AU Altura Plus Credit Card Review: 1.5% In-Store Cashback, ₹100 Cap

What Altura Plus costs you

Joining and annual fees are each ₹499, and GST at 18% comes on top, so the real charge is ₹588.82 (₹499 plus ₹89.82 of GST). Add-on cards for family members are free of cost.

Getting the fee waived

In year one, put ₹20,000 of retail spends on the card within 90 days of card set up and AU waive the fee. Miss it and the fee lands in the statement after those 90 days end. The target works out to roughly ₹6,667 a month (₹20,000 over three months).

From the second year, the waiver needs ₹80,000 of retail spends in the previous card anniversary year. Spread across 12 months that is again about ₹6,667 a month, so the same habit which clears year one also keep the card free later. A household putting its pharmacy, clothes and few online orders on this card should reach to it without stretching.

Interest and penalty charges

Carry a balance and AU charges 3.75% a month, which is 45% a year. Late payment costs 15% of the total amount due, with a floor of ₹10 and a ceiling of ₹1,300, and 18% GST on that. On a ₹6,000 bill that is ₹900; the ₹1,300 ceiling only matters once dues pass about ₹8,667 (₹1,300 divided by 15%). Under the RBI's 2025 card Directions a late fee can be charged only when the account is past due for more than three days.

Withdrawing cash costs 2.5% of the amount, with a minimum of ₹500, and interest runs from the day you withdraw till full payment. The cash limit is up to 40% of your card limit. Over-limit use is charged at 2.5% of the amount above the limit, minimum ₹500, and it only happen if you have given explicit consent.

Forex and fair-usage fees

• Spends in a foreign currency carry a 3.49% mark-up.
• Rent within India costs 1% of the transaction, minimum ₹99; rent paid abroad has no charge.
• Utilities attract 1% on your monthly utility total above ₹50,000.
• Fuel, from 1 July 2026: a 1% charge on every rupee of that month's fuel if one fill goes over ₹10,000 or the month's total go over ₹25,000.
• Education paid through third-party apps such as CRED or PhonePe costs 1%, minimum ₹99; there is no fee when you pay the institution itself.
• Transport codes (MCC 4111, 4112 and 4784), from 14 June 2026: 1% on the full month once it crosses 50% of your limit or ₹25,000 (the smaller of the two); IRCTC and certain travel partners are exempt.

A bounced or returned payment is charged at 2% of the total due, or ₹500 if that is more. Xpress EMI carries 1% (minimum ₹99) plus GST, and a card transfer costs ₹199 plus GST.

How Altura Plus rewards add up

There are two tracks. In-store (POS) retail spends earn 1.5% cashback until you collect ₹100 in a statement cycle, and after that each ₹100 spent at a shop earns 1 Reward Point. Online transactions earn 2 Reward Points per ₹100 from the first rupee. Points build in multiples of ₹100, so a ₹450 order gets 8 points (four full ₹100 blocks at 2 points each), not 9.

Utility, telecom and insurance payments get 1 point per ₹100, and utility and telecom stop at 100 points per transaction. The Cardmember Agreement puts a statement-cycle ceiling of 25,000 points, which very few people will ever touch.

Some spends earns nothing at all: cash, rent, education and government, EMI, fuel, BBPS bill payments, quasi-cash, and since 1 April 2026 the transport merchant codes.

Bonus, expiry and redemption

There is no welcome gift. The one bonus is 500 Reward Points in any calendar month where your retail spends reach ₹20,000, with fuel and cash withdrawal not counted. Points live for 2 years after the day they are earn, and AU's MITC lets it forfeit them after 12 months without card use or when you close the card.

The catch is value. AU do not publish what an Altura Plus point is worth, and each successful redemption costs ₹99 plus GST, or ₹116.82. Redeem in one big lot rather than in small bits.

Three worked examples

Each example assume one statement cycle a month and counts the cashback in rupees. Points are shown as points, because without a published value any rupee figure would be a guess.

Light spender: ₹8,000 a month

₹75 is below the ₹100 cap, so all of it gets paid. Over a year that is ₹900 of cashback and 720 points. Yearly spend is ₹96,000, above the ₹80,000 target, so the ₹499 fee is waived and the ₹900 is clear gain.

Typical spender: ₹20,000 a month

At 1.5%, ₹10,000 in store would be ₹150, but the cap stop it at ₹100. The ₹3,333 spent after the cap earns about 33 points. Retail spends are ₹18,000, so the month falls ₹2,000 short of the 500-point bonus, one more purchase of that size would earn it. Over a year: ₹1,200 of cashback, about 2,316 points (193 a month), ₹240 of fuel surcharge back (₹20 a month), and no fee.

Heavy spender: ₹45,000 a month

₹15,000 less the ₹6,667 that earned cashback leaves ₹8,333, or about 83 points, so the month's points are 83 plus 500 plus 50 plus 500, which is 1,133. Cashback still tops out at ₹100, so the year brings ₹1,200 in cash and roughly 13,596 points (1,133 a month). The fee is waived here too. This is where the card show its limit: the more you spend, the more of your reward turns into points of unknown worth.

Eligibility and how to apply

AU's published criteria are short. It accepts salaried applicants between 21 and 60 and self-employed ones between 25 and 65, only resident Indians can apply, and add-on holders need to be over 18. AU does not publish an income figure; its listing page only says minimum monthly income "as specified by the bank", so you finds out where the bar is only after applying.

Documents

• Valid proof of identity
• Valid proof of address
• Valid proof of income

For KYC, the RBI's list of officially valid documents include the passport, driving licence, Aadhaar possession proof, voter ID, NREGA job card and the NPR letter, and the bank also collects PAN or Form 60.

Applying

Use the Apply Now link on the Altura Plus page, which leads to AU's online credit card onboarding portal, and you can track the application status from there itself. For questions, AU's branches and its AU 0101 app can help, and the 24x7 card helpline is 1800 1200 1500.

What AU will look at

The RBI does not set a minimum age or income for credit cards. Its 2025 card Directions ask the bank to judge credit risk on your own independent financial means, and to fix your limit only after adding up what other lenders have already given you, using your declaration or bureau data. A clean repayment record help a lot; Experian India treats scores above 750 as generally good on its 300 to 900 range.

Expect a one-page Key Fact Statement along with the application form, and if AU say no it must give the specific reasons in writing. Whether to approve, and at what limit, is AU's decision alone. An unactivated card can't sit open forever either: after 30 days without activation AU has to seek your consent by OTP, and shut the account at no cost if you don't confirm.

Who should get Altura Plus, and who shouldn't

The person who gains most is somebody spending around ₹6,667 a month in physical shops, the point where the cashback cap is reached. That spend collects the full ₹100 every cycle and, over a year, clears the ₹80,000 waiver as well. For them the card is effectively free and pays ₹1,200 a year in cash, with points on top.

It also works as a first card. The fee is low, the waiver is in reach, and the 8 railway lounge visits are a real perk for train travellers. Very much benefit is there for anyone who takes overnight trains often for work.

Skip it if you mostly shop online. Online spends earn only points, and with no published value and a ₹99 plus GST fee on each redemption, you can't say what they're worth. Skip it too if you fly or travel abroad, since there is no airport lounge and the forex mark-up is 3.49%.

The trade-off is plain. You gets a card that costs nothing once you spend steadily, but its cash reward is boxed in at ₹100 a cycle, a heavy spender outgrows it in the first week of the month. For a wider view of flat-rate options, see our best cashback credit cards and how cashback cards and their caps work.

Altura Plus against similar everyday cards

The comparison table on this tab lists the numbers side by side. Here is how three alternatives play out in daily use.

AU SPONT

The AU SPONT is the sibling to check first. It costs ₹299 plus GST with no waiver, but pays 1% cashback on almost everything, online, in store and on UPI, up to ₹500 a cycle. Someone splitting ₹10,000 in store and ₹8,000 online gets ₹180 a month on SPONT, against ₹100 plus points on Altura Plus. SPONT also gives 2 domestic airport lounge visits a quarter after ₹50,000 of spend in the previous quarter.

AU LIT

The AU LIT is lifetime free, and its features are bought in 90-day blocks priced from ₹49 to ₹399. Want 5% grocery cashback, for example, it costs ₹299 a quarter and is capped at ₹500 per 30 days. A better deal for a big grocery bill but more work to manage.

HDFC MoneyBack+

The HDFC MoneyBack+ charges ₹500 plus GST, waived on ₹50,000 of yearly spend, a lower bar than the ₹80,000 on Altura Plus. It gives 10X CashPoints at Amazon, BigBasket, Flipkart, Reliance Smart and Swiggy, up to 2,500 CashPoints a calendar month, which is ₹500 at the 20 paise statement value (2,500 times ₹0.20). It has no lounge either.

Which to pick

Pick Altura Plus if you shop in stores and want the fee gone. Pick SPONT if you pay by UPI a lot, LIT if you will manage features every quarter, and MoneyBack+ if most of your spending happen on those five online merchants. All four carry a forex mark-up of at least 3.49%, so none suits foreign trips. Our credit cards hub lists more options by need.