HSBC TravelOne Credit Card

Only if you'll use the airport lounge visits and can meet the fee waiver; the bank doesn't publish what its rewards are worth. The catch: earns nothing on fuel, insurance, wallet loads, rent, utility bills and government payments.

No. It costs ₹4,999 to join and ₹4,999 a year, plus GST. The ₹4,999 joining fee is not waived. The ₹4,999 annual fee is refunded in full, with GST, if you spend more than ₹8,00,000 in the card year across your main and add-on cards. HSBC's product page says the annual fee starts after the first year, but its card guide also lists an annual fee for the first year, so ask HSBC what you will pay in year one.

No. Only RuPay credit cards can be linked to UPI, and this isn't one.

6 domestic and 4 international airport lounge visits a year; no spend condition is published. HSBC does not say whether add-on cardholders share these visits.

No points on fuel, utility bills (electricity, gas, water), rent and property payments, insurance, school and college fees, government and tax payments, wallet loads, jewellery, money transfers, cash advances and quasi-cash, bail payments, card fees, disputed transactions, or purchases converted to EMI at checkout. Rent payments also carry a 1% fee. Points are counted on each ₹50 you spend, with the remainder carried to your next purchase. Paying in rupees at a foreign merchant (when the shop converts the currency for you) does not get the higher foreign-currency rate. Hotels booked directly earn the normal 2 points per ₹100, not 4. HSBC goes by the merchant's category code.

The extra points on airlines, travel booking sites and foreign-currency spends stop after 50,000 bonus points in a calendar month, which takes about ₹25 lakh of such spend; after that these spends earn the normal 2 points per ₹100. One clause in HSBC's card guide gives 15,000 instead of 50,000.

The bank publishes a minimum income of ₹50,000 a month for salaried applicants. Self-employed people can apply: Income of at least ₹12 lakh a year; age 25-65; resident in one of HSBC's 21 listed cities. Salaried: age 18 to 65, income at least ₹6 lakh a year. Self-employed: age 25 to 65, income at least ₹12 lakh a year. You must be an Indian resident living in one of 21 cities: Ahmedabad, Amritsar, Baroda, Bengaluru, Chandigarh, Chennai, Coimbatore, Delhi NCR, Gurgaon, Hyderabad, Indore, Jaipur, Kochi, Kolkata, Lucknow, Mumbai, Nagpur, Noida, Pune, Surat or Trivandrum. Approval is at HSBC's discretion. Approval is at the bank's discretion.