Premium Cards for High Offline Spends

[Walter White]

Suggestions for a CC based on the following parameters:

• 70-30 split between offline and online spends respectively
• Majority of the spends will on hotels with occasional spends on domestic flight tickets
• Annual spends will be between 4-5LPA (average case)
• Uneven spends (No fixed monthly spend target)
• Using a combination of LTF DCB and Amex Platinum Travel
• Might close Amex if I get a card with an even better rate of return
• Most spends will be reimbursed by employer, so annual fee not a big constraint if it is being compensated by the savings made

 

[Tarun239]

magnus will be beneficial, if u take into account milestone benefits.

 

[Delsin]

Go for AU LIT, if your monthly offline spends are around 10K, you can get 5.14% back.

 

[netsec]

Suggestions for a CC based on the following parameters:

• 70-30 split between offline and online spends respectively
• Majority of the spends will on hotels with occasional spends on domestic flight tickets
• Annual spends will be between 4-5LPA (average case)
• Uneven spends (No fixed monthly spend target)
• Using a combination of LTF DCB and Amex Platinum Travel
• Might close Amex if I get a card with an even better rate of return
• Most spends will be reimbursed by employer, so annual fee not a big constraint if it is being compensated by the savings made

Why do you want to close Amex Platinum Travel? From my perspective, it's the only card available in market which gives you high return at low spend threshold. You get almost 35k additional milestone points(Worth 8K) and 10k Taj voucher just by spending 4Lac.

I would recommend to continue with Amex and add Axis Magnus as another card for spending where Amex isn't accepted.

 

[pandyag]

Go for AU LIT, if your monthly offline spends are around 10K, you can get 5.14% back.

i just got a call for au lit ltf. can you please explain how?

 

[Walter White]

Why do you want to close Amex Platinum Travel? From my perspective, it's the only card available in market which gives you high return at low spend threshold. You get almost 35k additional milestone points(Worth 8K) and 10k Taj voucher just by spending 4Lac.

I would recommend to continue with Amex and add Axis Magnus as another card for spending where Amex isn't accepted.

I am not planning to close Amex, not as of now atleast.

Most of my personal spends are on 2 Vistara Cards (1.5L each per year) giving me 4 PE tickets and 2 upgrade vouchers. My spends are still less than 1L a month, so Magnus is out, atleast at this point of time.

In case, the Vistara cards get devalued given the uncertainty regarding the future of the airline, I will have to go back to the drawing board and start looking for alternatives and change my current strategy. Therefore, the need to start looking for alternatives.

 

[Dr. Drake]

Axis Atlas is a good option, If your primary spends are on hotel/Airlines. It comes with fees with no waiver option though the return offsets the fees easily

 

[kkk]

Suggestions for a CC based on the following parameters:

• 70-30 split between offline and online spends respectively
• Majority of the spends will on hotels with occasional spends on domestic flight tickets
• Annual spends will be between 4-5LPA (average case)
• Uneven spends (No fixed monthly spend target)
• Using a combination of LTF DCB and Amex Platinum Travel
• Might close Amex if I get a card with an even better rate of return
• Most spends will be reimbursed by employer, so annual fee not a big constraint if it is being compensated by the savings made

Axis Atlas.

 

[DarkKnight]

IF ur spends are on travel and hotel, then I ll suggest go for Magnus if u can achieve 1 lakh target for 3 - 4 mnths otherwise Atlas as suggested above!

 

[Theo]

What is the spend amount annually? How much is on hotels?

 

[Walter White]

What is the spend amount annually? How much is on hotels?

Approx 3-3.2 LPA is spent on hotels. Other than that another 1L on flights. Hotel spends are offline. Other than that around 3.5-4L are personal and other household expenses, most of which are currently being done using Vistara Cards.

 

[Delsin]

@pandyag Activate 5% Additional Cashback and 10X Reward Points on Offline Transactions
Total Charges = (299 + 54) * 2 = 706
These features are applicable for 3 Months.
1st Month - Spend 10K
Cashback - 500
Reward Points - 1000
Same for 2nd Month and 3rd Month.

Total Spends - 30K
Total Cashback - 1500
Total Reward Points - 3000 ~ 750 Rs (Reward Point Value = 0.25)

Returns = (1500+750 - 706) / 30000 * 100 = 5.14%

Cashback is capped at 500 Per Month due to which I usually put offline expenses till 10K on LIT and then switch back to DCB
Reward rate for offline expenses above 10K is 2.5% which is still good (DCB is 3.3%).
And you get AU Offers even if you do not have any features activated.

 

[anirban.choudhuryanirban.choudhury is verified member.]

Suggestions for a CC based on the following parameters:

• 70-30 split between offline and online spends respectively
• Majority of the spends will on hotels with occasional spends on domestic flight tickets
• Annual spends will be between 4-5LPA (average case)
• Uneven spends (No fixed monthly spend target)
• Using a combination of LTF DCB and Amex Platinum Travel
• Might close Amex if I get a card with an even better rate of return
• Most spends will be reimbursed by employer, so annual fee not a big constraint if it is being compensated by the savings made

Axis Atlas

 

[itsds]

@pandyag Activate 5% Additional Cashback and 10X Reward Points on Offline Transactions
Total Charges = (299 + 54) * 2 = 706
These features are applicable for 3 Months.
1st Month - Spend 10K
Cashback - 500
Reward Points - 1000
Same for 2nd Month and 3rd Month.

Total Spends - 30K
Total Cashback - 1500
Total Reward Points - 3000 ~ 750 Rs (Reward Point Value = 0.25)

Returns = (1500+750 - 706) / 30000 * 100 = 5.14%

Cashback is capped at 500 Per Month due to which I usually put offline expenses till 10K on LIT and then switch back to DCB
Reward rate for offline expenses above 10K is 2.5% which is still good (DCB is 3.3%).
And you get AU Offers even if you do not have any features activated.

is offline transations included in 5% additional cashback category ? Did you try to use and get it ?

 

[Delsin]

is offline transations included in 5% additional cashback category ? Did you try to use and get it ?

Yes it is...now reward rate is slightly reduced as they started charging 99 Rs for reward point redemption

 

[shsinha]

i just got a call for au lit ltf. can you please explain how?

enable milestone benefit, enable 5% for travel, 2.5% for offline etc... you can get ~10% cashback for around 10k/month... afterwards, rate will decrease.