Team-BHP (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/)

-   Shifting gears (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/shifting-gears/)

-   -   The Credit Card Thread (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/shifting-gears/92603-credit-card-thread-520.html)

I hope you have first loaded the gift cards in Amazon Pay Balance. Once it is there, you can initiate the flow from ICICI FASTAG etoll app and use Amazon Pay Wallet as the method to pay. Just to be sure, just now I tried loading 500 in FASTAG and it went through.

Finally figured out the problem. There are two types of ICICI Fastag.

1. ICICI Fastag - Regular one
2. ICICI amazon pay Fastag - This is tied to Amazon

Do not buy the amazon one. This will not let you recharge with amazon pay balance. This is very counter intuitive. But it is what it is.

I bought the stupid ICICI amazon fastag and will need to close this one and buy the regular one. :Frustrati

No idea man. Mine is ICICI Amazon Pay Fastag only, but it works with etoll app. Not sure if Amazon changed any policy recently. I bought it when Paytm was closing down. There was a lot of hue and cry on Fastag thread that it does not use Amazon Pay balance and need to be recharged specifically. But I am not complaining:). May be the newer ones are deducting directly from Amazon Pay Balance.

Also, one more point. There are transaction charges of about 1.65% if you load fastag using Amazon Pay.

Yes, looks like a new policy. Called up amazon to close the amazon ICICI Fastag. Will need to purchase the proper ICICI Fastag after this is closed.

I understand the additional charge for loading. But looks like it is still worth it.

Hi
Yes, I have gotten the Taj vouchers extended by the Amex team last year. Works just fine however Taj now a days has some conditions on redemption which seem to be entirely dependent on the property. Just last month they did not honor one of the vouchers saying since we booked "Members Only" rate via their website and these vouchers cannot be redeemed against that. The same went through just fine on another property 3 months ago.

There are actually 3 versions :)

1. Regular ICICI fastag

2. Old version of Amazon PAy ICICI fastag ordered before 16th March 2024 - It has ICICI wallet. Needs to be recharged like any other fastag wallet. Apay voucher balance works for recharge without any convenience charges

3. New version of Amazon Pay ICICI fastag ordered after 17th March 2024 - It takes money directly from Amazaon Pay wallet / voucher balance. Like Paytm. It does not need recharge. Just buy APay vouchers using credit cards and load the balance. Toll will be deducted directly from wallet voucher balance

One question regarding the valuation of MR points at .5 rs. Is that the standard valuation for most of the ways you can redeem the MR points or is it applicable only for certain modes of redemption? It would be helpful if you can mention a few ways to get this value for MR points.
I am sorry if what I am asking is common knowledge, in which case please point me in the relevant direction.

Do you mean to say, we can use Amazon Shopping Vouchers to load fastag without convenience charges? Or Are you referring Amazon Gift Card balances?

It's an approximation based on what is normally considered as the best way to redeem the points which is either Taj vouchers (.5 per point) or Marriot Bonvoy points (1:1 transfers). Marriot points are generally valued at .5 per point in the community but it's possible to gain far greater value out of it based on your travel requirements.

There are other options like Flipkart at .30/point or travel at .25 etc. but then the value gets a steep drop.

And don't worry about asking questions here, we are all learning from each other.

Amazon Pay Vouchers which also mean Amazon Pay Gift cards

Not amazon shopping vouchers. They can only be used to shop on Amazon

I have a SBI Club Vistara Prime Credit card and the credit limit is a pittance 1L. I have tried asking them to increase the credit limit and shared the latest salary slip docs yet they seem to ignore the requests. As per them I will have to wait for completion of 6 months before they can give CLE. I have been regularly hitting almost 80k spends for the past quarter and yet SBI team like sarkaari ways of working is refusing to increase the limit.

Any other ways I can get the CLE?

If you have a stay booked, then you can specifically ask them to extend. Amex does extend for 3 months once generally. Even expired ones have been extended but do remember that its on their discretion, so may not be able to push much. It will have to be more of a request.

Greetings to all the members,
It’s great to see threads on such important topics other than cars on Team-BHP.

I have gone through many pages of this Thread and gained substantial knowledge regarding the use of CC and various different offerings of CC by banks

USE CASE
We as a Family majorly use Cash(80%) and seldomly UPI for our major spends.
So upon getting a Card I think we would spend maximum 3-4 Lakhs per annum.
We need a card that would give us maximum benefits for the following usage:-
1. Monthly Fuel Spends(in the range of 20-25k)
2. Orders from Foreign E-Commerce sites


We travel very less so no airport lounge access is needed.

BANKS
My father has his Account in SBI and HDFC.
He has good relationships (15-20 years)with the both banks. He has taken several loans and policy too from each bank.


Members please help me by suggesting to which Credit Card should be apply for.

Actually, the #3 you mentioned - Newer Version of Amazon pay ICICI Fastag can be recharged only by Amazon Pay UPI/Netbanking/Credit/Debit cards.
The amazon pay GV balance cannot be used to recharge this any more. This is the exact problem I ran into and in the process of closing my fastag that I got 3 days back.

But the regular ICICI-only Fastag can be recharged with Amazon Pay GV Balance on the eToll app.

Option A: HDFC Infinia

If he can get a premium card like Infinia, that would be best. This would work for all your normal spends and also for your international spends. The 2.36% forex markup will be taken care of by the 3.3% reward rate. But you cannot use this for UPI payments.

Option B: Niyo SBM Credit Card + HDC Tata Neu Rupay Credit card

If he cannot get Infinia, then get Niyo SBM Credit card. This is a FD based secured credit card and gives 0% forex mark up for international spends. Do not use this for domestic spends.

Get a Rupay credit card like HDFC TATA Neu Infinity if you want to spend via UPI and for domestic spends. These two should be fairly easy to get.