AU Bank LIT vs OneCard One Credit Card: Two Free Cards, Different Rules

No annual fee, but the small charges differ

AU's MITC lists LIT as lifetime free, and all six OneCard issuers' KFS show nil joining and nil annual fee with no minimum spend. The money is in the extras. On LIT every benefit beyond base points is a paid feature for 90 days, and AU's schedule puts 18% GST on all fees, so a ₹299 feature really costs ₹352.82 (₹299 plus ₹53.82). Features renews on their own unless you switch them off in the AU 0101 app.

Watch the memberships. Take Amazon Prime and fail to spend ₹10,000 in the 90 days, and AU charge a ₹299 plus GST penalty; for ZEE5 the bar is ₹5,000 and the penalty ₹50 plus GST.

On OneCard the add-on plastic card is free, but a add-on metal card costs ₹3,000, and closing the primary card within 6 months of activating the virtual card costs ₹3,000 for metal or ₹500 for plastic. Its other charges depend on the partner bank you choose in the app, so check that bank's figures before you pick.

An example shows the late fees in action. Miss the minimum on a ₹5,000 bill and LIT takes 15%, which is ₹750, plus 18% GST, so ₹885. On OneCard the same bill falls in the ₹1,001 to ₹5,000 slab: ₹500 plus GST with Federal, SBM, CSB, SIB or Indian Bank, ₹700 plus GST with BOBCARD.

LIT also carry newer usage fees: 1% on utility bills above ₹50,000 a month, 1% on education paid through third-party apps (minimum ₹99), and from 1 July 2026 a 1% fuel fee when a single fill reaches ₹10,000 and the month's fuel reaches ₹25,000. OneCard gives an interest-free period of up to 48 days, with the due date 18 days after the statement.

Cashback you buy against points you get free

LIT's base earn is 1 Reward Point per ₹100, up to 10,000 points a statement cycle, and AU doesn't publish what a point is worth on AU Rewardz. Points last 2 years from accrual, and every redemption costs ₹99 plus GST. Pay ₹199 for 5X or ₹299 for 10X and the rate become 5 or 10 points per ₹100, on your choice of online or offline spends.

The cashback features pay rupees: 5% on groceries or on apparel, or a 5% milestone cashback on retail spends, each held to ₹500 per 30-day cycle by AU's T&C and credited 5 days after the cycle ends. The milestone threshold is where AU's documents disagrees. The card page says 5% needs ₹10,000 of spends in 30 days and 2% needs ₹15,000; the product guide says ₹7,500 and ₹10,000. Fuel, rent, EMI, BBPS bill payments, education and government payments earn nothing on LIT, and utilities get 1 point per ₹100, capped at 100 a transaction.

OneCard gives 1 point on every ₹50, with fractions on smaller amounts (₹25 earns 0.5). Each month your top 2 spend categories earn 5 points per ₹50, provided you spent at least ₹750 in each of at least 3 categories, and the extra points arrives on the 10th of the next month. No cap is stated on the 5X. Rent, fuel, cash, wallet loads, money transfers and, from 15 July 2026, bills and utilities earn nothing.

OneCard's points don't expire and there's no redemption fee; you pay with points on transactions under two months old or use in-app offers. They are wiped, though, if the card lie unused for more than 365 days. The awkward part is the same on both cards: no OneCard issuer publishes the rupee value of a point, and AU doesn't publish LIT's. So below, LIT's cashback is in rupees and both cards' points are counted as points.

Three spenders, both cards

For LIT we use one feature at a time, since AU's pages don't say whether cashback features stack, and count 12 cycles of 30 days and 4 periods of 90 days (360 days). Bills are paid through BBPS, which earns nothing on LIT and, from 15 July 2026, nothing on OneCard.

• Light: LIT pays 5% of ₹5,000 of groceries, ₹250 a cycle or ₹3,000 a year, and four features at ₹352.82 cost ₹1,411.28, leaving ₹1,588.72. Base points are 90 a month (₹9,000 of non-bill spends at 1 per ₹100), 1,080 a year. OneCard's top two are groceries and dining, ₹7,000 at 5 per ₹50 for 700 points, and shopping adds 40 (₹2,000 divided by 50): 740 a month, 8,880 a year. That is 7,800 more points than LIT (8,880 minus 1,080), so if a point were worth the same on both, OneCard only draws level at about 20 paise a point (₹1,588.72 divided by 7,800).
• Typical: 5% of the ₹23,000 of non-bill spends (₹25,000 minus ₹2,000 of bills) would be ₹1,150, but the cap hold it at ₹500 a cycle, so ₹6,000 a year (₹500 times 12) and ₹4,588.72 after features (₹6,000 minus ₹1,411.28). Base points are 230 a month (₹23,000 at 1 per ₹100), 2,760 a year. OneCard's top two, shopping and groceries, make ₹16,000 at 5 per ₹50, which is 1,600 points, and the other ₹7,000 adds 140 (₹7,000 divided by 50): 1,740 a month, 20,880 a year. The gap is 18,120 points (20,880 minus 2,760), so the break-even is about 25 paise (₹4,588.72 divided by 18,120).
• Heavy: the same ₹500 cap means LIT pays exactly what it paid the typical spender, even on ₹46,000 of non-bill spends (₹50,000 minus ₹4,000). Base points are 460 a month (₹46,000 at 1 per ₹100), 5,520 a year. OneCard's shopping and groceries, ₹30,000, earn 3,000 points and the other ₹16,000 earns 320 (₹16,000 divided by 50): 3,320 a month, 39,840 a year. The gap is 34,320 points (39,840 minus 5,520), and the break-even drops to about 13 paise (₹4,588.72 divided by 34,320).

So the more you spend, the further OneCard's uncapped 5X pulls ahead while LIT's ₹500 ceiling stays flat. LIT's figures are rupees in hand; OneCard's points is worth whatever its issuers will one day say, and today they say nothing.

Forex, fuel, lounges and cover

Abroad, OneCard is much cheaper. Every issuer's KFS puts its markup at 1%, while LIT charges 3.49%. On a ₹50,000 trip that's ₹500 on OneCard against ₹1,745 on LIT (3.49% of ₹50,000), a gap of ₹1,245 (₹1,745 minus ₹500). OneCard's fees page also talk about cutting it to 0% with a Forex Pass, but the KFS documents say 1%, so that is the figure we use.

Fuel is a small win for OneCard. It waives 1% of a fuel transaction or the actual surcharge, whichever is lower, up to ₹400 a month. LIT has no fuel waiver at all unless you buy the ₹49 feature, which gives 1% on fills of ₹400 to ₹5,000 for 90 days, and fuel earns no points on either card.

Lounges aren't really part of either card. LIT sells an airport lounge visit for ₹399, at most 2 per 90 days, which come to ₹470.82 a visit once 18% GST is added (₹399 plus ₹71.82). We found no lounge benefit for OneCard. Insurance is the same story on OneCard; LIT, by contrast, includes card liability cover up to ₹1.5 lakh and a credit shield up to ₹1.5 lakh.

Welcome, milestones and extras

• Welcome: neither card lists a welcome benefit.
• Milestones: LIT's only milestones are the paid cashback features. One small extra is a ₹200 Amazon Pay e-gift voucher feature for ₹50, which pays out when you spend ₹10,000 in 30 days. OneCard has no milestone.
• Memberships: LIT sells 3 months of ZEE5 for ₹99 or Amazon Prime for ₹299, with the penalties shown in the fees tab if the spend isn't met.
• The card itself: OneCard offers its metal card in 67+ cities by its eligibility page (66 by its FAQ). The virtual card come first and the metal one 5 to 7 business days later.
• UPI: OneCard's documents confirm a RuPay card on UPI only for SBM, whose virtual RuPay card has earned no points since 27 November 2024. LIT comes on Visa and RuPay, but AU does not say whether the RuPay LIT works on UPI, which is a odd gap for a card sold to app users.

Who can get each card

OneCard sets the lower bar. You must be 18 or older, an Indian resident with a valid government ID, and OneCard says no income proof is required. A credit score of 750 or more improves your chances, in its own words. If you live outside the metal card's cities or are not approved, OneCard points you to an FD-backed card; its 2023 blog gave FDs from ₹5,000 to ₹1,00,000, with ₹50,000 or more for a metal card.

That FD route have one rule to know. On the Federal Bank FD card, the bank may break the FD to recover dues that stay unpaid at 31 days past due, a condition in force from 18 May 2025.

AU wants salaried applicants of 21 to 60 and self-employed applicants of 25 to 65, resident in India, with a minimum monthly income that the bank specifies but doesn't publish. Add-on cardholders must be over 18. AU calls these criteria indicative and say approval is its decision.

Neither card can promise you a yes. RBI makes every issuer assess the applicant's independent financial means, and a rejected applicant must be told the specific reasons in writing. RBI's KYC rules also explain why both apps lean on video KYC: an account opened with only an Aadhaar OTP e-KYC may be limited to term loans, so a revolving card needs full KYC or a video check. Our guides to cards with no credit history and FD-secured cards covers the starting routes.

LIT or OneCard: who should take which

• Groceries run ₹5,000 or more a month and you'll manage features: LIT with the 5% grocery feature leaves about ₹1,588.72 of countable cashback a year after paying for the feature.
• You spend ₹25,000 to ₹50,000 a month across many shops: OneCard, unless you need rupees you can count. Its 5X keeps growing with your spend while LIT's cashback stops at ₹500 a cycle, and OneCard draws level once a point is worth 13 to 25 paise.
• You travel abroad: OneCard's 1% markup saves ₹1,245 on a ₹50,000 trip.
• You have no income proof or credit history: OneCard, through the FD-backed card if the regular one is declined.
• You want insurance with a free card: LIT's ₹1.5 lakh card liability and credit shield are the only covers in this pair.

When neither one fits

If you'd rather have a free card that print the value of a point, IDFC FIRST Bank's FIRST Millennia states ₹0.25 a point and charges no forex markup, but asks ₹3 lakh a year of income. Without income proof, the bank's FIRST WOW! is secured against an FD of at least ₹20,000 and pays 4 points per ₹200 at the same ₹0.25. Our best lifetime-free cards list has more.

The full stories is in our AU LIT review and One Credit Card review. AU's other cards are on the AU Small Finance Bank cards page, and BOBCARD's own range on the Bank of Baroda cards page.