Axis BankACE
Visa
Axis Bank · Visa
ACE
Joining ₹0 · Annual ₹499 · Annual fee waived on spends of ₹2,00,000 in the preceding year. Rent and wallet-load spends do not count toward the threshold. All other spend (including Google Pay utility spend) does count.
Fee break-even: ≈₹33,267/yr through this card at its base rate. Below that, the fee eats the rewards.
Earns Cashback (statement credit). Direct rupee cashback credited to the card account, so ₹1 = ₹1 with no redemption fee, no minimum and no expiry while the card is open. Cashback for a billing cycle is credited in the next cycle, 3 days before the statement date. Rounded to the nearest rupee per transaction. Realistic blended return: 1.5% floor on everything eligible, rising toward 2.5-3% only for a cardholder who fully uses the ₹500/cycle accelerated cap (₹6,000/year maximum from the 5% and 4% buckets combined). Any unpaid cashback is forfeited immediately on card closure, conversion to another Axis card, or blocking for non-payment.
Verified 10 Aug 2026Forex markup3.5%
GolfNone
ConciergeNone
International loungeNone
EMI₹299 plus GST below ₹50,000, ₹599 plus GST at ₹50,000 and above processing fee · A converted purchase stops earning rewards · The fee is charged on every conversion and is not refunded if you cancel or pre close, so on a no cost EMI deal it is the one thing you genuinely pay. Tenures run 3 to 24 months. · EMI transactions earn nothing. Converting a purchase to EMI later reverses cashback already paid on it in the same cycle, and foreclosing or cancelling the EMI does not restore it.
Fuel surcharge1% surcharge refunded on fuel transactions between ₹400 and ₹4,000, capped at ₹500 per statement cycle
Domestic lounge4 a year. 4 complimentary visits per year at Axis 'Set A' domestic lounges (11 lounges across Bengaluru, Chennai, Mumbai, Kolkata, Hyderabad and Delhi). Gated on at least ₹50,000 of eligible spend in the previous 3 calendar months. The gate is waived for the month of issuance plus the next 3 calendar months on a newly issued card. Axis's lounge document defines eligible spend as billed, settled transactions excluding only bank dues, fees, interest and reversals. It does NOT say the reward-excluded categories are disqualified, so Google Pay utility spend appears to count toward the ₹50,000. ₹2 validation swipe on Visa. Axis publishes no per-quarter sub-limit for ACE (the widely repeated '2 per quarter' figure is not in Axis's own document).
Return by category
| Category | Return | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Online spend | 1.5% | Base rate |
| Amazon | 1.5% | Base rate |
| Flipkart | 1.5% | Base rate |
| Subscriptions & OTT | 1.5% | Base rate |
| Offline spend | 1.5% | Base rate |
| UPI spending | 0% | No UPI capability at all. ACE is issued only on Visa Signature and Axis has never released a RuPay ACE variant, so the card cannot be linked to a UPI app. (Axis's RuPay/UPI co-brand with Google Pay is a separate product, the Google Pay Flex Axis Bank Credit Card.) |
| Dining | 1.5% | The 4% is Swiggy, Zomato and Ola only, sharing one ₹500 cap per cycle. Restaurants and food apps outside that list earn the 1.5% base. Accelerated cashback is matched on the merchant's own ID, so an unlisted outlet quietly pays 1.5%. |
| Swiggy | 4% | ₹500 per statement cycle, shared with the 5% bucket · Swiggy and Zomato, on website and app. Ola cab rides also earn 4% under the same shared ₹500 cap (no separate travel rate exists, flights, hotels and other travel earn only the 1.5% base). Accelerated cashback is matched on merchant IDs supplied by the merchant, and Axis disclaims liability if a transaction on these merchants fails to earn the accelerated rate, so an unlisted MID silently pays 1.5%. |
| Zomato | 4% | ₹500 per statement cycle, shared with the 5% bucket · Swiggy and Zomato, on website and app. Ola cab rides also earn 4% under the same shared ₹500 cap (no separate travel rate exists, flights, hotels and other travel earn only the 1.5% base). Accelerated cashback is matched on merchant IDs supplied by the merchant, and Axis disclaims liability if a transaction on these merchants fails to earn the accelerated rate, so an unlisted MID silently pays 1.5%. |
| Groceries | 1.5% | Base rate |
| Quick commerce | 1.5% | Base rate |
| Swiggy Instamart | 1.5% | Base rate |
| Blinkit | 1.5% | Base rate |
| BigBasket | 1.5% | Base rate |
| Movies & shows | 1.5% | Base rate |
| BookMyShow | 1.5% | Base rate |
| PVR INOX | 1.5% | Base rate |
| Fuel | 0% | No cashback on fuel. Also a 1% fuel transaction fee once cumulative fuel spend reaches ₹50,000 in a statement cycle. Separate from, and not cancelled by, the fuel surcharge waiver. |
| Travel (general) | 1.5% | Base rate |
| Flights | 1.5% | Base rate |
| Hotels | 1.5% | Base rate |
| MakeMyTrip | 1.5% | Base rate |
| IRCTC rail | 1.5% | Base rate |
| International | −2% | 1.5% reward − 3.5% forex markup |
| Utilities & bills | 5% | ₹500 per STATEMENT CYCLE, shared with the 4% bucket (not ₹500 each, and not a calendar month) · Earned ONLY when the bill is paid with the ACE card inside the Google Pay Android app. Covers electricity, water, gas, LPG, broadband, DTH and prepaid/postpaid mobile recharge. The identical bill paid on any other platform (PhonePe, Paytm, Amazon Pay, the biller's own site, Axis netbanking) earns ZERO. This is the single biggest trap on the card. The Google Pay route is a NAMED carve-out that survived Axis's 20 June 2025 portfolio-wide Utility & Telecom reward exclusion. Separately, Axis levies a 1% Utility Transaction Fee once utility spend reaches ₹25,000 in a statement cycle, which claws back part of the 5%. |
| Rent | 0% | No cashback, and excluded from the ₹2 lakh fee-waiver threshold. Also carries a 1% rent surcharge on every rent transaction. The earlier ₹1,500 per-transaction cap has been removed. |
| Education fees | 0% | No cashback on educational services. 1% fee on education payments made through third-party apps. |
| Insurance premiums | 0% | No cashback on insurance premium payments. |
| Government & tax | 0% | No cashback on government services. |
| Wallet loads | 0% | Wallet loads earn no cashback and are excluded from the fee-waiver threshold. 1% fee once cumulative wallet loads reach ₹10,000 in a statement cycle. |
| Anything else | 1.5% | Base rate |
| Jewellery | 0% | No cashback on gold or jewellery purchases. |
Rates are the card's own published rates, before any spend profile. Add this card inMy cards to rank it against the rest of your wallet.
Also worth knowing
- Joining fee is currently ₹0 as a limited-time offer per Axis's own Key Fact Sheet (updated 17 July 2026). The annual fee of ₹499 + GST still applies from year two, so the card is NOT lifetime free. LTF ACE cards do exist but only via targeted/channel offers, not as a standing product.
- No welcome or activation benefit is currently published for ACE.
- Up to 15% off dining at 4,000+ restaurants under the Axis Dining Delights programme.
- Interest on revolving credit is 55.55% p.a. (Key Fact Sheet, 17 July 2026).
- Minimum Amount Due formula: all instalments + all fees + interest/finance charges + taxes + any over-limit amount + 2% of the remaining outstanding balance. An extra ₹100 is charged if MAD is missed for two consecutive cycles, and recurs every cycle until cleared.
- Late payment fee from 28 August 2026: nil below ₹500, ₹500 (₹501 to 5,000), ₹750 (₹5,001 to 10,000), ₹1,200 (₹10,001 to 50,000) and a new ₹1,300 tier above ₹50,000.
- From 28 August 2026 payments are appropriated in a fixed order: fees and charges (including taxes) first, then EMIs, interest, purchases and finally cash advances.
- From 28 August 2026 no rewards are earned on Bridge Fees, Road Fees and Tolls (FASTag).
- Axis identifies excluded spend by its own internal spend classification rather than the 4-digit MCC, so a merchant can be reclassified into an excluded bucket with no MCC change and no way for the cardholder to audit it.
- Dynamic Currency Conversion markup is 1.5% (on top of the 3.5% forex fee) as of the 17 July 2026 Key Fact Sheet. Axis is raising DCC to 3.5% on 28 August 2026 for MyZone, Neo, Select and Privilege. No ACE-specific revision document exists, so whether ACE is included is unconfirmed.
- UNRESOLVED: LiveFromALounge lists ACE among cards whose movie benefit will require ₹25,000 of spend in the previous 3 months from 1 Nov 2026, but CardInsider's list of affected cards omits ACE and Axis publishes no ACE movie-offer terms. No movie benefit is recorded on this card as a result.
Other exclusions
- EMI transactions earn nothing. Converting a purchase to EMI later reverses cashback already paid on it in the same cycle, and foreclosing or cancelling the EMI does not restore it.
- Cash advances and payments to financial institutions earn nothing. 2.5% fee (min ₹500) plus interest from day one.
- Effective 28 August 2026 gift card purchases are moved out of the 'Wallet' category into a separate 'Gift card' spend category and earn no rewards.
Sources
Every figure above comes from the issuer's own pages and documents. Last verified 10 Aug 2026.
- https://www.axis.bank.in/docs/default-source/default-document-library/credit-card/axis-bank-ace-credit-card-tncs.pdf
- https://www.axis.bank.in/docs/default-source/default-document-library/credit-cards/terms-and-conditions-axis-bank-ace-credit-card.pdf?sfvrsn=1109dfe1_2
- https://campaign.axis.bank.in/generic/axis-bank-ace-credit-card-terms-and-conditions.pdf
- https://www.axis.bank.in/docs/default-source/default-document-library/credit-card/sosc-credit-cards.pdf
- https://www.axis.bank.in/docs/default-source/default-document-library/axis-bank-airport-lounge-access-program.pdf
- https://www.axis.bank.in/docs/default-source/default-document-library/credit-card/revision-of-axis-bank-credit-card-terms-and-conditions.pdf
- https://www.axis.bank.in/cards/credit-card/axis-bank-ace-credit-card