingly.
Final Thoughts
Choosing the best credit card for fuel spends can be complicated at times, but I hope the information above helps you make an informed decision.
Ultimately, it comes down to personal preference, especially since fuel expenses for most people don’t even cross ₹1 lakh a year. So, it might not be worth stressing too much over a relatively small spend.
Personally, I used to rely on Amex Charge cards for fuel, but lately, I’ve switched to HP Pay with ICICI Fastag, which has been working smoothly for me. I hope it stays for sometime, but you never know.
Make hay while the sun shines!
Which one is your favourite method to save on fuel spends? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments below.
Hi,
I called Customer care and they informed this is a lower variant than my Coral CC, and i said thats fine and speciafically asked for Amex variant and i was issued an additional card. Limit is shared between all ICICI cards (Just like SCB). I took because Annual fee was lowest (AMEX cards) and i also get Lounge access.
Last time i visited Premium Paza in Bangalore, used my Visa Sig, Master World, and Amex card seperately for Myself+2 guests. All Free with Re 1 access fee for verification.
Sounds good Abhishek. Happy lounging for free 🙂
Hi Sid, I spend around 80k per month on my card for fuel. Which card according to you would give me the best rewards points / cash BK and fuel surcharge waiver
Dear sir,
Thank you very much for your guidelines.
I am spending 700 to 1000 amt for fuel expenses. i taken citibank Indian oil credit card. i observed as citi bank swipe machines status is not upto the mark in my area. other than citi bank any other suitable. please guide.
I strongly believe ICICI HPCL Amex card is worth mentioning in this list for someone having a fuel spend of not exceeding rs 4000 a month. Apart from 2.5% + 0.75% CashBack it also gives 6 payback points per Rs 100 spent in fuel. That is equal to another 1.5% if converted to rupee equivalent 4 payback points =rs 1.5. It also gives 8 complementary lounge access and all the Amex deals as well as the BMS offer. In my view it is a bargain at the annual fee of rs 199.
Will get it updated in a while with fresh list and more info 🙂
After reading this post i have applied for converting the platinum card to hpcl coral amex card. According to me looks best of them all with 4% saving. But 2.5% will inly be given if swiped on icici machines also payback points cannot be redeemed for cash only products or vouchers from payback site.
Nope you can convert payback points to cash (not supercash) in mobikwik. Go to the redeem section and add your payback card.Happy conversion to cash!!!
You can convert payback points to HP PAY wallet balance also. 4pts = Re1.
On a separate note you can use intermiles in selected IOC pumps. 4 miles = Re1.
best is use parkPlus+ app which gives 4% discount ever friday for Indian oil fuel vouchers and 2% for rest of the days. It’s excluding and over and above credit card charges
Hey! Great article there.
Can you recommend the best card for a heavy fuel spender like me (I spend around 8k – 10k a month)
Hey,
Please suggest best credit card for fuel purpose. I spend (monthly avg) 5-7k on credit card having a part of fuel approx 3000 inr as of now on my Yes bank Reward plus platinum card since past one year.
Looking for one with good cashback & offers.
add-on info:- I hold a salary of 40k a month.
Seek for the best answer at the earliest.
Thanks.
You can go for SBI BP card recently launched with reward rate of 3.75% or ICICI HP amex card with reward rate of 4% or Citi indian oil with reward rate of 2.6%.
SBI seems to be a better offering as it give 1.25% rewards on dining, grocery also. check out the site.
SBI card is not really 3.75% as you loose fuel surcharge and only 1% they refund. Effective savings only ~1.75% at BPCL pumps.
whoa..that’s some “clever” marketing from SBI saying 13X reward points!!
Check standard chartered titanium credit card. Few details are as follows:
“Earn 5% cashback on fuel spends across all fuel stations up to a maximum of INR 200 per month (max of INR 100 per transaction). Minimum transaction of INR 750.”
Vishal,
Start using digital wallets. Mobikwik gives flat 10% cashback up to Rs.50 or 100 very often. Some times 100% cashback upto Rs.100. You can avail these offers once in a week. They keep changing the offers but have something or the other on fuel all the time. So it is much more beneficial than using any fuel card. Paytm also floats fuel offers. No headache of surcharges and you’ll also get 0.75% cashback per government regulation.
I can see only Paytm wallet accepted but no scope for other wallet.
I’m OK with ICICI HPCL card, with this I will get
1.Waiver of Surcharge
2. 0.75 percentage cashback
3. ₹100 cashback
4. Playback points
5. Additional ₹150 to ₹300 Amazon pay balance as cashback on Amazon on every month 1st/2nd
Please elaborate on how you will get additional 150 to 300 Amazon Pay balance by using ICICI HPCL card. And i think it is Payback points and not Playback 🙂
Its the offer amazon rums every 1st week of month for ordering groceries through amazon pantry. Its better to use icici amex hpcl card which gives 6 payback points and 2.5% cashback rather than only icici hpcl card.
That’s Payback points I know after my post but I don’t know how to correct it.
I have noticed that there is no Playback points for Visa version
Amazon Super Value Day Offer :-
—————————————————————————————
₹1500 to ₹3999 10% cashback
₹4000 & above 15% cashback (max ₹1200 cashback)
Only indian oil pumps. If you use at other pumps it is like any other transaction with surcharge and normal points .
Not mentioned that Citi reward points can be redeemed to buy products in IOCL pumps at the rate of 1 point = 1 rupee for fuel or lubricants as rewards sale. That’s lucrative.
Hello everyone,
Is there any card or combination for Business use? Our monthly fuel consumption runs into lakhs.
Use Yes First Exclusive via Paytm and get 2.5% reward points + 0.75% paytm cashback.
any card which gives reward points on wallets can be used , eg already mentioned the YFE
i will appreciate if above article is updated suitably to present current cards giving maximum benefits.
The above one is may be outdated. Could you please re-review considering the current options available.
Why not add this category in your yearly best card review
Someone said the list is already exhaustive 😀
Please review the best credit card for fuel for now.
I regularly fill @ BPCL pumps. I use Paytm and Amer MRCC combination for this.
Any suggestion for BPCL?
Kindly review the best fuel credit card as the list is pretty old for now.
Please update this list with new entrant IndianOil HDFC Bank Credit Card
Can you please update about recent Indian oil hdfc credit card?
Thanks in advance.
Currently HPCL runs upto 100% cashback (max -Rs.3000) for March and april for its loyalty program dedicated app HP PAY. you can register by approaching any HPCL pump station. You can add money from any credit card without any charges upto ₹10,000/- per month. Normally you will get 8 payback point per 100. And can redeem them directly in HPCL pump station.
HP Pay allows you to load money through any credit card except AMEX, debit cards also allowed, you get 4 payback points (not 8) per 100 spent on fuel. So it’s like 1% value back in addition to your crcard RP.
Could you update about the new SBI BPCL Octane Card
I hold an SBI BPCL card for the last 2 years and was waiting for a new card from SBI for an Upgrade only for my fuel expenses which is coming up to be beyond the max eligibility of 1300 per statement cycle for the 13x (3.75% value back on Fuel Spends) and thought the new card is an appropriate one.
Awaiting your thoughts on the new card as the value back proposition is about 6.25% with the new card on BPCL Outlets as well as the inclusion of Airport Lounges Benefits.
StanC Titanium cashback amounts to 4% now, ever since surcharge was reduced to 1%.
Yes Bank also runs targeted offers of 5% cashback (plus 1% surcharge waiver), usually with a cashback cap of 500 per month.
HPCL gift cards purchased on Amazon is probably a lucrative option depending on how rewardingly you manage to load money in Amazon. Available for denominations like 2500 to 10K, they charge a delivery fee of 100.
Can you update this article OR write new article on which are the best cards for fuel in 2021?
Consider exploring HPCL Gift cards or HP Pay codes. 🙂
Will check…though BPCL SBI Octane card looks appealing for now…although with 1500 annual fee
i will appreciate if above article is updated suitably to present current cards giving maximum benefits.
Just done.
Hi Sid…wondering if you could reassess the fuel cards and update this article?
The simple strategy is Amex cards (MRCC / gold charge) for obvious reasons.
Other complicated way for those who have time is to buy HP Pay vouchers or go with Fastag route via HPPay. Will try to cover sometime in detail the coming week.
Very much looking for it , also please cover if a Rupay Fuel card can be explored like SBI , IDFC along with UPI payments
Hi Sid, Thanks for sharing the update on fuel cards. For me, the nearest fuel station is of IOCL and what I understand is that fuel surcharge waiver on AMEX cards is only applicable at HPCL fuel stations. Is that correct..?
That’s right, Amex has 0% surcharge only with HPCL.
For IOCL, you may check if you can use Fastag directly in the POS. From my experience, they do have the functionality but not enabled with most IOCL merchants.
Sid, 1500*4 transactions for Gold Charge card??? Am I missing something here??
Sorry, meant to be 1000*6
Just updated.
RBL Platinum TravelEasy SuperCard can be considered, which gives 10% cashback (max Rs.400)
Good find. Is there any restriction on fuel brands like only hp/iocl?
no restriction on which brand
Is it really giving you 10% cashback ? A simple google says its
“10 % back as points of cash spent on fuel. i.e. 10 points per 100 spent fuel. Value of 1 point = 0.2 ₹. Hardly 2% on fuel with not so good redeeming options”
Max cashback reduced from 400 to 25o effective 1st Sept.
Isn’t the new Axis Bank Indian oil premium credit card good? It has a low limit for fee reversal(30k in case of old Citi Bank customers) and rewards back at 6%
Correct, this card looks good for spends at IOCL outlets giving 6x edge miles. However, fee waiver is on spends of 1L and above.
Isn’t the Fee waiver for customers migrating from the older Citi IOCL card been retained at 30k per annum?
Hi Sid,
I am holding Amex Gold charge and currently optimizing 1k x 6times @ HP pumps. Would it make it any better if I shift to HP Pay? Can you explain on what difference would this make for me.
Tks in advance.
If Amex Gold works for you, then better to stick with that as it’s less risky.
Hi Sid,
HPPay vouchers were only there on the Gyftr portal in March. I haven’t seen them since then. Is there another way to get them on HDFC or Amex portals?
How to get HP pay vouchers with Amex? I don’t see any option in reward multiplier.
No more on Amex, updated the same. So it’s available on Gyftr directly that can be purchased with high rewarding cards like Magnus Burgundy or even Atlas for that matter.
I have using Citibank iocl card regularly for almost 1 year now which Is now converted to Axis premier indian oil card. It gives really handsome rewards. The point redemption is easy too.
Has any non-citi users got this card? Because it’s not available via branch sales (or) upgrade route via phone banking.
Unfortunately the AMEX route works only in big (Metro) cities. I don’t think there’s a single petrol station in Kerala that accepts AMEX cards. In fact nearly no one accepts AMEX at all in Kerala. Even huge and premium brands like LuLu, Alukkas and Bhima don’t accept them.
And when I tried to buy HP Vouchers from Gyftr it shows a 2%+GST surcharge for purchase using credit cards.
All Lulu Branded Stores accept Amex.
Just tried today at LuLu Funtura Trivandrum and no luck.
For me, the most uncomplicated fuel card is the SC Super Value Titanium. Gives 5 percent back, effectively 4 percent as the surcharge isn’t to be reversed any more. Best thing about the card is that it is not brand specific, and that it gives cashback and not points…
Worst thing is that the card doesn’t give much else, other than cashback for bill pay above 750. Also, the cap on all cashbacks isn’t very attractive either.
For me, the fuel spends are around Rs 7000 per month. 4000 can be taken care of on this card. Then perhaps the RBL Monthly Treats for the monthly spend target, or Amex MRCC if there is an HP Pump one can chance upon.
I spend around 48000 on fuel, and pay bills around 20000 for cashback around 3000 per year, and since the card has one of the earliest billing dates on 11th of the month, use the card for spends between say 11th and 15th of the month… That should usually be enough for the spend waver at a reasonable 90000.
Only STitanium and Smart are the only cards worth thinking about in the SCB set of cards. Smart doesn’t have any fuel benefits, so Titanium it has to be…
Agree that SC Titanium is the most simple rewarding fuel card, upto 4K spends pm. But they did everything to limit it, from overall cashback limit of 500 pm, they put category limits, then spend only within 2K is being rewarded, and now transferring cashback to statement credit requires min 1K accrual. Will retain it since it’s LTF, but may move some fuel spends to other cards.
Hey, thanks for making life easier for us folks. I hope you do come up with an article on best credit cards for international travel as there’s a lot to consider there and your analysis would definitely be super helpful. Based on your reco, I did get HDFC DCB but that has a lot of acceptability issue internationally as well.
RBL Bank is coming out with 2 new cards – IndianOil RBL Bank CC & IndianOil RBL Bank XTRA CC.
The XTRA card looks promising. At a glance, it seems to be comparable to Axis IndianOil Premium CC.
That would be nice but the problem with RBL is their support and fuel cards usually require some support, just incase things go wrong.
Both cards are live on RBL website.
Terms & Conditions look good, if RBL adhere to them. But if follow is required for getting reward points, then they are as good as other cards
Hello Siddharth,
which card to opt for if my monthly fuel spend is 20Lakhs+
20 Lakhs ? If you are into travels biz, you need to get biz cards not personal cards. I guess there is no biz card that rewards you on fuel.
You fuel your private jet or fleet of trucks
Best way to get 4% cashback on IOCL fuel pump along with normal rewards on credit card is using parkPlus app.
Every Friday you can buy voucher with 4% discount and also you will earn normal credit card rewards as well say 3.33% on infinia. Total will be 7.33%. Which is huge rewards. All IOCL pumps accept these IOCL vouchers issued from parkPlus app