SBI Card to charge 1% fee on fuel spends above Rs 50,000 a billing cycle and transport payments above Rs 30,000, from 1 December 2026
From 1 December 2026, SBI Card will charge 1% on total fuel spends if they exceed Rs 50,000 in a billing cycle, and 1% on each transport transaction above Rs 30,000, according to its website notice of 27 October 2026.
SBI Card, the credit card issuer, has told customers it will start charging a 1% fee from 1 December 2026 on two kinds of spending: fuel, when the total in a billing cycle (the monthly period covered by one card statement) is above Rs 50,000, and transport, on each single transaction above Rs 30,000. The notice is dated 27 October 2026 on SBI Card’s website.
What the notice says
| Spend type | When the fee applies | Fee |
|---|---|---|
| Fuel | Total fuel transactions in a billing cycle exceed Rs 50,000 | 1% of the total fuel spends |
| Transport | A single transport transaction exceeds Rs 30,000 | 1% of that transaction amount |
- Fuel. The notice says the 1% is charged on the total fuel spends, so the fee is on the whole fuel total, not only the part above Rs 50,000. On that wording, fuel spends of Rs 60,000 in a cycle would carry a fee of Rs 600. Fuel spends of Rs 50,000 or below are not mentioned as attracting the fee.
- Transport. The notice says the fee applies on every transaction above Rs 30,000. The threshold is per transaction, not a cycle total. The notice does not say whether the 1% applies to the full amount or only the part above Rs 30,000. Newsd reads it as the full amount, which would put a fee of Rs 350 on a single payment of Rs 35,000.
- Which transactions count. The notice identifies them by merchant category code (MCC), a four-digit number card networks assign to each type of merchant. Fuel: 5172, 5541, 5542 and 5983. Transport: 4111, 4784 and 4131.
- Start date. Both changes are listed as effective 1 December 2026.
What the notice does not say
The notices page as read does not specify which SBI Card variants are covered and states no exemptions. Newsd reports that the card networks set the MCCs and may change them; this was not confirmed on the notice page.
Basis of these figures
The thresholds, fee, MCCs, effective date and notice date are taken from SBI Card’s customer notices page, where the notices are listed as effective 1 December 2026 with a website notice date of 27 October 2026. The worked examples (Rs 600 and Rs 350) are our arithmetic on the notice wording, and the two examples also appear in Newsd’s report, which was used to cross-check the figures.