Suggest to consolidate or close and optimize my cards

[cardio_guy]

Hey All,
I'm taking another look at my card collection. I'm considering closing or consolidating some cards, or maybe switching to more efficient ones for all my needs.
Just to give you some background, I started this card journey back in November 2022. It's been almost 2 years now and I've applied for and closed quite a few cards along the way. So here's where I'm at:

Spends:

• - For my daily expenses, grocery shopping, and offline UPI payments, I spend around 25k per month.
• - When it comes to Amazon purchases, I use it for all my water and electricity payments, as well as some grocery shopping and other stuff.
• - Swiggy is my go-to for most grocery shopping, Instamart, Genie, and Dineout.
• - Occasionally, I use Jio Mart if there are items I can't find on Amazon or Swiggy.
• - I pay around 12k per quarter for LIC premiums.
• - Fuel costs me around 10k per month.
• - I travel by train or flight once a month, usually spending no more than 20k for a round trip.
• - I don't stay in hotels regularly, maybe once a quarter or 3-4 times a year, and never for more than 2-3 days.
• - Miscellaneous expenses amount to around 20k per month.

As for bank accounts:
- I have my salary account with ICICI Bank.
- For all other purposes, I use SBI as my savings account.

Credit Cards:

Card	Limit, Fee	Uses
ICICI Amazon Pay	10L, LTF	Primarily for all Amazon purchases, and other miscellaneous. Mainly because direct cashback to Amazon Pay Wallet which I can use for purchases.
ICICI Sapphiro	10L, LTF	For B1G1 movie offers, and Lounge Access. But spends are considerably less on this now.
ICICI Coral Rupay	LTF, 10L Shared with Sapphiro	Not using. No impact even if I close this.
HDFC Swiggy	1.24L, 500 + 500 (waived for 2L annual spend)	Mainly for Swiggy Genie, Instamart, and Swiggy food. 10% cashback. Also for other online purchases. (Mostly to meet 2L limit)
Federal Celesta	5L, LTF	For Lounge access. Now a days Federal is giving lot of offers on their cards. Haven't used much, but I am thinking of using this looking at the rewards/cashbacks/points.
Federal Wave Rupay	5L, LTF, shared with Celesta	This is my primary UPI card, linked to Google Pay. Using it for all UPI scans.

I just need one or two cards. Any better alternatives? Or this is enough? Kindly suggest.

 

[drsel]

Get Axis Airtel, SBI cashback and Axis atlas

 

[mj01]

Get rid of coral. No point holding sapphiro and coral. If your salary/ NRV with ICICI is good, try to push for emeralde private (not easy to get, but worth a try) - if successful, you can get rid of sapphiro and celesta. Alternatively, Yes Marquee will also pretty much offer all benefits you get from Sapphiro/ celesta.

 

[cardio_guy]

Revisiting this thread after 3 months. Some changes have happened.
Spends have reduced a lot. Regular spends are around 20-25k per month only including all expenses.

• Added one card - IDFC First Wealth. Just got it because it is LTF, not using it.
• Stopped using Federal cards altogether.
• Using ICICI Coral for UPI scan.
• Using HDFC Swiggy or ICICI Amazon for online spends. (Including bill payments, ticket bookings, groceries & utilities)
• Using HDFC Swiggy for offline spends.
• Flight travel is very rare. If I travel, Celesta and Sapphiro can give lounge access.
• Hotel stay is negligible. But open to look for decent hotel memberships through cards or bank accounts.

Future plans

• Get one HNI banking relationship.
• Get one or two super premium cards.
• Consolidate all spends into these SP cards and close all other unused and unwanted cards.

 

[cardio_guy]

Updated spends as of October 2024. (approximate amounts)

Item	Amount	App	Comments
Ola cab	2000 per month	Gpay from bank account	Ola drivers are unreliable in my place. Ola money or credit cards causes disputes in many times.
Swiggy - Instamart, Genie	15000 per month	HDFC Swiggy	10% cashback is very good.
Amazon purchases	2000 per month	Apay ICICI	5% cashback is OK. I think even Swiggy card gives 5% here.
Bill payments - Electricity, water, gas	4000 per month	Apay ICICI	Either directly I pay using Apay card, or buy voucher and use. both cases 2% cashback is pretty OK
Fuel	15000 per month	ICICI Coral Rupay UPI Scan	This is what I need to sort out. Fuel is the biggest expense and I might go for a better card here.
Subscriptions	2400 Google One (Yearly) 8000 Reliance Jio (Yearly) 1500 Amazon Prime (Yearly) 200 Youtube Premium (monthly)	Apay ICICI	Mostly standing instructions in ICICI Apay card. I think 1 or 2% cashback applies here.
Insurance	3000 per month	Apay ICICI (using gift card)	Again, Apay gift card works here.
Offline Spends	2000 per month	HDFC Swiggy or ICICi Sapphiro	Mostly to meet the spend limits for fee waiver or lounge access.
Train, flight tickets	2000 per month	HDFC Swiggy or ICICi Sapphiro	Just as a part of convenience. I might move these to better cards if I consolidate.
Unexpected expense (if any)	5000 per month	HDFC Swiggy or ICICi Sapphiro	Just as a part of convenience. I might move these to better cards if I consolidate.

Total monthly expenses come to around Rs 50,000/-

[EDIT]:
Adding some cash transactions for other daily essentials, vegetables, and few other things : Rs 10,000/- per month.
So, Total monthly expenses come to around Rs 60,000/-

(EDIT 2)
Add Rs 5000/- per month for temple and Puja related expenses.
Another 10,0000/- per month (other family members miscellaneous expenses).

So altogether it comes to expense of Rs 75,000/- per month.

It was a good calculation. I never expected that the monthly household expenses will be this much.
Now I need to plan for my investments based on this. This was a good exercise.


Apart from the above, I also use Pluxee card for food and groceries (Rs 2200/- per month). Some months I use pluxee and not credit cards.

Sometimes I don't use the pluxee balance for 2-3 months and make it Rs 8800/- (maximum limit allowed by our company).

 

[newinnov]

Federal was a good riddance 👍

 

[Rahul098]

Try getting axis ace I got it fyf it gives 5% cashback for bill payments via gpay and it is also good for offline spends gives 1.5%. I am not sure how much the swiggy card and sapphiro gives for your offline spends and since you are having 4k bill payments per month it will be better than apay at 2%. The fees is also justified at 590 you will be getting 2.4k for bill payments alone in an year

 

[cardio_guy]

Apply for rupay debit card in icici use it on Friday on amazon to get 100 rs off on utility bills.
Once per month.

That's great. I do have the ICICI Rupay platinum debit card. But how do I make this payment?
I use Amazon Pay for electricity bills. You mean to say, use the same Amazon pay, but choose the payment method as card, and use this debit card to pay? And is it a cashback that comes to the bank account, or direct Off on the bill amount (I pay 100 less)?

 

[cardio_guy]

Try getting axis ace I got it fyf it gives 5% cashback for bill payments via gpay and it is also good for offline spends gives 1.5%. I am not sure how much the swiggy card and sapphiro gives for your offline spends and since you are having 4k bill payments per month it will be better than apay at 2%. The fees is also justified at 590 you will be getting 2.4k for bill payments alone in an year

Thanks. There is one reason why I use HDFC Swiggy or Sapphiro -
Swiggy needs me to spend 2L to waive off the annual fees.
Sapphiro needs me to spend 5000 in one quarter to be eligible for Lounge Access in the next quarter. (so these will also be met if I use them).

 

[Rahul098]

That's great. I do have the ICICI Rupay platinum debit card. But how do I make this payment?
I use Amazon Pay for electricity bills. You mean to say, use the same Amazon pay, but choose the payment method as card, and use this debit card to pay? And is it a cashback that comes to the bank account, or direct Off on the bill amount (I pay 100 less)?

You will pay less

 

[cardio_guy]

I have re-looked once more and this is the present status:

Cards:

Card	Limit & Fee	Benefit	Status
ICICI Amazon Pay	10L - LTF	5% on all amazon purchases including hotels and flights	Main card now
HDFC Swiggy	1.5L - 500	10% on all Swiggy purchases, Instamart, Genie	Main card now
ICICI Coral Rupay	10L - LTF	UPI scans	Main card now for UPI
ICICI Sapphiro	10L - LTF	BMS B1G1 upto Rs 500, 2 times a month	Not using
Federal Celesta	5L - LTF	Lounge access, no spend criteria	Not using
IDFC First Wealth	4L - LTF	CFAR flight ticket 2 times a year.	Not using
HFC Regalia Gold	TBD	In progress	TBD
HDFC Tata Neu Infinity	1499	To replace Coral Rupay	UPI scans, office swipes, bill payments etc.

Expenses:

Service	Monthly Spend (avg)	Card used	Benefit
Ola Cab	3000	Gpay from bank	-
Grocery - Swiggy Instamart	10000	HDFC Swiggy	10% cashback
Drop Food - Swiggy Genie	5000	HDFC Swiggy	10% cashback
Amazon Purchases	3000	ICICI Amazon Pay	5% cashback
Electricity Bill	2000	ICICI Amazon Pay	2% cashback
Water Bill	1000	ICICI Amazon Pay	2% cashback
Gas	1000	ICICI Amazon Pay	2% cashback
Petrol	15000	ICICI Amazon Pay	2% cashback
LIC Premium	4000	ICICI Amazon Pay	2% cashback
Oil, Vegetables, Milk	5000	Cash	-
Offline shops, Card Swipes	5000	HDFC Swiggy	1% cashback
Trains and Flights	4000	ICICI Amazon Pay	5% cashback
Online purchases - Myntra + others	10000	ICICI Amazon Pay	5% or 2% cashback
Temple, puja, flowers, etc	5000	Cash	-
Online Subscriptions, Mobile Recharges	1500	ICICI Amazon Pay	5% cashback
UPI Scan	5000	ICICI Coral	-
Miscellaneous, Emergency	4500	HDFC Swiggy	1% cashback
Total (monthly approx)	84000

Summary:

Category	Monthly	Yearly
Online grocery	15000	180000
Offline spends	15000	180000
Online shopping	22000	264000
Utilities & bills	4000	48000
Insurance premium	4000	48000
Fuel	15000	180000
Train & Flight	4000	48000
UPI scan	5000	60000
Total	84000	1008000

This pretty much sums up my current expenses. Some of them may not be accurate. But overall the expenses will be in between 70000 and 80000 monthly. Out of which, 10k is spent using cash. Remaining is spent online using cards.

Also, since I am not a frequent traveler and hotel stayer, I am OK not to fret about those additional benefits that occur once a while.

I will replan my card strategy only if some other card gives better returns and benefits than above.
Anyway After getting HDFC cards, I will revisit if anything needs to be changed.

 

[cardio_guy]

Some more changes recently and here is how I stand today:

These are the cards:

• Active Cards:
  • ICICI Amazon Pay (LTF)
  • HDFC Swiggy (Paid)
  • HDFC Tata Neu Infinity (Paid)
• Inactive LTF Cards:
  • ICICI Sapphiro (Used for BMS B1G1 offer rarely)
  • IDFC First Wealth (Not used at all)
  • Federal Celesta (Used for lounge access rarely)

And these are my family expenses:

Category	Monthly	Yearly	Card used & cashback
Online grocery	15000	180000	Swiggy 10%, Amazon 5%
Offline spends	15000	180000	Neu Infinity 1% (I think)
Online shopping	22000	264000	Swiggy 10%, Amazon 5%
Utilities & bills	4000	48000	Neu Infinity 5%
Insurance premium	4000	48000	Neu Infinity 5%
Fuel	15000	180000	Neu Infinity 0%
Train & Flight	4000	48000	Neu Infinity 5%, Amazon 5%
UPI scan	5000	60000	Neu Infinity 1.5%
Total	84000	1008000

How do I use them in an optimal way, or what changes do I need to make? Please suggest.

 

[cardio_guy]

Changes:

• Closed ICICI Coral Rupay and took Tata Neu Infinity Rupay (paid).
• Moved all utility bill payments, insurance, recharges etc from Amazon Pay to Neu Infinity through Neu app.(Hope this is a right move)
• Started using Neu Infinity for offline spends and card swipes instead of cash that was being used earlier.
• Now majority of the spends are using Tata Neu Infinity and Swiggy cards. (May look into a better optimal option later.)
• Not proceeding with HDFC salary account opening due to some technical difficulties.
• Opened HSBC salary account. Opting for Live+ and Platinum cards. Also, considering to take Premier variant once eligibility is reached.

 

[cardio_guy]

Update:
There has been some churn and I am still working to optimize.

Cards:

Credit Card​	Limit​	Fees​	Main Usage​
HDFC Swiggy​	1.52 L​	LTF​	10% on Instamart, Genie, 5% on Ola, Amazon​
HDFC Tata Neu Infinity​	1.52 L​	LTF​	1.5% on UPI scan and offline swipes 5% on utility bill payments Lounge access without spend criteria​
ICICI Amazon Pay​	10.3 L​	LTF​	5% on Amazon spends 2% on utilities, gift cards 1% on offline spend​
ICICI Sapphiro​	10.3 L​	LTF​	B1G1 on BMS​
Federal Celesta​	5 L​	LTF​	Lounge access without spend criteria​
HSBC Platinum​	3 L​	LTF​	Instant discounts on apps​
Indusind Tiger​	5 L​	LTF​	1 movie ticket free once in 6 months Lounge access without spend criteria​
IDFC First Wealth​	4 L​	LTF​	Cancel for any reason - flight ticket (2 times a year). Claimable through insurance, not used yet.​

Bank accounts:

• SBI (Primary)
• HSBC (Salary)

Family Expenses:

Expense Item	Monthly Spend (avg)	Card used
Ola Cab	3000	Swiggy 5%
Grocery - Instamart, Big Basket	10000	Swiggy 10% Neu Infinity 5+%
Drop Food - Swiggy Genie	5000	Swiggy 10%
Amazon Purchases (Self)	3000	Apay 5%
Electricity Bill	2000	Apay 5% Neu Infinity 5%
Water Bill	1000	Apay 5% Neu Infinity 5%
Gas Cylinder	1000	Apay 5% Neu Infinity 5%
Petrol	15000	Neu Infinity 0%
LIC Premium	4000	Apay 5% Neu Infinity 5%
Oil, Vegetables, Milk, Rice etc.	8000	Swiggy 1% Neu Infinity 5%
Offline shops, Card Swipes	5000	Neu Infinity 1%
Trains and Flights	4000	Apay 5%
Amazon, Myntra, Others (Family)	12000	Apay 5%
Online Subscriptions, Mobile Recharges	2000	Apay 2% (Need to see)
UPI Scan	5000	Neu Infinity 1.5%
Miscellaneous, Emergency	5000	Swiggy 1% Neu Infinity 1.5%
Total (monthly approx)	85000

Category wise:

Expense Category	Monthly
Online grocery - Swiggy, Big Basket	15000
Offline spends	13000
Online shopping - Amazon, Myntra Others	25000
Utilities & bills	4000
Insurance premium	4000
Fuel	15000
Train & Flight	4000
UPI scan	5000
Total	85000

Current Status:

• Primary Cards- HDFC Swiggy, Tata Neu Infinity
• Not a big time traveller, or stay in hotels. So Hotel vouchers & travel vouchers are not of great use as of now.

Future Plan:

• Get DBS Spark 20 (LTF)
• Get HSBC Live+ (Paid)
• Salary accounts to see - Axis, DBS, HDFC.

 

[Ram1]

Don't you feel u r putting most of ur financial information online?

 

[cardio_guy]

Don't you feel u r putting most of ur financial information online?

But how do people find out my identity? That's the whole purpose of anonymous profile right?
Then what's the use of finding out financial information of some unknown anonymous profile?

 

[sourpai]

Big basket prices have increased recently, at least in my area compared to FK grocery, Instamart, Amazon fresh, Zepto etc. Have you checked it in your areas? Additional benefit of TNI you got should not get diluted because of this.

 

[cardio_guy]

Big basket prices have increased recently, at least in my area compared to FK grocery, Instamart, Amazon fresh, Zepto etc. Have you checked it in your areas? Additional benefit of TNI you got should not get diluted because of this.

Yes, same is the case with Swiggy as well. Prices have considerably increased for some items on these platforms.

 

[TechnoFi]

Yes, same is the case with Swiggy as well. Prices have considerably increased for some items on these platforms.

Flipkart & jiomart groceries are somewhat cheaper as compared to BB prices.

 

[helloworld]

check these:

1, Milestone card: Ex: Platinum Travel on 4L spends, you'll get 6% (in amzn vouchers) + 10k taj voucher, if you want to utilize else do trade or ignore for base calculation.

works for: amznpay utilities + amzn shopping + voucher related online (myntra and others) + fuel + travel.. based on #14 apprx. 33k per month

(this is when purchased voucher anywhere, fuel anywhere.. amex site provides 3x which is upto 8%).

2, TataNue Infinity: Currently for your cash alternative. Provides 3.5%.. based on #14 apprx. 23k per month

works for: UPI shopping spends + utilities + bb

3, Axis Airtel: For Swiggy 5k/pm, and utilites 2.5k/pm (apprx. 9%)

works for: swiggy + utilities

4, HSBC Live+: 10k/pm

works for: Grocery, Dining

# CB or Equivalent amzn voucher POV.