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The Mine Credit Card is the best credit card from ICICI Bank for most people.
Sign up for the PRO 49 plan if you spend less than ₹20,000 a month on your card.
The PREMIUM 149 plan is best if you spend between ₹20,000 – 50,000.
You can earn a net reward yield of 1.4-1.8% on all your spend with this credit card.
If you spend more than ₹50,000 a month on your card, Amazon Pay ICICI Bank Credit Card is the best option from ICICI Bank.
The Amazon Pay ICICI Bank Credit Card offers unlimited rewards with no annual fee. We estimate you can earn a net reward yield of 1.2% on all your spend with this card.
Amazon Prime members receive 5% reward for all spends on Amazon while non-members earn 3% rewards with this card. All other retail spend earns a 1% reward.
If you spend more than ₹50,000 a month and are comfortable managing multiple cards, combine the Mine Credit Card with PREMIUM 149 plan and the Amazon Pay ICICI Bank Credit Card to boost your net reward yield to about 1.8%.
In this case you can use the Mine Card for groceries, food delivery & travel bookings, while using the Amazon Pay Card for everything else.
If you have the option, consider getting your credit card from another provider like Axis Bank or SBI Card. The best cards and card combos from these providers offer much higher reward yields (2.3-3.0%) than anything from ICICI Bank.
Table 1: All our recommendations
| Monthly Credit Card Spend | Recommended Credit Cards | Est. Monthly Rewards |
|---|---|---|
| Up to ₹20,000+ | ₹75 – 200 | |
| ₹20,000 – ₹50,000 | ₹300 – 750 | |
| ₹50,000+ | ||
| – 1 Card | ₹600 – 1,250+ | |
| – 2 Cards | for Grocery, Food Delivery & Travel
AND for everything else |
₹800 – 1,750+ |
Table 2: Recommended Reward Redemption Options
| Card | Recommended Redemption Method |
|---|---|
| Cashback against statement balance | |
| Cashback against statement balance | |
| Rewards converted to Amazon Pay Balance for use on Amazon & partner merchants |
Mine Credit Card comes with flexible monthly fee plans and 5% cashback on major sites like Amazon, MakeMyTrip and bigbasket
Amazon Prime members earn 5% reward on all spend at Amazon.in and 2% on all spend with 100+ partner merchants
If you are a ICICI Bank customer and you want to get a credit card this guide is for you. We recommend the best credit cards, no matter what your spending level is.
Whether you want to get a single credit card or to split your spends across multiple cards to optimize rewards, we have you covered.
We have friends who have raised maximizing credit card rewards to an art form. However not everyone wants put so much effort tracking deals, discounts, reward caps and spending categories.
Most of us simply want a solution that is easy to manage – good enough, not perfect.
If that’s you, this post recommends a few credit cards that can work well together and will supercharge your rewards without a lot of micromanaging.
ICICI Bank offers more than 30 credit cards. Each credit card has a different set of rewards and other terms and conditions, which makes it difficult for most of us to figure out which card is best for us.
We cut through this complexity by ranking each card on its Net Reward Yield, which measures the total effective discount you receive in form of rewards, when you charge your expenses to the card.
To calculate the net reward yield of a credit card, we created 5 standardized spending profiles of a typical customer with different income levels. We then simulated the total rewards a customer with each spending profile would get on that card, based on the reward schedule for that card.
Table 3: Standardized Spending Profiles
| Total Monthly Spend in Rs.→ Spend by Category ↓ |
5,000 | 10,000 | 20,000 | 50,000 | 1 lac |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grocery | 1,250 | 2,000 | 3,000 | 5,000 | 10,000 |
| Dining | 250 | 500 | 1,500 | 4,000 | 8,000 |
| Food Delivery | 250 | 500 | 1,000 | 2,250 | 3,000 |
| Entertainment | 250 | 500 | 1,000 | 1,250 | 2,000 |
| Online Shopping | 250 | 500 | 1,500 | 5,000 | 12,500 |
| Shopping | 250 | 750 | 1,500 | 5,000 | 10,000 |
| Transport | 250 | 500 | 1,000 | 3,750 | 7,500 |
| Utility Bills | 1,250 | 2,000 | 3,000 | 5,000 | 7,500 |
| Online Entertainment | 250 | 250 | 500 | 1,250 | 1,500 |
| Travel | – | 500 | 1,500 | 5,000 | 11,500 |
| Foreign | – | 500 | 1,500 | 5,000 | 11,500 |
| Other | 750 | 1,500 | 3,000 | 7,500 | 15,000 |
| Total | 5,000 | 10,000 | 20,000 | 50,000 | 1 lac |
Our reward calculations attempts to account for different types of rewards (cashback, points, miles etc.), reward caps by spending category, bonuses & milestone rewards, fees and differences in realizable value of the rewards depending on how you redeem them (e.g. on Bank website as statement credit vs. for flight bookings).
We prefer cards with higher rewards yields, lower income thresholds and lower fees.
We applied this standardized methodology to every ICICI Bank credit card, allowing you to zoom in to the best credit cards for you.
If you’re willing to manage multiple credit cards strategically, you can supercharge your total rewards compared to using a single card. However, managing multiple credit cards requires some effort.
At a minimum, you need to:
More work is also required to figure out which card to use where and possibly change the setup on various sites and apps to use a different card.
So while adding more and more cards to the mix can keep increasing the potential benefits (at least for high spenders), we think most people would want to manage another card only if the additional benefit is meaningful and the additional mental load low.
With that in mind we decided to identify sets of 2 credit cards that will work well together for most people i.e. so that you can easily remember which card to use where, meet the minimum spend & other conditions and not lose track of all the admin stuff like paying the bill and getting annual fee waived.
To find the best card combinations, we considered 100’s of card pairs to figure out the combos that work best with each other to maximize rewards.
In testing a pair of cards, we assumed that only one card will be used for each spending category and it would be the one with the higher rewards in that category.
For example, if you get the Mine Credit Card with the Premium 149 plan and Amazon Pay ICICI Bank Credit Card, you only use the Mine Card for grocery shopping via bigbasket, Amazon & Grofers, food delivery via Swiggy & Zomato and travel bookings via MakeMyTrip & Goibibo. Use the Amazon Pay ICICI Credit Card for everything else.
Table 4: Two Card Strategy for monthly spend of ₹50,000+
| Cards→ Spending categories ↓ |
Mine Credit Card with PREMIUM 149 Plan |
Amazon Pay ICICI Bank Credit Card |
Combined |
|---|---|---|---|
| Grocery | 150 | 150 | |
| Dining | 40 | 40 | |
| Food Delivery | 110 | 110 | |
| Entertainment | 12 | 12 | |
| Online Shopping | 150 | 150 | |
| Shopping | 50 | 50 | |
| Transport | 37 | 37 | |
| Utility Bills | 50 | 50 | |
| Online Entertainment | 12 | 12 | |
| Travel | 200 | 200 | |
| Foreign | 50 | 50 | |
| Other | 75 | 75 | |
| Total | 750 | 598 | 936 |
We think this is reasonable as you only need to know which card to use in which situation and don’t need to keep track of your spending on each card through the month.
You may notice that in the example above, you could actually improve your rewards yield by using the Mine Card for categories like Entertainment & Online Entertainment.
However, while that may work if your monthly spend is close to ₹50,000, at higher monthly spends you would hit the monthly cashback cap of ₹750 on the PREMIUM 149 plan. In this scenario you lose out on the rewards you could have earned by using the Amazon Pay Card for those categories instead.
It is also harder to remember when you should use the Mine Card vs. the Amazon Pay, if you try to use the Mine Card for more categories.
Which is why we recommend using the Mine Credit Card only for Grocery, Food Delivery and Travel. While that may reduce the rewards yield in some situations, it is easier to implement and works better in more cases by reducing spend that earns no rewards.
We think most people do not want to obsessively track their spend by card and category on a daily basis. So we have tried to avoid a situation where you need to switch from one card to other based on how much you have spent on it during the month, in total or for a specific category. That’s too much work for most people.
Our recommended pairs maximize the rewards while increasing your probability of meeting the annual fee waiver spending limits and any other requirements for each card.
You can read more about our credit card recommendation methodology here.
The Mine Credit Card with PRO 49 plan is the best entry level card from ICICI Bank. This card can earn you a net reward yield of 1.3-1.6% on all your spend.
It offers a cashback of 5% on bigbasket, Swiggy, Zomato, Inox, PVR & Ola and 1% on all other retail spends with a monthly cashback cap of ₹200.
It has a monthly fee of ₹49 which waived if you spend more than ₹10,000 in a month.
| Card | Mine Credit Card – PRO 49 Plan |
|---|---|
| Rewards Features | – 5% cashback on Amazon Prime, bigbasket, BookMyShow, Gaana, PVR, INOX, Ola, Swiggy and Zomato
– 1% cashback on all retail spends |
| Rewards Caps | ₹200 p.m. |
| Preferred Redemption Method | Cashback against statement balance |
| Income Criteria | N/A |
| Annual Fee | ₹588 + Taxes |
| Min. Annual Credit Card Spend for Fee Waiver |
₹1,20,000 |
| Monthly Spend | Estimated Reward Earned |
| ₹5,000 ₹10,000 ₹20,000 ₹50,000 ₹1,00,000 |
₹50 ₹150 ₹200 ₹200 ₹200 |
Upgrade to the Mine Credit Card with PREMIUM 149 plan if you spend between ₹20,000- 50,000 a month on your credit card. You can earn a net reward yield of 1.5-1.8% with this card.
It offers a cashback of 5% on Amazon, Myntra, bigbasket, Grofers, Swiggy, Zomato, MakeMyTrip, Goibibo & Ola and 1% cashback on all other retail spends with a monthly cashback cap of ₹750.
It has a monthly fee of Rs 149 which is waived if you spend more than ₹20,000 in a month.
| Card | Mine Credit Card – PREMIUM 149 Plan |
|---|---|
| Rewards Features | – 5% cashback on Amazon Prime, Myntra, bigbasket, Goibibo, MakeMyTrip, BookMyShow, Gaana, PVR, INOX, Swiggy and Zomato
– 1% cashback on all other retail spends |
| Rewards Caps | ₹750 p.m. |
| Preferred Redemption Method | Cashback against statement balance |
| Income Criteria | N/A |
| Annual Fee | ₹1,788 + Taxes |
| Min. Annual Credit Card Spend for Fee Waiver |
₹2,40,000 |
| Monthly Spend | Estimated Reward Earned |
| ₹5,000 ₹10,000 ₹20,000 ₹50,000 ₹1,00,000 |
(₹32)* ₹25 ₹350 ₹750 ₹750 |
| * The negative figure means at this level of monthly spends, the rewards earned in a year will be worth less than the annual fee. | |
The Amazon Pay ICICI Bank Credit Card is our pick if your monthly credit card spend is above ₹50,000. You can earn a net reward yield of 1.2% with this credit card.
Amazon Prime members receive 5% rewards for all spending on Amazon with this card while non-members receive 3%.
The Amazon Pay card also gives a 2% reward on spend with over 100 Amazon partner merchants like Swiggy, Yatra and Red Bus. All other retail spend earns 1% rewards.
The rewards on this card are in the form of Amazon Pay balance which can be used for purchases on Amazon or any partner merchants that accept Amazon Pay.
This is one for the few credit cards from ICICI Bank that carry no annual fee.
| Card | Amazon Pay ICICI Bank Credit Cards |
|---|---|
| Rewards Features | – 5% cashback on purchases made on Amazon India for Amazon Prime members
– 3% on purchases made on Amazon India for non-members – 1% cashback on all other retail transactions |
| Rewards Caps | Unlimited |
| Preferred Redemption Method | Cashback to Amazon Pay balance. |
| Income Criteria | ₹25,000 p.m. |
| Annual Fee | Nil |
| Min. Annual Credit Card Spend for Fee Waiver |
N/A |
| Monthly Spend | Estimated Reward Earned |
| ₹5,000 ₹10,000 ₹20,000 ₹50,000 ₹1,00,000 |
₹45 ₹100 ₹225 ₹575 ₹1,250 |
If you spend more than ₹50,000 a month on your credit card and are comfortable managing multiple credit cards, we recommend combining the Mine Credit Card with the PREMIUM 149 plan and the Amazon Pay ICICI Bank Credit Card.
Use the Mine Card for groceries with bigbasket and for travel booking with MakeMyTrip & Goibibo. Use the Amazon Pay card for all other spends.
This combo can increase your net reward yield of 1.2-1.5% from a single credit card to 1.8%.
If you monthly spend is closer to ₹50,000, you can also use the Mine Card for Food Delivery with Swiggy & Zomato. This is because at this level of spending, you may not hit the ₹750 per month cashback cap on the Mine Card PREMIUM 149, using it only for grocery and travel.
If your monthly spend is closer to ₹1 lacs or even higher, you are quite likely to hit the ₹750 cap on the Mine Card and you would be better off switching to Amazon Pay ICICI Bank Credit Card for food delivery.
| Credit Card | Suggested Spend Categories | Cashback (%) |
Est. Cashback per month |
|---|---|---|---|
| – Groceries
– Travel |
– 5% on bigbasket
– 5% on MakeMyTrip and Goibibo |
₹325 – 750 | |
| AND | |||
| – Everything else | – 5% cashback for Prime users on Amazon India
– 3% cashback for Non-Prime users. – 1% on all retail spends |
₹475-1,000+ | |
Table 10: All ICICI Bank Credit Cards Ranked by Rewards Yield
| Monthly Spend → Credit Cards ↓ |
₹5K | ₹10K | ₹20K | ₹50K | ₹100K | Avg. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Amazon Pay ICICI Bank | 0.98% | 1.09% | 1.15% | 1.20% | 1.25% | 1.13% |
| MakeMyTrip Platinum | 0.90% | 0.98% | 0.99% | 0.98% | 0.99% | 0.97% |
| Mine Credit Card PRO 49 | 1.36% | 1.67% | 1.00% | 0.40% | 0.20% | 0.93% |
| Platinum Identity | -0.08% | 0.73% | 1.09% | 1.30% | 1.39% | 0.88% |
| Mine Credit Card PREMIUM 149 | -0.64% | 0.33% | 1.82% | 1.50% | 0.75% | 0.75% |
| MakeMyTrip Signature | 0.56% | 0.65% | 0.68% | 0.70% | 0.71% | 0.66% |
| Emirates Skywards Rubyx | -0.56% | 0.38% | 0.81% | 1.05% | 1.14% | 0.56% |
| Mine Credit Card – Starter | 0.90% | 0.99% | 0.50% | 0.20% | 0.10% | 0.54% |
| HPCL Coral AMEX | 0.47% | 0.52% | 0.53% | 0.51% | 0.45% | 0.50% |
| Carbon Credit Card | 0.45% | 0.50% | 0.50% | 0.50% | 0.50% | 0.49% |
| Unifare Mumbai Metro | 0.45% | 0.50% | 0.50% | 0.50% | 0.50% | 0.49% |
| Unifare Delhi Metro | 0.45% | 0.50% | 0.50% | 0.50% | 0.50% | 0.49% |
| Unifare Banglore Metro | 0.45% | 0.50% | 0.50% | 0.50% | 0.50% | 0.49% |
| HPCL Coral | 0.45% | 0.50% | 0.50% | 0.50% | 0.49% | 0.49% |
| HPCL Platinum | 0.45% | 0.50% | 0.50% | 0.50% | 0.49% | 0.49% |
| Platinum Chip | 0.39% | 0.45% | 0.46% | 0.47% | 0.48% | 0.45% |
| Instant Platinum | 0.39% | 0.45% | 0.46% | 0.47% | 0.48% | 0.45% |
| Expressions Card | -0.28% | 0.23% | 0.68% | 0.70% | 0.71% | 0.41% |
| HPCL Super Saver | -0.01% | 0.39% | 0.61% | 0.52% | 0.48% | 0.40% |
| InterMiles Coral AMEX | -0.65% | 0.21% | 0.60% | 0.84% | 0.93% | 0.39% |
| Coral Credit Card | -0.45% | 0.02% | 0.66% | 0.70% | 0.71% | 0.33% |
| Manchester United Platinum | -0.38% | 0.08% | 0.50% | 0.50% | 0.50% | 0.24% |
| Accelero Credit Card | -0.38% | 0.08% | 0.50% | 0.50% | 0.50% | 0.24% |
| Chennai Super Kings | -0.44% | 0.03% | 0.46% | 0.47% | 0.48% | 0.20% |
| InterMiles Rubyx AMEX | -1.84% | -0.20% | 0.58% | 1.05% | 1.23% | 0.17% |
| Intermiles Coral VISA | -0.92% | -0.11% | 0.28% | 0.51% | 0.60% | 0.07% |
| Ferrari Signature | -1.22% | -0.34% | 0.08% | 0.50% | 0.50% | -0.09% |
| InterMiles Rubyx VISA | -2.11% | -0.51% | 0.26% | 0.72% | 0.89% | -0.15% |
| VISA Signature | -2.72% | -0.76% | 0.21% | 0.82% | 1.06% | -0.28% |
| Rubyx Credit Card | -2.94% | -1.20% | -0.33% | 0.77% | 0.79% | -0.58% |
| InterMiles Sapphiro AMEX | -4.48% | -1.33% | 0.20% | 1.12% | 1.45% | -0.61% |
| Manchester United Signature | -3.49% | -1.33% | -0.27% | 0.77% | 0.78% | -0.71% |
| British Airways Classic | -4.66% | -1.62% | -0.15% | 0.73% | 1.02% | -0.93% |
| InterMiles Sapphiro VISA | -4.75% | -1.65% | -0.15% | 0.76% | 1.08% | -0.94% |
| Sapphiro Credit Card | -5.45% | -2.46% | -0.97% | 0.84% | 0.94% | -1.42% |
| Emirates Skywards Sapphiro | -7.06% | -2.71% | -0.57% | 0.71% | 1.16% | -1.70% |
| British Airways Premium | -9.32% | -3.23% | -0.28% | 1.47% | 2.07% | -1.86% |
| Emirates Skywards Emeralde | -15.12% | -6.56% | -2.31% | 0.24% | 1.12% | -4.53% |
| Diamant Credit Card | -15.99% | -7.55% | -3.36% | -0.84% | 0.00% | -5.55% |
| Emeralde Credit Card | -19.28% | -9.16% | -4.11% | -1.08% | -0.06% | -6.74% |
| Note: Negative yields mean the rewards earned on a card at that monthly spend level are less than the annual fee AND the monthly spend level is not sufficient to earn a fee waiver. | ||||||
Table 11: Key Terms for ICICI Bank Credit Cards
| Cards | Min. Qualifying Income (in. ₹ ‘000) |
Annual Fee (₹) |
Annual Waiver Spend (₹ ‘000) |
Interest Rate | FX Txn Fee |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Amazon Pay ICICI Bank | 25 | – | – | 42.00% | 3.50% |
| MakeMyTrip Platinum | – | – | – | 40.80% | 3.50% |
| Mine Credit Card – PRO 49 | – | 588 | 120 | 40.80% | 3.50% |
| Platinum Identity | – | 750 | N/A | 40.80% | 3.50% |
| Mine Credit Card – PREMIUM 149 | – | 1,788 | 240 | 40.80% | 3.50% |
| MakeMyTrip Signature | – | – | – | 42.00% | 3.50% |
| Emirates Skywards Rubyx | – | 1,000 | – | 40.80% | 3.50% |
| Mine Credit Card – Starter | – | – | – | 40.80% | 3.50% |
| HPCL Coral AMEX | – | 199 | 50 | 40.80% | 3.50% |
| Carbon Credit Card | – | – | N/A | 40.80% | 3.50% |
| Unifare Mumbai Metro | – | 299 | 50 | 40.80% | 3.50% |
| Unifare Delhi Metro | – | 299 | 50 | 40.80% | 3.50% |
| Unifare Banglore Metro | – | 299 | 50 | 40.80% | 3.50% |
| HPCL Coral | – | 199 | 50 | 40.80% | 3.50% |
| HPCL Platinum | – | 199 | 50 | 40.80% | 3.50% |
| Platinum Chip | – | – | – | 40.80% | 3.50% |
| Instant Platinum | – | – | – | 30.00% | 3.50% |
| Expressions Card | – | 499 | 150 | 40.80% | 3.50% |
| HPCL Super Saver | – | 500 | 150 | 40.80% | 3.50% |
| Intermiles Coral AMEX | – | 875 | – | 42.00% | 3.50% |
| Coral Credit Card | – | 500 | 150 | 40.80% | 3.50% |
| Manchester United Platinum | – | 499 | 125 | 44.00% | 3.50% |
| Accelero Credit Card | – | 499 | 125 | 40.80% | 3.50% |
| Chennai Super Kings | – | 500 | 150 | 40.80% | 3.50% |
| InterMiles Rubyx AMEX | – | 1,750 | – | 42.00% | 3.50% |
| Intermiles Coral VISA | – | 875 | – | 40.80% | 3.50% |
| Ferrari Signature | – | 999 | 250 | 40.80% | 3.50% |
| InterMiles Rubyx VISA | – | 1,750 | – | 42.00% | 3.50% |
| VISA Signature | – | 2,000 | N/A | 40.80% | 3.50% |
| Rubyx Credit Card | 50 | 2000 | 300 | 40.80% | 3.50% |
| InterMiles Sapphiro AMEX | – | 3,500 | – | 42.00% | 3.50% |
| Manchester United Signature | – | 2,499 | 250 | 44.00% | 3.50% |
| British Airways Classic | – | 3,500 | – | 40.80% | 3.50% |
| InterMiles Sapphiro VISA | – | 3,500 | – | 42.00% | 3.50% |
| Sapphiro Credit Card | 80 | 3,500 | 600 | 40.80% | 3.50% |
| Emirates Skywards Sapphiro | – | 5,000 | – | 40.80% | 3.50% |
| British Airways Premium | – | 7,000 | – | 40.80% | 3.50% |
| Emirates Skywards Emeralde | – | 10,000 | – | 40.80% | 3.50% |
| Diamant Credit Card | – | 10,000 | 2,500 | 40.80% | 3.50% |
| Emeralde Credit Card | 300 | 12,000 | 1,500 | 40.80% | 1.50% |
| Source: | |||||
Questions? Suggestions? See a mistake? Write to us!
Our analysis of 100s of flights shows that miles from international airlines are worth much less in India that they are globally, between 16-54% less. Their value in India is between ₹0.50/mile for the Etihad to ₹0.80/mile for BA & SQ.
2 Free Movie / Stream / Play / Events / Sports / Activities tickets up to ₹250 each and ₹100 off on F&B Spends on BookMyShow tickets.
8 reward points / ₹400 on bill payments & education and 1 point on all other spends. Fuel surcharge waiver of up to ₹100 per month.
