[searacer932]

Bank of Baroda is offering life time free credit card.

• No Joining Fee
• No Annual Fee

You can see offer details here

https://www.bobfinancial.com/index.jsp

P.S : I am not related to BOB in anyway at all . I applied for this card through this offer and I thought that members might find this useful.

[tejas08]

Originally Posted by motorworks

Just a quick question folks, what would be a good alternative to the American Express platinum card?
I have been using this for over 6 years now, no complaints as such, have enjoyed decent benefits, like Taj Hotel vouchers, ability to convert points to flipkart vouchers etc, but the yearly fee of nearly 4500 is still steep. Also, whatever American Express says, the acceptability of this card is still an issue in many places, including fuel outlets!

So I have been thinking if there is a cheaper, but equally good alternative to my American Express platinum card. I have multiple accounts in icici, so if there is a good credit card option with icici it would probably make my life easier to apply. Any feedback would be great!

Being nitpicky first.

What you are referring to is the 'Platinum Travel' Credit Card. Amex 'Platinum' is the top of the line in the Platinum Cards series above which only the 'Centurion' Card (globally referred to as the Black Card) sits.

Alternatives depend on a lot of things and there is no straight forward answer to it. Amex acceptance issues can be overcome by buying different vouchers via the Amex Reward Multiplier Link.

https://www.gyftr.com/amexrewardmultiplier/

You can buy HPCL / BPCL Vouchers and get 3X Reward Points on your fuel spends instead of swiping your Amex directly and getting Zilch.

Similarly, Amazon Vouchers can come very handy for a lot of online payments which again can be bought from the link above and you get 3X Reward Points on it. Explore the list of Gift Vouchers available to check which all payments can be diverted by buying Gift Vouchers from the above link.

P.S. - Gift Vouchers are for Online as well as offline use. So dont assume that you can only use this online. Explore in detail.

[Vandit]

Originally Posted by Everlearner

HDFC RMs are nothing but glorious salesmen. They keep calling me for selling products, but when I ask them for any help, they just say please contact nearest branch . It's more or less same with other banks as well.

When I checked with my RM on upgrade to Infinia, she told me she will get back, but it had been 2 years now.

Bingo. Exactly the same thing now.

My RM has completely ghosted me. Can't really say I'm surprised, but this is one reason why I've begun to utterly detest HDFC and their "service" over the years.

The change in their customer centricity and approach/attitude in general has been for the worse. This I say after having a banning relationship with them since 2005 and a credit card since 2008 if I remember correctly.

It's unfortunate they have one of the better product at the moment for credit cards or I'd really not bother about this bank

[vinu_h]

I had purchased a cake & a bouquet from Ferns n Petals yesterday, both of which never turned up. Customer Care claims that they tried calling me and did visit the apt as well, but, they did not get a response. I have not received a call or a missed call alert and nor was my phone busy when they said they tried and apartment security is confirming that nobody came asking for me. They won't agree to refund either. Wish I had read the reviews.

I paid for this via my SC credit card. Is there a way to get Std Chartered to not pay FnP and annul the transaction ?

[mav2000]

Originally Posted by tejas08

If Infinia doesnt suit you, might as well say so. The argument you have mentioned is honestly baseless in my opinion. There are thousands of Infinia and DCB user who are using Smartbuy day in day out seamlessly. Contrary to your understanding, the bonus points are credited within the next month and absolutely accurately to the last point.

I have to agree with you. The HDFC cards are amazing. After just one year of use, I had enough points to pay for three tickets to Turkey, 4 internal flights there and back. This was back in 2019, when there were amazing offers on getting 10x points. Like transferring to your forex card. I made full use of the card for all amazon/flipkart transactions and also transferred all the money needed for the trip through my HDFC Diners.

I recently got upgraded to the Infinia card and have a whole lot of points now, but sadly cant use any of it for travel during these covid times. I wanted to buy an iphone from some of the points, but they only offer the 64GB option, which does not work for me.

I continue to buy 5k worth of Amazon vouchers every month and just add it to my amazon balance, as it is sure to get used. Is there still a cap on smartbuy vouchers?

[Everlearner]

Originally Posted by mav2000

I continue to buy 5k worth of Amazon vouchers every month and just add it to my amazon balance, as it is sure to get used. Is there still a cap on smartbuy vouchers?

The limit had been increased to 10k now and the reward rate is halved from 10x to 5x. So, you will get the same number of points for 10k now instead of 5k

[tejas08]

Originally Posted by mav2000

I recently got upgraded to the Infinia card and have a whole lot of points now, but sadly cant use any of it for travel during these covid times. I wanted to buy an iphone from some of the points, but they only offer the 64GB option, which does not work for me.

I continue to buy 5k worth of Amazon vouchers every month and just add it to my amazon balance, as it is sure to get used. Is there still a cap on smartbuy vouchers?

I have been accumulating HDFC points for more than 30+ Months now. While I never want to accumulate for such large timeframes considering devaluations, this accumulation has given me the opportunity to explore the world of Airmiles. While I have accumulated HDFC points for 30+ Months, they no longer sit in the HDFC account. They have been moved to Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer Account. Plan is to utilise those Airmiles for Business or First Class Tickets.

As for the Amazon Vouchers cap, its 10K and not 5K. This happened when Vouchers reward was reduced from 10X to 5X.

[kushagra452]

Hi all,

I am using a ICICI Amazon Pay CC. The cashback is credited to my Amazon Pay account. Can anyone suggest a card in which the cashback is credited directly to my card or bank account? My annual spend is about 1.5L.

Thanks!

[Rahulbarik]

Originally Posted by kushagra452

Hi all,

I am using a ICICI Amazon Pay CC. The cashback is credited to my Amazon Pay account. Can anyone suggest a card in which the cashback is credited directly to my card or bank account? My annual spend is about 1.5L.

Thanks!

Try Flipkart Axis Bank card then. Much better rhan Amazon ICICI. I have both, but end up using the Flipkart one as there is 1.5% cashback on all transactions, 5% back on flipkart and myntra, 4% back on uber, swiggy, urban company and few more. All cashback adjusted against next month statement.

[Jaguar]

Is there any premium CC from Standard Chartered that is worth considering that can be comparable to the likes of Infinia? I have my salary account there and my RM has been bugging me to get a card. Currently, I mainly use HDFC Regalia and Amex Gold Rewards cards. Since I don't have other banking relationships with HDFC, upgrades have been slow and I suppose I will have to wait another year or two before they offer me the Infinia.

[Lobogris]

Originally Posted by mav2000

I have to agree with you. The HDFC cards are amazing. After just one year of use, I had enough points to pay for three tickets to Turkey, 4 internal flights there and back. This was back in 2019, when there were amazing offers on getting 10x points. Like transferring to your forex card. I made full use of the card for all amazon/flipkart transactions and also transferred all the money needed for the trip through my HDFC Diners.?

Could you please provide a rough estimate of how much you had to spend on the card to get requisite and what was the appropriate price of these tickets?

Originally Posted by tejas08

I have been accumulating HDFC points for more than 30+ Months now. While I never want to accumulate for such large timeframes considering devaluations, this accumulation has given me the opportunity to explore the world of Airmiles. While I have accumulated HDFC points for 30+ Months, they no longer sit in the HDFC account. They have been moved to Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer Account. Plan is to utilise those Airmiles for Business or First Class Tickets.

As for the Amazon Vouchers cap, its 10K and not 5K. This happened when Vouchers reward was reduced from 10X to 5X.

Since you are a renowned expert on credit cards in general and HDFC cards in particular, would you be kind enough to explain the Smartbuy system. For instance, which cards can benefit from it and how does the reward rate differ between Regalia, Infinia etc when it comes to Smartbuy? When people talk about purchasing 5k or 10k worth of Amazon vouchers each month, what kind of savings does that invoke on each HDFC variant and how much we have to spend beforehand to have the points available to purchase these 5k or 10k vouchers? It would be very useful if you could take the example of 10k Amazon voucher purchase on Smartbuy and explain what I would have to spend to have sufficient points available for it and what savings this voucher purchase would entail. Thanks in advance!

[mav2000]

Originally Posted by Lobogris

Could you please provide a rough estimate of how much you had to spend on the card to get requisite and what was the appropriate price of these tickets?

Can't really remember now, but it was close to 1.45 lac points all put together for international plus internal flights for 3 of us.

A majority of that 1.45 lac points came from the 10x multiplier, which I used a lot on Amazon and transfer to forex card. For eg, back then you could get something like 15-30% as points just for transferring from credit card to forex card.

[chinkara]

Originally Posted by Lobogris

It would be very useful if you could take the example of 10k Amazon voucher purchase on Smartbuy and explain what I would have to spend to have sufficient points available for it and what savings this voucher purchase would entail. Thanks in advance!

In Regalia 660 points = Rs. 100 voucher. A spend of Rs. 50000 PM with say, 10,000 through smartbuy gives you approx 3.5 K points. Hope this helps.

[Lobogris]

Originally Posted by chinkara

In Regalia 660 points = Rs. 100 voucher. A spend of Rs. 50000 PM with say, 10,000 through smartbuy gives you approx 3.5 K points. Hope this helps.

Could you please explain what one can buy via Smartbuy apart from gift vouchers and travel? As per the calculation provided by you, if I get 3.5k points after spending 50k and and 6.6 points equal Rs 1 then it seems like I am getting a notional value of around Rs500 which seems like just 1% of the 50k spent and this is after 10k spend on Smartbuy. Am I calculating it wrong?

[SilentEngine]

Originally Posted by chinkara

In Regalia 660 points = Rs. 100 voucher.

This is very bad conversion value (15%). I assume you are converting from Netbanking.
If you convert points in Smartbuy portal, you get 35%. Example: Rs 5000 Amazon Pay Giftcard for 14,280 points, is what i usually convert.