Club Vistara SBI Card Review 2026: 1.5% Flat Including Fuel, and What Was Withdrawn in 2025
Club Vistara SBI Card costs ₹1,499 and pays a flat 1.5% on all retail categories — including fuel, which no other SBI card does. But renewal benefits were withdrawn in April 2025 and there is no welcome bonus. Full maths, fees and FAQs.
The Club Vistara SBI Card does something no other SBI card does: it earns on fuel. The rate is a flat 1.5% on every retail category, with no accelerated bands, no caps and nothing to track.
It is also a card in run-off. SBI restructured it on 1 April 2025 and withdrew the renewal benefits, so the current product is thinner than pre-2025 reviews describe. Vistara has since merged into Air India, and redemption now runs through the Air India Maharaja Points page.
Club Vistara SBI Card Quick Overview
| **Card type** | Airline co-brand, post-restructuring |
|---|---|
| **Best for** | Fuel-heavy spenders who will actually redeem on Air India |
| **Joining / annual fee** | ₹1,499 + GST, same on renewal — **no spend-based waiver** |
| **Network** | Visa, Mastercard or RuPay |
| **Reward rate** | **1.5% flat** — 3 Club Vistara Points per ₹200, **including fuel** |
| **Accelerated categories** | **None** |
| **CV Point value used here** | **₹1** — but see the caveat |
| **Welcome benefit** | **None** |
| **Renewal benefit** | **Withdrawn** for renewals on or after 1 April 2025 |
| **Milestone** | ₹5,000 Yatra hotel e-voucher at ₹5 lakh annual spend |
| **Lounge access** | 4 domestic a year |
| **Insurance** | Three covers, headed by ₹1 lakh lost-card liability |
Eligibility Criteria
SBI Card publishes no age or income threshold. Approval rests on its own assessment. Indian residency and a valid PAN are required. Add-on cards are free.
What Was Withdrawn on 1 April 2025
Read this before comparing against an older review. SBI restructured the Club Vistara cards and the current page is largely a record of what was removed:
- Renewal benefits are withdrawn for cards renewing on or after 1 April 2025. Only cardholders whose renewal date precedes the cut-off can still avail them.
- No quantified welcome benefit appears on the current pages.
- On the PRIME variant, the premium-economy ticket milestones were discontinued too.
What remains is the earn rate, one milestone, four lounge visits and three insurance covers. A 2024 review of this card describes a different product.
It Earns on Fuel — And That Is the Point
SBI's wording is explicit: the rate applies "on all retail categories, including fuel".
Every other SBI card excludes fuel outright — MCCs 5172, 5541, 5542 and 5983 are cut from the rewards programme across the range. The Club Vistara cards are the exception in the whole dataset.
At 1.5% on fuel that matters for anyone with a real monthly fuel bill. The trade-off: no fuel surcharge waiver is published, so the 1% surcharge every Indian fuel transaction attracts is not reversed. Net you are 0.5% ahead on fuel — modest, but better than the 0% every other SBI card gives you, where the surcharge waiver is the entire benefit.
An Important Caveat on What the Points Are Worth
Every rupee figure here uses ₹1 per Club Vistara Point, and that needs a warning.
SBI publishes no rupee value for this currency. It states only that CV Points redeem "on Air India and Partner Airlines" through the Maharaja Points page, with no rupee equivalence anywhere. ₹1 is a working valuation, not a transcription.
There is a further wrinkle: Vistara has merged into Air India, and CV Points now map onto Maharaja Points, whose value Air India also does not publish for this purpose. Air India sells Maharaja Points at roughly ₹1.50 each — which hints that ₹1 may be conservative — but a sale price is not a redemption value.
Treat the percentages below as an estimate.
Reward Structure
| Spend | CV Points | Effective rate at ₹1 |
|---|---|---|
| **All retail categories, including fuel** | 3 per ₹200 | **1.5%** |
| Cash advances | Nil | **0%** |
That is the whole structure. No accelerated category — not for flights, not for travel, not for dining. A flat 1.5% on everything.
No cap is published.
Note the ₹200 denominator: 3 points per ₹200 is 1.5 per ₹100, and accrual rounds down to complete ₹200 blocks on each transaction. A ₹350 purchase earns on ₹200.
The Milestone
A hotel e-voucher from Yatra worth ₹5,000 at ₹5,00,000 of annual spend.
One rung, set at about ₹42,000 a month. At that level the voucher is worth 1% on the threshold — and it is the only milestone the card has after the April 2025 restructuring.
Lounge Access and Insurance
4 complimentary domestic lounge visits a year, subject to a quarterly maximum SBI does not quantify on the captured pages. There is no international lounge access.
Insurance — three covers:
| Cover | Amount |
|---|---|
| **Lost card liability** | ₹1,00,000 |
| **Loss of checked-in baggage** | ₹72,000 |
| **Flight cancellation** | ₹3,500 **per cancellation**, up to 4 a year |
The flight cancellation figure is a per-cancellation limit, not an annual total.
Worked Example
Illustrative, at ₹35,000 a month — ₹4.2 lakh a year, short of the ₹5 lakh milestone:
| Category | Monthly spend | Rate | Value |
|---|---|---|---|
| **Fuel** | ₹5,000 | **1.5%** | ₹75 |
| Everything else | ₹30,000 | 1.5% | ₹450 |
| **Monthly total** | **₹35,000** | **₹525 — 1.5%** |
Annual tally:
| CV Points earned | ₹6,300 |
|---|---|
| Milestone (₹4.2 lakh is short of ₹5 lakh) | ₹0 |
| Welcome / renewal benefit | **₹0 — withdrawn** |
| **Total** | **₹6,300** |
| Annual fee | **₹1,499** (never waived) |
| **Net** | **₹4,801 — 1.14% of spend** |
Plus 4 domestic lounge visits and three insurance covers.
Push to ₹5 lakh and the milestone adds ₹5,000, taking the net to ₹9,501 — 1.9% of spend. The ₹80,000 of marginal spend needed to reach it returns ₹5,000, an effective 6.25% on that stretch. Worth planning around if you are close.
Where You Won't Earn
| Excluded | Note |
|---|---|
| **Cash advances** | 2.5% fee, minimum ₹500, interest from day one |
That is the only exclusion. Fuel is not excluded, which is the card's defining feature. No fuel surcharge waiver is published either.
SBI's range-wide transaction fees still apply: ₹199 per rent payment, 1% on wallet loads above ₹1,000, 1% on utility payments once the cycle total passes ₹50,000, and 1% on education payments through third-party apps.
Fees and Charges
| Charge | Amount |
|---|---|
| Joining fee | ₹1,499 + GST |
| Renewal fee | ₹1,499 + GST — **no spend-based reversal at any level** |
| Add-on card fee | Nil |
| Finance charge | 3.75% per month — **45% per annum** |
| Interest-free period | 20 to 50 days; none if any part of last month's bill is unpaid |
| Forex markup | 3.5% |
| Cash advance fee | 2.5%, minimum ₹500 |
| Fuel surcharge | **Not reversed** — but fuel does earn 1.5% |
| Late payment | ₹100 to ₹1,300 by balance |
| Overlimit | 2.5%, minimum ₹600 |
| GST | 18% on all of the above |
Standard vs Club Vistara SBI Card PRIME
| **Club Vistara SBI Card** | Club Vistara SBI Card PRIME | |
|---|---|---|
| Annual fee | ₹1,499 | ₹2,999 |
| Reward rate | 3 CV Points per ₹200 — **1.5%** | 4 per ₹200 — **2%** |
| Fuel earns | Yes | Yes |
| Milestone | ₹5,000 Yatra voucher at ₹5 lakh | ₹10,000 Yatra voucher at ₹8 lakh |
| Domestic lounge | 4 a year | **8 a year** |
| International lounge | **None** | Included |
| Flight cancellations covered | 4 a year | 6 a year |
| Fee waiver | None | None |
Break-even on the ₹1,500 fee difference is ₹1,500 ÷ 0.5% = ₹3,00,000 of annual spend. Above that the PRIME's higher rate repays the gap and its doubled lounges are a bonus; below it, this card is the better buy — and its ₹5 lakh milestone is far more reachable than the PRIME's ₹8 lakh.
Is the Club Vistara SBI Card Worth It?
Yes, if fuel is a significant line in your budget. 1.5% on fuel where every other SBI card pays nothing is a genuine differentiator, even without the surcharge waiver.
Yes, if you want simplicity. A flat, uncapped 1.5% on every category, with no MCC groups to learn and no caps to track, is rare and quietly valuable.
Only if you will redeem on Air India. CV Points have no cash or catalogue exit. They go to Air India and its partners, or nowhere. If you do not fly Air India, the rate is notional.
Know what you are buying. The renewal benefit was withdrawn on 1 April 2025. There is no welcome bonus. What is left is the earn rate, one milestone, four lounge visits and three insurance covers.
No, if you want a rewards card. With no accelerated categories and no fee waiver, a flat 1.5% against a ₹1,499 fee needs ₹1 lakh of spend just to break even.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the annual fee of the Club Vistara SBI Card? ₹1,499 plus GST, on joining and renewal. No spend-based fee reversal is published at any level.
What is the reward rate? A flat 3 Club Vistara Points per ₹200 — 1.5% at ₹1 a point — on all retail categories including fuel. There is no accelerated category and no published cap.
Does the card really earn on fuel? Yes. SBI's wording is "on all retail categories, including fuel", and this is one of only two cards in this dataset that does. Note that no fuel surcharge waiver is published, so the 1% surcharge is not reversed — leaving you about 0.5% net ahead on fuel.
What was withdrawn in April 2025? Renewal benefits, for cards renewing on or after 1 April 2025. Only cardholders whose renewal date precedes the cut-off can still avail them. There is also no quantified welcome benefit on the current pages.
What is a Club Vistara Point worth? SBI publishes no rupee value. ₹1 is the working valuation used here. Since Vistara merged into Air India, CV Points redeem through the Air India Maharaja Points page; Air India sells Maharaja Points at about ₹1.50 each, which suggests ₹1 may be conservative.
Where can I redeem? On Air India and its partner airlines, through the Air India Maharaja Points redemption page. There is no cash or catalogue channel.
What is the milestone benefit? A Yatra hotel e-voucher worth ₹5,000 at ₹5,00,000 of annual spend — the only milestone on the card.
Does it have lounge access? Four complimentary domestic visits a year, subject to a quarterly maximum SBI does not quantify. There is no international lounge access; the PRIME variant adds it.
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