RuPay Wave Credit Card

Wave in three lines

• Federal Bank's RuPay Wave is a lifetime-free floater card that puts your existing Federal credit card's limit onto UPI.
• It earns 1 reward point per ₹200, plus 1,000 bonus points if you spend ₹50,000 in a quarter.
• It has its own statement and its own due date, which is the part people forget.

This is not the UNI NX Wave card that UNI issued with YES Bank and later SBM, which users report has shut down. Most Reddit threads about "Wave", including the zero-forex stories, are about that card. One note on our data: Federal Bank's site blocked our October 2026 check, so the figures here come from our card record. Confirm them on your offer.

One limit, two bills

Wave does not give you new credit. It shares the limit of your primary Federal Bank card. If your primary card has a ₹1 lakh limit and you spend ₹20,000 through Wave, you have ₹80,000 left across both cards.

The billing is separate, though. Wave gets its own statement, and paying your primary card does not pay Wave. A missed Wave payment is a late payment in its own right and can hurt your credit score, so set up a separate autopay or reminder the day the card arrives.

The reason the card exists is simple. In India, only RuPay credit cards work on UPI. Wave lets your Federal credit line pay by QR code while your main card stays on Visa or Mastercard.

Where the points come from

At 1 point per ₹200, everyday earning is thin. ₹10,000 of UPI spends in a month earns 50 points. Our record does not state what a point is worth, so we do not give a percentage.

Most of the value sits in the quarterly milestone. Spend ₹50,000 in a quarter, about ₹16,700 a month, and you get 1,000 bonus points. Our record does not say which spends count toward it.

The welcome offer is also small, and our record holds two versions of it. One says 10% back on your first 5 UPI payments within 30 days, up to ₹200. Another says 10% on the first UPI payment of ₹150 or more, up to ₹100. Check which one your welcome letter shows.

When UPI registration fails

Four threads in the sentiment report describe errors when adding a Federal RuPay card to a UPI app, such as "invalid details" or "new registrations disabled". Things to try: use the mobile number registered with Federal Bank, update the UPI app, choose Federal Bank as the issuer and retry later. If it still fails, contact Federal Bank directly, and never share your CVV, PIN or OTP with anyone who calls offering to help.

Some users also say a growing number of small merchants decline credit cards on UPI, which limits how often you can use it.

Is Wave worth adding?

If you already hold a Federal Bank credit card, yes. It costs nothing and gets your credit line onto UPI for small QR payments. Just treat the separate bill as seriously as your main one.

It is not a card to earn on. No lounge benefit is listed for it, despite what some listings say. Users who want real UPI rewards prefer the Tata Neu Infinity HDFC Bank card. If you want a standalone Federal RuPay card, look at the Federal RuPay Signet. More free options are in our lifetime free credit card guide.

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