Platinum Advantage Credit Card

A month on ₹499 of fees

This is RBL Bank's Platinum Advantage, a ₹499 + GST card. It is not the US "AAdvantage Platinum Select" airline card and not an Axis Bank card.

Here is what a fairly good month looks like on it:

• One BookMyShow booking of ₹600: 20% off is ₹120, but the discount stops at ₹100 per transaction, so you save ₹100.
• ₹6,000 of fuel in three fills of ₹2,000: the surcharge is waived, worth about ₹60 at the usual 1%.
• ₹15,000 of other eligible spends: 150 reward points, worth roughly ₹16 to ₹37.

That is about ₹180 back in the month. Almost all of it comes from the movie and fuel perks. The points barely move the needle.

Why the points hardly count

The card earns 1 reward point per ₹100. RBL does not state a point value on this card's page, but its sibling Platinum cards value points at ₹0.11 to ₹0.25. So ₹1 lakh of spend in a year earns 1,000 points, worth about ₹110 to ₹250.

The exclusion list is long, too. Utilities, rent, insurance, education, wallet loads, fuel, government payments, EMI and cash earn nothing. The bank's "annual rewards worth ₹3,075+" headline adds up the welcome points, movie discounts and fuel waiver. It is not the earn rate.

Where the ₹499 comes back

The two perks that matter both have limits:

• BookMyShow: 20% off, up to ₹100 per booking, 15 times a year. Best case, ₹1,500 a year.
• Fuel: surcharge waiver up to ₹100 a month, on fills between ₹500 and ₹4,000. Small two-wheeler top-ups under ₹500 do not qualify.

With GST, the fee is about ₹589. You break even with roughly 6 movie bookings of ₹500 or more a year, or about ₹5,000 of fuel a month. The 2,000 welcome points (RBL values them at up to ₹300) come only if you pay the fee and spend ₹2,000 in the first 30 days. Cards issued first-year-free get none.

The ₹99 cost of redeeming

RBL charges ₹99 + GST on each day you redeem points. On 2,000 points worth about ₹300, the fee takes roughly ₹117. Redeem 500 points at a time and the fee is bigger than the reward. Save up and redeem once or twice a year.

There is also no spend-based fee waiver on RBL's current page. Older listings mention a ₹1 lakh waiver, but do not count on it. If you want online rewards and a waiver, the RBL Platinum Choice costs the same and reverses the fee at ₹50,000 of spend. For groceries, look at Platinum ShopSmart.

Is Platinum Advantage worth ₹499?

Only if you book movies on BookMyShow and fill fuel in ₹500 to ₹4,000 amounts most months. Then the perks cover the fee with some left over.

If you want a card that rewards everyday spending, this is not it. We also have no real user reviews of this exact card yet, so treat this as a reading of RBL's terms, not of anyone's experience. More on the issuer in our RBL Bank guide.

Credit Card Information Compiled by: Abhijeet Kumar | Reviewed by: Anmol Ratan Sachdeva