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  • 01 Jan 2024

Uncovering The Top Credit Card for Lounge Access Without An Annual Fee In India

While premium credit cards provide unrestricted airport lounge access, premium credit cards in India are subject to over 10,000+ annual fees.

With regular credit cards, you will be eligible for a limited number of free airport lounge access points.

There are two ways to get a credit card that will give you free access to airport lounges without having to pay an annual fee.

1. Credit cards with no annual fee that offer conditional lounge access

2. A card with an annual fee that you can pay back when you spend a certain amount of money in a given year.

Top Free Credit Cards for Lounge Access in India

IDFC First Wealth Credit Card

IDFC First Wealth credit card is the only credit card with zero annual fee that offers free international lounge access as well as domestic lounge access.

You will be able to enjoy 4 Domestic lounges per quarter, as well as international lounges, and spa visits.

The only condition is that you must spend a minimum of Rs 5000 per month. However, you can spend Rs 5000 at any time of the month to get access to the lounge for the following month.

Rewards start at 1.5% for online purchases and are 0.75% for offline purchases.

IDFC Select Credit Card 

IDFC Select offers 4 complimentary domestic lounges per quarter for 5000 rupees per month. However, you will not be able to avail of international lounge and spa facilities with a select card.

While the benefits of the IDFC wealth card are greater, the approval process for the IDFC select card is much simpler than that of an IDFC wealth card.

The minimum reward value is 1.5%, with a minimum of 1.75% for online purchases and 0.5% for offline purchases.

AU Bank LIT Credit Card

The minimum reward value is 1.5%, with a minimum of 1.75% for online purchases and 0.5% for offline purchases.

One such service is a Domestic airport lounge visit. For this service, you will have to pay Rs. 199 for one visit and Rs. 299 for two domestic lounge visits. The duration of the visits is 90 days.

HSBC Visa Platinum Credit Card

Get 3 Free Domestic and International Airport Lounge Access Introductory Offers With Your HSBC Platinum Credit Card.

In addition to these welcome gifts, you also get a Rs 2750 lifetime free credit card from HSBC.

To be approved, you need to be residing in one of the following cities: 

Bangalore, Chennai, Gurgaon, Hyderabad, Mumbai, New Delhi, Noida, Pune.

Axis Ace Credit Card

One of the best credit cards on the list is Axis Ace. This card gives you access to 4 domestic airport lounges, 5% Cashback on utility bills on Gpay, and 2% Cashback on all other expenses.

You won’t find a better deal in any of the other introductory credit cards out there.

HDFC Millennia Credit Card

HDFC Millennia credit card is a great alternative to Axis Ace. With HDFC Millennia, you can enjoy 8 domestic lounge visits in one year. You can also get 5% cashback with HDFC Millennia on your purchases on various platforms such as Amazon.com, BookMyShow.com, Cult.com, Flipkart.com, Myntra.com, Sony LIV.com, Swiggy.com, TataCLiQ.com, Uber.com, Zomato.

You will only receive 1% cashback for all other transactions, which is lower than Axis Ace.

HDFC Regalia Credit Card 

HDFC Regalia is a credit card that offers 12 free domestic and 6 free international airport lounge visits per year for occasional travelers.

Regalia credit card offers a 1.33 percent reward on all your purchases. However, this is not very good for a card with an annual fee of Rs 2500.

HDFC Tata Neu Infinity

HDFC Tata Net Infinity can be used as a substitute for HDFC Regalia. With HDFC Net Infinity, you can enjoy 8 Domestic and 4 International airport lounge visits per year.

HDFC Regalia is priced at Rs 2500 per annum, while Tata Neu Infinity is priced at Rs 1500 per annum.

Tata Neu Infinity Credit Card offers 1.5% Cashback on Unified Payments Interface (UPI) payments. This is one of the unique features of this credit card compared to other credit cards on the list.

BOB Eterna Credit Card

If you are a frequent domestic traveler, you will benefit from an unlimited number of domestic lounge visits with Bank Eterna in India.

If you are a salaried individual who travels a lot for business purposes and wants to avoid expensive annual fees, you can apply for the BOB eterna credit card.

ICICI MakeMyTrip Signature Credit Card 

One-time Rs 2500 credit card membership with lifetime access and welcome gifts worth over Rs 2500.

ICICI Money Transfer Machine (MTM) Credit Card with Lifetime Access and Welcome Gift.

Dreamfolks offers two domestic lounge visits for every Rs. 5,000 spent in any calendar quarter. Dreamfolks also offers one international airport lounge and one spa session per year with a free membership.

Kotak Royale Signature Credit Card 

Kotak Royale’s Signature Credit Card comes with 2 free quarterly domestic lounge visits. The annual fee for Kotak Royale is Rs 999, which is the same as HDFC Millennia with the same Rs 1 lakh waiver clause.

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