Airtel Axis Credit Card devaluation

Airtel Axis Credit card has been devalued effective 12-April-2026

Background

Axis Bank had launched this credit card with an annual fee of Rs. 500 + GST, specifically to benefit Airtel service users, Product details Benefits

• 25% cashback on Airtel Mobile, Broadband, WiFi and DTH bill payments via Airtel Thanks app *capped at INR 250 per statement cycle
• 10% cashback on utility bill payments such as gas, electricity, etc., via Airtel Thanks app *capped at INR 250 per statement cycle
• 10% cashback on Swiggy, Zomato and bigbasket *capped at INR 500 per statement cycle
• 1% cashback on all other spends *Cashback not applicable on excluded MCC categories.
• Cashback will directly be credited in your credit card statement

[Incident]

On 10th March 2026 the company update it terms Revision of AIRTEL AXIS BANK CREDIT CARD Terms and Conditions. Which totally voided the cards benefits. Though the website as of today 13-03-2026 still is marketing it on the basis of the old benefits. The company has a cleaver way of portraying that the changes are kind of a revaluation, and the customers will benefit more. Which is clearly not the case, as the benefits are "paywalled" behind the 1% spends category.

What has changed - Earlier to be eligible for the 25% cashback the user had to simply transact on the Airtel Thanks app, no other spends required. Now to get the same benefits you have to spend a total of Rs 12500 on the 1% category, to be eligible for the 25% up to 250 cashback. - Similar logic apples to the 10% category. - 10% cashback benefit on Swiggy, Zomato, and BigBasket has been replaced with a 10% value back on Zomato, Blinkit, and District Movies, applicable via Ecom as the mode of payment. Plus there are other minimum buy restrictions. - Lounge access discontinued.

Consumer response

Reddit discussion - Customers are furious with the move and many have already started closing the card, as their renewal dates are due soon.

References

Add a category with the same name as the product, service, website, software, product line or company that this article is about.

The "Incidents" category is not needed.

---

Add your text below this box. Once this section is complete, delete this box by clicking on it and pressing backspace.