The Bottom Line
The ACE Credit Card from Axis Bank is the best credit card for paying utility bills for most people. It offers 5% cashback on all your utility bill payments, with no monthly caps on the cashback you can earn.
We also like the ACE as a general purpose card for everyone because it offers an average net reward yield of 2.3% on your total spending. That makes it one of the best credit cards in India, no matter how much you spend.
It has a low annual fee of ₹499, which is waived if you cross ₹2 lacs in total annual spend. However, it only works if you’re using the Google Pay app on Android phones to make the bill payment.
The Airtel Axis Bank Credit Card is the best credit card for paying utility bills for Airtel customers. If you pay your bills using the Airtel Thanks app, you receive a 25% cashback on your Airtel bills (mobile, broadband, DTH) and 10% cashback on your utility bills.
The monthly cashback on both those categories is capped at ₹300 each. Since most other cards offer only 5% cashback on these categories, as long as your Airtel and utility bills are <₹6,000 a month, you will be better off with the Airtel Axis Card compared to any other card.
If neither of these options work for you (e.g. for an iPhone user on Jio), you may want to consider the Axis Bank Freecharge & Freecharge Plus cards or the Yes Prosperity Cashback Credit Card.
All these cards offer 5% cashback with no monthly caps on utility bill payments. However, these cards have lower overall net reward yields and we would not recommend using them as general purpose cards.
Everything we recommend
Who this is for
The only three certainties in life are death, taxes and utility bills. While credit cards may not be able to help you with the first two, they can certainly help reduce your utility bills.
If you are new to credit cards or don’t use them much, you can start by paying your utility bills by cards. This can earn you a fair bit in rewards and can also generate enough transactions on the card to get the annual fee waived in some cases.
Most people would be better off choosing the best credit cards in India for their monthly spending level – those are the RBL Bank Monthly Treats for entry level, the ACE Credit Card from Axis Bank for monthly spending between ₹10,000 – 1 lacs and the Magnus Credit Card, also from Axis Bank for monthly spending above ₹1 lacs a month.
That would a more convenient way to earn higher rewards, rather than choosing a card just for utility bills.
However a dedicated card for utility bills can make sense if your monthly utility bills are very high or if you plan to pay only utility bills with the card you do end up getting.
In those two cases, the cards recommended in this post will maximize your rewards without costing you a bomb in annual fees.
How we picked
Banks in India offer more than 400 credit cards, most of which do not offer any special rewards for making utility bill payments. That means you are stuck collecting the base reward rate for your card when you make a bill payment.
This can be annoying for reward collectors like us, because utility bills are a regular and a large payment that nearly all of need to make.
To find the best credit card to make utility bill payments, we looked through the terms and conditions of all the credit cards offered by 15 major banks in India and shortlisted 10 cards that offered at least a 3% reward on these payments.
Table 1: Card with high rewards on utility bill payments
|
Reward on
Utility Bills |
Monthly
Reward
Cap (₹) |
Annual Fee (₹) |
Net Reward Yield |
Annual
Spend for
Fee Waiver |
Axis Bank ACE |
5.00% |
Unlimited |
499 |
2.30% |
200,000 |
Axis Bank Freecharge Plus |
5.00% |
Unlimited |
350 |
1.65% |
50,000 |
Axis Bank Freecharge |
5.00% |
Unlimited |
250 |
1.53% |
N/A |
Yes Prosperity Cashback |
5.00% |
Unlimited |
999 |
1.39% |
N/A |
SBI Card PRIME Advantage |
5.00% |
750 |
2,999 |
1.57% |
N/A |
Airtel Axis Bank |
10.00%* |
600 |
500 |
2.60% |
200,000 |
Standard Chartered Super Value Titaninum |
5.00% |
300 |
750 |
0.67% |
90,000 |
Citi Cash Back |
5.00% |
200 |
500 |
0.97% |
N/A |
HDFC Bank Bharat |
5.00% |
150 |
500 |
1.24% |
35,000 |
Indian Oil HDFC Bank |
3.20% |
100 |
500 |
1.11% |
50,000 |
* For utility bills paid via Airtel Thanks App. Airtel Mobile / DTH / Broadband bills earn 25%. |
However, each of these cards has a different annual fee and reward structure, which means picking the best isn’t as simple as picking the one with the highest promised rewards for utility bills.
Most of these cards have different annual fees that must be paid if you do not charge a specific minimum amount to the card in a year. If the annual fee is not waived, the annual fee will eat into your rewards.
Many cards also have a cap on the rewards you can earn, either in total or just for bill payments. Some cards have other restrictions e.g. rewards only available on Android or to Airtel customers.
Finally, we also considered the level of rewards each card offered for other spending, not just for utilities. After all, if you can use a single card for everything, that saves you some hassle, which is worth something.
We preferred cards that offered the highest reward rate on utility bills and had no caps on those reward. We also preferred cards that had low annual fee, and a high overall net reward yield for all other spending on the card.
We did not consider cards that earn you a lot of milestone rewards, even if they using those to pay utility bills would lead to higher overall rewards for you. Those cards are compared in our post on the best cards in India.
The Best Card for Utility Bill Payments
The ACE Credit Card from Axis Bank is the best credit card for paying your utility bills. It offers 5% cashback on these payments with no monthly limit on the cashback earned. Whether your utility bills add up to ₹1,000 or ₹1 lacs a month, you save 5% with this card.
The ACE is also a great general purpose card, offering 2%+, unlimited cashback on nearly all transactions. That makes it one of the best credit cards in India and our recommended card if you charge between ₹10,000 – 1 lacs a month on your card.
We estimate you earn a net reward yield of 2.3% on all your transactions with this card.
Table: ACE Credit Card Feature Summary
Card |
ACE Credit Card
|
Rewards Features |
– 5% Cashback on bill payments and mobile recharges on Google Pay
– 4% on Swiggy, Zomato and Ola
– 2% on all other Spends |
Other Rewards |
– 4 Domestic Airport Lounge visits / year
– Dining discounts at 4,000+ restaurants |
Rewards Caps |
Unlimited Cashback |
Preferred Redemption Method |
Cashback against statement balance |
Income Criteria |
N/A |
Annual Fee |
₹499 + Taxes |
Min. Annual
Credit Card Spend
for Fee Waiver |
₹2,00,000 |
Monthly Spend |
Estimated Reward Earned |
₹5,000
₹10,000
₹20,000
₹50,000
₹1,00,000 |
₹75
₹225
₹500
₹1,200
₹2,350 |
Despite a great reward scheme, the ACE has a low annual fee of ₹499, which is waived upon reaching an annual spend of ₹2 lacs with the card.
The major drawback of the ACE for paying utility bills is that the rewards are only available if you pay your bills via the Google Pay Android App. So iPhone users cannot benefit from the 5% cashback on utility bills with the ACE.
If this is a problem for you, consider the Airtel Axis Bank Credit Card (if you’re an Airtel customer) or the Axis Bank Freecharge or Freecharge Plus cards.
The Best Card for Utility Bill Payments for Airtel Customers
If you are an Airtel customer and your Airtel bill and all other utility bills are less than ₹6,000 a month, each, the Airtel Axis Bank Credit Card is your best bet for utility payments.
The Airtel Axis card offers 25% cashback on all Airtel services bills up to ₹300 each month. It also offers 10% cashback on utility bills paid via the Airtel Thanks App, again up to ₹300 each month.
The ₹300 cap on Airtel bills will be hit with if your mobile, DTH, broadband bills are more than ₹1,200. The cap for other utility bills will be hit once your bills touch ₹3,000.
However, because all other card offer at most 5% rewards on utility bills, your Airtel and utility bills need to be higher than ₹6,000 each before those cards become better for you.
The Airtel Axis also offers 10% cashback on Swiggy, Zomato and bigbasket, with a monthly cap of ₹500.
Table: Feature Summary – Airtel Axis Bank Credit Card
Card |
Airtel Axis Bank Credit Card |
Rewards Features |
– 25% Cashback on Airtel Services bills via Airtel Thanks app
– 10% Cashback on utility bills via Airtel Thanks app
– 10% Cashback on Swiggy, Zomato and bigbasket
– 1% Cashback on all other spends |
Other Rewards |
– 20% discount at all partner restaurants with Axis Bank Dining Delights
– 1 Complementary Domestic Airport Lounge visit / Qtr. |
Rewards Caps |
– ₹300 p.m. on Airtel services bill payments
– ₹300 p.m. on Utility Bills
– ₹500 p.m. on Grocery and Food Delivery |
Preferred Redemption Method |
Cashback against statement balance |
Income Criteria |
N/A |
Annual Fee |
₹500 + Taxes |
Min. Annual
Credit Card Spend
for Fee Waiver |
₹2,00,000 |
Monthly Spend |
Estimated Reward Earned |
₹5,000
₹10,000
₹20,000
₹50,000
₹1,00,000 |
₹125
₹300
₹550
₹1,150
₹1,675 |
These high cashback rates make the Airtel Axis one of the best general purpose cards for Airtel customers, with a net reward yield of 2.8% for those charging ₹50,000 or less to their card each month.
Other viable cards for utility bills
There are 3 other credit cards in our shortlist, that offer 5% rewards on utility bill payments, with no monthly caps on the rewards earned. Of these, the Axis Bank Freecharge and Axis Bank Freecharge Plus cards have low annual fees of ₹250, and ₹350 respectively.
Despite its slightly higher fee, we would recommend the Freecharge Plus version of the card because the annual fee for this card can be waived if you charge more than ₹50,000 to the card in a year. The regular Freecharge card (without the “Plus”) has a lower but non-waivable fee. Otherwise the cards are largely similar and have an estimated net reward yield of 1.6%.
Both these cards require you to use the Freecharge app to benefit from the 5% rewards on utility bills.
If you are unable to use the Freecharge app also, then your best bet to earn unlimited 5% rewards on utility bills is the Yes Bank Prosperity Cashback Credit Card. This card has a higher annual fee (₹999) than all the others we recommend and we also estimate a lower overall net reward yield for this card, at 1.4%.