Credit card devaluation 2026: what changed and what to do

Nearly every change announced in the last two years fits one of five shapes. Knowing which shape a clause belongs to tells you which line of your own spending it touches, and whether you can route around it.

The shapes are visible on issuers' own notice pages. SBI Card's customer notices page, https://www.sbicard.com/en/customer-notices.page, lists among others: statement-credit redemptions capped at 60,000 points a month and allowed only in multiples of 4,000 points from 1 April 2026; a 1 percent fee on wallet loads above ₹1,000 and on education payments made through third-party apps from 1 November 2025; a 1 percent fee once utility payments in a billing cycle exceed ₹50,000, from 1 December 2024; reward points withdrawn on rent and on government transactions for listed cards; and, for one co-branded fuel card, the spend needed to reverse the annual fee raised from ₹50,000 to ₹1 lakh from 1 May 2026. That is one issuer's list; for your own card, its issuer's notice is the only version that counts.

An illustrative household puts ₹67,500 a month, ₹8,10,000 a year, on one rewards card. Monthly: online shopping and travel ₹12,000, groceries ₹9,000, dining ₹5,000, fuel ₹4,000, utilities ₹4,500, insurance ₹3,000 (₹36,000 of annual premiums), rent ₹22,000 through a rent-payment platform, wallet loads ₹2,000, school fees ₹5,000 (₹60,000 a year through a third-party app) and property tax ₹1,000 (₹12,000 a year).

Before the change the card earns 4 points per ₹150 everywhere and 20 points per ₹150 online, with no cap. A point is worth ₹0.50 as statement credit, so the base rate is 1.33 percent and the online rate 6.67 percent. The ₹3,000 fee, ₹3,540 with GST, is waived above ₹3.5 lakh of spend, and two lounge visits a quarter come with no condition. The household uses six a year, valued at ₹800 each: what it would otherwise spend on food at the airport, not the lounge's walk-in price. Rent carries the platform's 1 percent fee, 1.18 percent with GST, which is ₹3,115 a year.

The package: fuel, utilities, insurance, rent, wallet loads, education and government stop earning and stop counting; online points are capped at 1,000 a month; a point falls to ₹0.40; the fee waiver moves to ₹5 lakh of counted spend; lounge visits need ₹1 lakh of counted spend in the previous quarter; and wallet loads and third-party education payments attract a 1 percent fee.

The ₹20,643 drop, by clause. Exclusions remove 13,280 points, 7,040 on rent alone. The cap removes 5,760: it binds once online spend passes ₹7,500 a month and the household's ₹12,000 leaves ₹4,500 a month earning the base rate. The lower point value takes ₹0.10 off each of the 17,920 points that remain.

The household's counted spend is ₹78,000 a quarter against a ₹1 lakh condition: ₹22,000 short, every quarter, with nothing left to move, because all its eligible spending is already on the card. The lounge is gone, and nothing sensible brings it back.

A different traveller shows when the condition is worth meeting. Illustrative: 12 departures a year, ₹55,000 a quarter of counted spend on a card earning 1.33 percent, a ₹75,000 condition for two visits the following quarter, and a second card earning 2 percent on ₹20,000 a quarter of spending that could move.

Three free moves come before any decision about the card.

First, move the bills that now earn nothing. Rent by bank transfer, school fees paid directly to the school, wallet loads by UPI, tax and government payments through net banking. For the household that removes ₹3,115 of platform fee and ₹991 of new issuer fees, and turns a card costing ₹478 a year into one worth ₹3,628 on the spending that still earns.

Second, if the notice cuts point value, redeem before the effective date. A redemption change usually applies to the whole balance on that date, including points earned under the old rules; the notice will say. A balance of 20,000 points is ₹10,000 at ₹0.50 and ₹8,000 at ₹0.40, so redeeming the day before is worth ₹2,000. Where redemption is allowed only in blocks, 20,000 points is five blocks of 4,000, with nothing stranded.

Third, use the notice window. RBI's Master Direction on credit and debit cards, at https://www.rbi.org.in/Scripts/BS_ViewMasDirections.aspx?id=12300, says changes in charges can be made only with prospective effect and at least one month's prior notice, and that a cardholder who wants to surrender the card because of a change in charges to his or her disadvantage must be allowed to do so without any extra charge for the closure, subject to paying all dues. It also requires 30 days' notice of a change in terms, so the cardholder can withdraw. A fee increase is a reason to decide inside that window, not after the next renewal.

After the three moves, keep: 17,920 points at ₹0.40 less the ₹3,540 fee, ₹3,628 a year, 1.16 percent of the ₹3,12,000 that still earns. Downgrade to the issuer's no-fee variant, illustrated at 2 points per ₹150 with the same exclusions: 0.53 percent, ₹1,664. Replace with an illustrative no-fee card paying 1.25 percent, which also pays on utilities and insurance, lifting the spending that earns to ₹33,500 a month, ₹4,02,000 a year: ₹5,025.

The household holds the old card, nine years old with a ₹3 lakh limit, and a second card, three years old with ₹1 lakh, which now takes the ₹4,000 of fuel. The replacement adds ₹1,50,000 of limit. After the moves, ₹37,500 a month appears on statements: ₹33,500 on the replacement and ₹4,000 on the second card.

With the old card open, total limit is ₹5,50,000 and utilisation 6.82 percent. Closed, the limit is ₹2,50,000 and utilisation 15 percent. Average card age falls from four years to one and a half, and the oldest account from nine years to three. Utilisation of 15 percent is not high, but it more than doubles overnight, and any large bill now lands on a smaller denominator. The history effect is slower: an old card stops ageing as an open account the day it closes.

If you do close, the same RBI Master Direction requires the issuer to honour a closure request within seven working days once dues are paid, with a penalty of ₹500 for each calendar day of delay, and to update the closure with the credit information companies within 30 days.

The sum on this page needs one input most people only estimate: how much of what goes on each card falls into each category, the excluded ones included. Unyfy reads your bank and card transaction emails and, on Android, transactional SMS, with no manual entry, so that split comes from your own transactions rather than from memory. Its card discovery then matches your actual category spending against 605 Indian credit cards from 32 issuers, limited to cards your income qualifies for.

What you see is a list of cards matched to the category spending read from your transactions, no-fee cards included, so the replace line in the decision table is worked on your categories instead of a guess about them. It never asks for your bank password or UPI PIN, and every payment is one you authorise.

For the before-and-after on your current card, take the new rates from your issuer's notice and your points balance and lounge quota from its app or statement. Unyfy earns a commission on cards; the diagnosis is free and not gated behind a recommendation. Install Unyfy on Android, or use the web app at app.unyfy.co.in on an iPhone.