LIC Classic Credit Card

Quick verdict: The LIC Classic is a single-purpose card, and it is free — which is the whole reason to consider it. If you pay LIC insurance premiums each year on LIC's own website, the 6 reward points per ₹125 are simply a bonus on a payment you were making anyway, and there is no annual fee to earn back first. Away from LIC it is an ordinary card — 3 points per ₹125 at home, and nothing on international spends from 26 October 2026 even though IDFC removed the forex markup in September 2026 — so it belongs in a wallet rather than at the front of it. If you want a lifetime-free all-rounder to spend on instead, the FIRST Classic is the better base card; there is nothing stopping you holding both.

This is a co-brand between IDFC FIRST Bank, LIC Cards and Mastercard, and it wears its purpose on its sleeve. LIC has more than 27 crore policyholders, most of whom pay premiums by cheque, auto-debit or netbanking and earn nothing for it. The LIC Classic exists to put a small, steady return on that spend — nothing more, nothing less. Read it as a rewards accessory to your insurance, not as your main card.

How it earns

The earning splits cleanly in two.

• 6 reward points per ₹125 (~1.2%) on LIC premium payments — but only when the premium is paid through LIC of India's official website.
• 3 reward points per ₹125 (~0.6%) on everything else, including utilities, groceries, education, railways and government payments — the Essentials categories share a 300-point monthly ceiling.

Each point is worth ₹0.25 as statement credit or catalogue redemption, and — a change worth noting — points now expire three years after they are earned rather than sitting forever. There are no points at all on rent, fuel, non-LIC insurance, cash withdrawals or EMIs.

The single most important detail is the routing rule. The headline 6X is tied to LIC's own payment page; pay the same premium through a third-party app or your bank's biller and you drop to the ordinary 3X. So the card only delivers its pitch if you actually pay premiums the way LIC's own website wants you to.

Treat the 6X as a reward for a habit, not a windfall. On a ₹60,000 annual premium paid the right way, you're looking at roughly ₹720 back — real, but modest. The card earns its keep on the size of your premiums, and almost nothing else.

The rest of the bundle

Around the rewards sits a light set of perks. You get 1 domestic airport and 2 railway lounge visits each quarter, a 1% fuel-surcharge waiver capped at ₹200 a cycle, a bundled insurance cover (₹2 lakh personal accident, ₹25,000 lost-card liability, purchase protection and credit shield of ₹25,000 each, plus roadside assistance), and a 1,000-point welcome bonus (worth ₹250) for spending ₹5,000 within the first 30 days.

None of this is a reason to hold the card on its own. Since September 2026 there is no forex markup (IDFC's Key Fact Statement dated 15 Sep 2026 lists it as nil), so using it abroad costs nothing extra, but from 26 October 2026 it earns nothing there, and the everyday 0.6% base rate at home is beaten by plenty of no-frills cards. The perks are pleasant garnish on a premium-payment card, not a second engine.

LIC Classic vs LIC Select

If your premiums are large, the question isn't really Classic-versus-rivals — it's Classic versus its own bigger sibling.

The LIC Select roughly doubles both the premium rate and the base rate — and, like the Classic, it is lifetime free, so the higher rate costs nothing extra. The choice is simple: if you pay large premiums — say well above ₹50,000 a year — the Select's extra 0.8% on premium spend makes it the clear pick. If your premiums are small and occasional, the two are close, so the Classic is enough. Size the choice on your actual annual premium, not on the perk list.

Who should hold it

The LIC Classic is for the LIC policyholder who pays a premium every year, is happy to route it through LIC's official site, and wants a little back for nothing. Used that way it is quietly sensible. If you pay a large premium every year, the LIC Select does the same job at roughly double the rate — and is also free.

It is the wrong card as a daily driver. If you want one card to cover dining, travel and everyday spends, a category rewards card will out-earn it easily; if you occasionally revolve a balance, the FIRST Classic and its unusually low interest rate is a smarter base; and if you spend abroad, its zero markup is shared by every IDFC card but, from 26 October 2026, most of them (this one and the FIRST Classic included) earn nothing overseas, so a zero-markup card that still earns there, like the Scapia Federal or IDFC's FD-backed WOW!, fits better. Hold the LIC Classic for what it is: a cheap, focused way to make your insurance premiums pay you back.