This article reviews specific credit cards' publicly available terms for informational purposes. Card terms, fees, and benefits are set by AU Small Finance Bank and can change, always verify current details directly with the bank before applying.
AU Small Finance Bank's customisable LIT card and its more conventional Altura card take genuinely different approaches to earning rewards, one lets you actively choose your benefits each quarter, the other keeps things straightforward with a fixed cashback structure.
How the LIT Card's Customisation Actually Works
The LIT card is marketed as a fully customisable credit card, rather than paying a fixed fee for a fixed bundle of features you may not use, you choose specific benefits each quarter, lounge access, OTT subscription discounts, airport pickup, insurance cover, or specific cashback categories, and pay only for what you've selected. It's a lifetime-free card at its base, with these selectable add-ons layered on top based on your own choices.
The Base Rewards on LIT
Beyond the customisable quarterly benefits, the card earns 1 reward point per ₹100 spent as a base rate, with an additional 5% cashback specifically on travel, dining, and grocery spending, alongside 4 complimentary lounge visits per quarter and short free trial memberships to services like ZEE5, Amazon Prime, and Cult.fit as part of its standard benefit set.
Altura's More Conventional Structure
The Altura card carries a modest joining and annual fee of ₹199 plus taxes, waived on ₹10,000 in retail spending within the first 90 days, and ₹40,000 in spending during each subsequent card anniversary year. It offers 2% cashback on groceries, departmental stores, and utility bill payments, capped at ₹50 monthly, and 1% on other retail spending, also capped at ₹50 monthly.
Why Altura's Caps Are Meaningfully Tighter
The ₹50 monthly cap on each cashback category is considerably more restrictive than many comparable cards, meaning the effective cashback rate on genuinely higher spending in these categories drops quickly once the cap is reached partway through the month, worth calculating against your actual typical monthly spending in groceries and utilities specifically before assuming the advertised 2% rate applies to your full spend.
Altura's Notable Railway Lounge Benefit
A distinctive feature of the Altura card is 8 complimentary railway lounge visits per year, a benefit not commonly offered by comparable entry-level cards, genuinely useful for frequent train travellers, alongside a standard 1% fuel surcharge waiver.
Which Approach Suits Which Kind of Cardholder
LIT suits someone who wants genuine control over which specific benefits they're paying for, and who values flexibility to change their selection as their needs shift each quarter, this requires a degree of active engagement, actually reviewing and selecting your benefits each quarter, rather than a purely passive, set-and-forget card. Altura suits someone who prefers a simpler, fixed structure and specifically values the railway lounge access or modest grocery and utility cashback, without wanting to actively manage quarterly benefit selections.
Neither Card Is Positioned as a Premium, High-Spend Option
Both cards sit in the entry to mid-tier segment, with fees and caps reflecting this positioning, someone with significantly higher monthly spending across accelerated categories may find the caps on both cards limiting relative to a premium card built for higher-spend cardholders, as discussed in our premium versus super-premium cards guide.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I change my LIT card's selected benefits mid-quarter if my needs change?
The customisation is generally structured around quarterly selection windows, worth confirming the specific timing and process for changing your selected benefits directly with AU Bank, since this can affect how quickly a change takes effect.
Does the Altura card's fee waiver reset every year, or is it a one-time condition?
The waiver structure described, ₹10,000 in the first 90 days, then ₹40,000 in each subsequent anniversary year, suggests an ongoing, annually assessed condition, worth confirming this directly with AU Bank to understand exactly how your specific renewal fee will be assessed each year.
Is AU Small Finance Bank a good choice for a first credit card given it is a smaller bank?
Being a smaller bank compared to the largest private and public sector banks doesn't inherently affect a card's usability, credit reporting, or safety, AU Bank is a regulated scheduled bank, its cards function the same way as any other issuer's for credit-building and usage purposes.
Are the specific rates, caps and fees described here guaranteed to remain unchanged?
No, AU Small Finance Bank periodically revises its card benefits and fee structures, always confirm current, exact terms directly with the bank before applying or making a decision based on a specific figure mentioned here.
