2AAxis BankACE₹499/yr · IN

gold and silver round coins — Photo: Miles Burke / Unsplash

Cash Back · India

Axis Bank ACE Credit Card

4.6 / 5 editorial score

A flat-cashback favorite that shines for bill payments. You earn 5% back on utility bills, mobile recharges and DTH via Google Pay, 4% on Swiggy, Zomato and Ola, and an uncapped 1.5% on everything else. Simple and rewarding.

#2 of 8 · Cash Back · India #4 of 34 · All India cards

Annual fee₹499/yr

IssuerAxis Bank

NetworkVisa

Welcome offerNo fixed welcome bonus; value comes from ongoing cashback

Interest rate3.75% a month (55.55% a year), per…

Foreign fee3.5% markup on foreign currenc…

Who qualifiesGood

Why it ranks

Best-in-class cashback on utility bill payments
Uncapped 1.5% on other eligible spends
Lounge access at a low fee, on ₹50,000 spend in the previous 3 months
Cashback is automatic and simple

What holds it back

5% and 4% categories share one ₹500 cap per statement
High forex markup for international spends
Bill cashback requires using Google Pay

All India rankings

Advertiser disclosure: we may be paid if you apply through our links. Ratings are editorial. Confirm today's terms on the issuer's site — offers change.

Our verdict

Why the Axis Bank ACE Credit Card ranks where it does

ACE is a good bills-and-food card that was once a great all-rounder. It still pays 5% on electricity, water, gas, LPG, broadband, DTH and mobile recharges made through Google Pay, and 4% on Swiggy, Zomato and Ola, but those two categories now share a ₹500 cap per statement. Since April 2024 the rate on everything else is 1.5%, not the 2% many reviews still quote.

The cap defines who should use it. ₹500 is reached with roughly ₹10,000 to ₹12,500 a month across the bonus categories, so a household paying ₹4,000 in bills and ordering ₹4,000 of food stays inside it and collects the full rate. Beyond that, ACE becomes a 1.5% card, which is fine but not special.

The fee is ₹499, waived on ₹2 lakh of annual spend, about ₹16,700 a month. Exclusions matter: fuel, rent, wallet loads, insurance, education, jewellery, EMI purchases and utility payments made outside Google Pay earn nothing. Android users who already pay bills in Google Pay get the most from it; iPhone users miss the 5% route entirely, because Axis applies the bill-payment rate only to Google Pay on Android.

Good fit if

Android users who pay utility bills and recharges through Google Pay
Regular Swiggy, Zomato and Ola users
People who want cashback credited straight to the statement

Skip it if

iPhone users, who cannot earn the 5% bill-payment rate
Big spenders whose bonus-category spend is far above ₹12,500 a month

Worked example

Assume ₹4,000 a month of bills and recharges through Google Pay, ₹4,000 on Swiggy, Zomato and Ola, and ₹20,000 of other eligible spends. Bills earn 5% (₹200) and food and rides 4% (₹160), together ₹360, inside the ₹500 cap. Other spends earn 1.5%, or ₹300. That is ₹660 a month, ₹7,920 a year. Annual spend of ₹3.36 lakh clears the ₹2 lakh waiver, so no fee is charged. Cashback is credited to the statement, so we count it at face value with no conversion.

How it stacks up

The Cashback SBI Card suits people whose spending is mostly online shopping rather than bills: 5% online up to ₹2,000 a statement, but no cashback on utilities. The HDFC Millennia covers Amazon, Flipkart, Swiggy and Zomato at 5% with separate monthly caps, and pays 1% elsewhere against ACE's 1.5%. ACE remains the better choice when utility bills are the biggest monthly outgoing.