CheQ AU Credit Card

Quick verdict: A CheQ × AU Small Finance Bank co-brand and India's first LED card, glowing on every NFC tap, with a headline 12% on app-paid utilities and at partner brands. The asterisk is the point value: 2 points = ₹1 on travel/vouchers, but only 4 points = ₹1 (₹0.25) against bills paid through CheQ, so the real return is roughly half the marketing (≈6% on app utilities, ≈2.5% on the 5% categories). Lifetime free to hold, it's a fun, genuinely rewarding card, if you redeem on travel and use the right card for each spend.

The headline, and the fine print

CheQ markets big numbers, and they're real, as points. You earn:

• 24 CheQ points per ₹200 ("12%") at partner brands (Amazon, Flipkart, Zomato, BigBasket and Apple

products sold by Unicorn), and on CheQ Travel and utility bills paid in the CheQ app.

• 10 points per ₹200 ("5%") on online shopping, dining, grocery and travel across 10,000+ brands. AU

sets this tier by merchant code, so restaurants, supermarkets, airlines, hotels, trains and cabs all count, online or in a shop.

• 5 points per ₹200 on other UPI payments through the CheQ app; UPI outside the app earns nothing.
• 2 points per ₹200 on everything else (the accelerated categories share a 12,000-point monthly cap;

this base rate is uncapped).

Which card you use matters. Every approval issues a Visa and a RuPay card, and the partner-brand and 5% rates pay on the Visa card or on CheQ UPI with the RuPay card. Use the RuPay card itself at a terminal or online at a partner brand or in a 5% category and it earns the 2-point base. Wallet loads, government payments, online gaming, cash withdrawals, fuel, education, rent, insurance, gold, EMIs and anything under ₹200 earn nothing.

Now the part the marketing whispers: a CheQ point is not ₹1. It's ₹0.50 on flights, hotels and gift cards, and only ₹0.25 when you use it to pay a credit-card or utility bill through CheQ. So the honest return is about 6% on app utilities and 2.5% on the 5% categories at best, and only if you redeem on travel or vouchers. Put the points against bills and you roughly halve it again. Points stay valid for two years from the day they're credited, so there's time to save up for a flight.

The LED — fun, not financial

The card's signature trick is an embedded LED that lights up when you tap to pay at any NFC terminal — the first of its kind in India (launched 28 April 2026). It's a genuine novelty and a conversation starter. It is also purely cosmetic: the LED variant carries a one-time ₹999 + GST fee, and it changes nothing about the rewards. Worth knowing: every approval issues two cards — a Visa and a RuPay variant — and the LED lives on the Visa; the RuPay twin is the one you link to UPI.

The fee and the extras

The card is now lifetime free — no joining fee, no annual fee — so there is no break-even to clear at all; the only optional cost is the one-time ₹999 + GST for the LED (Visa) variant. There's a 1% fuel surcharge waiver up to ₹150 a month, and a comprehensive protection pack rides along: air accident cover of ₹50 lakh, a credit shield up to ₹5 lakh, purchase protection up to ₹25,000 and travel-related covers. The 3.49% forex markup means it's not a card for overseas spend.

To apply, AU lists salaried applicants aged 21 to 60 and self-employed applicants aged 25 to 65, and CheQ asks for a monthly income of ₹25,000 or more and a credit score of 750 or above.

Who should hold it

The CheQ AU suits the app-native user who will pay utilities through the CheQ app, put partner-brand, dining, grocery and travel spend on the Visa card, and redeem points on travel or gift cards. That's the only way to capture the full ₹0.50 a point and make the headline rate mean something. UPI-first users earn on scan & pay too, 5 points per ₹200: about 1.25% at the ₹0.50 travel-or-voucher value and about 0.6% against bills, but only through the CheQ app, since UPI outside it earns nothing.

It's the wrong card for anyone who wants straightforward cashback (neither AU nor CheQ offers any, and the ₹0.25 bill-payment value guts the rate), who won't bother with the app and the right card, or who's buying it for the LED alone.

The bottom line

The CheQ AU is a likeable, lifetime-free card with a real novelty and a genuinely strong rate on a category — app utilities — that most cards ignore. But the gap between "12%" face and ~6% real is the whole story: treat the points as a travel/voucher currency, pay utilities through the CheQ app and shop on the Visa card, and it earns its keep; treat the points as bill credit and it underwhelms. Read the redemption table before the LED wins you over.