Emeralde Private Metal

Joining ₹12,499 · Annual ₹12,499 · Spend ₹10 lakh in the card anniversary year to get the next year's annual fee waived

Fee break-even: ≈₹4,16,633/yr through this card at its base rate. Below that, the fee eats the rewards.

Earns ICICI Reward Points · assumed 1 ₹/point. 1 RP = ₹1 when redeemed for flights/hotels on the iShop portal or for premium brand vouchers. ₹0.60 on the general rewards catalogue and only ₹0.40 as statement credit (statement-credit redemption also capped at 50,000 RP per cycle). No ₹99 redemption fee on this card. Points also transfer 1:1 to Air India Maharaja Club. The ₹1 valuation is genuinely reachable but requires the travel/premium-voucher route. Indiscriminate statement-credit use drops the card to a 1.2% return.

Verified 10 Aug 2026

Forex markup2%

Concierge24x7 i-Assist global concierge (1800 26 70731)

GolfUnlimited complimentary golf rounds or lessons, booked via Golftripz across roughly 20 domestic and 90 international courses. Benefits are credited monthly and remain usable for the following two months.

EMI2.99% capped at ₹299 plus GST at a merchant, up to 2% converting a billed balance processing fee · A converted purchase stops earning rewards · 2.99% of the purchase capped at ₹299 plus GST, so anything above roughly ₹10,000 costs the full ₹299. On No Extra Cost EMI at selected brands the merchant absorbs the interest but this fee still stands. Fuel, gold, jewellery, gambling and cash cannot be converted. · Spend converted to EMI earns no reward points

Fuel surcharge1% waiver on fuel transactions up to ₹4,000 per transaction, capped at ₹1,000 per statement cycle

Domestic loungeUNLIMITED complimentary domestic lounge access, with no spend gate, for the primary cardholder AND up to 3 add-on cardholders. ICICI's official change notice explicitly names the Emeralde Private Metal among the cards EXCLUDED from the ₹75,000-preceding-quarter lounge requirement that now applies to most of its portfolio. So this card genuinely escaped the spend-gating. Includes VIP-section access at the 080 lounge, Bengaluru.

International loungeUNLIMITED complimentary international lounge access via Priority Pass membership (1,400-1,800+ lounges across 145+ countries), no spend gate, extended to the primary and all add-on cardholders. Guest visits are chargeable at prevailing Priority Pass rates.

Milestones

◆ Spend ₹4,00,000 per year → ₹3,000 EaseMyTrip air travel gift voucher Worth ₹3,000
◆ Spend ₹8,00,000 per year → Second ₹3,000 EaseMyTrip air travel gift voucher (₹6,000 cumulative across both milestones) Worth ₹3,000

Return by category

Category	Return	Notes
Online spend	3%	Base rate
Amazon	3%	Base rate
Flipkart	3%	Base rate
Subscriptions & OTT	3%	Base rate
Offline spend	3%	Base rate
UPI spending	0%	Issued only on Mastercard. There is no RuPay variant, so the card cannot be linked to UPI at all
Dining	3%	Base rate
Swiggy	3%	Base rate
Zomato	3%	Base rate
Groceries	3%	1,000 RP per statement cycle (≈₹33,000 spend). Spend above that earns nothing · Quick-commerce inherits this grocery cap.
Quick commerce	3%	Uses its groceries rate
Swiggy Instamart	3%	Base rate
Blinkit	3%	Base rate
BigBasket	3%	Uses its groceries rate
Movies & shows	3%	Base rate
BookMyShow	3%	Base rate
PVR INOX	3%	Base rate
Fuel	0%	No reward points on fuel. 1% surcharge waiver applies instead
Travel (general)	3%	Base rate
Flights	18%	Shared 18,000 bonus RP per calendar month across all iShop accelerated earning · 6X accelerated rate, i.e. 18%. Only when the flight is booked through ICICI's iShop portal. Flights booked directly with an airline or OTA earn the plain 3% base.
Hotels	36%	Shared 18,000 bonus RP per calendar month across all iShop accelerated earning · 12X accelerated rate, i.e. 36%. IShop portal bookings only. Direct hotel bookings earn the 3% base. This is the single strongest earn rate on any Indian card, but the 18,000-point monthly ceiling limits it to roughly ₹50,000 of iShop hotel spend per month before it reverts to base.
MakeMyTrip	3%	Base rate
IRCTC rail	3%	Base rate
International	1%	3% reward − 2% forex markup
Utilities & bills	3%	1,000 RP per statement cycle (≈₹33,000 spend)
Rent	0%	No reward points, and a 1% fee is levied on rent transactions
Education fees	3%	1,000 RP per statement cycle (≈₹33,000 spend) · Education spend is also excluded from ICICI's lounge/BookMyShow qualifying-spend calculations on cards that have those gates.
Insurance premiums	3%	5,000 RP per statement cycle (≈₹1.67 lakh spend)
Government & tax	0%	No reward points on government services or tax payments. Property-management spend also excluded
Wallet loads	0%	No reward points on third-party wallet loads, plus a 1% fee on wallet loads of ₹5,000 or more from 15 Jan 2026
Anything else	3%	Base rate
Jewellery	3%	Base rate

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

Welcome benefit: 12,500 ICICI Reward Points (₹12,500 value at the travel/voucher redemption rate) on joining-fee realisation
Renewal benefit: a further 12,500 Reward Points (₹12,500) each year on annual-fee payment. This alone offsets the ₹12,499 fee, which is why the card is widely considered net-free for anyone who redeems at ₹1
Complimentary Taj Epicure Plus membership (1 year, includes a 1-night stay) and EazyDiner Prime membership, renewed annually
BookMyShow: buy-one-get-one with the free ticket worth up to ₹750, twice a month (≈₹1,500/month, ≈₹18,000/year of headline value). ICICI's BookMyShow T&C describes Emeralde-family cards as up to 4 free tickets/month at ₹750 each. The product page's 'BOGO twice a month' is the conservative reading
Whether the ₹25,000-preceding-quarter BookMyShow spend gate (effective 1 April 2026) applies to this card could not be confirmed. ICICI's notice says 'certain Credit Cards' without naming them and the product page still shows the benefit ungated, unlike the MakeMyTrip page which states its gate outright
Insurance: ₹3 crore personal air accident cover (primary cardholder, international travel on tickets bought with the card), ₹1 lakh credit shield, ₹25,000 baggage cover, ₹1,40,000 purchase protection
Zero cancellation charges on flight and hotel bookings, reimbursed up to ₹12,000 (twice a year)
Mastercard World Elite / World-tier privileges layered on top. Hotel discounts and partner membership upgrades
Add-on cards: up to 3 supplementary cards, but new add-ons issued from 15 Jan 2026 carry a ₹3,500 one-time issuance fee
Fresh applications are invite-only. The practical route in is an upgrade from an existing ICICI card carrying roughly a ₹10 lakh limit (community reports cite ~₹5 lakh net monthly income and a ₹6 lakh existing card limit as the internal bar)
Portfolio-wide from March 2026 statements: a harsher minimum-amount-due formula that adds GST on interest and fees, the full EMI principal plus interest, any overlimit amount, and the higher of 5% of spends or the entire finance-charge component

Other exclusions

Spend converted to EMI earns no reward points
2% fee on gaming/skill-gaming platform transactions from 15 Jan 2026

Sources

Every figure above comes from the issuer's own pages and documents. Last verified 10 Aug 2026.