The RBL NovaTM is an invite-only premium travel card — there is no public application form. RBL offers it to affluent relationship customers and select high-income profiles.
How to get an invitation
- Deepen your RBL relationship. Nova is extended to affluent-segment customers — route your salary or investments to RBL and ask your relationship manager to nominate you.
- Demonstrate high annual spend. Nova waives its renewal fee above roughly ₹10 lakh of annual spend, the kind of usage RBL looks for before extending it.
- Hold a mid-tier RBL card first. A well-used Icon or World Safari is a recognised stepping stone to a Nova invitation.
What issuers look for
- Affluent-segment RBL relationship (RBL publishes no income criterion for Nova)
- ₹10 lakh+ annual card spend
- Strong CIBIL score and clean RBL history
Observed patterns, not criteria the bank publishes. Any income or score level here is indicative.
Newer premium card, issued by invitation — not available through the public apply grid.
In-depth review
RBL Bank Nova Credit Card
RBL's invite-only premium metal travel card — 6% on flights and hotels via its portal, points that transfer to airline programmes, 24 lounge visits a year and a ₹12,500 Taj or Luxe gift card at signup and again at every renewal. That repeating gift, not the ₹10 lakh spend waiver, is what actually neutralises the ₹12,500 fee, all but its GST — but a 2% forex markup and RBL's thinner service depth hold it a notch below the marquee travel cards.
Read the full review →Key features
What this card is built to do — the highlights that actually matter.
Welcome Benefit
~₹12,500 in vouchers, points or cashback in year one — usually conditional on a first spend within 30–90 days
6 points/₹100 on Travel (~6% value)
12 reward points per ₹200 (6% at ₹1/point) on flights and hotels booked through the Nova portal; portal-gated, not earned on general travel spends
2% on Other
4 reward points per ₹200 (2% at ₹1/point) on general spends; points transfer to airline partners at 2 points to 1 partner point
Airport Lounge Access
Complimentary: 12 domestic airport lounge visits a year and 12 international
Annual Fee Waiver
Fee of ₹12,500 + 18% GST (₹14,750 all-in)/yr fully waived when you spend ₹10,00,000/year
Golf Privileges
4 complimentary golf rounds plus 12 golf lessons a year at select courses
Milestone Bonus
~₹40,000 in bonus rewards on hitting annual spend milestones
✈️ TRAVEL BENEFITS
Lounge access, miles, forex rates and travel perks at a glance.
AIRPORT LOUNGE ACCESS
12 visits/yr
Domestic lounges
✓
International lounges
₹18,000
Estimated annual value
2%
Forex markup
6.0%
Travel reward rate
AIRLINE / TRAVEL PARTNERS
- Domestic + international airport lounge access (12 domestic visits/yr, worth ~₹18,000)
- Miles on: Nova flight & hotel booking portal
- 6.0% effective return on travel bookings
- Low forex markup: 2.0%
👑 PREMIUM LIFESTYLE BENEFITS
Concierge, golf, hotel membership and high-value perks for premium cardholders.
12 rounds
Golf rounds/year
₹12,000
Golf perk value
₹40,000
Milestone bonus value
- 12 complimentary golf rounds/year at partner courses
- A ₹10,000 gift card (Taj, Marriott, MakeMyTrip, Luxe or Tata) for each calendar quarter in which you spend ₹3 lakh. It can repeat each quarter, up to four times a year, so ₹40,000 of gift cards at a steady ₹12 lakh of annual spend.
For the frequent flyer who receives an invite, books flights and hotels through the Nova portal and will transfer points to airline programmes, while clearing ₹10 lakh a year to waive the renewal fee.
Full reward structure
What you earn on every rupee, per spend category — as of 24 Oct 2026. Rates assume 1 pt = ₹1.00. How we value points →
| Category | Type | Rate | Monthly cap |
|---|---|---|---|
| Travelonly at Nova flight & hotel booking portal | reward points | 6%6 pts/₹100 × ₹1.00 | — |
| Other | reward points | 2%2 pts/₹100 × ₹1.00 | — |
Travel: 12 reward points per ₹200 (6% at ₹1/point) on flights and hotels booked through the Nova portal; portal-gated, not earned on general travel spends · Nova flight & hotel booking portal
Other: 4 reward points per ₹200 (2% at ₹1/point) on general spends; points transfer to airline partners at 2 points to 1 partner point
Earns nothing on: Fuel · Education · Utility Bills · Insurance · Cash Advances · Rent · Wallet Loads · Government & Tax · EMI Conversions
These spends earn no rewards at all — not a reduced rate, and not the base rate. They are also normally left out of any milestone or fee-waiver calculation.
Fees & charges
The numbers that matter beyond rewards — verify on the issuer site before applying. Fees below are shown inclusive of 18% GST, as of 24 Oct 2026.
| Charge | Amount |
|---|---|
| Annual fee (incl. 18% GST) | ₹14,750 |
| Joining fee (incl. 18% GST) | ₹14,750 |
| Finance charge (APR) | 3.4% p.m. |
| Forex markup | 2% |
Perks & benefits
Estimated annual value beyond rewards — ~₹70,000/yr in total.
12 domestic and 12 international airport lounge visits a year, with 4 complimentary guest visits at international lounges
4 complimentary golf rounds plus 12 golf lessons a year at select courses
A ₹10,000 gift card (Taj, Marriott, MakeMyTrip, Luxe or Tata) for each calendar quarter in which you spend ₹3 lakh. It can repeat each quarter, up to four times a year, so ₹40,000 of gift cards at a steady ₹12 lakh of annual spend.
Should you get it?
- Best for: Frequent flyers who book through the Nova portal, RBL customers who transfer points to airline programmes
- Premium tier — a solid all-rounder for steady monthly spend.
- Strongest value if you spend heavily on everyday spends (2% back; 6% only at Nova flight & hotel booking portal).
- Frequent travellers benefit from the included airport lounge access.
Pros & cons
✓ Pros
- 6% (12 points per ₹200) on flights and hotels via the Nova portal
- ₹12,500 Taj or Luxe welcome gift card covers most of the ₹14,750 all-in first-year fee
- 12 domestic and 12 international lounge visits a year
- Points transfer to airline partners including Air India, KrisFlyer and Qatar
✕ Cons
- Invite-only — cannot be applied for directly
- The 6% rate applies only to the Nova flight and hotel portal
- Renewal fee needs ₹10 lakh of annual spend to waive; 2% forex markup
- Fuel, utilities, insurance, education, rent, wallet loads, government payments, cash and EMI earn no points
Eligibility
RBL Bank publishes no eligibility criteria for this card — no minimum income, no age band, no credit-score floor, and no document checklist. That is not an oversight on our part: the card is issued strictly by invitation, there is no public application form, and so there is nothing to qualify for in the usual sense. Any income or score level in the panel above is indicative of the profile the bank extends the card to, not a threshold it states, and the same goes for any salary figure quoted for it elsewhere.
What actually decides an invitation is the relationship behind it — balances held with the bank, spend on an existing card, and the banking segment you sit in. We set those signals out in how to get an invitation above, labelled for what they are: observed patterns, not published criteria.
How to redeem rewards
Ways to convert what you earn into real value.
- 🎁Redeem reward points at ₹1 each via the Nova rewards portal
- 🎁Transfer points to airline partners at 2 points to 1 partner point
What your RBL Reward Points are worth
Realistic value per point by redemption route — the difference is what most people leave on the table.
Standard redemption
Brand & e-gift vouchers
Two cards only. Lumière converts to Air India and Club ITC at 1:1 (⇒ ₹1/pt) — four times RBL's catalogue rate and the best thing about the card, despite RBL's own Lumière page never mentioning transfers at all. Nova is 2:1 to Air India, KrisFlyer, Qatar and Club ITC (⇒ ₹0.50/pt). Credited in up to 7 working days. ITC's own table also lists RBL Insignia (3:1), World Safari Plus (3:1) and iGlobe (4:1) — products we do not carry.
✈ Transfer partners
Direct transfers from this card only, ranked by what a point is worth in the destination programme. Full calculator, every currency →
The best 6% rate is locked to the Nova booking portal and the renewal fee needs ₹10 lakh of annual spend to waive; general spends earn only 2% and forex is a middling 2%.
Frequently asked questions
What does the RBL Nova earn?
What is the welcome benefit?
Can the annual fee be waived?
Which spends earn no reward points?
How does the quarterly milestone work?
What interest rate applies to revolved balances?
How has the RBL Bank Nova Credit Card changed over time?
Has the RBL Bank Nova Credit Card been devalued recently?
When did the RBL Bank Nova Credit Card's fees last change?
The bottom line
Nova is a well-built travel metal card — 6% on flights and hotels, airline point transfer, 24 lounge visits a year and a fee-offsetting ₹12,500 welcome gift. It is invite-only, and the 2% forex plus RBL's thinner service depth keep it a notch below the marquee travel cards. But for an RBL flyer who lands the invite and books through the portal, the value is real.
How this page was built
Counted from this card’s own record: 2 earn rules, 1 paid only at named merchants, the spends listed as earning nothing and 3 recorded perks. The renewal fee is conditional — it is waived on a published spend target, so the fee you pay depends on what you spend.
Last updated 24 Oct 2026.
Sources & verification
Fees, reward rates, and benefits for the RBL Bank Nova Credit Card are taken from RBL Bank's official Most Important Terms & Conditions (MITC) and fee schedule — see the card's official page. Last updated 24 Oct 2026. Reviewed by Devchandra Sah. Always confirm current details on the issuer's site before applying. How we research →
Independence. CardAdvisor is an independent editorial publication. We are not affiliated with, endorsed by, sponsored by, or authorised to act for RBL Bank. 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.
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Guides and reviews related to this card.
Value timeline
Every real-world change to this card's rewards, fees and benefits we've tracked — newest first, each linked to its source.
Tracking since 2025 · last change Jan 2026
2026
- ▼ FeeObserved Jan 2026 · Effective 7 Jan 2026
New 1% fee on large FASTag top-ups and toll payments
No FASTag or toll transaction fee→1% fee on any FASTag-loading or toll-payment transaction above ₹10,000
From 7 January 2026 RBL Bank charges a 1% fee on any single FASTag-loading or toll-payment transaction above ₹10,000, measured per transaction per card, across merchant category codes 4784, 4111 and 4131. Because the threshold is per transaction rather than a monthly aggregate, it bites on one-off large FASTag top-ups rather than on regular commuting; splitting a top-up below ₹10,000 avoids it. The fee sits alongside RBL's existing 1% charges on rent, on utility spends above ₹50,000 a month, on fuel transactions above ₹10,000, and on education payments routed through third-party apps. It is a fee on the transaction, not a change to reward earning — these categories already earn no reward points on most RBL cards.
Verification: RBL Bank ↗ · Confidence: High
2025
- ◆ LaunchEffective 17 Nov 2025
RBL Nova launched as an invite-only travel metal card
RBL Bank unveiled the Nova alongside the flagship Lumière on 17 Nov 2025 as an invite-only premium metal card at ₹12,500 + GST joining/annual fee (waived from year two on ₹10 lakh of eligible annual spend). It earns 4 reward points per ₹200 (2%) on general spends and an accelerated 12 points per ₹200 (6%) on flights and hotels booked through the Nova portal, with points valued at ₹1 each on the portal and transferable to airline partners (Air India, KrisFlyer, Qatar) at 2:1. Travel benefits: 12 domestic + 12 international lounge visits a year (4 international guest visits), 4 golf rounds with 12 lessons, a ₹12,500 Taj Experiences or Luxe welcome gift card, and ₹10,000 quarterly milestone gift cards on ₹3 lakh spend. Forex markup 2%.
Verification: RBL Bank ↗ · Confidence: High
Each change links to the issuer's own document — bank T&C, MITC, notice, press release or product page — where one is public. Where the bank published nothing, it's marked CardAdvisor Research and verified against the card's current terms. Independent of the live terms shown above. This timeline is one card's slice of our market-wide change record across every tracked card.
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Source: <a href="https://cardadvisor.in/cards/rbl-nova#value-timeline">RBL Bank Nova Credit Card value timeline</a>, CardAdvisor (CC BY 4.0).