[VaibhaoT]

Originally Posted by haridsv

I haven't either, this is unethical of them. I wonder if we can raise a grievance with RBI and get it addressed.

I am sure AMEX lawyers have got it covered in MITC.

But I am extremally disappointed. I have LTF Amex MRCC. From past 2 years, I feel that Amex is not giving any good discount offers, at least for me. I am not even getting the personalized spend based offers. I am just managing 4 transaction of 1500 each. I generally use it at HPCL bunk or milk wallet recharge.

I don't intent to close it. But I think I will reduce usage of AMEX.

[tejas08]

Originally Posted by VaibhaoT

I am sure AMEX lawyers have got it covered in MITC.

But I am extremally disappointed. I have LTF Amex MRCC. From past 2 years, I feel that Amex is not giving any good discount offers, at least for me. I am not even getting the personalized spend based offers. I am just managing 4 transaction of 1500 each. I generally use it at HPCL bunk or milk wallet recharge.

I don't intent to close it. But I think I will reduce usage of AMEX.

And what better option do you have for a high rewarding card. Axis Bank is a Big Circus and are making the genuine users pay for the misdeeds to the people who looted Axis Cards.

HDFC has already devalued Infinia / DCB.

Amex has been the consistent rewarder IMO. I have 4 Amex Cards right now and concentrating my Online spends on Amex completely.

[Aroy]

I have AMEX charge card (started with IA charge card in 2000 which was discontinued and now converted to LTF gold charge card). I recently converted 17313 points to Rs.4,328.25. Points were for around 5L Spend, so I got approximately 0.8% cash, which is not bad. If I went for exchange schemes the redemption would be at least three times.

On the whole this is much better than other cards.

[tejas08]

Originally Posted by Aroy

I have AMEX charge card (started with IA charge card in 2000 which was discontinued and now converted to LTF gold charge card). I recently converted 17313 points to Rs.4,328.25. Points were for around 5L Spend, so I got approximately 0.8% cash, which is not bad. If I went for exchange schemes the redemption would be at least three times.

On the whole this is much better than other cards.

You definitely need to evaluate your Credit Card Rewards more. Conversion to statement credit is the worst of the lot. Additionally, spending 5 Lacs on Gold Charge is not at all worth it. Spending 4 Lacs on Amex Platinum Travel would have given you easily 7-8% in terms of Travel Rewards.

I know some people always like to point out that Travel Rewards is a compulsory spend but I always ask this question - Do you not like to travel?

Worst Case scenario - Statement Credit Conversion - Still would be 3% Rewards as against 0.8%

[amahale]

Originally Posted by tejas08

HDFC has already devalued Infinia / DCB.

Could you please give more details on this? I recently upgraded to DCB and was looking to upgrade to Infinia in the coming months.

[shipnil]

Originally Posted by tejas08

HDFC has already devalued Infinia / DCB.

Originally Posted by amahale

Could you please give more details on this?

I think he is referring to 5x rewards to 3x on many categories in the Smart Buy portal for DCB. Not sure about the infinia though as it still has the 5x rewards.

[Hells Bells]

Originally Posted by sushantk

Yes and Yes. However, more rewarding approach would be to buy Amazon pay voucher from smartbuy gyftr portal and pay the utility bill using Amazon pay. Buying Amazon pay voucher on smartbuy using infinia will give you 5X points ( minus some processing charge).

I see that one of the conditions where the voucher amount cannot be used is "Transaction outside of Amazon.in where Amazon Pay is a payment option". Would not paying the utility bills sit in such a category?

[VaibhaoT]

Originally Posted by tejas08

And what better option do you have for a high rewarding card. Axis Bank is a Big Circus and are making the genuine users pay for the misdeeds to the people who looted Axis Cards.

HDFC has already devalued Infinia / DCB.

I read about latest action from Axis on Atlas car holder. Its really surprising.
For now, I feel Infinia is my best option. Last year I got close to 1.2 Lakh point on total spend of around ~13/14 Lakh.

Originally Posted by tejas08

Amex has been the consistent rewarder IMO. I have 4 Amex Cards right now and concentrating my Online spends on Amex completely.

I am curious about this. Can you please elaborate more on your Amex strategy?

[shipnil]

Originally Posted by Hells Bells

I see that one of the conditions where the voucher amount cannot be used is "Transaction outside of Amazon.in where Amazon Pay is a payment option". Would not paying the utility bills sit in such a category?

You need to use Amazon Pay gift card and not Amazon Pay vouchers. Balance loaded using gift cards can be used to pay utility bills, recharges, load ICICI fastag to pay for toll and fuel too.

[tejas08]

Originally Posted by VaibhaoT

I am curious about this. Can you please elaborate more on your Amex strategy?

These are the four Amex cards that I hold.

Amex Platinum Travel - Spend Rs. 4 Lacs in 12 Months - Earn 48,000 MR Points + Rs. 10,000 worth Taj Vouchers.

Amex MRCC - Spend Rs. 20,000 per month (Min. 4 Transactions of Rs. 1500 or higher) - 2400 MR Points per month - 28,800 MR Points annually

Amex Gold Charge - This is more for Referral Bonus Quota for me given ~19,000 Followers on Twitter on this same topic. I wouldn't advice focusing on this.

Amex Platinum Charge Card - This is more of a Lifestyle card. I took it based on the extremely lucrative signup bonus that Amex offered last month. 135K MR Points against the annual fee of Rs. 70,800. Again, this is very individual driven. I use my points very very effectively for international travel redemptions. So this is like a discounted future flight purchase for me.

Just focus on the first two cards - Rs. 6.4 Lacs Spends on those two cards. Earns about 76,800 MR Points thru the year. This can be converted to Rs. 42,000 worth Taj Vouchers as a Simple redemption + the Rs. 10,000 worth Taj Vouchers mentioned above. ~52,000 worth Taj Vouchers.

I know Taj Vouchers arent too lucrative for many. But these MR points can be used for booking flights or converting to Marriott Bonvoy for Hotel bookings too.

I value Amex MR Point at 0.5 Re per point. So that's 38K+ savings on 6.4 Lacs spends. Works out to 6% returns.

A bit too much technical but once you get a hang of it, there is no turning back

[sushantk]

Originally Posted by Hells Bells

I see that one of the conditions where the voucher amount cannot be used is "Transaction outside of Amazon.in where Amazon Pay is a payment option". Would not paying the utility bills sit in such a category?

Amazon pay voucher and Amazon shopping voucher are two different things. Amazon pay voucher can be used on any website that supports Amazon pay. Amazon shopping voucher can be used only on the Amazon website/app. I have been using Amazon pay voucher for bill payment and many other payment outside Amazon website too. No issues.

[diablo29]

Originally Posted by sushantk

Amazon pay voucher and Amazon shopping voucher are two different things. Amazon pay voucher can be used on any website that supports Amazon pay. Amazon shopping voucher can be used only on the Amazon website/app. I have been using Amazon pay voucher for bill payment and many other payment outside Amazon website too. No issues.

Just tried it and "Amazon pay" voucher on Gyftr (via HDFC smartbuy) charges extra 2.5% as GST , which reduces the overall benefit.

[sushantk]

Originally Posted by diablo29

Just tried it and "Amazon pay" voucher on Gyftr (via HDFC smartbuy) charges extra 2.5% as GST , which reduces the overall benefit.

Right. But that is on 5x points for infinia. So you still get (5*3.3 -2.5) = 14% benifits. Nothing else can beat that.

[amahale]

Originally Posted by VaibhaoT

Check if they can give you Regalia. When I was pursuing HDFC to upgrade my LTF DCB to Infinia, I was quoting my main reason as lack of acceptance. I was really frustrated with DCB. In its peak rejection phase, even DMart rejected my card. Funny thing is, they accepted Amex.

As a solution, HDFC was offering me LTF Regalia as add on card to DCB. They mentioned that limit will be shared between Regalia and DCB. I firmly rejected the offer though. This was in 2022. They ultimately gave me FYF Infinia.

Originally Posted by turbospooler

But best of all would be if you can escalate and try to get an Infinia. It gives the same reward rate but is in Visa/Mastercard so it would solve your problem.

I make all my spends using credit card wherever possible. I got upgraded to HDFC DCB and within a month I faced acceptance issues and all of them for online transactions (Zoom meeting subscription, Google 1 subscription, Booking.com..etc). I did not want an another VISA/MASTER card, so I was really frustrated. And due to my perseverance and long standing relationship with HDFC, they upgraded me to Infinia
I received two (including one for add-on) boxes with the Infinia card and the Priority pass card.

I had a couple of questions:

1. There was a quarterly spend benefits on DCB (10K reward points). I don't see this in Infinia in the documentation that I have received. Was this discontinued or never available in Infinia?

2. I am about to meet the quarterly spend benefits on DCB; should I achieve this before I activate my Infinia?

3. I have gone through the entire documentation that I have received and nowhere it mentions about the joining fees; is it FYF or LTF. Will the joining fees charges be applied in the first billing cycle?

[VaibhaoT]

Congratulation amahale
Fight is really worth it, if you concentrate your spend on this card.

Originally Posted by amahale

1. There was a quarterly spend benefits on DCB (10K reward points). I don't see this in Infinia in the documentation that I have received. Was this discontinued or never available in Infinia?

There is no quarterly spend benefits with Infinia. They keep bringing the spend based offer. Like spend XXXX in a calendar month and you get 1000/2000 voucher etc. Spend criteria changes every month. I fulfilled three such offers and missed criteria for two. HDFC send email if you are eligible for spend based offer.

Originally Posted by amahale

3. I have gone through the entire documentation that I have received and nowhere it mentions about the joining fees; is it FYF or LTF. Will the joining fees charges be applied in the first billing cycle?

Whoever processed your card should be able to confirm if its FYF. As its impossible to get LTF these days, I would be really surprised that you managed to get one.