IndusInd Bank has announced several changes to its credit card rewards program that were scheduled to take effect from 1st Aug 2019. Below is a clear summary of the updates, their likely impact, and what cardholders should expect going forward.
Table of Contents
- Lower Rewards on Select Categories
- What’s the Change?
- Is this Change Necessary?
- Rewards capped to your Credit Limit
- What’s the Change?
- Is this Change Necessary?
- There’s even more
- Bottomline
Lower Rewards on Select Categories
What’s the Change?
IndusInd is reducing reward rates on specific spending categories. Where some premium cards previously offered rewards around 2%–2.5%, those rates may fall to approximately 0.7% on many premium products and even less on entry-level cards. The affected categories include:
- Utility bill payments
- Insurance premium payments
- Government services, charges and payments
- Education institute fees
Is this Change Necessary?
Limiting rewards on certain low-margin categories—such as some government or bill payments—is understandable from the bank’s perspective. However, applying steep cuts to education and insurance payments feels excessive. A more balanced approach would have been to introduce per-category caps rather than a blanket reduction in reward rates.
Rewards capped to your Credit Limit
What’s the Change?
From the change date onward, reward points will only be awarded on spends up to your assigned credit limit in a given statement cycle. In other words, if you prepay your balance multiple times to free up additional spending capacity, any transactions that exceed the original assigned limit in that cycle may not earn rewards.
This update significantly reduces the benefit of prepaying to increase spending power and then earning rewards on those incremental spends.
The practical implication is that during peak shopping periods—when cardholders often prepay and make large purchases to maximize reward multipliers—reward accrual will be limited by the fixed credit limit, not by the actual cleared balance.
Is this Change Necessary?
This is a highly restrictive rule and likely to frustrate many users. While the bank can and should discourage systematic gaming of the rewards system, applying a blanket cap to all cardholders is heavy-handed. A more reasonable solution would be to monitor and address specific abuse cases rather than penalize everyone, including occasional users who prepay infrequently.
For full details, the bank’s revised terms and conditions outline the changes.
There’s even more
Beyond the official adjustments, some cardholders report additional unannounced changes and inconsistencies in reward crediting. In some cases, valid retail transactions did not initially receive reward points and required the cardholder to raise a query to get points posted.
This suggests lapses in how rewards are processed or an unwillingness to credit points automatically in some situations. While individual issues can be resolved via service requests, repeated occurrences erode trust in the program.
Bottomline
Collectively, these changes indicate that IndusInd is shifting away from the generous reward structures that made certain premium cards attractive. Recent product launches—from cobranded cards to high-end offerings—do not appear to deliver the premium-level benefits many customers expect. Even cards that were previously compelling, such as Pinnacle and Iconia Amex, have lost appeal due to reduced rewards and unclear fee practices.
If IndusInd wants to retain and attract premium cardholders, it will need to revisit its rewards strategy and offer transparent, competitive benefits and fee structures. Until then, many cardholders may reassess whether these cards meet their needs.
What do you think of these upcoming changes to IndusInd credit cards? Share your thoughts or experiences in the comments below.