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Club Vistara IDFC FIRST card closes on 30th September 2026, replaced by a lifetime free Diamond Reserve

Club Vistara IDFC FIRST Mastercard beside the IDFC FIRST Diamond Reserve Visa Infinite on a marble table, with a passport, boarding pass and a Vistara aircraft tail on the apron at sunset
ArvindTravel on Points

If you hold the Club Vistara IDFC FIRST Credit Card, it stops working on 1st October 2026. IDFC FIRST has started writing to cardholders confirming the closure and telling them what replaces it: a Diamond Reserve Credit Card, with the annual fee waived for as long as you hold it. Nothing to apply for and nothing to pay.

None of this is a surprise. The bank flagged it back in January 2026, when Vistara finished folding into Air India. A co-brand card cannot outlive the airline it is branded after, so the programme was always going to wind up once the transition completed.

The card stops working on 1st October 2026

Spends on the Club Vistara card end after 30th September 2026. The account itself does not vanish that day. If you have EMIs or an outstanding balance, statements keep coming until everything is settled.

What you are getting instead

The Diamond Reserve normally carries a ₹3,000 annual fee. On this migration you get a lifetime waiver, so the card is effectively free for the life of the account. The headline benefits:

  • 0% forex markup on international spends.
  • Up to 40X reward points on travel booked through the IDFC FIRST Bank app.
  • Complimentary airport lounge access.
  • Complimentary golf privileges.
  • Buy one get one on movie tickets.
  • Trip cancellation cover on eligible travel bookings.

The 0% forex markup is not special to this card, to be clear. IDFC FIRST moved its whole credit card range to zero markup in September 2026, and after a brief wobble it restored reward earning on international spends too. We covered that in the IDFC FIRST zero forex update.

Add-on and UPI cards come along

If you have an add-on card or a FIRST Digital Card for UPI on the Club Vistara account, both move across to the Diamond Reserve. The bank is waiving their fees for life as well, so those come out lifetime free too.

Where your Maharaja Points go

Maharaja Points earned on eligible spends up to 30th September 2026 get transferred to the Maharaja Club account linked to your card. They are not written off. Worth logging into Maharaja Club in early October to confirm the batch actually landed, because a transfer that quietly fails is much easier to fix in week one than in month six.

Do check that the Maharaja Club number on file with IDFC FIRST is the account you actually use. If the card is linked to an old or duplicate membership, that is where the points will go.

Dues, EMIs and your credit score

This is the part people skim, and it is the part that costs money. Closing the card does not close the debt.

  • Outstanding balances, EMIs, fees and charges stay payable on their normal due dates until cleared.
  • Active EMIs run to term. You will keep getting Club Vistara statements until the last instalment is done.
  • Repayment keeps getting reported to the credit bureaus while dues remain, so a late payment on a closed card still dents your score.
  • An existing auto-debit instruction for your Club Vistara dues carries over to the Diamond Reserve automatically.

What the bank will not do for you

Subscriptions, standing instructions and recurring payments sitting on the Club Vistara card are your job. The bank moves the auto-debit for your own card bill, but it does not go and update Netflix, your gym, your insurance premium or anything else billing that card number. Miss one and you get a failed payment in October.

  1. List every recurring charge on your Club Vistara statements from the last three or four months. That is the most reliable inventory you will get.
  2. Wait for the Diamond Reserve to arrive and activate it.
  3. Update each merchant with the new card number, then watch for the first successful charge on each one.
  4. Check in early October that your Maharaja Points landed in the linked Maharaja Club account.
  5. If you have EMIs running, keep paying the Club Vistara statements until the balance is zero.

Is this a fair swap?

For a forced migration, it is a decent landing. You lose an airline co-brand, which is a real loss if you were earning Maharaja Points on everyday spends, and you gain a general premium card that costs nothing to keep. A lifetime free card with lounge access, golf and 0% forex is not a card most people would hand back.

The honest caveat is that the Diamond Reserve is not an airline card. If Club Vistara was the engine of your Air India earning, this does not replace it, and you will want to look at what else earns Maharaja Points before October. If you mainly valued the card for lounge access and foreign spends, you are arguably better off than you were.