Flipkart Axis Bank vs Amazon Pay ICICI Bank Credit Card: Pick Your Store

Fees: ₹500 a year against nothing at all

With 18% GST, Flipkart Axis cost ₹590 a year (₹500 plus ₹90). Its waiver bar is high for a ₹500 card: ₹3,50,000 a year is about ₹29,167 a month (₹3,50,000 divided by 12), and rent and wallet loads don't count towards it, while Axis's Key Fact Sheet also leaves out gift cards. The same sheet says the joining fee may not apply if your application form showed a lifetime-free or a different fee, so check what you was offered.

Amazon Pay ICICI has no joining or annual fee written into its MITC. That makes it lifetime free in the proper sense, a standing zero fee rather than a first-year offer, with nothing to waive and nothing to chase.

Interest and penalties

Both charge 3.75% a month, yet the yearly figures differ because of how each bank annualise it: Axis states 55.55% a year and ICICI 45%. Axis charges no late fee up to ₹500 due, then ₹500, ₹750, ₹1,200 and finally ₹1,300 once the due amount passes ₹50,000, plus ₹100 every cycle after the minimum is missed twice running. ICICI's slabs starts lower, ₹100 for ₹100 to ₹500 due, then ₹500, ₹600, ₹750, ₹900, ₹1,100 and ₹1,300. On a ₹20,000 due that is ₹1,200 at Axis against ₹900 at ICICI.

Special fees

Axis takes 1% on utilities once they reach ₹25,000 in a statement cycle, on wallet loads from ₹10,000, on fuel from ₹50,000, on online skill-based gaming from ₹10,000 and on every rent payment. ICICI takes 1% on rent, on fuel above ₹10,000, utilities above ₹50,000, wallet loads of ₹5,000 or more and transport above ₹50,000, and 2% on skill-based gaming. Both charge 1% on education paid through third-party apps. For a family with a big electricity bill, Axis's lower utility threshold is the one that bite first.

Cashback: rates, caps and three shoppers

How each card earns

• Flipkart Axis: 7.5% on Myntra, 5% on Flipkart (website and app, not Flipkart Health) and 5% on Cleartrip, each capped at ₹4,000 per statement quarter and counted separately. 4% at the preferred merchants and 1% on other eligible spends, both uncapped. Transactions under ₹100 earn nothing, cashback is rounded down per transaction, and it is credited 3 days before the next statement.
• Amazon Pay ICICI: 5% on Amazon for Prime members and 3% without Prime, 2% on bills, recharges and gift cards through Amazon Pay and at its partner merchants, 1% elsewhere. ICICI states no cap. Rewards are credited as Amazon Pay balance within 2 working days of the statement and don't expire.

The Axis caps are roomy for most of people. ₹4,000 a quarter is reached only at ₹80,000 of Flipkart spends in a statement quarter (₹4,000 divided by 5%) or about ₹53,333 on Myntra (₹4,000 divided by 7.5%). A big sale month could get there, a normal month won't.

What the reward really is

Axis pay cashback onto the statement, rupee for rupee. ICICI's reward is Amazon Pay balance, which ICICI says is credited in terms of Amazon gift cards under Amazon's gift card terms. It is not a statement credit, so it's worth full value only to someone who would shop on Amazon anyway, and that are the whole idea of a co-brand card.

What earns nothing

Axis shuts out utilities, telecom, fuel, jewellery and gold, insurance, rent, wallet loads, education, government services, gift cards on Flipkart and Myntra, and purchases converted to EMI. ICICI shuts out fuel, gold and other precious metals, tax payments, rent (since 18 June 2024), education, international spends and utilities outside Amazon (since 11 October 2025), plus EMI and cash; points on a purchase later turned into EMI is clawed back.

Three shoppers, both cards

All three are Prime members. "Bills" means phone and power bills; for ICICI we assume they are paid through Amazon Pay at 2%, while Axis excludes utilities and telecom.

Amazon household. ICICI: 5% of ₹10,000 is ₹500, 1% of ₹3,000 on Swiggy and Uber is ₹30, 2% of ₹3,000 in bills is ₹60 and 1% of ₹4,000 is ₹40, so ₹630 a month and ₹7,560 a year (₹630 times 12). Axis treats Amazon as an ordinary 1% spend, ₹100; Swiggy and Uber at 4% of ₹3,000 give ₹120, bills earn nothing and other spends add ₹40. That is ₹260 a month and ₹3,120 a year, and with ₹2,40,000 of yearly spend (₹20,000 times 12) the ₹590 fee stays, leaving ₹2,530. Without Prime, ICICI's Amazon rate drop to 3%, or ₹300, and the year comes to ₹5,160 (₹430 times 12), still about double.

Flipkart and Myntra fan. Axis: 5% of ₹6,000 is ₹300, 7.5% of ₹4,000 is ₹300, 4% of ₹5,000 is ₹200, and 1% of the ₹7,000 on Amazon and other spends is ₹70, for ₹870 a month or ₹10,440 a year. ₹3,00,000 of yearly spends is under ₹3,50,000, so the ₹590 fee applies and the net is ₹9,850. ICICI pays 1% on Flipkart, Myntra, Swiggy, Uber and other spends (₹20,000 in all, so ₹200), 5% on ₹2,000 of Amazon (₹100) and 2% on bills (₹60): ₹360 a month, ₹4,320 a year.

Heavy mixed. Axis: ₹750 on Flipkart (5% of ₹15,000), ₹600 on Myntra (7.5% of ₹8,000), ₹320 on Swiggy and Uber (4% of ₹8,000) and ₹290 at 1% on Amazon and other spends (₹29,000), so ₹1,960 a month and ₹23,520 a year. Quarterly cashback is ₹2,250 on Flipkart (₹750 times 3) and ₹1,800 on Myntra (₹600 times 3), both under the ₹4,000 caps, and ₹7,80,000 of yearly spends (₹65,000 times 12) waive the fee. ICICI: ₹700 on Amazon (5% of ₹14,000), ₹100 on bills (2% of ₹5,000) and ₹460 at 1% on everything else (₹46,000), which is ₹1,260 a month or ₹15,120 a year.

Each card win on its own store by a wide margin. In the mixed case Axis comes out ahead because Myntra and Swiggy pay so well, but the result a bigger Amazon share would flip.

Benefits: forex, fuel, lounges and welcome gifts

Neither card gives lounge access now. Flipkart Axis used to include 4 free domestic visits and dropped them from 20 June 2025; Amazon Pay ICICI never listed any. If lounges matters to you, this is the wrong pair.

Foreign spends

This is where Amazon Pay ICICI quietly do better. Its markup is 1.99% against 3.5% on Axis, so a ₹50,000 trip costs ₹1,174.10 on ICICI (1.99% of ₹50,000 is ₹995, plus ₹179.10 of GST) and ₹2,065 on Axis (3.5% is ₹1,750, plus ₹315 of GST). The catch is that since 11 October 2025 ICICI pays nothing on international transactions. Axis's exclusion list doesn't name foreign spends, so they should earn its 1% base, about ₹500 on that trip, which still leaves ICICI cheaper by roughly ₹390 (₹2,065 less ₹500, against ₹1,174.10). Paying in rupees abroad costs a 3.5% conversion markup on Axis and 1.99% on ICICI.

Fuel

Axis's card page offers a 1% fuel surcharge waiver on fills of ₹400 to ₹4,000, up to ₹400 a statement cycle, with no cashback on the fuel and no refund of the GST on the surcharge. One caution, the bank's MITC list of cards with a fuel refund don't name this card, so check your first statement. ICICI's MITC gives a 1% surcharge waiver at all petrol pumps but states no range or cap, and it charges a 1% fee on fuel transactions above ₹10,000.

Welcome and other extras

• Flipkart Axis: a ₹250 Flipkart voucher on the first transaction within 30 days of issue (paid cards only), and 50% off up to ₹100 on a first Swiggy order with the code AXISFKNEW.
• Amazon Pay ICICI: no welcome benefit is stated by the bank. It offer what ICICI calls 3 months of no-cost EMI on eligible Amazon purchases (merchant EMI), but EMI purchases earn no rewards.
• Insurance: neither bank states any cover for these cards.
• Network: Amazon Pay ICICI runs on Visa; the Axis pages we read don't state Flipkart Axis's network.

Eligibility: open application against invite only

The practical difference is access. Anyone aged 18 to 70 and resident in India can apply for Flipkart Axis, and Axis's general minimum income of ₹15,000 a month is low. Amazon Pay ICICI asks for more, ₹30,000 a month, and its card page calls it an invite-only programme with applications that start on Amazon. There isn't a form you can simply walk up and fill for it, so some patience are needed.

An invite and a eligibility floor are not approval. Under the RBI's 2025 card Directions a bank must assess your independent financial means and count the limits you hold with other lenders, and the decision stays with the issuer, never with an agent. If either bank turns you down, it has to give the specific reasons in writing.

A good credit record matters to both. Experian scores run from 300 to 900 and treat above 750 as generally good; CRIF's range is the same, with above 700 seen as good. Someone with no history at all gets an NH (no history) report rather than a score, and for them a secured card is the more realistic first step, as our eligibility criteria guide explains. Documents for Axis are the usual PAN, income proof and address proof, ICICI asking for identity, address and income proof.

Verdict: let your order history decide

Choose Amazon Pay ICICI if

• Amazon is your main store and you are a Prime member or plan to stay one;
• you want a card that never cost a fee;
• you travel abroad now and then and want the lower 1.99% markup, even with no rewards on those spends.

Choose Flipkart Axis if

• Flipkart and Myntra are your main stores, with Swiggy orders and Uber rides on top;
• you put ₹3,50,000 or more a year on the card, or don't mind ₹590 a year for the higher rates;
• you can't get an Amazon invite, since Axis takes open applications.

Hold both if

Lot of shoppers split their orders between the two stores, and with no fee on ICICI there's little cost in carrying both. Use each card on its own store and let the 4% preferred merchants rides on Axis.

Neither if

If your card spend is mostly rent, fuel, utilities or school fees, both cards pay little or nothing on it. For other options see best cards for Amazon and Flipkart, Flipkart SBI vs Flipkart Axis and Airtel Axis vs Amazon Pay ICICI, the bank pages for Axis Bank and ICICI Bank, or the credit cards hub.