YES Bank Essence Credit Card

· ₹1,00,000 a year ₹2,000 of value

Best for: Online lifestyle shoppers (fashion, beauty, dining, grocery), People who will redeem YES Rewardz for flights and hotels, Regular moviegoers who value a monthly buy-one-get-one

Mid tier — a solid all-rounder for steady monthly spend.

Strongest value if you spend heavily on Online Shopping ( 0.8% back).

Frequent travellers benefit from the included airport lounge access.

• 12 YES Rewardz per ₹200 on online fashion, beauty, dining, travel and grocery — a fair accelerated rate for the fee
• ₹1,000 voucher on a first transaction within 45 days, plus 5,000 bonus points on ₹50,000 in 90 days and 10,000 more at ₹1 lakh annual spend
• Birthday-month benefits — a ₹1,000 Myntra voucher and a complimentary health check-up
• Monthly movie buy-one-get-one on District (up to ₹250 off the second ticket)
• ₹799 renewal fee waived at ₹1 lakh of annual spend; joining fee reversed on ₹20,000 in the first month
• 1% fuel surcharge waiver on transactions between ₹500 and ₹4,000 (capped ₹125 a cycle)

• YES Rewardz are worth only ~₹0.20 on vouchers and statement credit; the ₹0.25 rate applies to flights and hotels only
• The quarterly domestic lounge visit is spend-gated on ₹25,000 of prior-quarter spend, and there is no international lounge access
• Rent, fuel, wallet loads, government payments, insurance, education, cash and EMI conversions earn no rewards
• A ₹100 + GST fee applies each time you redeem reward points, so redeem in fewer, larger batches
• Salaried applicants only; existing YES Bank credit cardholders are not eligible to apply

Ways to convert what you earn into real value.

🎁 Redeem YES Rewardz on the YES rewardz portal for vouchers, products and statement credit (~₹0.20/point)

🎁 Redeem for flights and hotels via the YES rewardz portal for the best value (up to ~₹0.25/point)

🎁 A ₹99 + GST convenience fee applies to flight bookings made with points

🎁 YES Rewardz expire 3 years after accrual

The Essence provides solid utility for active online lifestyle spenders: earning 12 YES Rewardz per ₹200 across fashion, beauty, dining, travel, and grocery delivers a competitive accelerated rate for a ₹799 annual fee, supported by welcome vouchers, milestone points, and monthly movie savings. Prospective applicants should keep in mind that points are valued at roughly ₹0.20 on vouchers and statement credit (reaching ₹0.25 on flight and hotel bookings), and the quarterly domestic lounge visit requires spending ₹25,000 in the prior quarter. Redeeming for travel maximizes its value, whereas treating it as a pure cashback card yields modest returns.

Sources & verification

Fees, reward rates, and benefits for the YES Bank Essence Credit Card are taken from YES Bank 's official Most Important Terms & Conditions (MITC) and fee schedule — see the card's official page . Last verified 7 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 YES 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.

Every real-world change to this card's rewards, fees and benefits we've tracked — newest first, each linked to its source.

Tracking since 2026 · 5 changes · last change Jun 2026

▲ Revaluation ▼ Devaluation ◆ Neutral / reversed

▼ Fee Effective 15 Jun 2026

Cash-advance, auto-debit-failure and cash-deposit charges raised

Cash advance 2.5% or 500 rupees; auto-debit failure 2% or 450 rupees capped at 1,500; branch cash deposit 100 rupees → Cash advance 2.5% or 650 rupees; auto-debit failure 2.5% or 500 rupees capped at 5,000; branch cash deposit 500 rupees

Three servicing charges went up together on 15 June 2026. The minimum cash-advance fee rose from 500 to 650 rupees, the charge for a failed auto-debit went from 2% or 450 rupees to 2.5% or 500 rupees, and depositing cash at a branch to repay the card went from 100 to 500 rupees. The auto-debit change is the one worth noticing: alongside the higher rate, the per-statement ceiling on that charge moved from 1,500 rupees to 5,000, so a large missed payment can now cost several times what it would have before. None of these touch ordinary card spending - they are the cost of borrowing cash, bouncing a payment, or repaying over the counter.

Verification: YES Bank ↗ · Confidence: High

▼ Fee Effective 15 Jun 2026

Forex markup raised from 2.75% to 3.00%

2.75% + GST → 3.00% + GST

Barely a month after launch, YES Bank raised the foreign-currency conversion charge on the Essence from 2.75% to 3.00% plus GST, effective 15 June 2026. The revision is set out in the bank's consolidated Most Important Terms and Conditions (version CMITC_V18_23062026, published 23 June 2026), whose per-variant table groups the Essence with Elite+ — YES Private, Private Prime and Marquee were left untouched. A separate 1% dynamic currency conversion charge still applies when an overseas transaction is billed in rupees, so the all-in cost of spending abroad on this card has gone up while its rewards remain domestic-lifestyle led.

Verification: YES Bank ↗ · Confidence: High

▼ Benefit Effective 15 Jun 2026

Fuel surcharge waiver band narrowed to 500 to 4,000

400 to 5,000 rupees → 500 to 4,000 rupees

The 1% fuel surcharge waiver still applies, but the window of transactions that qualify for it moved on 15 June 2026. YES Bank replaced the single 400-to-5,000-rupee band that covered its whole range with a per-variant table, and this card sits in the 500 to 4,000-rupee band. The floor rising to 500 rupees is the part most likely to bite: small top-ups that used to earn the waiver no longer do. For the Essence the ceiling also fell, from 5,000 to 4,000 rupees, with the waiver capped at 125 rupees a statement cycle.

Verification: YES Bank ↗ · Confidence: High

▲ Benefit Effective 1 Jun 2026

Over-limit facility reinstated, at 550 rupees a transaction

Withdrawn since 1 May 2025 - spends above the sanctioned limit were declined → Available again, at a flat 550 rupee charge per over-limit transaction

YES Bank brought back the over-limit facility on 1 June 2026, thirteen months after withdrawing it. The Essence launched during the window when the facility did not exist, so this is a benefit the card gained rather than one it lost and regained. A transaction that takes the balance past the sanctioned limit now goes through rather than being declined, and carries a flat charge of 550 rupees plus GST. Whether any given account gets the facility, and how far over the limit it may go, is set by the bank from the customer's credit profile and repayment record rather than being a published entitlement. It is a convenience worth having in an emergency and an expensive habit otherwise, since the charge applies per offending transaction.

Verification: YES Bank ↗ · Confidence: High

◆ Launch Effective May 2026

YES Bank Essence launches as a women-focused lifestyle rewards card

YES Bank launched the Essence in May 2026 — card-press coverage appeared on 20 May 2026 — positioning it, in the bank's own words, for "women who balance it all". It earns 12 YES Rewardz per ₹200 on online fashion, beauty, travel, dining and grocery, 8 per ₹200 on other online spends and 4 per ₹200 offline, with ₹1,000 of welcome vouchers, 5,000 bonus points on ₹50,000 of spend in the first 90 days and 10,000 more at ₹1 lakh of annual spend. The everyday perks are a monthly buy-one-get-one on movie tickets via District (up to ₹250 off the second ticket), a coffee buy-one-get-one, one domestic lounge visit a quarter unlocked by ₹25,000 of prior-quarter spend, and a birthday-month ₹1,000 Myntra voucher plus a complimentary women's health check-up. The fee is ₹799 joining (reversed on ₹20,000 in the first month) and ₹799 renewal (waived at ₹1 lakh of annual spend), though the card opened with a limited-period lifetime-free offer; the forex markup at launch was 2.75%. Because the card is this new, YES Bank's 2024–25 devaluation cycle — the 70%-of-invoice redemption cap, the 3.99% monthly finance charge, the spend-gated lounge rule and the withdrawn over-limit facility — was already baseline on day one rather than something the Essence lost.

Verification: CardAdvisor Research · Confidence: Reconstructed

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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Source: YES Bank Essence Credit Card value timeline — CardAdvisor

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Quick summary

Type Mid credit card

Reward rate 0.4%–0.8%

Best for Online lifestyle shoppers (fashion, beauty, dining, grocery)

Joining fee ₹799

Annual fee ₹799

Reviewed by

Devchandra Sah · Cards tested, miles earned, trips booked — for over a decade

Last verified 7 Aug 2026

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