Axis Bank Issuing Cancellation Notices for Using Personal Credit Cards for Business Expenses

[TechnoFinoTechnoFino is verified member.]

Dear TFC members,

I would like to inform you that Axis Bank has begun sending commercial use notifications to their HNI cardholders as well. As you may already know, Axis Bank has a history of cancelling their customers' cashback cards such as Axis Ace and Axis Flipkart Card if they are used for business purposes.

Recently, Axis Bank has sent suspected commercial use notifications to their HNI cardholders such as Axis Magnus, Axis Reserve, etc. Unfortunately, I have also received a notification from Axis Bank and they are requesting spending justification within the next seven working days.

In case a customer is unable to justify their spending as personal, the bank will close all their credit cards.
During that time frame (Dec 2022 and Jan 2023), all of my spending was personal. I am currently in the process of submitting all the necessary documents to Axis Bank for spending justification.
The primary reason for this post is to advise our members that even if you are using a high-end credit card from a bank, they may still flag your transactions if they are related to business expenses.
If you intend to charge anything other than personal expenses to your personal credit card, please exercise caution.

Edit:- many people are asking for subject line of the email, Here it is- "Commercial Usage on your Axis Bank Credit Card Accounts"

Update - Axis Bank has already sent notifications to more than 200 accounts on March 4, 2023. Now they have sent such a cancellation notice to more than 500 credit card accounts yesterday. and they are also filtering more accounts. (S.N.)

 

[RewardsAlert]

We need a new thread with

Were the transactions related to running ads on Google, Fb, Amazon or something similar?

He has already mentioned that he performed absolute new transactions on new merchants that were never used before on his card account, check point no.5 and also has confirmed that he used the cards for personal use only!
Hope it helps

 

[CMGCMG is verified member.]

He has already mentioned that he performed absolute new transactions on new merchants that were never used before on his card account, check point no.5 and also has confirmed that he used the cards for personal use only!
Hope it helps

Ah okay. Thanks!

 

[Copycat]

@TechnoFino

https://www.axisbank.com/docs/default-source/default-document-library/card-member-agreement.pdf

Please have a look at section 7.2

"The Card may be used only for bona fide personal or official purchase of goods and / or services. You shall not use the Card to purchase anything to resell for commercial or business purpose, to derive any financial gains."

I was under the impression that as long as you did not resell, an official purchase of goods and/or services was allowed. I wonder what they mean by "official"

 

[TechnoFinoTechnoFino is verified member.]

How do we justify BharatNXt transactions? I used it to make payments to bank accounts to suppliers. And it will definitely be companies name on invoice.

god save those who are using bharatNXT for rotating money.

It must be exceedingly difficult to justify every transaction, in my opinion.

if it's personal, you'll not face any problem. you can easily show invoice

can you share the spending patterns for these cards @TechnoFino ?

I can only say, all my transactions were personal, but yes.. high value

 

[AJ331]

what are business trasactions?

 

[TechnoFinoTechnoFino is verified member.]

@TechnoFino

https://www.axisbank.com/docs/default-source/default-document-library/card-member-agreement.pdf

Please have a look at section 7.2

"The Card may be used only for bona fide personal or official purchase of goods and / or services. You shall not use the Card to purchase anything to resell for commercial or business purpose, to derive any financial gains."

I was under the impression that as long as you did not resell, an official purchase of goods and/or services was allowed. I wonder what they mean by "official"

if you are a proprietor, then you are allowed to perform some business transactions.

 

[Copycat]

if you are a proprietor, then you are allowed to perform some business transactions.

Thank you for the clarification

 

[Deleted member 9785]

Even Income Tax dept can give notice 7 years back years. I think people should look at immediately transferring all their edge points to partners of choice before they get revoked. BTW anyone here also get a notice apart from OP?

 

[RewardsAlert]

As per my understanding as of now derived from the answers posted by @TechnoFino, the main reasons for arrival of such notice are mostly:
1. Sumanta is having a total of 5 axis cards, which usually 99.9% of people don't own in Axis owing to 3 cards policy, but his was an exception.
This is a reason because, each bank has different departments as functional units, so the department which approved 5 cards was different and the trxn monitoring department is different which is called FCU Fraud Control Unit, so they don't have any idea, why this guy has been issued 5 cards, as they don't interact with underwriters or such officials. They monitor the accounts and their transactions.
2. He is having a very high number of edge rewards points accumulated in his account, as far as I remember it is in millions, (lifetime earning), so this has costed the bank a lot in terms of redemption, and such no. of points cannot be earned with small transaction usually.
3. He performed trxns on absolute new merchants which might have triggered an alarm or something for his account
4. He has done a lot of international spending, this is my best guess, as he mentioned that he used reserve more than magnus, so I assume he spent around 3-6 Lacks on Reserve and about 1-1.2 L on Magnus each month, and the reason he used Reserve was for 2x points on international spending, so just to let u all know, every banks internal systems are designed in a way, that they catch international spends first than any other spend because they don't require OTP and have most chances of fraud.
His account might have got flagged for security alert, but the FCU, triggered a Mini Financial Review for his spends, owing to his lesser to be seen account in axis with 5 total cards, including 3 HNI ones.
This is purely my personal analysis, after using credit cards from a very long time, the reality can be totally different, but I am hopeful, it should be mostly correct. Sumanta, may not be able to confirm all the facts mentioned in my post as many bank officials, and agents are reporting cases to the Senior Management of Axis Bank currently as per the internal news.
Thanks!

 

[AllSeeker]

Even Income Tax dept can give notice 7 years back years. I think people should look at immediately transferring all their edge points to partners of choice before they get revoked. BTW anyone here also get a notice apart from OP?

I thought it was 3 or something, 7 is god damn, I don't remember what I did 7 days ago.

But in this case, at least for CC, they will do this probably for financial year only, max to max one past.

 

[ccdc]

lol....cc to bank guys be like....time to commit suicide...time to end life as we know it...

 

[AsB]

Actually, if you have cc, its kind of better to go to physical store unless discount gap is huge or availability is issue.

At least that's what I prefer 🙂

They normaly dont accept CC in Offline stores. Or they ask for 1.5-2% extra

 

[AllSeeker]

They normaly dont accept CC in Offline stores. Or they ask for 1.5-2% extra

yes, have noticed that too. 🤣

 

[venkateshr]

Thank you @TechnoFino for all the clarifications. Many cases of individuals may not have GST. So to prove that the owner or family member is the ultimate consumer is always a not such an easy task. Hope this gets resolved properly.

 

[BhaiyaJi]

Will this affect the user's credit score if the bank blocks the card? Will the bank mark the credit card as a defaulter which may affect the credit score?

 

[WhoU]

Will this affect the user's credit score if the bank blocks the card? Will the bank mark the credit card as a defaulter which may affect the credit score?

Of course not. Axis might not give you any new cards, but definitely not report you as a defaulter.

 

[Nemesis]

I know half the VIP member here are in tense situation because of this post but....
Things aside... How can I earn soo much that IT team gives a good email for my tax contribution? 😁

 

[Bodhi]

if it's personal, you'll not face any problem. you can easily show invoice

What if an air ticket or a product online/offline eg. Gift cards, etc. are bought for a friend or a family member?

I can only say, all my transactions were personal, but yes.. high value

What do you mean by high value, please? Request you to give an approximate range.

Thank you @TechnoFino

 

[Alpha]

According to credit card's MITC you can not rotate money to manipulate its rewards system. so it's not allowed.

Fake rent payment is very risky. Everyone should stay away.

they ask for high value transactions only in maximum cases

What about Yaper? Are multiple transactions for iPhones (70k +) via yaper considered as high value? @TechnoFino

 

[anirbanm]

Ok thanks, I have received the Magnus this month only. I was also thinking to use it for business spends in 4/5 months. So that's why worrying.

Best to avoid all this along with manufactured spends