IDFC FIRST Select Credit Card Review 2026: Lifetime Free, 10X Rewards and Zero Forex — but Check the
IDFC FIRST Select is lifetime free with zero forex markup and 10X on dining, travel and international spends. But 1X is per ₹200, not ₹150, and two rules changed in June 2026.
IDFC FIRST Select is lifetime free and carries zero foreign currency markup — two things that rarely appear on the same card.
It pays 10X Reward Points on dining, travel and international spends, and on spends made on your birthday. There is a detail in how that 10X is calculated that materially changes what it is worth.
Select adds complimentary domestic lounge access at no annual cost, which is unusual on a lifetime-free card.
IDFC FIRST Select Credit Card Quick Overview
| **Card type** | Mid-tier lifetime-free rewards card |
|---|---|
| **Best for** | Someone who wants free lounge access at no annual cost |
| **Joining / renewal fee** | Nil, same on renewal |
| **Network** | Visa |
| **Base reward rate** | **0.12%** |
| **Top reward rate** | **1.25%** — dining |
| **Reward currency** | IDFC FIRST Reward Points, valued at ₹0.25 each |
| **Lounge access** | 2 domestic visits per quarter (8 a year) |
| **Forex markup** | 0.0% |
Reward Structure: How You Earn
IDFC FIRST Reward Points are worth ₹0.25 each for gift vouchers and products. The bank prints that figure on every card page in the range — it appears in those exact words more than sixty times across its published material.
Four cards redeem better on travel booked inside IDFC's own app: FIRST Private at ₹1.00, Mayura and FIRST WOW! Black at ₹0.50, and Ashva at ₹0.40. That channel covers hotel and flight bookings only, so it cannot be applied to ordinary spending. Every percentage in this review uses ₹0.25.
10X on dining, travel and international spends, and on birthday spends — 1.25% at the ₹0.25 rate.
3X on other eligible categories — 0.38%.
1X on insurance, utilities, railways and FASTag — 0.13%.
| Spend | Effective rate |
|---|---|
| dining | **1.25%** |
| travel | **1.25%** |
| Everything else | 0.12% |
| Fuel, rent, wallet loads, government, gaming | **0%** |
The earning block is ₹200, not ₹150
This is the detail to understand. On Select, 1X means 1 Reward Point per ₹200 spent. On most of IDFC's range — Ashva, Mayura, Diamond Reserve, FIRST Private, the HPCL cards, the LIC cards — 1X means 1 point per ₹150.
The multiplier looks identical and the money is not:
| Per ₹150 card | Per ₹200 card | |
|---|---|---|
| 10X band | 1.67% | **1.25%** |
| 3X band | 0.50% | 0.38% |
| 1X floor | 0.17% | 0.13% |
Classic, Millennia, Select, Wealth and Business Multiplier are the five cards on the ₹200 block. Everything else in IDFC's range uses ₹150.
Two rules changed on 18 June 2026, and both cut value
1. Reward Points now expire. Points earned from the July 2026 statement cycle are valid for 24 months from the date they are credited. IDFC's older marketing says points 'never expire' and several of its pages still carry that claim — it is out of date.
2. Points are earned only on spends up to your credit limit in a billing cycle. Spend beyond your limit in the same cycle and that spending earns nothing.
The second rule is unusual, and this dataset has not seen it at any other Indian issuer. It bites hardest on someone with a modest limit who pays down mid-cycle and spends again — precisely the behaviour that lets a cardholder transact more than their limit in a month.
Zero forex markup, across the whole range
IDFC FIRST charges no foreign currency markup. Not on a premium tier — across the range. The card pages carry the banner 'All IDFC FIRST Bank Credit Cards now come with Zero Forex Markup', and the MITC's charges table records NIL for foreign currency transactions and for dynamic and static currency conversion alike.
Set against the 3.5% most Indian issuers charge, that is ₹3,500 saved on every ₹1,00,000 spent abroad. The only exception in IDFC's range is the Micro Enterprise Credit Card, at 2%.
Cash withdrawals are interest-free for 45 days
This is worth stating plainly because almost nobody else does it. IDFC charges a flat ₹199 + GST per cash withdrawal and 0% interest for up to 45 days.
Almost every other issuer in this dataset charges 2.5% of the amount with a ₹500 floor and accrues interest from the withdrawal date with no grace period. On a ₹20,000 withdrawal repaid within the grace window, IDFC costs ₹199 where a typical competitor costs about ₹500 plus a month's interest.
IDFC charges ₹99 per redemption transaction — 396 Reward Points at the ₹0.25 rate. Redeeming small balances destroys most of their value.
What this review cannot tell you about charges
IDFC's MITC is a scanned image. The document runs to 30 pages and 29 of them contain no extractable text at all. Only page 4, the charges table, could be read.
That page does give the redemption fee, the card replacement schedule, and nil entries for branch cash payments, outstation cheques, duplicate statements and charge slips. The APR range, the zero-forex position and the cash withdrawal terms come from summary text IDFC quotes on its card pages.
Still unknown: the late payment charge amount, the over-limit charge, the minimum amount due formula and the interest-free period. Those are absent from the readable sources — not zero.
The interest rate is a range, not a rate. IDFC publishes 'From 8.5% - 46.2% per annum' and sets it per customer. The bottom of that range is among the lowest credit card APRs in India; the top is higher than most issuers' flat rate. Which one you get is not predictable.
Category Restrictions: Where You Won't Earn
- Where you earn nothing: Fuel and cash withdrawals earn no Reward Points.
- Point expiry: 24 months from the date the points are credited, for points earned from the July 2026 statement cycle onwards — a rule introduced on 18 June 2026. IDFC's older marketing says points never expire and several pages in this corpus still carry that claim; it is stale.
- Redemption fee: ₹99 per redemption.
Fees and Charges
| Charge | Amount |
|---|---|
| Joining fee | Nil |
| Renewal fee | Nil |
| Finance charges | Set per customer within an APR range of 8.5% to 46.2% per annum, per IDFC's MITC summary. That is roughly 0.71% to 3.85% a month. IDFC prices this card dynamically rather than applying one rate to all holders. |
| Cash advance fee | ₹199 + GST per transaction, flat — not a percentage of the amount withdrawn. |
| Cash advance interest | 0% for up to 45 days. IDFC does not accrue interest on cash withdrawals during the interest-free window, which almost no other issuer in this dataset offers — most charge interest from the withdrawal date. |
| Forex markup | Nil. IDFC FIRST applies zero markup on foreign currency transactions and on dynamic and static currency conversion transactions, across the range. The Micro Enterprise Credit Card is the exception at 2%. |
| Dynamic currency conversion | Nil — the MITC's charges table covers dynamic and static currency conversion under the same nil markup entry as foreign currency transactions. |
| Late payment | Applicable on the Total Amount Due. THE AMOUNT IS NOT READABLE — it sits in the scanned portion of IDFC's MITC. Not published in the sources read, never zero. |
| Card replacement | ₹199 for all credit cards including image-personalised cards, with four exceptions: Ashva Metal ₹1,500, Mayura Metal ₹3,500, Gaj ₹4,000 and FIRST Private ₹4,000. The FIRST Digital RuPay card is nil. |
| Reward redemption | ₹99 per redemption transaction — 396 Reward Points at the ₹0.25 rate. |
| EMI processing | Processing fees, interest, foreclosure fee and pro-rata interest on instalment products are communicated at the time of the transaction or conversion rather than published in advance. A one-time Pre-EMI interest is also charged for the days between disbursal or conversion and the first statement. |
| GST | 18% on all fees and charges. |
Is the IDFC FIRST Select Credit Card Worth It?
The reason to hold this card is cost, not earning. Lifetime free with zero forex markup and interest-free cash withdrawals is a genuinely strong package at ₹0 a year. The 0.13% base rate is not.
Concentrate dining, travel and international spending here and use something else for ordinary purchases — the gap between the 10X band at 1.25% and the 1X floor at 0.13% is tenfold.
Insurance, utilities, railways and FASTag earn almost nothing — 0.13%. IDFC treats these as low-margin across its whole range.
For foreign spending this card is hard to beat at any price. Zero markup on a free card means ₹1,00,000 spent abroad costs ₹1,00,000. Select adds lounge access to the same engine.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Is the IDFC FIRST Select Credit Card really lifetime free? Yes — no joining fee and no annual fee, with no spend condition attached.
What does 10X mean on the IDFC FIRST Select? 10 Reward Points per ₹200 spent, which is 1.25% at IDFC's published ₹0.25 redemption rate. Note that 1X on this card is per ₹200, where most of IDFC's range uses ₹150 — so the same 10X label is worth a third less here than on Ashva or Diamond Reserve.
What is an IDFC FIRST Reward Point worth? ₹0.25 for gift vouchers and products, which IDFC publishes on every card page. Four cards redeem better on travel booked inside the IDFC FIRST Bank app — FIRST Private at ₹1.00, Mayura and FIRST WOW! Black at ₹0.50, and Ashva at ₹0.40.
Do IDFC FIRST reward points expire? Yes, since 18 June 2026. Points earned from the July 2026 statement cycle are valid for 24 months from the date they are credited. IDFC's older marketing describing points as never expiring is out of date.
What is the forex markup on IDFC FIRST credit cards? Zero, across the range. The only exception is the Micro Enterprise Credit Card at 2%.
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