SBI Cashback Credit Card Review: Is 5% Cashback Worth It?
Jaspal Singh
Author
Affiliate Disclosure: Some links on this page are partner links. If you apply for a card through them, Your Finances may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. We are not affiliated with, and are not paid by, the card issuer to write favourably. Fees and features are taken from the issuer's own published terms and can change without notice — always confirm on the issuer's website before applying. Nothing here is personalised financial advice.
The CASHBACK SBI Card has the simplest pitch in the Indian market: 5% back on online spends with no merchant restriction, 1% offline, credited automatically to your account. No points, no redemption portal, no transfer partners.
"No merchant restriction" is accurate and genuinely unusual — most 5% cards confine you to a named list of partners. But SBI pairs it with a category exclusion list that is long enough to change the maths for a lot of people, and reading it is the single most useful thing you can do before applying.
What earns cashback, and what does not
The rate structure is short:
| Spend type | Cashback |
|---|---|
| Online spends, any merchant | 5% |
| Offline spends | 1% |
| Fuel | No cashback; 1% surcharge waiver instead |
The exclusions are where it gets interesting. SBI states that cashback is not applicable on spends in these categories:
- Utilities
- Insurance
- Fuel
- Rent
- Wallets
- Education
- Jewellery
- Railways
- …and more — SBI links to a fuller list rather than printing it
Look at that list again. Utilities, insurance premiums, rent, education fees and wallet loads are, for many households, a very large share of what actually gets paid online. A person who pays their electricity bill, two insurance premiums, school fees and rent through the card each month may be routing a substantial sum through it and earning nothing at all on any of it.
The 5% applies to discretionary online shopping — retail, food delivery, travel bookings, subscriptions. That is still a lot, and 5% uncapped by merchant is excellent. Just do not assume your whole online life qualifies.
The fee, and what you need to spend to justify it
| Charge | Amount |
|---|---|
| Annual fee | ₹999 + taxes |
| Renewal fee | ₹999 + taxes, from the second year |
| Renewal fee reversal | Annual spends of ₹2,00,000 or more in the previous year |
| Add-on card fee | Nil |
| Fuel surcharge waiver | 1% on transactions ₹500–₹3,000, maximum ₹100 per statement cycle |
At 18% GST the real annual cost is about ₹1,179. To recover that at 5% you need roughly ₹23,600 of eligible online spending across the year — under ₹2,000 a month. That is a low bar for anyone who shops online at all, which is why this card suits a much wider audience than its ₹999 sticker suggests.
Clearing the fee entirely is harder: ₹2,00,000 of annual spending, about ₹16,700 a month. Note that SBI states the exclusion list in the context of cashback eligibility; it does not say on this page whether excluded categories still count towards the ₹2,00,000 renewal-fee reversal. If you are planning to hit that threshold using utility or insurance payments, confirm it with SBI first rather than assuming.
Cashback that behaves like cash
This is the card's quiet strength. SBI auto-credits your cashback to the card account within two working days of your next statement generation. There is nothing to claim, no minimum redemption threshold to reach, no catalogue of overpriced merchandise, and no points that expire while you are not looking.
Compare that with a typical rewards card where you earn points at an undisclosed rupee value, then discover at redemption that they are worth 20 or 25 paise each. Here, 5% means five rupees per hundred, arriving in your account. For most people that certainty is worth more than a nominally higher headline rate on a points card.
What SBI does not publish here
The product page states no monthly or annual cap on cashback. The only maximum on the page is the ₹100 per statement cycle limit on the fuel surcharge waiver.
We are not going to claim the card is uncapped on the strength of an absence. Caps, if any, would sit in the Most Important Terms and Conditions document, and that is where you should check before building a spending plan around a large monthly figure. The same applies to the interest rate and forex markup, which are also not on this page.
A worked month, with the exclusions applied
Abstract percentages hide the effect of that exclusion list. Take a fairly ordinary urban household putting ₹40,000 a month through the card:
| Spend | Amount | Qualifies? | Cashback |
|---|---|---|---|
| Online shopping and electronics | ₹9,000 | Yes, 5% | ₹450 |
| Food delivery and dining orders | ₹6,000 | Yes, 5% | ₹300 |
| Subscriptions and travel bookings | ₹3,000 | Yes, 5% | ₹150 |
| Rent | ₹12,000 | Excluded | ₹0 |
| Electricity and other utilities | ₹4,000 | Excluded | ₹0 |
| Insurance premium | ₹3,000 | Excluded | ₹0 |
| Offline supermarket | ₹3,000 | Yes, 1% | ₹30 |
| Total | ₹40,000 | ₹930 |
₹930 on ₹40,000 is an effective 2.3% — respectable, and comfortably ahead of the fee. But it is less than half the 5% headline, and the reason is entirely the ₹19,000 of excluded spending sitting in the middle of the table.
Now shift the mix. A single person with no rent on the card, spending ₹20,000 a month almost entirely on online retail and food, earns close to the full 5% — around ₹1,000 on half the spending. The card rewards discretionary online consumption, not household bill payment, and your own split matters more than the advertised rate.
Who it suits
- Online shoppers without a single dominant platform. Because there is no merchant restriction, you are not pushed towards one retailer to earn the top rate. If your shopping is split across Amazon, Flipkart, Swiggy, Zomato, BigBasket and a dozen smaller sites, this beats any co-branded card.
- People who want simplicity. One rate, automatic credit, no decisions.
- Anyone irritated by point devaluation. Cashback cannot be devalued.
Who should look elsewhere
- If most of your card spending is in the excluded categories — rent, utilities, insurance, education — this card will pay you very little, and the ₹999 fee will not be recovered.
- If you are loyal to one platform, a co-branded card such as the Flipkart Axis Bank card can pay more on that platform specifically.
- If you spend mainly offline, 1% is unremarkable.
Wider comparisons are in our best credit cards in India guide, and if you are choosing a first card, the credit cards guide explains billing cycles and interest-free periods.
Verdict
One of the most honest cards on the market, provided you read the exclusion list. If your online spending is discretionary retail rather than bills, 5% with no merchant restriction and automatic crediting is hard to argue with, and ₹2,000 a month of qualifying spend already covers the fee. If your online spending is mostly bills, the same card returns close to nothing — and no amount of 5% marketing changes that.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is the 5% cashback really available at any online merchant?
There is no merchant restriction — but there are category exclusions. Utilities, insurance, fuel, rent, wallets, education, jewellery and railways earn no cashback regardless of where you transact, and SBI links to a longer list.
What is the annual fee, and can it be waived?
₹999 plus taxes, charged again each year. It is reversed if your annual spends in the previous year reach ₹2,00,000.
How much do I need to spend to cover the fee?
About ₹23,600 of eligible online spending a year — roughly ₹2,000 a month — returns the approximately ₹1,179 the card costs including GST.
When does the cashback arrive?
Automatically, credited to your SBI Card account within two working days of your next statement generation. There is nothing to redeem.
Is there a cap on how much cashback I can earn?
SBI does not publish one on the card's product page. Check the Most Important Terms and Conditions before relying on very high monthly spending, as caps would be documented there rather than in the marketing copy.
Does fuel earn cashback?
No. Fuel is excluded from cashback, but you get a 1% surcharge waiver on transactions between ₹500 and ₹3,000, capped at ₹100 per statement cycle.
Do add-on cards cost extra?
No, the add-on card fee is nil.
Part of our study: this card is one of ten examined in What Indian Credit Cards Claim vs What Their Own Numbers Show — a comparison of advertised annual value against each issuer's own published caps, point values and value charts.
Disclaimer: Fees, cashback rates and exclusions in this review were taken from SBI Card's published CASHBACK SBI Card page on 28 July 2026 and can change without notice. Cashback caps, interest rates and forex charges are set out in the Most Important Terms and Conditions and have not been reproduced here. This is general information, not personalised financial advice. Confirm all terms with the issuer before applying.
