RBL Bank Nova Credit Card
The RBL Nova is an invite-only premium metal card at a ₹12,500 + GST fee that is waived from the second year on ₹10 lakh of eligible annual spend. It earns 4 reward points per ₹200 (2% at ₹1/point) on general spends and an accelerated 12 points per ₹200 (6%) on flights and hotels booked through the Nova portal. Reward points transfer to airline partners including Air India Maharaja, Singapore KrisFlyer and Qatar Privilege Club at 2 points to 1 partner point. The travel sheet is strong for the fee: 12 domestic and 12 international lounge visits a year (with 4 international guest visits), 4 golf rounds with 12 lessons, and a ₹12,500 Taj Experiences or Luxe welcome gift card that offsets year one.
✦ How to get this card →
Key features
What this card is built to do — the highlights that actually matter.
Welcome Benefit
~₹12,500 in vouchers, points or cashback on card activation
6% on Travel
12 reward points per ₹200 (6% at ₹1/point) on flights and hotels booked through the Nova portal; portal-gated, not earned on general travel spends
2% on Other
4 reward points per ₹200 (2% at ₹1/point) on general spends; points transfer to airline partners at 2 points to 1 partner point
️ Airport Lounge Access
3 complimentary visits per quarter at domestic and international airport lounges
Annual Fee Waiver
Fee of ₹12,500 + 18% GST (₹14,750 all-in)/yr fully waived when you spend ₹10,00,000/year
Golf Privileges
4 complimentary golf rounds plus 12 golf lessons a year at select courses
Milestone Bonus
~₹40,000 in bonus rewards on hitting annual spend milestones
Full reward structure
| Category | Type | Rate | Monthly cap |
|---|---|---|---|
| Travel | reward points | 6% | — |
| Other | reward points | 2% | — |
Fees & charges
| Charge | Amount |
|---|---|
| Annual fee (incl. 18% GST) | ₹14,750 |
| Joining fee (incl. 18% GST) | ₹14,750 |
| Finance charge (APR) | 3.4% p.m. |
| Forex markup | 2% |
Perks & benefits
Estimated annual value beyond rewards — ~₹76,000/yr in total.
️ lounge access ~ ₹24,000 /yr
12 domestic and 12 international airport lounge visits a year, with 4 complimentary guest visits at international lounges
golf ~ ₹12,000 /yr
4 complimentary golf rounds plus 12 golf lessons a year at select courses
milestone bonus ~ ₹40,000 /yr
A ₹10,000 gift card (Taj, Marriott, MakeMyTrip, Luxe or Tata) for each calendar quarter in which you spend ₹3 lakh. It can repeat each quarter, up to four times a year, so ₹40,000 of gift cards at a steady ₹12 lakh of annual spend.
Should you get it?
Best for: Frequent flyers who book through the Nova portal, RBL customers who transfer points to airline programmes
Premium tier — a solid all-rounder for steady monthly spend.
Strongest value if you spend heavily on Travel ( 6% back).
Frequent travellers benefit from the included airport lounge access.
✓ Pros
- 6% (12 points per ₹200) on flights and hotels via the Nova portal
- ₹12,500 Taj or Luxe welcome gift card offsets the first-year fee
- 12 domestic and 12 international lounge visits a year
- Points transfer to airline partners including Air India, KrisFlyer and Qatar
✕ Cons
- Invite-only — cannot be applied for directly
- The 6% rate applies only to the Nova flight and hotel portal
- Renewal fee needs ₹10 lakh of annual spend to waive; 2% forex markup
- Fuel, utilities, insurance, education, rent, wallet loads, government payments, cash and EMI earn no points
Eligibility
RBL publishes no eligibility criteria for this card — no minimum income, no age band, no credit-score floor, and no document checklist. That is not an oversight on our part: the card is issued strictly by invitation, there is no public application form, and so there is nothing to qualify for in the usual sense. Any specific salary figure you see quoted for it elsewhere has been inferred by a third party, not stated by the bank.
What actually decides an invitation is the relationship behind it — balances held with the bank, spend on an existing card, and the banking segment you sit in. We set those signals out in how to get an invitation above, labelled for what they are: observed patterns, not published criteria.
How to redeem rewards
Ways to convert what you earn into real value.
🎁 Redeem reward points at ₹1 each via the Nova rewards portal
🎁 Transfer points to airline partners at 2 points to 1 partner point
What your RBL Reward Points are worth
Realistic value per point by redemption route — the difference is what most people leave on the table.
Statement credit Standard redemption
Gift voucher catalogue Brand & e-gift vouchers
Airline / hotel transfer (Lumière / Nova) BEST Two cards only. Lumière converts to Air India and Club ITC at 1:1 (⇒ ₹1/pt) — four times RBL's catalogue rate and the best thing about the card, despite RBL's own Lumière page never mentioning transfers at all. Nova is 2:1 to Air India, KrisFlyer, Qatar and Club ITC (⇒ ₹0.50/pt). Credited in up to 7 working days. ITC's own table also lists RBL Insignia (3:1), World Safari Plus (3:1) and iGlobe (4:1) — products we do not carry.
✈ Transfer partners ✈ Air India Maharaja Club ( 2:1 ) ✈ Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer ( 2:1 ) ✈ Qatar Airways Privilege Club (Avios) ( 2:1 ) 🏨 Club ITC ( 2:1 ) Value your balance: RBL Reward Points ✈ Air India Maharaja Club ( 2:1 ) ₹ 5,000 ✈ Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer ( 2:1 ) ₹ 5,000 ✈ Qatar Airways Privilege Club (Avios) ( 2:1 ) ₹ 5,000 🏨 Club ITC ( 2:1 ) ₹ 5,000 vs. typical redemption ₹ 2,500 Direct transfers from this card only, ranked by what a point is worth in the destination programme . Full calculator, every currency → The concern The best 6% rate is locked to the Nova booking portal and the renewal fee needs ₹10 lakh of annual spend to waive; general spends earn only 2% and forex is a middling 2%.
The bottom line
The RBL Bank Nova Credit Card delivers a compelling premium travel package—featuring 6% rewards on portal travel bookings, 2:1 airline mileage transfers, 24 annual lounge visits, and an initial ₹12,500 welcome voucher that absorbs the joining cost. While its invite-only availability, 2% forex markup, and RBL's smaller travel service network place it slightly behind marquee competitors, it provides outstanding tangible value for invited RBL cardholders who book flights and hotels through the portal.
Sources & verification
Fees, reward rates, and benefits for the RBL Bank Nova Credit Card are taken from RBL Bank 's official Most Important Terms & Conditions (MITC) and fee schedule — see the card's official page . Last verified 6 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 RBL Bank . 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 2025 · 2 changes · last change Jan 2026
▲ Revaluation ▼ Devaluation ◆ Neutral / reversed
2026 1 change — 1 cut
▼ Fee Observed Jan 2026 · Effective 7 Jan 2026
New 1% fee on large FASTag top-ups and toll payments
No FASTag or toll transaction fee → 1% fee on any FASTag-loading or toll-payment transaction above ₹10,000
From 7 January 2026 RBL Bank charges a 1% fee on any single FASTag-loading or toll-payment transaction above ₹10,000, measured per transaction per card, across merchant category codes 4784, 4111 and 4131. Because the threshold is per transaction rather than a monthly aggregate, it bites on one-off large FASTag top-ups rather than on regular commuting; splitting a top-up below ₹10,000 avoids it. The fee sits alongside RBL's existing 1% charges on rent, on utility spends above ₹50,000 a month, on fuel transactions above ₹10,000, and on education payments routed through third-party apps. It is a fee on the transaction, not a change to reward earning — these categories already earn no reward points on most RBL cards.
Verification: RBL Bank ↗ · Confidence: High
2025 1 change — 1 neutral
◆ Launch Effective 17 Nov 2025
RBL Nova launched as an invite-only travel metal card
RBL Bank unveiled the Nova alongside the flagship Lumière on 17 Nov 2025 as an invite-only premium metal card at ₹12,500 + GST joining/annual fee (waived from year two on ₹10 lakh of eligible annual spend). It earns 4 reward points per ₹200 (2%) on general spends and an accelerated 12 points per ₹200 (6%) on flights and hotels booked through the Nova portal, with points valued at ₹1 each on the portal and transferable to airline partners (Air India, KrisFlyer, Qatar) at 2:1. Travel benefits: 12 domestic + 12 international lounge visits a year (4 international guest visits), 4 golf rounds with 12 lessons, a ₹12,500 Taj Experiences or Luxe welcome gift card, and ₹10,000 quarterly milestone gift cards on ₹3 lakh spend. Forex markup 2%.
Verification: RBL Bank ↗ · Confidence: High
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 Premium credit card
Reward rate 2%
Best for Frequent flyers who book through the Nova portal
Joining fee ₹12,500
Annual fee ₹12,500
Reviewed by
Devchandra Sah · Cards tested, miles earned, trips booked — for over a decade
Last verified 6 Aug 2026
How we research →
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280 cards analysed — August 2026
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