The CardBuzz blog
Card-by-card write-ups from our team, features, fees, lounge access and who each card actually suits. For the numbers after every cap and exclusion, head to the card pages.
6586 posts · Page 445 of 549 · View the full archive
News & DevaluationsHow to Complain About Your Bank: The RBI Ombudsman Process
Wrongful charges, a closure request the bank ignores for months, recovery agents who won't stop calling — when your issuer won't fix a problem, you're not stuck with its customer care. The Reserve Bank runs a structured,
News & DevaluationsCredit Card Interest and Fee Rules: What RBI Says Banks Can Charge
Credit card interest in India — often 36% to 48% annualised — is among the most expensive borrowing you'll ever encounter. The Reserve Bank doesn't cap these rates outright, but its 2022 Master Direction on card issuance
News & DevaluationsRuPay Credit Cards on UPI: The Regulatory Story
For years, UPI was a debit-only world: you linked your savings or current account through a debit card and paid from your own money. In 2022, the Reserve Bank opened the door to credit on UPI — starting with RuPay credit
News & DevaluationsRBI's Co-Branding Card Rules: What Changed and Why It Matters
Some of India's most popular credit cards carry two brand names — a bank's and a partner's. Think of e-commerce, airline and retail co-branded cards like the Amazon Pay ICICI card or the Flipkart Axis card. The partnersh
News & DevaluationsHow Credit Reporting Works in India: Bureaus and Your Rights
Every credit card you hold feeds a dossier about you — how much you borrow, whether you pay on time, how many enquiries you've triggered. In India, that dossier is maintained not by your bank but by four licensed credit
News & DevaluationsCard Tokenisation in India: How It Protects You
Every time you saved your credit card on a shopping website, the merchant kept a copy of your 16-digit card number, expiry date and CVV-linked profile on its servers. A single breach of any of those merchants could expos
News & DevaluationsRBI's Credit Card Rules: The Regulations Every Cardholder Should Know
India's credit card market runs on a single consolidated rulebook: the Reserve Bank of India's Master Direction on Credit Card and Debit Card – Issuance and Conduct Directions, 2022. Issued on April 21, 2022 (RBI/2022-23
How-To GuidesIndian Card Transfer Partners 2026: The Complete Airline and Hotel Map
Most transfer guides list partners by bank: "HDFC transfers to these 15 programs." That's the wrong direction. You don't choose a bank and then a destination — you choose where you want to go, then find which Indian card
How-To GuidesAxis GrabDeals and Edge Rewards: How Portal Shopping Discounts Work
Axis Bank runs a parallel shopping universe most cardholders never open: GrabDeals, an affiliate portal where clicking through to merchants like Myntra, Flipkart, and Nykaa earns multiplied EDGE Reward Points or extra ca
How-To GuidesHDFC SmartBuy 10x and 5x: Mechanics, Caps, and the Fine Print
Everyone knows SmartBuy offers "10X reward points." Almost no one can explain exactly how the 10X is calculated, when the bonus posts, what voids it, or how much spend it takes to hit the cap. This is the mechanical mast
How-To GuidesAmex Membership Rewards India: Transfer Partners and Sweet Spots
American Express Membership Rewards (MR) in India is the connoisseur's currency: harder to earn in bulk than HDFC or Axis points, accepted at fewer merchants, but convertible into some of the most valuable airline miles
How-To GuidesIDFC First Rewards Explained: The Program Behind the Cards
IDFC First Bank did something no other Indian issuer has done: it gave every credit card in its lineup — from the entry-level Classic to the top-tier Wealth — the same reward structure. No tiered currencies, no premium-o