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ICSI Diamond BOBCARD Credit Card
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ICSI Diamond BOBCARD Credit Card

Only Company Secretaries with active ICSI membership can get the ICSI Diamond, and no income level changes that. It never charges a fee, yet includes free professional indemnity cover of ₹5 lakh, a dozen domestic lounge visits a year and a 2% markup on foreign spends, which is strong value. The rewards are ordinary. Most spends return 0.25%. Dining, online and utility bills return 1.25% until together they hit 1,000 points in a statement, and fuel and groceries sit on the exclusion list.

BOBCARDMID
ICSI Diamond BOBCARD Credit Card
BOBCARD
ICSI Diamond BOBCARD Credit Card
Lifetime free

Illustration by CardAdvisor — not a depiction of the issued card. Independent; not affiliated with BOBCARD.

By Devchandra Sah•Cards tested, miles earned, trips booked — for over a decade•Published · Updated
4
out of 5
Mid tier
For a Company Secretary judged on cost, this is a strong free card: 2% forex, 12 lounge visits and professional indemnity cover normally cost a fee somewhere. As a rewards card it is ordinary, with a weak 0.25% base, a 5X cap that tops out at ₹250 a month, and UPI payments that never earn the 5X rate. Most of its value sits in the ₹1 lakh/quarter milestone and the forex rate, so it suits an ICSI member who travels and spends steadily far more than a light user.
Annual feeLifetime free
Top rate~1.25%
Best forFor practising Company Secretaries who want a free card with a low forex markup and some lounge access, and who spend enough on dining, online and utilities to use the 5X cap — plus ₹1 lakh a quarter to trigger the milestone.
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✓ Expert-reviewed by Devchandra Sah· verified 17 Sept 2026Spotted an error? Tell us →

Pros and cons

Pros

  • Lifetime free — no joining fee and no annual fee
  • 2% forex markup, well below the 3.5% most BOBCARDs charge
  • 12 complimentary domestic lounge visits a year (3 per quarter)
  • Free professional indemnity cover up to ₹5 lakh — relevant to a practising CS
  • 3,999 bonus points a quarter on ₹1 lakh of spend — the card's biggest reward lever
  • Up to 3 lifetime-free add-on cards for family

Cons

  • Only active ICSI members can apply — the card is closed to everyone else
  • 0.25% base earn rate is weak; the 5X categories are capped at ₹250/month of value
  • The 1,000-point 5X cap is shared across dining, online and utilities, not per category
  • Fuel, groceries, rent, education, government and insurance payments earn nothing
  • Lounge access needs ₹40,000 of spend in the preceding quarter, and is domestic only

Quick verdict: The ICSI Diamond is for Company Secretaries and nobody else. BOBCARD issues it only to active members of the Institute of Company Secretaries of India and verifies the membership number during the application, so a strong salary won't stand in for membership. A CS who qualifies gets ₹5 lakh of free professional indemnity cover, a foreign-currency markup of just 2% and a dozen domestic lounge visits a year, all on a lifetime-free card. It differs from its sister cards only in small ways. The quarterly milestone is 3,999 points instead of 4,000, and BOBCARD publishes a RuPay rail for it without naming a second network. Rewards are thin and skip fuel and groceries completely. Use it abroad and for online bills, and pay for the weekly shop with something else.

Diamond is a name, not a tier

Don't read "Diamond" as a premium badge. We class this as a mid-tier card, it charges no joining or annual fee, and its reward rates match BOBCARD's other institute cards exactly. The issuer's own Key Fact Statement dated 5 May 2026 even spells it "ICSI Dimond", so if that name turns up in your paperwork, it's the same card.

Chartered Accountants have the ICAI Exclusive and Cost Accountants have CMA One. Both pay a 4,000-point quarterly milestone, a point more than this card, and CMA One charges ₹1 to join. Membership of your own institute decides which of them you can hold, so none of those differences is really yours to weigh.

BOBCARD issues this card on a RuPay rail that links to UPI apps. It doesn't say which other network, if any, the card runs on. We won't guess.

The UPI link is convenient, but it changes what you earn. A UPI payment gets only the base 1 point per ₹100 and never the 5X rate. Pay a restaurant by scanning its QR code and you earn a fifth of the points the same bill would earn with the card itself, as long as the 5X cap still has room. A CS who pays for most things by UPI will earn the base rate at best on nearly all of it.

Reward maths, starting with the cap

Dining, online shopping and utility bills earn 5 points per ₹100, about 1.25% at ₹0.25 a point. The cap is where people slip. It's 1,000 points per statement cycle for the three categories together, not 1,000 each, and after that those spends earn 1 point per ₹100 like everything else.

Dining + online + utility spend in one statementPointsValue
₹10,000500₹125
₹20,0001,000 (cap reached)₹250
₹30,0001,100₹275
₹40,0001,200₹300

Doubling that spend from ₹20,000 to ₹40,000 lifts the points by only a fifth. Past ₹20,000 there's no 5X left to earn. Spends outside those categories and the exclusion list earn 1 point per ₹100, which is 0.25%, and a new cardholder gets 500 welcome points, ₹125, for spending ₹5,000 within 60 days.

The quarterly milestone is worth more than all of that. Run more than ₹1 lakh through the card in a quarter, or more than your credit limit if the limit is higher, and BOBCARD adds 3,999 bonus points, worth ₹999.75. Four such quarters bring 15,996 points, close to ₹4,000 a year, which beats the ₹3,000 the 5X tier pays even with its cap filled every month.

Yes, it's 3,999 and not the 4,000 BOBCARD publishes for the sister cards. There's no stated reason, and the gap is 25 paise a quarter, so we wouldn't let it influence anything.

Points go back as cashback at ₹0.25 each, or into BOBCARD's online catalogue of vouchers and merchandise. Our guide to what credit-card points are worth in rupees shows how to value a point by the route you'll actually use.

Lounges and cover, with conditions attached

Each quarter brings 3 complimentary domestic lounge visits, 12 across the year, and none of them work at international lounges. Since 1 January 2025 a quarter's visits are free only if you spent at least ₹40,000 in the calendar quarter before it, so one quiet quarter costs you the next one's access. Our airport lounge access guide explains how spend-linked lounge rules work.

Free professional indemnity cover of up to ₹5 lakh is the benefit aimed most squarely at a CS in practice. The card also carries accidental death cover, ₹15 lakh for air accidents and ₹5 lakh for others. We don't count any of it as annual value. It pays only if something goes wrong, BOBCARD can withdraw it without notice, and it lapses if the card wasn't used in the 90 days before a death.

Fuel earns no points, though fills between ₹400 and ₹5,000 qualify for the 1% surcharge waiver, with a maximum of ₹250 back per statement cycle.

Who should carry it

The zero-earning list is long. Fuel, groceries and supermarkets are the obvious gaps. Rent, education, insurance and hospital bills earn nothing either, and the FAQ below lists the rest. Together they cover much of an ordinary household budget.

Carry the ICSI Diamond if you're a member who travels abroad, pays online and utility bills by card, and can pass ₹1 lakh a quarter without forcing spend onto it. You pay nothing to hold it, and your family can have as many as three add-on cards without a fee, ever.

Look elsewhere for a main card, especially if you pay mostly by UPI or most of your money goes on groceries and fuel. Too much of your month would earn little or nothing for this to be the only card you carry.

Decided the ICSI Diamond BOBCARD Credit Card fits how you spend?

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Devchandra Sah
Devchandra Sah
Reviewed by · Cards tested, miles earned, trips booked — for over a decade

I have spent over a decade on Indian credit cards, mostly for the points and miles. I am a software engineer by profession, I hold and use the cards I write about, and I redeem through airline and hotel transfer partners: Avios, KrisFlyer, Flying Blue, Air India Maharaja Club, Accor ALL, Marriott Bonvoy and Taj. What I write about is what a card is actually worth after the fine print, the caps and exclusions that decide the real return, and the changes issuers make quietly. No paid placements.

Frequently asked questions

Can someone who isn't an ICSI member get the ICSI Diamond BOBCARD?
No. Active membership of the Institute of Company Secretaries of India is a hard requirement, and BOBCARD verifies your membership number during the application. A high income or an excellent credit score won't substitute for it, so the card isn't open to anyone who isn't a CS.
How many reward points does the ICSI Diamond BOBCARD earn?
A point is worth ₹0.25, so the base of 1 point per ₹100 on eligible spends works out to 0.25%. Restaurants, online shopping and utility bills get 5 points per ₹100, roughly 1.25%, but only until those three categories between them collect 1,000 points in a statement cycle. After that they're back on 1 point per ₹100.
Why is the quarterly milestone 3,999 points and not 4,000?
BOBCARD doesn't give a reason. It publishes 3,999 points for this card and 4,000 for the ICAI Exclusive and CMA One. A point is worth 25 paise, and apart from CMA One's ₹1 joining fee the three cards match on fees, reward rates, lounge access and insurance, so the missing point shouldn't sway anyone.
How do the ICSI Diamond's lounge visits work?
Three complimentary domestic visits are available each quarter, 12 across a year. The catch, in force since 1 January 2025, is a spend test, with each quarter's visits needing ₹40,000 or more of spending in the calendar quarter before. International lounges aren't included.
Which spends earn nothing on the ICSI Diamond?
Quite a few. The everyday ones are fuel, groceries and supermarkets, and rent. Education, insurance, hospitals and government payments are excluded too, along with wallet loads, rail, bus and toll payments, charity, agriculture and fast-food outlets. UPI spends in the 5X categories still earn only 1 point per ₹100.

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Researched from primary sources. How we review →

Independence. CardAdvisor is an independent editorial publication. We are not affiliated with, endorsed by, sponsored by, or authorised to act for BOBCARD. All issuer names, product names, and payment-network marks are the property of their respective owners and appear here for identification and comparison only. Card faces shown on this site are our own original illustrations — we do not display or host issuer card artwork or logos.