Cards · SBI Card

IRCTC SBI Card Premier: rewards, caps and exclusions

The IRCTC SBI Card Premier pays about 8% on Railway tickets at www.irctc.co.in / IRCTC app — 1st AC, 2nd AC, 3rd AC, Executive Chair Car, AC Chair Car (online), and 0.8% on everything else. Below is every rate, cap and exclusion in SBI Card's published terms, as we last checked them on 9 October 2026.

Visa, RuPay₹1,499 a yearPaid in points

What it earns

≈8%Railway tickets at www.irctc.co.in / IRCTC app — 1st AC, 2nd AC, 3rd AC, Executive Chair Car, AC Chair Car (online)no cap stated

≈4%Air tickets on www.air.irctc.co.in (online)on the first ₹18,700 of spend a cycle

≈4%E-Catering on www.ecatering.irctc.co.in (online)no cap stated

≈2.4%Food, Standing Instruction on Utility Spendsno cap stated

≈0.8%Everything elseno cap stated

≈ marks a rate paid in points, valued at ₹1 a point. That is Zenidhi's conservative valuation, the same one the audit uses: the cheap end of what the points can be redeemed for, never the best transfer. Redeemed well, they can be worth more.

What earns nothing

Spend in these categories earns no rewards on this card, however it is paid for:

Fuel
Wallet loads (since 1 July 2020)
Rent (since 15 April 2024)
Government payments (since 15 July 2024)
EMI conversions
Cash withdrawals and fees

What costs extra

Worse than earning nothing: SBI Card charges a fee for these.

1% on Utility Payment Fee
1% on Fee on Education Payment Transactions (third-party apps)

Milestones

In SBI Card's own words:

Earn 2,500 Reward points on annual travel spends of ₹50,000 or above (Travel Agents and Railways MCCs per IRCTC-MILESTONE-MCCs.pdf) → 2,500 RP (₹2,500 on IRCTC)
Earn 5,000 Reward Points on annual travel spends of ₹1,00,000 or above → 5,000 RP (₹5,000 on IRCTC)

Fees

Annual fee: ₹1,499, plus 18% GST
Joining fee: ₹1,499
Annual fee waived on ₹2,00,000 of spend in a card year

Welcome benefit: 1,500 RP (₹1,500 against IRCTC tickets) on paying the joining fee.

Where this comes from

Transcribed from SBI Card's own documents and checked against them on 9 October 2026:

Banks change these terms, sometimes with a month's notice. If a figure here disagrees with SBI Card's current document, the bank's document is right. Tell us at support@zenidhi.com and we'll fix the rule, here and in the app.

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Zenidhi reads your SBI Card statements and transaction alerts in Gmail, replays every swipe against the rules on this page, and shows you what you missed, and which card in your wallet to use next time. Get my audit · How the audit works