8 Best Credit Cards for LIC Premium Payment in India

We all know those LIC policies – maybe your parents got one for you, or you started one yourself. Now, you may wonder if there’s a card that gives cashback or benefits when paying your life insurance premiums. While insurance is usually excluded from credit card rewards (it’s a low MDR category and banks generally don’t make much on it), there are a few lesser-known credit cards in India that actually offer cashback or rewards specifically for paying LIC premiums.

Note: While LIC policies are common, they might not be the most efficient for investment or life cover. Consider term insurance for comprehensive coverage and invest the remaining funds for potentially better long-term returns. That said, let’s explore credit card options to get maximum benefits on your existing LIC policy premiums.

1. Amazon Pay ICICI Credit Card

Previously, you could use the Amazon Pay ICICI credit card to pay your insurance premiums and get a flat 1% cashback. However, this benefit has been discontinued recently. But don’t worry, you can buy gift cards on Amazon using this credit card, which will give you a 2% cashback.

You can then redeem the Amazon gift card to your account and use the balance to pay for your LIC insurance. This trick effectively gives you a 2% cashback on your LIC premiums. But wait, before you rush to buy those Amazon gift vouchers, make sure that the LIC portal supports Amazon Pay Wallet as a payment method.

This card may not offer the highest cashback for LIC, but I’m mentioning it at the top of this list for three reasons: it is lifetime free, there’s a high chance you may already have this card or it’s easier to get than most on this list, and Amazon often offers it as a pre-approved option.

2. HDFC Tata Neu Infinity Credit Card

HDFC’s Tata Neu Infinity, one of the most popular RuPay credit cards, offers a flat 5% cashback as NeuCoins when you pay your LIC premiums within the Tata Neu app. However, Tata Neu restricts insurance payments via credit card to a maximum of ₹25,000. This means you can get a maximum cashback of ₹1,250 in NeuCoins (since 1 NeuCoin equals 1 Rupee).

These coins will reflect in your credit card statement and be transferred to your Tata Neu app within 7 days of statement generation. You can then use them for purchases or bill payments with partner brands within the app, such as BigBasket, BbNow, 1Mg, Air Asia, and TataCliq.

If your LIC premium is above ₹25,000, consider splitting the payment or explore other credit cards mentioned here.

3. HDFC Infinia Credit Card

Premium credit cards are a great way to get cashback on jewellery and life insurance premiums, categories that are otherwise excluded. HDFC Infinia is one such card that gives a flat 3.33% reward rate on insurance payments in the form of points.

However, there’s a maximum daily cap of 5,000 reward points for insurance transactions. This means you can pay a premium of up to ₹1,50,000 in a single day and any amount exceeding this won’t earn extra rewards. The value of each reward point is ₹1.

If your premium is higher than ₹1,50,000, you might need to split the payment across multiple days to maximize your rewards. However, with such a high daily cap, I believe this should be sufficient for most users.

4. HDFC Millennia Credit Card

HDFC Millennia is a great option for getting actual cashback, not just reward points, on insurance payments. While it only offers a 1% cashback directly, you can cleverly boost this to 5% by using the gift card trick.

Simply purchase Amazon gift cards at a 5% discount from the Gyftr portal using your Millennia card, then redeem these gift cards to your Amazon account and use the balance to conveniently pay your LIC premium.

Beyond insurance, this card also offers 5% cashback on online shopping at popular merchants like Amazon and Flipkart, along with utility bill payments made through PayZapp and SmartBuy. Remember, the cashback on online shopping and bill payments is capped at ₹1000 per month, so plan your spending accordingly.

5. SBI Cashback Card

The SBI Cashback card does not directly earn any cashback on insurance spends, but you can buy Amazon gift cards and redeem them to your Amazon Pay wallet to pay for LIC. This would give you a flat 5% cashback. However, you can only earn a maximum of ₹5,000 as cashback every month, so any insurance payment above 1 lakh won’t fetch you any cashback.

SBI may at any time stop the cashback on gift cards (they already have, but it still works at the time of writing, so do buy a small amount gift card first to see if you’re getting the cashback).

I generally also use this card for all my other shopping spends, including Amazon, Flipkart, Ajio, and Cred Store, for that 5% cashback. It has a reasonable joining and annual fee of ₹999 + GST (waived off on annual spends of over ₹2 lakh).

6. Standard Chartered Smart Credit Card

The Standard Chartered Smart credit card offers a flat 2% cashback on online spends, including LIC payments, and 1% cashback on other spends. However, there’s a maximum cashback limit of ₹1,000 per month. This means that to earn the full 2% cashback, your monthly LIC premium payment should be ₹50,000 or less.

Be mindful that Standard Chartered’s terms and conditions exclude cashback on fuel or bill payments made through Billdesk/StanChart Bill Pay. So, avoid Billdesk when paying LIC with this card. Some users happily got cashback for LIC, but I’d still suggest verifying it yourself.

Alternatively, consider purchasing Amazon Gift Cards with this card and then using Amazon Pay to pay your life insurance premium.

7. Amex Smart Earn Credit Card

If you use an Amex Smart Earn credit card for paying your LIC premium, you earn 1 Membership Rewards point for every ₹50 spent, with no cap on the points earned in this category. Generally, each point is worth around ₹0.25-₹0.50 when you redeem it for statement credits, merchandise, or gift cards.

However, you can often get a higher value per point (around ₹0.75-₹1.00 or more) by transferring points to airline or hotel partners. American Express also offers limited-time special deals and promotions that increase the value of your reward points even further.

While other Amex credit cards also provide similar rewards on LIC premium payments, I’m mentioning Amex Smart Earn mainly due to its relatively low joining and annual fees, making it a more accessible option for many.

8. HSBC Cashback Credit Card

The HSBC Cashback credit card is one of my favourite cashback cards. It gives you an unlimited 1.5% cashback on all other spends, including LIC (yes, life insurance isn’t excluded). You also get 10% accelerated cashback for dining, food delivery, and grocery spends, capped at ₹1,000 per billing cycle.

Besides that, the card also comes with four complimentary domestic airport lounge visits per year (one per quarter). There’s an annual fee of ₹999 + GST, which is waived off upon spending ₹2 lakh in a year.

Get Cashback on LIC Premiums Even Without Credit Card

If you don’t have any of the above credit cards, don’t worry. There’s an alternate trick involving Amazon Pay. As a Prime member, you typically receive a monthly reward scratch card offering cashback on loading a certain amount into your wallet. For example, you might get ₹100 cashback on loading ₹3,000 (3.33% cashback) or ₹150 cashback on loading ₹3,500 (4.28% cashback.

These offers might be more frequent if you maintain a higher balance or make UPI transfers. Once you have cashback in your wallet, use it to pay your life insurance premiums, effectively earning indirect cashback on these expenses.

I hope this list helps you find the perfect credit card to get the most out of your LIC or other life insurance premium payments. I do my best to keep everything up-to-date, but remember, credit card terms can change quickly. It’s always a good idea to double-check the latest terms and conditions before you commit to a card for those insurance payments.