What does IDFC FIRST Diamond Reserve earn after ₹20,000?

The IDFC FIRST Diamond Reserve pays 3 reward points for every ₹150 you spend, until the statement cycle’s spend passes ₹20,000. Everything above that line in the same cycle earns 10 points per ₹150, the rate the bank prints as 10X. At ₹0.25 a point, the card returns 0.5% below the threshold and 1.67% above it.

Which spends push you across that line, and which ones never count towards it, decides most of what the card pays.

The threshold splits one cycle, then resets

Take a cycle with ₹50,000 of spend on it. The first ₹20,000 earns at the base rate: 133 finished blocks of ₹150, at 3 points each, so 399 points. The remaining ₹30,000 earns at 10 points per ₹150, which is 200 blocks and 2,000 points. The cycle closes at 2,399 points, worth ₹599.75 at ₹0.25 a point, or 1.2% of what you spent.

Two details move that arithmetic. The card counts finished blocks of ₹150, so spend that leaves a block unfinished at the end of a cycle carries nothing into the next one. And the threshold counts a statement cycle, not a calendar month, so your statement date decides which side of the line a purchase falls on. A large payment two days before that date and the same payment two days after it earn very different amounts. Birthday spends earn at the 10-point rate wherever they fall in the cycle.

Four categories earn 3X and none of them move the threshold

Rent, education fees, wallet loads and government payments each earn 3 points per ₹150. They stay at that rate whatever the cycle total is, and they do not count towards the ₹20,000 that opens the 10-point rate. Utilities, insurance premiums, railway spends and FASTag recharges earn 1 point per ₹150, and they do not count towards the threshold either.

Take a month where you pay ₹40,000 of rent and ₹15,000 of everything else. The card carries ₹55,000 and shows ₹15,000 of threshold progress, so nothing that month earns at 10 points per ₹150. The rent earns 3, the rest earns 3, and the card pays a flat 0.5%.

Fuel, international spends, EMI conversions, cash withdrawals and the card’s own fees earn nothing at all. Fuel keeps a 1% surcharge waiver on transactions between ₹200 and ₹5,000, capped at ₹300 a month, which refunds the pump’s charge and adds no points. Foreign currency carries a 0% mark-up, so the card is cheap abroad and pays nothing for the spend.

What a point is worth here

IDFC FIRST Reward Points price at ₹0.25 each through the bank’s Rewards Gallery, the best of the routes the catalog prices. That figure is what turns 3 points per ₹150 into 0.5% and 10 points per ₹150 into 1.67%. Points expire 24 months after you earn them, and the bank charges a redemption fee on each request, so a small redemption returns less than the valuation.

The milestones sit outside that arithmetic. Paying the joining fee brings welcome benefits the bank values at ₹5,000 or more. The first EMI conversion returns 5% cashback up to ₹1,000. Hotels booked in the bank’s own app carry 20% bonus points and flights carry 10%.

Lounge access runs on a different clock

The card gives 2 domestic and 2 international lounge visits a quarter, plus 4 railway lounge visits, and each needs ₹20,000 of spend behind it. The figure matches the rewards threshold, but the period does not. The lounge benefit reads the current calendar month and applies to the next one, while the 10-point rate reads the statement cycle you are in.

So you can cross ₹20,000 in every cycle and still lose a lounge quarter, if a cycle straddles two calendar months and neither month reaches ₹20,000 on its own. Two identical figures on the product page are measured over different windows.

The fee, and the spend that clears it

The annual fee is ₹3,000 plus GST, waived on ₹6 lakh of spend in a card year. That is ₹50,000 a month, the same figure as the worked example above. Spending at the pace that clears the fee also puts ₹30,000 of every cycle on the 10-point rate.

At half that pace you still cross the threshold in every cycle, but the card year ends short of the waiver, so the fee stands against a smaller pile of points.

What to check on your own statement

Start with your statement date, since that is what the threshold counts against and it is rarely the first of the month. Then read the earn lines. A cycle where rent, utilities or a school fee makes up most of the total shows far fewer points than the total suggests, because none of that spend moved you past ₹20,000. If a lounge visit was refused, check the calendar month before it rather than the cycle it fell in.

Krediit keeps this record against your own cards and spend, shows how far a cycle sits from the ₹20,000 line before you pay rather than after the statement, and prices the balance in rupees.