MakeMyTrip ICICI Bank Credit Card Review: 6% Hotels, Nil Forex From 10 Nov

Fees, the waiver and the forex timeline

You pay ₹999 + GST when you join and ₹999 + GST every year. At 18% GST that comes to ₹1,178.82 (₹999 plus ₹179.82). The joining fee bring a ₹1,000 MakeMyTrip voucher within 10 business days, and each paid renewal brings a ₹1,000 MakeMyTrip hotel voucher valid for 3 months.

The ₹3 lakh waiver and its catch

From the second anniversary year, the annual fee is waived when you spent ₹3,00,000 or more in the previous anniversary year. That needs ₹25,000 a month (₹3,00,000 divided by 12), and payments for rent, government services and education, along with EMIs, fees and interest, are left out of the count. The catch is that a waived year come without the annual benefits, so the ₹1,000 hotel voucher is not given.

Is the waiver still worth having? Paying costs ₹1,178.82 and returns a ₹1,000 voucher, so the waiver leaves you ₹178.82 better off even if you would have used the voucher (₹1,178.82 minus ₹1,000), and the full ₹1,178.82 better off if the 3-month hotel voucher would have gone unused.

Forex: 0.99% until 9 November 2026, nil from 10 November 2026

ICICI's card page and changes page put the mark-up and the currency conversion fee at 0.99%, and the latest MITC says neither is charged from 10 November 2026. A ₹50,000 hotel bill abroad carries ₹495 of mark-up (0.99% of ₹50,000) plus ₹89.10 GST up to 9 November 2026, and nothing extra from 10 November 2026. Most ICICI cards charges 3.5%, so the gap is real.

Interest and the other charges

• Interest of 3.75% a month, 45% a year, on balances you carry; the interest-free window of 18 to 48 days needs the last bill cleared in full.
• Late fee from ₹100 (₹100 to ₹500 outstanding) up to ₹1,300 (above ₹50,000), levied only once the minimum due is 3 days overdue.
• Cash advance at 2.5%, minimum ₹500, with interest running from the withdrawal date.
• 1% on rent, on fuel above ₹10,000, on utility and transport bills above ₹50,000, on education paid via third-party apps and on wallet loads worth ₹5,000 or more; 2% on skill-based gaming.
• ₹150 for paying cash at a branch, ₹199 a year for an add-on card and ₹200 for a replacement, which become ₹300 from 11 December 2026.

myCash: how it is earned and spent

Every reward on this card is myCash, and 1 myCash is worth ₹1 when you redeem it on MakeMyTrip for flights, hotels, holidays, trains, buses, cabs or visas, up to 100% of the booking value. It can't be encashed, transferred or used for gift cards or forex, so it is only as good as your next MakeMyTrip booking.

• Hotels on MakeMyTrip: 6%, no cap.
• Flights, holidays, cabs and buses on MakeMyTrip: 3%, no cap.
• Trains on MakeMyTrip: 25 myCash a booking, whatever the fare.
• Other MakeMyTrip spends: 1%, a row the terms mark from 10 November 2026.
• Domestic spends outside MakeMyTrip: 1%, except rent and EMI. Fuel do earn on this card, which most ICICI cards don't.
• Insurance premiums: 1%, capped at 1,000 myCash per anniversary year.

No myCash on rent, cash advances, the joining and annual fees, other fees, EMIs, balance transfers or loans on the card. From 10 November 2026, international spends outside MakeMyTrip earns nothing either.

Expiry and welcome benefits

myCash earned before 10 November 2026 never expires. myCash earned from 10 November 2026 is valid for 24 months, so you need a booking at least once in two years for not losing it. On joining you get a ₹1,000 MakeMyTrip voucher valid for 12 months, and activation brings a complimentary MMTBLACK Gold membership, minus its MMTBLACK myCash benefit. There are no spend milestones. Smaller extras are 3 months no-cost EMI on MakeMyTrip bookings and 25% off up to ₹150 at BookMyShow (with ₹25,000 of quarterly spend) and at INOX.

Three worked examples, on the rules from 10 November 2026

Light. 2,520 myCash a year is worth ₹2,520 on MakeMyTrip. ₹1,80,000 of yearly spend is under ₹3 lakh, so the ₹1,178.82 fee stays, though the renewal brings a ₹1,000 hotel voucher and the myCash alone is more than twice the fee. Quarterly spend of ₹45,000 (₹15,000 times 3) is short of ₹75,000, so no lounge.

Typical. 7,200 myCash a year. ₹3,60,000 of spending clears the ₹3 lakh line, so next year's fee is waived, and the renewal voucher with it. ₹90,000 a quarter (₹30,000 times 3) is over ₹75,000, which give 2 domestic lounge visits every quarter.

Heavy. 18,600 myCash a year. The ₹10,000 spent abroad each month earns nothing from 10 November 2026 but carries no mark-up either; up to 9 November 2026 the same ₹10,000 would carry ₹99 of mark-up plus GST. Add a yearly insurance premium of ₹1,50,000 and 1% would be 1,500 myCash, but the cap holds it at 1,000.

Eligibility and how the application works

The published rule is an Indian citizen over 21, with a monthly income of ₹20,000 if salaried or an annual income of at least ₹2,40,000 if self-employed, which is the same ₹20,000 a month over 12 months. The documents is proof of identity, address proof and income proof.

Where you apply

This card is applied for through the MakeMyTrip app or website rather than an ICICI form, and DigiLocker is accepted for documents, which cut down the paperwork a lot. You receive both the Mastercard and the RuPay card; the RuPay one is the card to link with UPI for paying merchants.

What ICICI checks before saying yes

• Your own income and repayment capacity, assessed independently as the RBI's 2025 card Directions require.
• All the limits you already have elsewhere, taken from what you declare or from bureau data.
• Your credit history, which ICICI's listing page says may count. CRIF treats scores above 700 as generally good and Experian above 750, both on a 300 to 900 scale.
• KYC with PAN or Form 60 and an officially valid document; Video KYC is accepted under RBI rules.

If you have no salary, ICICI's listing page FAQ says the bank may ask for a fixed deposit as collateral. The bank alone decide, and a rejection must come with specific reasons in writing. Go through the one-page Key Fact Statement with the application before you accept. For help after issue, the ICICI Bank customer care page has the numbers, including the toll-free 1800 1080.

Who it suits, and the trade-offs

The winners are people who already open MakeMyTrip for most trips. Two hotel nights costing ₹10,000 return ₹600 of myCash, a ₹20,000 family flight booking returns ₹600 as well, and it all come back as money off the next booking. For them the ₹999 fee is easily covered.

From 10 November 2026 it also turns into one of ICICI's cheapest cards to use abroad, with nil mark-up. But a foreign spend outside MakeMyTrip earn nothing then, so think of it as a cost saver abroad, not a reward card.

Who should skip: anyone who books flights directly with airlines or uses other travel sites, because outside MakeMyTrip the earn is 1% and the myCash is still locked to MakeMyTrip. Skip it too if you want insurance, since the card page states none. And if you rarely travel, myCash earned from 10 November 2026 may simply go waste after 24 months.

The lounge offer is modest: 2 domestic visits a quarter after ₹75,000 of spend in the previous quarter, and 1 international visit a year through Priority Pass. If lounges matter more than bookings, ICICI's Sapphiro card gives 4 domestic visits a quarter on the same ₹75,000 rule, at a much higher fee.

Other cards for travellers

Compared here are the HSBC TravelOne Credit Card, the IDFC FIRST Select Credit Card and the IDFC FIRST WOW! Credit Card, three different answers to the same travel question.

HSBC TravelOne suits people who would rather collecting airline miles than wallet credit. Flights, travel aggregators and foreign currency spends get 4 reward points per ₹100, other spends 2, and the points move 1:1 into Air India Maharaja Club, Flying Blue, Etihad and other programmes. HSBC gives 6 domestic plus 4 international lounge visits a year and states no spend condition for them. The trade-offs are a ₹4,999 fee, reversed only above ₹8,00,000 of yearly spends, a 3.5% forex mark-up and a ₹6,00,000 yearly income floor for salaried applicants.

IDFC FIRST Select is lifetime free with zero forex mark-up. It earns 10 points per ₹200 on travel, 1.25% at ₹0.25 a point, and up to 25% in points on hotels booked through the bank's own app, with bonus points capped at 8,000 a month. One domestic airport lounge visit a quarter comes if you spent ₹20,000 the month before. International spends stopped earning points on it from 26 October 2026, much like MakeMyTrip ICICI from 10 November 2026, and it needs ₹12 lakh a year of income.

IDFC FIRST WOW! is a card against a fixed deposit of at least ₹20,000, with a limit of 100% of the FD, no fee, zero forex mark-up and no income proof needed. Unlike the other two it keep earning 4 points per ₹200 on international spends after 26 October 2026, worth 0.5% at ₹0.25 a point. There is no lounge access.

Who should pick which: MakeMyTrip ICICI for MakeMyTrip regulars on ₹20,000 a month or more; TravelOne for miles collectors happy to pay ₹4,999; FIRST Select for high earners who want no fee; FIRST WOW! for anyone who wants some points on foreign spends or has no income proof. More ICICI options sit on the ICICI Bank cards page.