Doctor's SBI Card (in Association with IMA)
The Doctor's SBI Card (in association with IMA) is a ₹1,499 profession-specific card for registered medical practitioners, tied to Indian Medical Association membership. Its genuine differentiator is a ₹20 lakh professional indemnity insurance cover reimbursing legal and defence costs, out-of-court settlements and court awards. Rewards are secondary: 5X Reward Points (~1.25%) on medical supplies, travel AGENTS (MCC 4722 — not airlines or hotels booked direct) and international spends, each capped at 7,500 points a month (plus 5X on all spends on Doctor's Day), but only 1 point per ₹100 (~0.25%) elsewhere, with points worth Re.0.25 each. It adds Priority Pass with 4 international lounge visits a year, 4 domestic visits, a ₹5,000 milestone voucher at ₹5 lakh spend and a 1% fuel surcharge waiver; the ₹1,499 fee is reversed at ₹2 lakh of annual spend.
Key features
What this card is built to do — the highlights that actually matter.
Welcome Benefit
~₹1,500 in vouchers, points or cashback on card activation
1.25% on Travel
5X Reward Points (5 RP per Rs.100, ~1.25%) on travel AGENTS and tour operators only — MCC 4722. Booking direct with an airline, hotel or railway earns the 1 RP base. Shares a 7,500-point monthly cap with medical supplies.
1.25% on International
5X Reward Points on international spends (5 RP per Rs.100, ~1.25% at 4 RP = Re.1), capped at 7,500 points a month in its own bucket.
️ Airport Lounge Access
2 complimentary visits per quarter at domestic and international airport lounges
Annual Fee Waiver
Fee of ₹1,499 + 18% GST (₹1,769 all-in)/yr fully waived when you spend ₹2,00,000/year
Milestone Bonus
~₹5,000 in bonus rewards on hitting annual spend milestones
️ Insurance Cover
Professional indemnity insurance cover of Rs.20 lakhs — reimburses legal & defence costs, out-of-court settlements and court awards. SBI publishes no deductible figure either way.
Full reward structure
| Category | Type | Rate | Monthly cap |
|---|---|---|---|
| Travel | reward points | 1.25% | ₹1,875 |
| International | reward points | 1.25% | ₹1,875 |
| Other | reward points | 0.25% | — |
Fees & charges
| Charge | Amount |
|---|---|
| Annual fee (incl. 18% GST) | ₹1,769 |
| Joining fee (incl. 18% GST) | ₹1,769 |
| Finance charge (APR) | 3.75% p.m. |
| Forex markup | 3.5% |
| Add-on card fee | Free |
Perks & benefits
Estimated annual value beyond rewards — ~₹20,200/yr in total.
️ insurance ~ ₹3,000 /yr
Professional indemnity insurance cover of Rs.20 lakhs — reimburses legal & defence costs, out-of-court settlements and court awards. SBI publishes no deductible figure either way.
️ lounge access ~ ₹8,000 /yr
Complimentary Priority Pass membership (worth $99) with 4 international lounge visits a year (max 2 per quarter), plus a $27 usage fee after that. Access to 1,000+ lounges worldwide.
️ lounge access ~ ₹3,000 /yr
4 complimentary domestic airport lounge visits a year (max 1 per quarter).
milestone bonus ~ ₹5,000 /yr
E-Gift voucher (Yatra.com / Bata / Shoppers Stop) worth Rs.5,000 on annual spends of Rs.5 lakhs. Renewal fee also reversed on Rs.2 lakhs annual spend.
fuel waiver ~ ₹1,200 /yr
1% fuel surcharge waiver on transactions between Rs.500 and Rs.4,000; max Rs.250 per statement cycle.
Spend milestone
· ₹5,00,000 a year ₹5,000 of value
Should you get it?
Best for: Practising doctors who want professional indemnity cover bundled with a card, IMA members seeking an association-branded card, Doctors with meaningful travel and international spends
Mid tier — a solid all-rounder for steady monthly spend.
Strongest value if you spend heavily on Travel ( 1.25% back).
Frequent travellers benefit from the included airport lounge access.
✓ Pros
- Rs.20 lakh professional indemnity insurance cover — a genuine benefit no mainstream card offers doctors
- Exclusive association with the Indian Medical Association (IMA)
- 5X Reward Points on medical supplies, travel and international spends
- Priority Pass membership plus domestic and international lounge access
✕ Cons
- Eligibility is restricted to registered medical practitioners / IMA members
- Base earn of ~0.25% on general spends is weak; rewards are worth only Re.0.25 each
- Rs.1,499 fee, waived only at Rs.2 lakh annual spend
- 3.5% forex markup despite the 5X international earn
Eligibility & documents
Min. income
₹30,000 /mo
Employment
Salaried · Self-employed
Documents required
- PAN card
- Aadhaar / address proof
- Medical registration / IMA membership proof
- Income proof (salary slips or ITR)
- Recent passport-size photograph
How to redeem rewards
Ways to convert what you earn into real value.
🎁 Pay your card outstanding with Reward Points (4 RP = Re.1)
🎁 Redeem Reward Points against gifts and vouchers from the SBI Card rewards catalogue
What your SBI Reward Points are worth
Realistic value per point by redemption route — the difference is what most people leave on the table.
Statement credit BEST Capped at 60,000 pts/month from Apr 2026
Rewards catalogue / vouchers BEST Vouchers & merchandise
The concern Eligibility is restricted to registered IMA doctors, the base earn is a weak ~0.25%, and points are worth only Re.0.25 each despite the ₹1,499 fee.
The bottom line
This card does one job well rather than trying to be a general rewards card. The ₹20 lakh indemnity cover is the real reason to carry it, and the 5X earn on medical, travel and international spending is a reasonable bonus on top. That said, a base rate near 0.25% and points worth just 25 paise apiece mean it shouldn't replace your primary spending card. If you're an IMA-eligible doctor who wants that liability protection, it's an easy recommendation — just think of it as coverage with some perks attached, not a card built to maximise rewards.
Sources & verification
Fees, reward rates, and benefits for the Doctor's SBI Card (in Association with IMA) are taken from SBI Card 's official Most Important Terms & Conditions (MITC) and fee schedule — see the card's official page . Last verified 5 Aug 2026 . Reviewed by Devchandra Sah . Always confirm current details on the issuer's site before applying. How we research →
Independence. CardAdvisor is an independent editorial publication. We are not affiliated with, endorsed by, sponsored by, or authorised to act for SBI Card . All issuer names, product names, and payment-network marks are the property of their respective owners and appear here for identification and comparison only. Card faces shown on this site are our own original illustrations — we do not display or host issuer card artwork or logos.
Value timeline
Every real-world change to this card's rewards, fees and benefits we've tracked — newest first, each linked to its source.
Tracking since 2018 · 7 changes · last change Apr 2026
▲ Revaluation ▼ Devaluation ◆ Neutral / reversed
2026 1 change — 1 cut
▼ Redemption Observed 26 Feb 2026 · Effective 1 Apr 2026
Statement-credit redemption capped & blocked into 4,000-point multiples
Unrestricted statement-credit redemption, any point quantity → Max 60,000 RP/month; redeemable only in multiples of 4,000
Effective 1 April 2026, SBI Card capped statement-credit redemption at 60,000 Reward Points per card per calendar month and required redemptions in multiples of 4,000 points, removing partial/small redemptions. The 4 RP = ₹1 (₹0.25/point) conversion rate is unchanged. Applies to the Doctor's SBI Card (only Air India SBI Signature and the two PhonePe SBI variants are exempt).
Verification: SBI Card ↗ · Confidence: High
2025 1 change — 1 cut
▼ Fee Effective 1 Nov 2025
1% fee on third-party education payments & wallet loads
No surcharge on education/wallet-load spends → 1% fee on 3rd-party education fees & wallet loads over ₹1,000
In its system-wide fee revision effective 1 November 2025, SBI Card added a 1% fee on education-fee payments made via third-party apps/aggregators (Paytm, PhonePe, Razorpay, etc.; direct school/college website or campus POS payments stay free) and a 1% fee on digital-wallet loads exceeding ₹1,000. Applies to the Doctor's SBI Card.
Verification: SBI Card ↗ · Confidence: Reconstructed
2024 3 changes — 2 cuts, 1 improvement
▼ Reward Effective 15 Jul 2024
Portfolio government-spend exclusion — not carried in this card's own T&C
Earned → Excluded
From 15 July 2024, government-related transactions (MCC 9399 and 9311 — tax, fines and government-service payments) on the Doctor's SBI Card no longer accrue Reward Points, in line with SBI Card's wider exclusion across its portfolio.
Verification: SBI Card ↗ · Confidence: Reconstructed
▼ Reward Observed 1 Mar 2024 · Effective 1 Apr 2024
Reward points removed on rent payments (MCC 6513)
Base RP earned on rent payments → No RP on rent payments (MCC 6513)
SBI Card stopped awarding Reward Points on rent payments coded under MCC 6513, effective 1 April 2024, as part of a portfolio-wide rewards clean-up. On the Doctor's SBI Card — which earned base RP on rent — this combined with the ₹199 processing fee to make rent a fully unrewarded, fee-bearing spend.
Verification: SBI Card ↗ · Confidence: High
▲ Benefit Effective 2024
Professional indemnity cover doubled to ₹20 lakh
₹10 lakh → ₹20 lakh
The card's headline benefit — its professional indemnity insurance cover — was doubled from the ₹10 lakh set at launch to ₹20 lakh (0% deductible), materially strengthening the single reason most doctors hold the card. The exact effective date is not publicly documented: the cover was still ₹10 lakh through 2021 and is cited as ₹20 lakh by 2024–2025, so the change is reconstructed to circa 2024.
Verification: SBI Card ↗ · Confidence: Reconstructed
2022 1 change — 1 cut
▼ Fee Effective 15 Nov 2022
Rent-payment processing fee introduced (₹99, later ₹199)
No rent-payment processing fee → ₹99 + GST (raised to ₹199 + GST from 17 Mar 2023)
SBI Card began levying a ₹99 + GST processing fee on every rent-payment transaction from mid-November 2022, then doubled it to ₹199 + GST effective 17 March 2023. Applies system-wide, including the Doctor's SBI Card.
Verification: CardAdvisor Research · Confidence: High
2018 1 change — 1 neutral
◆ Launch Observed 27 Mar 2018 · Effective Mar 2018
Doctor's SBI Card (in association with IMA) launched
SBI Card and the Indian Medical Association launched the Doctor's SBI Card in late March 2018 on the Visa Signature platform — a profession-specific card for registered doctors. Its industry-first draw was a ₹10 lakh professional indemnity insurance cover (legal/defence costs, out-of-court settlements and court awards), alongside accelerated 5X Reward Points on medical supplies, travel and international spends, ~0.25% base earn (4 RP = ₹1), complimentary domestic airport lounge access and a ₹1,499 joining/annual fee waived at ₹2 lakh annual spend. Each card was personalised with 'Dr.' embossed against the holder's name and qualifications.
Verification: CardAdvisor Research · Confidence: High
↓ Show all 7 changes Each change links to the issuer's own document — bank T&C, MITC, notice, press release or product page — where one is public. Where the bank published nothing, it's marked CardAdvisor Research and verified against the card's current terms. Independent of the live terms shown above. This timeline is one card's slice of our market-wide change record across every tracked card.
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Quick summary
Type Mid credit card
Reward rate 0.25%–1.25%
Best for Practising doctors who want professional indemnity cover bundled with a card
Joining fee ₹1,499
Annual fee ₹1,499
Reviewed by
Devchandra Sah · Cards tested, miles earned, trips booked — for over a decade
Last verified 5 Aug 2026
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