HDFC vs SBI Card: Who Offers Big Benefits, Rewards On Credit & Debit Cards From January 2026?

Majority of banking and financial institutions have revised their lounge access on debit and credit cards which will come into effect from January 2026. These include giants like HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank and SBI Card. Both HDFC and SBI Card have declared big benefits and rewards but limitations on their debit and credit cards for lounge access at airports.

HDFC Bank Debit Cards Lounge Access Rules 2026:

From January 10, 2026, customers who meet a quarterly spends criteria of Rs 10,000 will get an SMS/Email on their registered mobile number/Email Id within 2 working days, containing a link to claim their lounge access voucher. The customer needs to click on this link and claim the voucher.

Once you have claimed the voucher, you will receive a 12-18 digit voucher code on registered mobile number and email address that you will be required to show at the time of entry at the lounge to avail complimentary access.

The minimum quarterly spends is for quarters like January-March, April-June, July-September, and October-December in the year.

However, the number of complimentary lounge access in a quarter will be applicable as per your debit card offerings.

For instance, you will be eligible for 1 lounge visits per quarter each if you hold Millennia, Times and GIGA debit cards at HDFC Bank. The lounge visits per quarter will increase to 2 each on Platinum debit card and Business debit card. The lounge visits per quarter is highest at 4 for Infiniti debit card.

What is the validity of the lounge vouchers?

The validity of lounge vouchers will be date of generation to the next quarter end:

Example: If voucher is received on 15th November 2025, then validity will be till 31st March 2026.

- If voucher is received on 10th January 2026, then validity will be till 30th June 2026.

- If voucher is received on 31st March 2026, then voucher's validity will be till 30th June 2026.

Which lounges can be availed with the HDFC Bank Debit Card?

SBI Card Lounge Access New Rules 2026:

Just like HDFC, SBI Card's new lounge access rules will come into effect from January 10, 2026. These new rules will imply on credit cards such as --- Apollo SBI Card SELECT; BPCL SBI Card OCTANE; Club Vistara SBI Card; Landmark Rewards SBI Card SELECT; Paytm SBI Card SELECT; and PhonePe SBI Card SELECT.

The mentioned credit cards can be used on the following domestic airport lounges:

The second set of eligible credit cards are --- Bank of Maharashtra SBI Card PRIME; Karur Vyasa Bank SBI Card PRIME; SBI Card MILES PRIME; Central Bank of India SBI Card PRIME; Karur Vyasa Bank SBI Platinum Card; SBI Card PRIME Pro; South Indian Bank SBI Card PRIME; South Indian Bank SBI Platinum Card; Titan SBI Card; UCO Bank SBI Card PRIME; City Union Bank SBI Card PRIME; Krisflyer SBI Card; Club Vistara SBI Card PRIME; Karnataka Bank SBI Card PRIME; PSB SBI Card PRIME; Landmark Rewards SBI Card PRIME; and Reliance SBI Card PRIME.

For accessing the participating Domestic Airport Lounges, the customer is required to present their SBI Credit Card at the time of entry. Access to the lounge would be provided only upon successful authorization of their SBI Credit Card on the lounge's POS terminal.

For SBI Credit Cards on VISA and RuPay, Rs 2 will be charged to the card account for validation. The authorization amount is non-refundable.

Additionally, for SBI Credit Cards on Mastercard, a temporary fee of Rs 25 towards authorization will be placed for validation purpose. However, it will not be settled or debited from the customer's account.