One change took effect this week and it is the one Amex Platinum Travel holders have been waiting for since the cardmember e-mail of 10 August: the second cut to the same milestone ladder in six months. Two more announced changes land on 1 October, and the catalogue week was mostly about re-reading clauses to the end — an Amex redemption route paused since January that we were still publishing, a YES fee clause that exempts cashback cards, an SBI programme ratio that its marketing rounds up — and about the 49 places where our own guides had drifted from our own data.
What took effect this week
American Express Platinum Travel — the milestone ladder, cut again. From 10 September the ₹1.9 lakh milestone stops paying its 7,500 bonus Membership Rewards points altogether. The ₹4 lakh tier and its 10,000 points are untouched. The ₹7 lakh tier drops its 22,500 bonus points and doubles the Taj Experiences e-Gift Card from ₹10,000 to ₹20,000. Cumulatively, a member who spends ₹7 lakh goes from 40,000 milestone points plus a ₹10,000 Taj voucher to 10,000 points plus a ₹20,000 Taj card — at this card's conservative ₹0.50 a point, roughly ₹30,000 of milestone value down to ₹25,000, and worse below ₹7 lakh because the entry tier now pays nothing.
The bigger change is in kind. 22,500 Membership Rewards points could transfer to Marriott Bonvoy or KrisFlyer; a Taj e-Gift Card is worth its face value only to someone who was going to spend ₹20,000 at Taj anyway. Re-derived from the card's own fields rather than re-dated, the net return is now about 3.7% at ₹7 lakh counting the Taj card at face value, and under 1% at ₹4 lakh — the "4% card" framing that every review including ours had used is gone. This follows the 9 March 2026 restructure of the same ladder, and Amex's product page was still showing the old ladder when the e-mail went out; the row's source is the cardmember e-mail as reported by two specialist publishers, and the row says so. Amex has paused new applications across its India line-up, so this is a change for existing holders.
The record for this week: dates, before and after, sources
- ▼ MilestoneObserved 10 Aug 2026 · Effective 10 Sept 2026American Express Platinum Travel Credit Card
Second milestone cut in six months — ₹1.9L tier deleted, ₹7L points traded for a bigger Taj card
₹1.9L→7,500 MR; ₹4L→10,000 MR; ₹7L→22,500 MR + ₹10,000 Taj voucher→₹1.9L→nothing; ₹4L→10,000 MR; ₹7L→₹20,000 Taj Experiences e-Gift Card, no points
From 10 September 2026 the ₹1.9 lakh milestone stops paying its 7,500 bonus Membership Rewards points altogether, and the ₹7 lakh milestone drops its 22,500 bonus points in exchange for doubling the Taj Experiences e-Gift Card from ₹10,000 to ₹20,000. The ₹4 lakh tier and its 10,000 points are untouched. Cumulatively a member who spends ₹7 lakh goes from 40,000 milestone points plus a ₹10,000 Taj voucher to 10,000 points plus a ₹20,000 Taj card — at this card's conservative ₹0.50/point that is roughly ₹30,000 of milestone value down to ₹25,000, and the loss is worse below ₹7 lakh because the entry tier now pays nothing at all. The bigger change is in kind rather than in size: 22,500 Membership Rewards points could transfer to Marriott Bonvoy or KrisFlyer, while a Taj e-Gift Card is only worth its face value to someone who was going to spend ₹20,000 at Taj anyway. This is the second devaluation of the same ladder in six months, after the 9 March 2026 restructure.
Verification: CardAdvisor Research · Confidence: High
- Issuer noticeEffective 9 Sept 2026IDFC FIRST Bank· 1 change across 14 cards▲ Fee
Forex markup removed
1% to 3.5%, depending on the card→0% (nil)
IDFC FIRST Bank stopped charging a markup on foreign-currency spends on all its credit cards from 9 September 2026, the effective date its letter to cardmembers gives. Its Key Fact Statement dated 15 September 2026 lists the markup on foreign-currency and currency-conversion transactions as nil, with no card-by-card exception, where the January 2026 edition charged 3.5% on most cards and less on a few (1.99% on the FIRST Select, 1.5% on the FIRST Wealth, 1.49% on the IndiGo card and 1% on the Ashva). The same letter says international spends stop earning reward points from 26 October 2026 on most IDFC FIRST cards; that is recorded as its own change.
Applies to 14 cards
IDFC FIRST Ashva Credit Card · IDFC FIRST Classic Credit Card · IDFC FIRST Digital RuPay Credit Card · IDFC FIRST EA₹N Credit Card · IDFC FIRST Hello Cashback Credit Card · IDFC FIRST HPCL Power+ Credit Card · IDFC FIRST Millennia Credit Card · IDFC FIRST Power Credit Card · IDFC FIRST Select Credit Card · IDFC FIRST SWYP Credit Card · IDFC FIRST Wealth Credit Card · IndiGo IDFC FIRST Credit Card · LIC Classic Credit Card · LIC Select Credit Card
Verification: IDFC FIRST Bank ↗ · Confidence: High
Announced, taking effect later
1 October — Amex Platinum Travel lounge visits become spend-gated. The two complimentary domestic visits per calendar quarter stop being unconditional: a member needs ₹1 lakh of eligible spend in the preceding calendar quarter to get them in the next one, with a ₹70,000 bar across July–September for the October–December quarter. The allowance itself is unchanged at up to eight visits a year. What changes is that lumpy spenders lose whole quarters, because the ₹1 lakh has to land inside one quarter and does not carry over — a member pacing evenly toward the ₹4 lakh milestone clears it automatically; one who front-loads a year of spend does not.
1 October — Axis Select's milestone narrows. The ₹3 lakh anniversary-year milestone keeps its benefits and its threshold but stops counting the categories that already earn no points: insurance, rent, fuel, education, utilities and telecom, wallet loads, gold and jewellery, government services and gift cards. If a meaningful slice of your ₹3 lakh came from rent or utilities, the bar is now materially harder than the headline number.
1 November and 15 November — the Axis benefit gates. The movie offer on the Select, Privilege, MyZone and Neo, and the MyZone's District buy-one-get-one, require ₹25,000 of settled spend in the previous three months; new cards get the issuance month plus three. Complimentary memberships on six premium cards renew only with the holder's consent from 15 November — a benefit you have to remember to claim is a benefit fewer people claim.
Everything scheduled as this week ended, soonest first
Dates are the issuer’s effective dates; the calendar feed carries the same dates.
Tolls stop earning Uni Coins; public transport and insurance earn only up to a monthly limit
Tolls, public transport and insurance earned Uni Coins like other eligible spends→Tolls earn nothing; public transport earns on up to ₹20,000 and insurance on up to ₹50,000 of spend a month
From 19 September 2026, BOBCARD's MITC stops Uni Coins on tolls and bridge and road fees (MCC 4784), and pays them on public transport (MCC 4111, 4112 and 4131) only for the first ₹20,000 of spend a month and on insurance premiums (MCC 6300 and 5960) only for the first ₹50,000. Everyday spends still earn 1%.
Verification: BOBCARD ↗ · Confidence: High
- Issuer noticeEffective 22 Sept 2026Axis Bank· 4 changes across 10 cards▲ Transfer
Accor ALL returns as a transfer partner, in Group A
Accor ALL unavailable since 2 April 2026→Accor ALL back, in Group A
Accor Live Limitless is back in the EDGE transfer table, almost six months after Axis removed it on 2 April 2026. It returns in Group A, so it shares the smaller annual cap, and on several cards at a less generous ratio than the card gives its airline partners; the Atlas, for instance, moves 2 EDGE Miles into 1 Accor point where most of its airlines get 1 into 2. Check the card's own transfer table before planning a large transfer.
Applies to 10 cards
Axis Bank Atlas Credit Card · Axis Bank Burgundy Private Credit Card · Axis Bank Horizon Credit Card · Axis Bank Magnus Credit Card · Axis Bank Olympus Credit Card · Axis Bank Privilege Credit Card · Axis Bank Reserve Credit Card · Axis Bank Rewards Credit Card · Axis Bank Select Credit Card · IndianOil Axis Bank Premium Credit Card
▲ TransferCathay Asia Miles, Lufthansa Miles & More and Hilton Honors added
None of the three available→Asia Miles in Group A; Miles & More and Hilton Honors in Group B
Three new programmes joined the EDGE transfer table in the same overnight change. Cathay Pacific Asia Miles sits in Group A with the smaller annual cap; Lufthansa Miles & More and Hilton Honors sit in Group B with the larger one. Ratios vary by card.
Applies to 10 cards
Axis Bank Atlas Credit Card · Axis Bank Burgundy Private Credit Card · Axis Bank Horizon Credit Card · Axis Bank Magnus Credit Card · Axis Bank Olympus Credit Card · Axis Bank Privilege Credit Card · Axis Bank Reserve Credit Card · Axis Bank Rewards Credit Card · Axis Bank Select Credit Card · IndianOil Axis Bank Premium Credit Card
▼ TransferClub ITC removed as a transfer partner
Club ITC available→Club ITC removed
Axis dropped Club ITC from its EDGE transfer table in the same overnight change. It had been one of the better-value hotel routes left after the April 2026 cut, since ITC points redeem against stays and dining at ITC hotels in India.
Applies to 10 cards
Axis Bank Atlas Credit Card · Axis Bank Burgundy Private Credit Card · Axis Bank Horizon Credit Card · Axis Bank Magnus Credit Card · Axis Bank Olympus Credit Card · Axis Bank Privilege Credit Card · Axis Bank Reserve Credit Card · Axis Bank Rewards Credit Card · Axis Bank Select Credit Card · IndianOil Axis Bank Premium Credit Card
▼ TransferFlying Blue, Air India and Qantas moved into the smaller Group A transfer cap
Group B (the larger annual transfer allowance)→Group A (a quarter of the Group B allowance); ratios unchanged
Axis moved Air France-KLM Flying Blue, Air India Maharaja Club and Qantas Frequent Flyer from Group B to Group A of its EDGE transfer partners, overnight and without notice. The conversion ratios did not change, but Group A carries a quarter of the Group B annual allowance, so far fewer points can reach these three programmes each year. On the Atlas, for example, the most that can go to Air India in a calendar year falls from 1,20,000 EDGE Miles to 30,000.
Applies to 10 cards
Axis Bank Atlas Credit Card · Axis Bank Burgundy Private Credit Card · Axis Bank Horizon Credit Card · Axis Bank Magnus Credit Card · Axis Bank Olympus Credit Card · Axis Bank Privilege Credit Card · Axis Bank Reserve Credit Card · Axis Bank Rewards Credit Card · Axis Bank Select Credit Card · IndianOil Axis Bank Premium Credit Card
Verification: Axis Bank ↗ · Confidence: High
- Issuer noticeEffective 23 Sept 2026SBI Card· 1 change across 3 cards▼ Transfer
Air France-KLM Flying Blue removed as a transfer partner
Flying Blue at 1:1; 17 airline partners + 8 hotel partners (25 total)→Flying Blue removed; 16 airline partners + 8 hotel partners (24 total)
SBI dropped Air France-KLM Flying Blue from the MILES-family transfer table with no customer notice we could find. The archived copy of 4 August 2026 lists it as airline row 4 at 1:1; the PDF SBI re-issued on 23 September 2026 does not mention Flying Blue, Air France or KLM anywhere and lists 16 airlines. The change therefore lands between 4 August and 23 September 2026, dated here to the day the new PDF was created. Hotel partners are untouched at 8 and no other ratio moved. Applies identically to MILES, MILES PRIME and Miles Elite, because SBI publishes one transfer table for all three. Aeroplan, British Airways, Cathay and Qantas remain at 1:1 for the same kind of long-haul redemption.
Applies to 3 cards
SBI Card MILES · SBI Card Miles Elite · SBI Card MILES PRIME
Verification: SBI Card ↗ · Confidence: Reconstructed
- Issuer noticeEffective 30 Sept 2026American Express· 1 change across 5 cards▼ Reward
Reward Multiplier discontinued; ShopWise e-vouchers keep their bonus
Bonus points on Reward Multiplier brand links and on ShopWise e-vouchers→Bonus points on ShopWise e-vouchers only (capped at 25,000 bonus points a month)
American Express is ending its Reward Multiplier programme on 30 September 2026. Bonus points on purchases made through Amex's links to individual brands, such as Apple, Myntra, Nykaa and MakeMyTrip flights and hotels, end with it; purchases made up to 11:59 PM on 29 September still earn under the old terms. Bonus points on e-vouchers continue through ShopWise, which Amex now runs as a separate platform, at the card's existing ShopWise rate and capped at 25,000 bonus points a month. Base earn and the value of a Membership Rewards point do not change.
Verification: American Express ↗ · Confidence: High
Domestic lounge access gated behind ₹1L of spend in the previous quarter
2 complimentary domestic visits per calendar quarter, unconditional→2 per quarter only if ₹1,00,000 of eligible spend in the preceding calendar quarter
From 1 October 2026 the card's two complimentary domestic airport lounge visits per calendar quarter stop being unconditional: a member has to have spent ₹1 lakh or more in eligible transactions during the preceding calendar quarter to get them in the next one. Amex is easing the first quarter in — for October–December 2026 the bar is ₹70,000 of spend across July–September 2026 rather than ₹1 lakh. The allowance itself is unchanged at up to 8 visits a year; what changed is that lumpy spenders now lose whole quarters, since the ₹1 lakh has to land inside one quarter and does not carry over. A member pacing evenly toward the ₹4 lakh milestone clears the bar automatically; one who front-loads a year of spend does not.
Verification: CardAdvisor Research · Confidence: High
- Bank-wide changeEffective 1 Oct 2026AU Small Finance Bank· 1 change across 6 cards▼ Fee
Fuel surcharge waiver cap cut from ₹150 to ₹100 a month
1% waiver, capped at ₹100 per statement month
From 1 October 2026 the Altura Plus's 1% fuel surcharge waiver (on fills of ₹400 to ₹5,000) is capped at ₹100 per statement month, down from ₹150, so the most it can save in a year falls from ₹1,800 to ₹1,200. AU announced it on the card's own page ("Effective 1st October 2026, Fuel Surcharge Waiver will be up to ₹100 per statement cycle") and moved the card into the ₹100 row of its MITC dated 30 September 2026.
Verification: AU Small Finance Bank ↗ · Confidence: High
- Bank-wide changeEffective 1 Oct 2026AU Small Finance Bank· 1 change across 2 cards▼ Fee
Forex markup raised from 1.99% to 3.49%
3.49% on international transactions
From 1 October 2026 AU raised the Zenith's cross-currency markup from 1.99% to 3.49%, so an international spend now costs about 4.1% on top once GST is added. AU announced it on the card's own page ("Effective 1st October 2026, Forex Markup will be revised from 1.99% to 3.49% for your international transactions") and moved the card into its 3.49% group in the Key Fact Statement v1.9 and the MITC dated 30 September 2026; the July 2026 editions still listed it at 1.99%.
Applies to 2 cards
Verification: AU Small Finance Bank ↗ · Confidence: High
- Bank-wide changeEffective 1 Oct 2026AU Small Finance Bank· 1 change across 2 cards▼ Lounge
Domestic lounge visits now need ₹50,000 of spend in the quarter before
2 complimentary domestic airport lounge visits per quarter on a purchase-active card→2 visits per quarter, only after ₹50,000 of spend in the previous calendar quarter
From 1 October 2026 the AU CA card's two complimentary domestic airport lounge visits a quarter follow the spend gate AU has applied to its other cards since 10 April 2026: they need net retail spend of ₹50,000 or more on the card in the previous calendar quarter, so the October to December visits depend on July to September spend. Until then a purchase-active card was enough. AU's airport lounge terms, issued on 30 September 2026, revise the condition "(for CA & CS from 1st Oct 2026)". The card is open only to Chartered Accountants.
Applies to 2 cards
Verification: AU Small Finance Bank ↗ · Confidence: High
Excluded categories stop counting toward the Rs 3 lakh milestone bar
All spend counted toward the Rs 3 lakh anniversary threshold→Nine excluded merchant categories no longer count toward it
The Select's Rs 3 lakh anniversary-year milestone — which unlocks 6 extra international lounge visits, 6 extra golf rounds and the following year's Priority Pass renewal — keeps its benefits and its threshold, but narrows what counts toward it. From 1 October 2026 spend in the categories that already earn no reward points stops contributing: insurance, rent, fuel, educational services, utilities and telecom, wallet loads, gold and jewellery, government services and gift cards. If a meaningful slice of your Rs 3 lakh came from rent or utilities, the bar is now materially harder than the headline number suggests.
Verification: Axis Bank ↗ · Confidence: High
Shopping 10% needs more than ₹15,000 of spend in the statement cycle
50 Jewels per ₹100 on every eligible purchase→5 Jewels per ₹100 instantly; 45 more only if cycle spend tops ₹15,000
From 5 October 2026 the 10% shopping rate (50 Jewels per ₹100) at Amazon, Flipkart and Jupiter's other named brands is paid in two parts. 5 Jewels per ₹100 are credited on every purchase; the other 45 are added at the end of the statement cycle only if total qualifying spend in that cycle is more than ₹15,000, and are cancelled if it is not. In a lighter cycle the named brands therefore earn 1%, the same as everyday spend. The caps of 1,000 Jewels a transaction, 3,000 a merchant and 10,000 a cycle, the 25 Jewels per ₹100 on Jupiter Flights and everyday earning are unchanged. The two issuer-side documents disagree on the start date: CSB Bank's card terms date the new table from 5 October 2026 ("Applicable 05th October, 2026 onwards"), while Jupiter's own terms page gives 10 October ("Applicable till 09th October, 2026" for the old table). This record follows CSB, the issuer; a statement from the first days of October may still show the old rate.
Verification: CSB Bank ↗ · Confidence: High
Late payment charges raised
₹500 (₹1,001–5,000) · ₹1,000 (₹5,001–25,000) · ₹1,250 (over ₹25,000)→₹700 (₹1,001–5,000) · ₹1,000 / ₹1,100 / ₹1,200 (to ₹10,000 / ₹15,000 / ₹25,000) · ₹1,300 (over ₹25,000)
From 11 October 2026 BOBCARD raises the OneCard's late payment charges. When ₹1,001 to ₹5,000 is outstanding the charge goes from ₹500 to ₹700; the single ₹1,000 slab for ₹5,001 to ₹25,000 is split into ₹1,000 up to ₹10,000, ₹1,100 up to ₹15,000 and ₹1,200 up to ₹25,000; and above ₹25,000 it goes from ₹1,250 to ₹1,300. Balances up to ₹1,000 are unchanged, and the charge applies only when the minimum amount due is not paid by the due date.
Verification: BOBCARD ↗ · Confidence: High
- Issuer noticeEffective 20 Oct 2026American Express· 1 change across 2 cards▼ Benefit
Complimentary Ace by Times Prime membership ends
Complimentary Ace by Times Prime membership→No longer offered; current memberships run to the end of their term
American Express stops offering the complimentary Ace by Times Prime membership on the Centurion and Platinum Card from 20 October 2026. A membership already enrolled stays active until the end of its current term, and a newly approved member still waiting for a code receives it by 20 October. Amex links the change to the new technology platform its Indian cards move to on 15 November.
Applies to 2 cards
American Express Centurion Card · American Express Platinum Card
Verification: American Express ↗ · Confidence: High
Catalogue: re-read against the issuer this week
- Amex Membership Rewards, against Amex's programme T&C. Option 6 of the MR terms has said since 27 January 2026 that Travel With Points is "temporarily paused", with no resumption date, and we had been publishing it as a redemption route for eight months. Re-fetched from Amex's own PDF and removed from the route table on both Membership Rewards cards. The 10 September milestone cut was applied to the Platinum Travel record on its date — card-data records the terms in force today, so it could not land early — and the card's most prominent list fields, which were still advertising the deleted tiers, were brought in line with the reward rows.
- YES Prosperity Cashback pair, against YES's MITC (version 18, 7 August 2026, page 19). The redemption-fee clause, read to its end, says the ₹100 fee "is not applicable for any credit card that do not offer Reward points as a feature". Both cards are pure cashback; the fee is removed from their records rather than set to zero, which would have invented a redemption step they do not have. Both are closed to new applicants, but their pages stay live and were publishing the wrong figure.
- SBI Card IRCTC Platinum and Premier, against SBI's booklet. The Platinum's "10%" rail rate was SBI's marketing percentage encoded as a mechanic. The booklet's programme clause — 10 travel reward points for every ₹125, written generically for the IRCTC programme rather than for one card — now governs both the Platinum and the Premier, whose headline earn was corrected to 8% and whose review had still sold it as "up to 10%" in eleven places.
- Axis Atlas FAQ. The card's FAQ still called EDGE Miles "ATLAS Miles" and priced them at ₹1 while the card record values them at ₹2. Aligned.
- 49 card-attributed figures in our guides and reviews that the card data had already moved past, found by a prose-versus-data sweep over 60 guides and every per-card review, each flag adjudicated by hand against the card's record. The heaviest were arithmetic rather than dates: an Infinia SmartBuy valuation roughly ten times light, an HSBC TravelOne point valued at ₹2 where the record says ₹1 (which flipped a "comfortably net-positive" verdict to break-even), a Diners Black flight accelerator denied and then recommended against, ICICI Emeralde described as lounge-capped when it is the one ICICI card exempt from that gate. Corrections that could have changed a reader's decision are on the corrections page.
How to read this
Dates on every row are the issuer's effective dates; where the record knows when we observed a change, that date is shown separately. Sources are linked on each row, and the provenance tier says whether the source is the issuer's own document or a specialist publisher's report.
A quiet week here is a statement about our record, not about the market. The tracker's document intake is uneven — some issuers' documents cannot be fetched at all, and a share of the catalogue has no document source yet — so a change we have not recorded may well exist. If you know of one, the suggest form reaches the editor directly, and the full ledger is at /changes.
Cite this
Every row referenced above is in the open change record (https://cardadvisor.in/changes), dated and sourced. The write-up is a dated document and is not edited after publication; later corrections go on the corrections page.
Source: <a href="https://cardadvisor.in/press/credit-card-changes-2026-w37">Indian credit card changes, 7 Sept – 13 Sept 2026</a>, CardAdvisor (CC BY 4.0).
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
What changed on the Amex Platinum Travel on 10 September 2026?
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What takes effect on Indian credit cards on 1 October 2026?
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