SBI Card and Google Pay launch Flex SBI Card with UPI access and ₹1,000 welcome benefits

The fully digital Flex SBI Card, available on RuPay and Visa, combines credit-card spending, UPI payments and app-based rewards. Customers can earn up to 18,000 Stars annually; the ₹499 annual fee is waived on yearly spends of ₹1 lakh.

— Source publishedWed, 29 Jul, 2026, 19:53 IST·First seen Wed, 29 Jul, 2026, 21:11 IST·Source NDTV Profit

What happened

SBI Cards and Payment Services · SBI Cards and Google Pay launched the fully digital Flex SBI Card in India on RuPay and Visa. The card combines credit, UPI and

Key facts

  • Rs 1,000 welcome benefit
  • Up to 18,000 Stars annually
  • 1 Star = Rs 1
  • Rs 499 joining and annual renewal fee plus taxes
  • Annual fee waiver at Rs 1 lakh annual spend
  • 20% year-on-year Q1 FY27 profit growth to Rs 664 crore
  • 27% year-on-year card-spend growth to Rs 1,18,475 crore
  • 2.26 crore cards in force
  • 7% year-on-year cards-in-force growth
  • Gross Stage 3 ratio of 2.04% versus 2.41% in Q4 FY26

Why this matters

The SBI Card–Google Pay partnership illustrates the strategic value of combining issuer balance-sheet economics with a high-frequency payments platform, raising the appeal of alliances with UPI, wallet and rewards-tech players.

What to watch

  • SBI Card disclosures on Flex card issuance, activation rate, monthly active users and spend mix between UPI and conventional card rails.
  • Whether Visa-linked Flex cards receive meaningful UPI functionality or whether RuPay becomes the dominant adoption route.
  • Changes in UPI credit-card merchant acceptance, transaction caps, MDR economics and merchant steering behavior.
  • Google Pay placement of Flex rewards, offer inventory and checkout visibility relative to rival issuer cards.
  • Evidence of increased low-ticket credit transactions, higher retail basket sizes or rising delinquency among digitally acquired customers.
  • Competitor launches from HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, Axis Bank, PhonePe, Paytm or Amazon Pay that combine UPI credit access with app-native rewards.
  • SBI Card is likely to add merchant-category accelerators, limited-time Stars multipliers and Google Pay-exclusive redemption offers to build habitual UPI card usage.
  • Google Pay may expand co-branded or issuer-specific credit propositions, using transaction data and rewards placement to strengthen its role against PhonePe, Paytm and bank apps.
  • Large retailers and quick-commerce platforms may seek sponsored Stars campaigns, instant-discount offers and UPI-on-credit checkout promotions targeted to Flex cardholders.
  • Competing issuers may respond with lower spend thresholds for fee waivers, higher UPI reward rates or direct integrations with other payment apps.
  • Retail finance teams may need to monitor whether credit-on-UPI raises conversion and average order value enough to offset promotion funding and any payment-acceptance cost differences.