IDFC FIRST Power+ Review 2026: The Only IDFC Card Where Fuel Earns — 21X on HPCL
IDFC FIRST Power+ costs ₹499 and pays 21X on HPCL fuel — 3.5%. Every other IDFC card excludes fuel from rewards entirely. Also 15X on grocery and utility. Full review.
IDFC FIRST Power+ is an HPCL co-brand costing ₹499, and it does something no other card in IDFC's range does: it earns on fuel.
21X Reward Points on HPCL fuel spends — 3.5% at IDFC's published rate. Every other IDFC FIRST card excludes fuel from earning entirely.
IDFC FIRST Power+ Credit Card Quick Overview
| **Card type** | Fuel co-brand card |
|---|---|
| **Best for** | Someone who fills up at HPCL regularly |
| **Joining / renewal fee** | ₹499 + GST, same on renewal |
| **Network** | Visa, RuPay |
| **Base reward rate** | **0.33%** |
| **Top reward rate** | **3.5%** — fuel |
| **Reward currency** | IDFC FIRST Reward Points, valued at ₹0.25 each |
| **Lounge access** | None published |
| **Forex markup** | 0.0% |
Reward Structure: How You Earn
IDFC FIRST Reward Points are worth ₹0.25 each for gift vouchers and products. The bank prints that figure on every card page in the range — it appears in those exact words more than sixty times across its published material.
Four cards redeem better on travel booked inside IDFC's own app: FIRST Private at ₹1.00, Mayura and FIRST WOW! Black at ₹0.50, and Ashva at ₹0.40. That channel covers hotel and flight bookings only, so it cannot be applied to ordinary spending. Every percentage in this review uses ₹0.25.
21X on HPCL fuel spends — 3.5%.
15X on grocery, utility and IDFC FIRST Bank app spends — 2.5%.
2X on other retail transactions — 0.33%.
| Spend | Effective rate |
|---|---|
| fuel | **3.5%** |
| grocery | **2.5%** |
| utility | **2.5%** |
| Everything else | 0.33% |
| Fuel, rent, wallet loads, government, gaming | **0%** |
Fuel earns here and nowhere else in IDFC's range
Across the rest of IDFC FIRST's cards, fuel earns nothing. On the HPCL pair it earns 21X. That makes this a genuinely specialised card rather than a general card with a fuel kicker — the 2X base rate on other retail spending is 0.33%, which is poor.
Utilities earn 15X here and 1X everywhere else
Another inversion worth noting. IDFC treats utilities as a low-margin 1X floor category across its range. On the HPCL cards they earn 15X, alongside grocery and in-app spends.
One benefit on the page has expired
IDFC's page advertises '10% Cashback up to ₹3,000 on EMI Txns'. Its own terms say 'Valid till 31st March 2023'. It is long expired and is not recorded as a live benefit in this review.
Two rules changed on 18 June 2026, and both cut value
1. Reward Points now expire. Points earned from the July 2026 statement cycle are valid for 24 months from the date they are credited. IDFC's older marketing says points 'never expire' and several of its pages still carry that claim — it is out of date.
2. Points are earned only on spends up to your credit limit in a billing cycle. Spend beyond your limit in the same cycle and that spending earns nothing.
The second rule is unusual, and this dataset has not seen it at any other Indian issuer. It bites hardest on someone with a modest limit who pays down mid-cycle and spends again — precisely the behaviour that lets a cardholder transact more than their limit in a month.
Zero forex markup, across the whole range
IDFC FIRST charges no foreign currency markup. Not on a premium tier — across the range. The card pages carry the banner 'All IDFC FIRST Bank Credit Cards now come with Zero Forex Markup', and the MITC's charges table records NIL for foreign currency transactions and for dynamic and static currency conversion alike.
Set against the 3.5% most Indian issuers charge, that is ₹3,500 saved on every ₹1,00,000 spent abroad. The only exception in IDFC's range is the Micro Enterprise Credit Card, at 2%.
Cash withdrawals are interest-free for 45 days
This is worth stating plainly because almost nobody else does it. IDFC charges a flat ₹199 + GST per cash withdrawal and 0% interest for up to 45 days.
Almost every other issuer in this dataset charges 2.5% of the amount with a ₹500 floor and accrues interest from the withdrawal date with no grace period. On a ₹20,000 withdrawal repaid within the grace window, IDFC costs ₹199 where a typical competitor costs about ₹500 plus a month's interest.
IDFC charges ₹99 per redemption transaction — 396 Reward Points at the ₹0.25 rate. Redeeming small balances destroys most of their value.
What this review cannot tell you about charges
IDFC's MITC is a scanned image. The document runs to 30 pages and 29 of them contain no extractable text at all. Only page 4, the charges table, could be read.
That page does give the redemption fee, the card replacement schedule, and nil entries for branch cash payments, outstation cheques, duplicate statements and charge slips. The APR range, the zero-forex position and the cash withdrawal terms come from summary text IDFC quotes on its card pages.
Still unknown: the late payment charge amount, the over-limit charge, the minimum amount due formula and the interest-free period. Those are absent from the readable sources — not zero.
The interest rate is a range, not a rate. IDFC publishes 'From 8.5% - 46.2% per annum' and sets it per customer. The bottom of that range is among the lowest credit card APRs in India; the top is higher than most issuers' flat rate. Which one you get is not predictable.
Category Restrictions: Where You Won't Earn
- Where you earn nothing: Fuel and cash withdrawals earn no Reward Points.
- Point expiry: 24 months from the date the points are credited, for points earned from the July 2026 statement cycle onwards — a rule introduced on 18 June 2026. IDFC's older marketing says points never expire and several pages in this corpus still carry that claim; it is stale.
- Redemption fee: ₹99 per redemption.
Fees and Charges
| Charge | Amount |
|---|---|
| Joining fee | ₹499 + GST |
| Renewal fee | ₹499 + GST |
| Finance charges | Set per customer within an APR range of 8.5% to 46.2% per annum, per IDFC's MITC summary. That is roughly 0.71% to 3.85% a month. IDFC prices this card dynamically rather than applying one rate to all holders. |
| Cash advance fee | ₹199 + GST per transaction, flat — not a percentage of the amount withdrawn. |
| Cash advance interest | 0% for up to 45 days. IDFC does not accrue interest on cash withdrawals during the interest-free window, which almost no other issuer in this dataset offers — most charge interest from the withdrawal date. |
| Forex markup | Nil. IDFC FIRST applies zero markup on foreign currency transactions and on dynamic and static currency conversion transactions, across the range. The Micro Enterprise Credit Card is the exception at 2%. |
| Dynamic currency conversion | Nil — the MITC's charges table covers dynamic and static currency conversion under the same nil markup entry as foreign currency transactions. |
| Late payment | Applicable on the Total Amount Due. THE AMOUNT IS NOT READABLE — it sits in the scanned portion of IDFC's MITC. Not published in the sources read, never zero. |
| Card replacement | ₹199 for all credit cards including image-personalised cards, with four exceptions: Ashva Metal ₹1,500, Mayura Metal ₹3,500, Gaj ₹4,000 and FIRST Private ₹4,000. The FIRST Digital RuPay card is nil. |
| Reward redemption | ₹99 per redemption transaction — 396 Reward Points at the ₹0.25 rate. |
| EMI processing | Processing fees, interest, foreclosure fee and pro-rata interest on instalment products are communicated at the time of the transaction or conversion rather than published in advance. A one-time Pre-EMI interest is also charged for the days between disbursal or conversion and the first statement. |
| GST | 18% on all fees and charges. |
Is the IDFC FIRST Power+ Credit Card Worth It?
Hold this card for HPCL fuel, grocery and utilities. Use something else for general spending — 0.33% is near the bottom of this dataset.
Power+ against Power: the two cards carry the same headline multipliers. Power costs ₹199. The difference is benefit ceilings rather than earn rates, so take the cheaper one unless you will use the extras.
Zero forex markup applies here too, as it does across IDFC's range.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Does the IDFC FIRST Power+ card earn rewards on fuel? Yes — 21X on HPCL fuel spends, which is 3.5% at IDFC's published ₹0.25 redemption rate. It is the only place fuel earns in IDFC's range; every other IDFC FIRST card excludes fuel from Reward Points entirely.
Is the 10% EMI cashback on the IDFC FIRST Power+ still available? No. The offer's own terms state it was valid until 31 March 2023, so it has long expired despite still appearing on the product page.
What is an IDFC FIRST Reward Point worth? ₹0.25 for gift vouchers and products, which IDFC publishes on every card page. Four cards redeem better on travel booked inside the IDFC FIRST Bank app — FIRST Private at ₹1.00, Mayura and FIRST WOW! Black at ₹0.50, and Ashva at ₹0.40.
Do IDFC FIRST reward points expire? Yes, since 18 June 2026. Points earned from the July 2026 statement cycle are valid for 24 months from the date they are credited. IDFC's older marketing describing points as never expiring is out of date.
What is the forex markup on IDFC FIRST credit cards? Zero, across the range. The only exception is the Micro Enterprise Credit Card at 2%.
Cards Mentioned in This Article
