In-depth review
SBI Card PRIME
Still SBI's solid mid-premium all-rounder — 10X on dining, groceries, departmental stores and movies, plus 8 domestic and 4 international lounge visits, around ₹11,000 a year of real milestone vouchers for a ₹5 lakh spender and a fuel waiver, all at a ₹2,999 fee that waives at ₹3 lakh. But the Vistara-Air India merger stripped out the Club Vistara Silver and Trident Privilege Red memberships that once made it distinctive, so judge the 2026 PRIME on its rewards, not the status perks.
Read the full review →Key features
What this card is built to do — the highlights that actually matter.
Welcome Benefit
~₹3,000 in vouchers, points or cashback in year one — usually conditional on a first spend within 30–90 days
2.5% on Dining
10X (10 RP/₹100, ~2.5% at ₹0.25/point) on dining and movies. SBI caps accelerated points at 7,500 a calendar month ACROSS dining, departmental stores, grocery and movies together — we apply the cap per category, so a spender who maxes two is credited a little high
10 points/₹100 on Groceries (~2.5% value)
10X (~2.5%) on groceries and departmental stores, sharing the 7,500-point monthly accelerated cap with dining and movies
Airport Lounge Access
Complimentary: 8 domestic airport lounge visits a year (2 a quarter) and 4 international (2 a quarter)
Annual Fee Waiver
Fee of ₹2,999 + 18% GST (₹3,539 all-in)/yr fully waived when you spend ₹3,00,000/year
Hotel Membership
Complimentary 1-year Club ITC Silver Tier membership
Milestone Bonus
~₹4,000 in bonus rewards on hitting annual spend milestones
Insurance Cover
Air accident liability cover of ₹50 lakh and credit card fraud liability cover of ₹1 lakh
✈️ TRAVEL BENEFITS
Lounge access, miles, forex rates and travel perks at a glance.
AIRPORT LOUNGE ACCESS
8 visits/yr
Domestic lounges
Priority Pass
International lounges
₹8,000
Estimated annual value
3.5%
Forex markup
- Domestic + international airport lounge access (8 domestic visits/yr, worth ~₹8,000)
- Travel insurance cover included
👑 PREMIUM LIFESTYLE BENEFITS
Concierge, golf, hotel membership and high-value perks for premium cardholders.
₹7,000
Milestone bonus value
- Complimentary 1-year Club ITC Silver Tier membership
- Travel insurance and accident cover
- ₹7,000 Yatra.com or Pantaloons e-gift voucher on ₹5 lakh of annual spend
For SBI customers who spend on dining, groceries, departmental stores and movies and will use the lounges and climb the quarterly and annual voucher milestones. The old Vistara/Trident status perks are gone, replaced by Club ITC Silver.
Full reward structure
What you earn on every rupee, per spend category — as of 11 Oct 2026. Rates assume 1 pt = ₹0.25. How we value points →
| Category | Type | Rate | Monthly cap |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dining | reward points | 2.5%10 pts/₹100 × ₹0.25 | ₹1,875one cap shared with Groceries |
| Groceriesonly at All grocery and departmental stores except Metro Cash & Carry, Reliance Market and Walmart, which SBI names as ineligible for the accelerated rate | reward points | 2.5%10 pts/₹100 × ₹0.25 | ₹1,875one cap shared with Dining |
| Other | reward points | 0.5%2 pts/₹100 × ₹0.25 | — |
Dining: 10X (10 RP/₹100, ~2.5% at ₹0.25/point) on dining and movies. SBI caps accelerated points at 7,500 a calendar month ACROSS dining, departmental stores, grocery and movies together — we apply the cap per category, so a spender who maxes two is credited a little high
Groceries: 10X (~2.5%) on groceries and departmental stores, sharing the 7,500-point monthly accelerated cap with dining and movies · All grocery and departmental stores except Metro Cash & Carry, Reliance Market and Walmart, which SBI names as ineligible for the accelerated rate
Other: 2 RP per ₹100 (~0.5%) base. Utility bill standing instructions earn 20 RP per ₹100 up to 3,000 points a month, but SBI closed new Autopay registrations in April 2021, so we do not score it
Earns nothing on: Fuel · Rent · Government & Tax · Wallet Loads · Online Gaming · EMI Conversions · Cash Advances
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 11 Oct 2026.
| Charge | Amount |
|---|---|
| Annual fee (incl. 18% GST) | ₹3,539 |
| Joining fee (incl. 18% GST) | ₹3,539 |
| Finance charge (APR) | 3.75% p.m. |
| Forex markup | 3.5% |
Perks & benefits
Estimated annual value beyond rewards — ~₹25,500/yr in total.
1% fuel surcharge waiver on transactions of ₹500–₹4,000, capped at ₹250 per statement cycle
8 domestic lounge visits a year (2 a quarter) + 4 international Priority Pass visits a year (2 a quarter), with a complimentary Priority Pass membership worth $99
₹1,000 Pizza Hut e-voucher for every quarter you spend ₹50,000 — up to ₹4,000 a year at a steady ₹50,000 a quarter. Prime Pro cardholders get ₹500 a quarter
₹7,000 Yatra.com or Pantaloons e-gift voucher on ₹5 lakh of annual spend
Complimentary 1-year Club ITC Silver Tier membership
Air accident liability cover of ₹50 lakh and credit card fraud liability cover of ₹1 lakh
Spend milestone
- ₹5,00,000 a year₹7,000 of value
Should you get it?
- Best for: Frequent travellers, Higher spenders
- Premium tier — a solid all-rounder for steady monthly spend.
- Strongest value if you spend heavily on Dining (2.5% back).
- Frequent travellers benefit from the included airport lounge access.
Pros & cons
✓ Pros
- Strong rewards that can offset the annual fee for the right spender
- 8 domestic lounge visits plus 4 international Priority Pass visits and the $99 membership
- ₹1,000 Pizza Hut voucher every quarter you spend ₹50,000, and ₹7,000 from Yatra or Pantaloons at ₹5 lakh
- Complimentary 1-year Club ITC Silver Tier membership
- 10X (~2.5%) on dining, groceries, departmental stores and movies
✕ Cons
- Annual fee applies unless the spend-based waiver is met
- Aimed at mid-to-high earners (SBI's card finder files it under ₹50,000–₹99,000 a month)
Eligibility & documents
Documents required
- 📄PAN card
- 📄Aadhaar / valid address proof
- 📄Latest 3 months bank statement
- 📄Income proof — salary slips (salaried) or ITR (self-employed)
- 📄Recent passport-size photograph
How to redeem rewards
Ways to convert what you earn into real value.
- 🎁Statement credit / cashback adjustment
- 🎁Online rewards catalogue (vouchers, merchandise)
- 🎁Flight & hotel bookings via the issuer rewards portal
What your SBI Reward Points are worth
Realistic value per point by redemption route — the difference is what most people leave on the table.
Capped at 60,000 pts/month from Apr 2026
Vouchers & merchandise
The Club Vistara Silver and Trident Privilege Red memberships are gone post-merger, and the 3.5% forex and ~0.5% base mean its value now rests on the four 10X categories and the milestones.
Frequently asked questions
What did Club Vistara Silver give?
How many free movie tickets?
What earns 10X points?
What is the annual fee waiver?
Is Trident Privilege membership included?
How has the SBI Card PRIME changed over time?
Has the SBI Card PRIME been devalued recently?
When did the SBI Card PRIME's fees last change?
How did the SBI Card PRIME change in 2025?
The bottom line
PRIME remains a solid mid-premium all-rounder — genuine 10X (~2.5%) on dining, groceries, departmental stores and movies, plus lounges, milestones and a fuel waiver, with a ₹3 lakh fee waiver. Just judge the 2026 version on its rewards: the Club Vistara and Trident memberships that once set it apart were discontinued after the airline merger.
How this page was built
Counted from this card’s own record: 3 earn rules, 2 of them capped, 1 paid only at named merchants, the spends listed as earning nothing and 6 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 11 Oct 2026.
Sources & verification
Fees, reward rates, and benefits for the SBI Card PRIME are taken from SBI Card's official Most Important Terms & Conditions (MITC) and fee schedule — see the card's official page. Last updated 11 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 SBI Card. 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.
SBI Card PRIME
Still SBI's solid mid-premium all-rounder — 10X on dining, groceries, departmental stores and movies, plus 8 domestic and 4 international lounge visits, around ₹11,000 a year of real milestone vouchers for a ₹5 lakh spender and a fuel waiver, all at a ₹2,999 fee that waives at ₹3 lakh. But the Vistara-Air India merger stripped out the Club Vistara Silver and Trident Privilege Red memberships that once made it distinctive, so judge the 2026 PRIME on its rewards, not the status perks.
IRCTC SBI Card Premier
A rare card built specifically around railway booking — 8% value back on AC-class tickets (SBI's T&C pays 10 reward points per ₹125, not the ₹100 IRCTC advertises) plus railway-station lounge access for ₹1,499. For the crores of Indians whose intercity travel is rail, it's one of a handful of cards built around that reality, and the richer of SBI's two IRCTC cards; a regular AC traveller recovers its fee within months. Off-rail earning is ordinary and points redeem only against IRCTC tickets, so pair it with a generalist.
SBI Card PULSE
A genuinely empty niche, filled — one of the very few Indian cards built around health and fitness spending, paying 10X on pharmacy, dining, movies and sports, and bundling a Noise smartwatch SBI lists at ₹7,999, FITPASS PRO and Netmeds First, a bundle that more than covers the ₹1,769 all-in fee if you'd use it. For the Cult.fit-and-Netmeds demographic the math works cleanly. Outside the health categories it's an ordinary 0.5% card, and the bundled cover is travel and fraud protection, not health insurance.
SBI Credit Card Ladder 2026: SimplyCLICK → Cashback → Prime → Elite → Aurum
SBI Card offers India's widest range of credit cards, from the entry SimplyCLICK to the premium Aurum. This guide maps the full SBI ladder, explains the fee waiver paths at each tier, and tells you where to stop upgrading based on your spend pattern.
SBI Card ELITE
The ELITE was always a membership portfolio more than a rewards card — and in 2026 the Vistara-Air India merger pulled the Trident and Club Vistara status memberships out. What remains is quietly decent: a low ~1.99% forex, 6 international Priority Pass visits, 5X on everyday categories, and milestones worth up to ₹12,500. It's now a travel-leaning card for the internationally-mobile SBI customer.
Reliance SBI Card PRIME
A ₹2,999 premium co-brand built for heavy Reliance Retail shoppers: up to 20 Reward Points per ₹100 (~5%) on AJIO and JioMart, Reliance vouchers worth up to ₹8,750 a year, lounge access and a monthly movie ticket. Genuinely rewarding if you live in the Reliance ecosystem — poor value if you don't.
SBI Card MILES
SBI's flexible-miles entry — generic Travel Credits that transfer to 24 airline & hotel partners at up to ₹1 each, with no single-airline lock-in. For the occasional flyer who wants travel rewards without the alliance homework, a sensible low-commitment start. The value hinges entirely on your willingness to transfer (catalogue redemptions crater to ₹0.25), and frequent travellers will outgrow it for a deeper-partnered card.
Air India SBI Platinum Credit Card
A card caught mid-transformation — closed to new applications for an extended period, with the loyalty programme underneath it completely rebuilt (Flying Returns gone, Maharaja Club in) and a refreshed co-brand reportedly in development to replace it. For existing holders who fly Air India, a reasonable hold while the programme stabilises. For everyone else, the smart move is to wait for the new card.
Apollo SBI Card SELECT
A health-focused co-brand that pays 10 Reward Points per Rs. 100 (~10%) at Apollo 24|7 and Apollo Pharmacy, plus up to 25% Circle value back, a 1-year FITPASS PRO membership, a health check-up and lounge access. But points redeem only as Apollo Health Credits — so it only makes sense if Apollo is genuinely part of your life.
BPCL SBI Card Octane
If you fill up at BPCL, the conversation is short — the Octane wins. At up to 7.25% value-back on BPCL fuel it is the highest return you can get at a BPCL pump, and unlike most single-purpose fuel cards it earns 10X on dining, groceries and movies too. For a BPCL household spending ₹4,000 a month on fuel, fuel alone earns about ₹290 a month, so the ₹1,769 all-in fee is recovered in about six months, and sooner in year one, when the ~₹1,500 welcome covers most of it. The benchmark — earned. It's strictly BPCL-network, with a poor 0.25% non-fuel base.
Landmark Rewards SBI Card PRIME
A ₹2,999 premium co-brand for Landmark Group loyalists: 25 Reward Points per ₹100 (~6.25%) at Lifestyle, Home Centre, Max and Spar, 12,000 welcome points (₹3,000) in year one plus 20,000 a year (₹5,000) at ₹5 lakh of spend, plus lounge access and Priority Pass. Excellent if you shop those stores heavily — weak value otherwise, with a 0.5% base rate and no fee reversal.
Bank of Baroda Premier Credit Card
Covers the categories it accelerates — dining, travel, international — at a rate that's fair but forgettable. The sensible default for a Bank of Baroda account holder who wants a mid-tier card without leaving the bank; unremarkable for anyone else. Its ₹1,000 fee is waived at ₹1.2 lakh of annual spend, so a regular user keeps it for nothing.
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 2017 · last change Apr 2026
2026
- ▼ RedemptionObserved 26 Feb 2026 · Effective 1 Apr 2026
Statement-credit redemption capped & blocked into 4,000-point multiples
Unrestricted statement-credit redemption, any point quantity→Max 60,000 RP/month; redeemable only in multiples of 4,000
Effective 1 April 2026, SBI Card capped statement-credit redemption at 60,000 Reward Points per card per calendar month and required redemptions in multiples of 4,000 points, removing partial/small redemptions. The 4 RP = ₹1 (₹0.25/point) conversion rate is unchanged. Applies to SBI Card PRIME (only Air India SBI Signature and the two PhonePe SBI variants are exempt).
Verification: SBI Card ↗ · Confidence: High
2025
- ▼ FeeEffective 1 Nov 2025
1% fee on third-party education payments & wallet loads
No surcharge on education/wallet-load spends→1% fee on 3rd-party education fees & wallet loads over ₹1,000
In its system-wide fee revision effective 1 November 2025, SBI Card added a 1% fee on education-fee payments made via third-party apps/aggregators (Paytm, PhonePe, Razorpay, etc.; direct school/college website or campus POS payments stay free) and a 1% fee on digital-wallet loads exceeding ₹1,000. Applies to SBI Card PRIME.
Verification: SBI Card ↗ · Confidence: High
- ▼ BenefitEffective 2025
Club Vistara Silver & Trident Privilege memberships discontinued
Complimentary Club Vistara Silver + Trident Privilege Red memberships→Both memberships withdrawn
Following the Vistara-Air India merger (Vistara ceased operations 12 Nov 2024; Club Vistara folded into Air India's Maharaja Club through 2025), the complimentary Club Vistara Silver and Trident Privilege Red memberships that PRIME once bundled were discontinued, stripping the status perks that had helped set the card apart and leaving its case to rest on the 10X categories, lounges and milestones.
Verification: CardAdvisor Research · Confidence: Reconstructed
2024
- ▼ RewardEffective 1 Dec 2024
Digital gaming spends stop earning
Reward Points earned→No Reward Points on MCC 5816, 7993, 7994
From 1 December 2024 the card stopped accruing Reward Points on spends at Digital Gaming Platforms and Merchants (MCC 5816, 7993, 7994). SBI publishes a card-by-card list naming SBI Card PRIME among roughly 45 affected cards. Recorded 2026-08-27 from that list during the SBI portfolio sweep; it now binds in card-data via an ONLINE_GAMING exclusion.
Verification: SBI Card ↗ · Confidence: High
- ▼ RewardObserved 1 Mar 2024 · Effective 1 Apr 2024
Reward points removed on rent payments (MCC 6513)
Base RP earned on rent payments→No RP on rent payments (MCC 6513)
SBI Card stopped awarding Reward Points on rent payments coded under MCC 6513, effective 1 April 2024 for standard cards (15 April 2024 for co-branded cards). SBI Card PRIME was explicitly named on the affected list; combined with the ₹199 processing fee, rent became a fully unrewarded, fee-bearing spend.
Verification: SBI Card ↗ · 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/sbi-prime#value-timeline">SBI Card PRIME value timeline</a>, CardAdvisor (CC BY 4.0).
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