Kotak Cashback+ Credit Card Review 2026: 5% Online Cashback, 3% on Fuel, the ₹750 Cap & FAQs

The Kotak Cashback+ is a ₹750 cashback card built around one number: 750 points a month. Everything about it — the 5% on online groceries and food delivery, the 5% on online entertainment, the 3% on fuel — runs into that shared monthly ceiling, and once you hit it those categories pay nothing at all for the rest of the cycle.

Understand the cap and this is a sensible, honest card with an unusually clean redemption mechanism. Ignore it and you will be disappointed.

Kotak Cashback+ Quick Overview

Eligibility Criteria

Kotak publishes no income floor. Add-on cardholders must be 18 or above, and you can hold up to three add-ons alongside the primary card. Add-on cards are issued free and share the primary card's limit.

Welcome and Renewal Benefits

Neither. There is no sign-up bonus and no renewal bonus on this card.

Kotak's own value chart counts the ₹750 annual fee waiver in the benefit column, which is fair enough as an economic matter but is a waiver rather than a credit — you have to spend ₹2 lakh in the year to get it.

Reward Structure: How You Earn

The cap is the card

750 points per billing cycle, shared across all 5% and 3% spend combined. Not per category — one pool.

That means it binds at:

• ₹15,000 of 5% spend in a cycle, or
• ₹25,000 of 3% fuel spend in a cycle, or
• any combination reaching 750 points

And once you hit it, the accelerated categories pay 0% for the rest of the cycle — not 0.5%, not the base rate, nothing. Kotak's programme guide is explicit: the "Cashback post capping is achieved" column reads 0%.

The base 0.5% on everything else keeps running regardless. It is uncapped.

Kotak's own value chart assumes ₹10,000 of 5% spend and ₹7,000 of fuel a month, which comes to 710 points — just inside the cap. That is unlikely to be a coincidence.

The 5% is an online rate

This trips people up constantly. Kotak's annexure marks the food, grocery, QSR and entertainment rows "Ecom", and the card page says it plainly: "Offline grocery, dining, and entertainment purchases will earn base cashback."

So a supermarket swipe earns 0.5%, not 5%. A restaurant bill paid at the table earns 0.5%. Only the online channel pays 5%. The fuel row is marked POS, so fuel at the pump does earn 3%.

UPI turns 5% into 0.5%

On the RuPay variant, every credit-card-on-UPI spend earns 0.5% — including on the accelerated MCCs. Pay your online grocery bill by scanning a QR code instead of entering the card and you have just turned a 5% transaction into a 0.5% one.

The RuPay variant is still worth having if you use UPI a lot, because 0.5% on UPI spend beats 0% on a card that doesn't support it. Just don't route accelerated-category spend through UPI.

Rounding costs you money on small transactions

Points accrue only in whole rupees, rounded down per transaction. Kotak's own examples:

• 0.5% on ₹2,500 → 12 points, not 12.5
• 0.5% on ₹1,500 → 7 points, not 7.5

On a ₹199 purchase, 0.5% is under a rupee, so you earn nothing. A month of small base-rate transactions leaks meaningfully.

Which MCCs earn what

Worked example

Kotak's own value chart, at ₹2,88,000 of annual spend:

That is a genuine 3.7% on ₹2.88 lakh, and unlike most issuer value charts it is not inflated — the point valuation is exactly ₹1 because that is what a statement credit is worth, and the monthly accrual sits just inside the cap.

Push spend past ₹24,000 a month, though, and the marginal rate collapses. Every rupee of accelerated spend beyond the cap earns nothing.

Redeeming Cashback

Simple, and one of the best things about this card. Points redeem as a statement credit against your outstanding balance at exactly 1 point = ₹1. No travel portal, no voucher store, no transfer partner, no devaluation risk.

• Redeemed in one click on the Kotak Unbox platform
• Minimum 100 points — rising to 500 points from 16 October 2026
• Points expire one year from the date of accrual

The redemption-floor change is worth noting: from mid-October 2026 you will need five times as many points before you can redeem anything.

Fuel: the one genuine quirk

Kotak's MITC has a standing rule that no reward points or Air Miles accrue on any transaction where a fuel surcharge waiver is given. The Kotak Cashback+ is the single named exception — the carve-out reads "except for Kotak Cashback+ Credit Card".

So on this card, and only this card in the Kotak range, you get 3% cashback and the 1% surcharge waiver on the same fuel transaction.

Two things temper it:

• The surcharge waiver band is narrow. 1% on transactions between ₹500 and ₹4,000, capped at ₹3,500 in an anniversary year.
• The 1% special-category fuel fee bites early. Above ₹25,000 of fuel spend per statement cycle, Kotak charges 1% plus GST on the excess. On a card paying 3%, that claws back a third of the earn — and you are probably near the shared 750-point cap by then anyway.

Practically: ₹25,000 a month of fuel is roughly the sweet spot. Beyond that both the fee and the cap work against you.

Exclusive Offers

Two dated promotions, both running to 30 September 2026 and both usable once per card per month:

PVR INOX buy one get one. Book on pvrcinemas.com, the PVR app, inoxmovies.com or the INOX app, and select "Kotak Cashback+ BOGO Offer" under bank offers. Maximum discount ₹250 per card per month.

BookMyShow 20% off. Up to ₹150 on a minimum spend of ₹299, applied through "Apply Offers" on the BookMyShow site or app.

Used every month, those two are worth up to ₹4,800 a year against a ₹750 fee — considerably more than the cashback for a regular cinemagoer. But they are promotions with an end date, not permanent card features, so do not build a long-term case on them.

Category Restrictions: Where You Won't Earn

No cashback at all on: rent, B2B transactions, utilities, insurance, education and government, wallet loads, online skill-based gaming, any transaction converted to EMI, and balance transfers.

The underlying MCC list is Kotak's June 2025 schedule — 62 codes covering everything above plus passenger railways, tolls and bridges, agricultural services and contractors.

Two codes are worth calling out because the card's own annexure overrides the bank-wide list:

• MCC 4899 (cable, satellite and pay television) is in the 5% entertainment block and in Kotak's utility exclusion row. The card's annexure wins, so it earns 5% — a result that follows Kotak's own document but sits oddly against the page's statement that utilities earn nothing. Don't plan around 5% on a broadband bill.
• MCC 5541 (service stations) is likewise in both the 3% fuel block and the exclusion row. Here there is no real ambiguity — the card page and value chart both advertise 3% on fuel.

Special-category fees stack on top of the exclusions. 1% on utility spend above ₹35,000 per statement cycle, 1% on fuel above ₹25,000, 1% on wallet loading above ₹10,000, 1% on online gaming above ₹10,000, 1% on education payments via third-party apps, and 1% + GST on every rent transaction. These thresholds are among the lowest in Kotak's range.

Fees and Charges

Cash withdrawal is switched off entirely. Both the MITC ("NA — Facility not available on this credit card") and the card's own FAQ confirm it. That is a feature rather than a restriction for most people — cash advances are the most expensive thing you can do with a credit card — but worth knowing.

The fee waiver is ₹2 lakh of eligible retail spend in a year. The MCC schedule the programme guide links to describes itself as the list "excluded from annual fee waiver and milestone benefit calculations", so rent, wallet, utility, education, insurance, government, fuel, gaming, railways, tolls, B2B, agricultural and contractor spend does not count. Note the awkward interaction: fuel earns 3% but builds no progress towards the waiver.

This card is not eligible for the railway surcharge waiver.

Kotak Cashback+ vs Kotak Cashback+ Prime

Same fee, same cap, same base rate. What differs:

The Prime adds auto-dealer spend at 5% and a sliver of insurance cashback; the plain card keeps the cleaner redemption, the movie offers and the unambiguous fuel treatment. If you spend on car servicing and parts, take the Prime. Otherwise the plain Cashback+ is the easier card to live with.

Who Should Get the Kotak Cashback+ Credit Card

Good fit if:

• You spend roughly ₹15,000–₹25,000 a month on online groceries, food delivery and fuel — enough to fill the cap, not so much that you waste spend past it
• You want cashback as a statement credit with no valuation games
• You go to the cinema regularly, while the PVR INOX and BookMyShow offers last
• You can reach ₹2 lakh of eligible spend a year to clear the fee

Look elsewhere if:

• You shop in person — the 5% is online-only and you'd be on 0.5%
• You spend far more than ₹25,000 a month on the accelerated categories — the cap wastes it
• Your spend is concentrated in rent, utilities, insurance, education or B2B — all excluded, and all subject to extra fees
• You need cash withdrawal on your credit card
• You spend abroad — 3.50% forex on a 0.5% base rate is poor

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the joining and annual fee? ₹750 + GST for both, with the annual fee waived on ₹2 lakh of eligible retail spend in a year.

What is the cashback cap? 750 points per billing cycle, shared across all 5% and 3% spend combined. Past it, the accelerated categories pay 0% for the rest of the cycle. The 0.5% base rate is uncapped.

Is a point worth ₹1? Yes. Points redeem as a statement credit at exactly 1 point = ₹1 — the only redemption channel, so there is no devaluation risk.

What's the minimum redemption? 100 points today, rising to 500 points from 16 October 2026.

Do points expire? Yes, one year from accrual.

Does the 5% apply at supermarkets? No. The 5% is an e-commerce rate. Offline grocery, dining and entertainment earn the 0.5% base rate.

Does UPI earn 5%? No. On the RuPay variant every UPI spend earns 0.5%, including on the accelerated MCCs.

Do I get both 3% cashback and the fuel surcharge waiver? Yes — this is the only Kotak card where you do. The MITC names it as the exception to the rule that no rewards accrue where a fuel waiver is given.

Can I withdraw cash? No. The cash advance facility is not available on this card.

How many add-on cards can I have? Up to three, free of charge, for holders aged 18 and above. They share the primary card's limit.

Fees, rates and benefits verified against the Kotak Cashback+ Credit Card product page, the CB+ Cashback Program Guide, the cashback redemption guide, the PVR and BookMyShow offer T&Cs, Kotak's MCC schedule dated 1 June 2025 and the Kotak credit-card MITC as at 23 September 2026. Kotak reserves the right to change MCC lists, caps and charges. Confirm current terms before applying.