Source ledger

Every source link on this page was re-checked and live on 29 September 2026.

Published 29 September 2026

Every source cited in "The great rewards scam", in one place. Issuer documents first - the file is built from them - then the reporting, then our dataset.

Issuer documents

• Canara Bank: MDR on RuPay credit card on UPI payments (June 2026) - category MDR 0.5-1.75% above Rs 2,000. (Chapter 12)
• NPCI: FAQ on MDR on select UPI (P2M) transactions (via Dept of Financial Services mirror) - credit-linked UPI follows credit card rules. (Chapter 12)
• Financial Express (2022) - no charge up to Rs 2,000. (Chapter 12)
• OneCardHub: how credit card rewards are funded in India - interchange as primary funding; revolver pool economics; RuPay zero-MDR exception; devaluation as recurring feature. (Chapter 11)
• CA Dialogue: how credit card companies make money in India (August 2026) - the three revenue lines; interest 36-45%; MDR priced into goods; retrospective loss of the interest-free period; GST on fees. (Chapter 10)
• CNBC-TV18: Merchant Discount Rate explained - issuer/acquirer/network split. (Chapter 10)
• Terra Insight: credit MDR in India - published 2% vs negotiated 1.4-1.6%; credit uncapped. (Chapter 10)
• SBI Card Q1 FY26 investor presentation - transactor/revolver/EMI mix. (Chapter 10)
• PNB Reward Point Notice (Hindi PDF, effective 1 September 2024) - English coverage: CardInsider - the notice halving the per-point value from ₹0.50 to ₹0.25 across twelve card portfolios.
• SBI Card: CASHBACK SBI Card FAQ - the ₹2,000 online and ₹2,000 offline per-cycle cashback caps.
• HDFC Bank customer email on the autumn 2024 rule change, as reported by The Economic Times (below).
• Kotak Mahindra Bank revision notice discontinuing rewards on the Dream Different card (April 2026), tracked in the AP Labs dataset.
• ICICI Bank: Amazon Pay credit card - 5%/3% Prime tiers, 2% partners, 1% elsewhere; points credited to Amazon Pay balance (Chapter 8).
• HDFC Bank: Swiggy credit card - 10% in-app cashback capped Rs 1,500/cycle, sub-caps on 5% and 1% tiers (Chapter 8).
• Axis Bank: Flipkart credit card - 5%/7.5% rates with Rs 4,000 per-property quarterly caps (Chapter 8).
• SBI Card Q4 FY26 earnings call (April 2026) - revolver 22% of balances, revolve band 22-24%, NIM 11.1%, PAT Rs 2,167 cr; the fee-income compensation exchange (Chapter 9).
• SBI Card: Most Important Terms and Conditions - finance charges 3.75% per month, 45% annualised (Chapter 9).

Reporting

• The Economic Times (3 March 2026) - the "reward fatigue" review: Amex Platinum Travel overhaul, SBI lounge halving, ICICI's January/February 2026 cuts, Scapia's doubled lounge threshold, Axis's closure-expiry rules, the Infinia retreat.
• The Economic Times (25 September 2024) - HDFC's utility/telecom caps, education-app exclusion, SmartBuy Apple and Tanishq caps.
• Mint (22 July 2023) - the Axis Magnus rewrite.
• The Economic Times (26 March 2025) - SBI Card's April 2025 revisions: Vistara vouchers, SimplyCLICK Swiggy, Air India rates.
• CNBC-TV18 (March 2024) - SBI Card's rent-payment exclusion.
• The Economic Times (June 2024) - 22 SBI cards stop earning on government transactions.
• Outlook Money (December 2022) - HDFC's January 2023 caps and charges.
• CardInsider (February 2025) - secondary source: IndusInd's redemption-fee hike and 50%-of-balance cash-claim cap, from the issuer's update.
• Paisabazaar (March 2024) - secondary source: Axis Bank's April 2024 devaluation.
• Forbes India - co-branded cards at roughly 17% of India's card base (Chapter 8).
• Terra Insight - credit MDR uncapped by RBI, published ~2%, negotiated 1.4-1.6% (Chapter 8).

Dataset

• AP Labs analysis of 232 issuer documents (Credit Card Maximizer dataset, 29 September 2026) - caps (143 cards), exclusions (183), redemption fees (97), "up to" marketing leads (78), explicit point values (106). Blanks in the extract mean "not captured", not "does not exist".