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Credit card portfolio optimization

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pramod.sumeru

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Recently I started to explore more into credit cards. Please suggest a credit card combination to optimize utilization.

Salary: 1.5L, Bangalore

Cards I have:
ICICI Amazon Pay - Used only on Amazon. Member since 2019.
Amex MRCC - Offline shopping, online except Amazon. Amazon vouchers if 1500*4 transactions are not done in a month. Member since April 2023.
IDFC select - Rent payment and where Amex is not accepted. Member since March 2023.
ICICI coral - Got against FD. I used this card for everything before I got Amex and IDFC. Planning to surrender/stop using. Member since 2019.

Expenses:
Monthly:
Rent - 20k
Shopping - Amazon/Offline - 8k
Grocery - Amazon/BB/Offline - 7k
Dining - Zomato/Swiggy/Restaurant - 5k
Mobile/Broadband - 1.5k
Utilities - 1k

Yearly:
Insurance - 50k
Hotels/Travels(no flights) - 40k
Healthcare (checkup, scans, medicines) - 30k

Credit score: 785
Cards applied but got rejected in past: HDFC Tata Neu, Axis Flipkart, SBI SimplySave
 
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pramod.sumeru said:
Recently I started to explore more into credit cards. Please suggest a credit card combination to optimize utilization.

Salary: 1.5L, Bangalore

Cards I have:
ICICI Amazon Pay - Used only on Amazon. Member since 2019.
Amex MRCC - Offline shopping, online except Amazon. Amazon vouchers if 1500*4 transactions are not done in a month. Member since April 2023.
IDFC select - Rent payment and where Amex is not accepted. Member since March 2023.
ICICI coral - Got against FD. I used this card for everything before I got Amex and IDFC. Planning to surrender/stop using. Member since 2019.

Expenses:
Monthly:
Rent - 20k
Shopping - Amazon/Offline - 8k
Grocery - Amazon/BB/Offline - 7k
Dining - Zomato/Swiggy/Restaurant - 5k
Mobile/Broadband - 1.5k
Utilities - 1k

Yearly:
Insurance - 50k
Hotels/Travels(no flights) - 40k
Healthcare (checkup, scans, medicines) - 30k

Credit score: 785
Cards applied but got rejected in past: HDFC Tata Neu, Axis Flipkart, SBI SimplySave
Click to expand...
apply in 6 month for tata neu FYF/LTF and check in thread if it still make sense after 6 months, myself use Tata neu infinity LTF .The Axis Ace card has been devalued, and. i don't hold it, so please check if it is still worth it. The FYF and 500 rupees GPay voucher offer comes and goes, so keep an eye out for it.
 
Last edited:
My recommendation

HDFC Millenia - For travel related bookings through smartbuy portal, plus you get up to 1000 CB on Amazon and different Ecom portals.

AU LIT - Check out this card too, highly customisable and it will cover mostly all your spends.

SBI Cashback - Even though this has been recently devalued, but still it's good. Only problem is sometimes it misses giving the cashback for an eligible transaction, and you have to keep an eye out for that 😉

For insurance keep accumulating Amazon Pay GV using SBI CB and Au Lit card and pay with it.
 
Thank you guys.
I got offer for Axis Airtel card and so I applied but got rejected. This is 3rd time in 3 years for Axis card, not sure why?
I got ICICI card as I have savings account, same for IDFC. I was lucky in case of AMEX.
I have asked for reasons from HDFC and AXIS but no answer so far.
Should I open savings account in either HDFC or AXIS so I can get credit card and may be I can close savings account? If yes then which bank is better?
 
pramod.sumeru said:
Thank you guys.
I got offer for Axis Airtel card and so I applied but got rejected. This is 3rd time in 3 years for Axis card, not sure why?
I got ICICI card as I have savings account, same for IDFC. I was lucky in case of AMEX.
I have asked for reasons from HDFC and AXIS but no answer so far.
Should I open savings account in either HDFC or AXIS so I can get credit card and may be I can close savings account? If yes then which bank is better?
Click to expand...
Both banks are among the worst in the history of Indian banking. If there were a poll, I believe it would be a close competition 😂 Axis rejected my application multiple times, around 5-6 times, and eventually, I obtained the card through an agent via C2C. On the other hand, I have held an HDFC card for about 13-14 years, and just last month, they increased the limit from 50k to 60k 😂

In my opinion, it would be wise to open an account with HDFC and wait for their pre-approved offers. As for Axis, I suggest trying the C2C method when applying.
 
pramod.sumeru said:
Thank you guys.
I got offer for Axis Airtel card and so I applied but got rejected. This is 3rd time in 3 years for Axis card, not sure why?
I got ICICI card as I have savings account, same for IDFC. I was lucky in case of AMEX.
I have asked for reasons from HDFC and AXIS but no answer so far.
Should I open savings account in either HDFC or AXIS so I can get credit card and may be I can close savings account? If yes then which bank is better?
Click to expand...
I highly recommend opening HDFC salary account. As soon as you get the salary to this account they themselves will call you and beg you to take credit card. For that you have to open in offline they ask whether you need credit card or not while opening the account just say yes they will do everything to get it approved.

As per your salary you will get classic account

If opened online should wait atleast for 2 months or so.
 
pramod.sumeru said:
Thank you guys.
I got offer for Axis Airtel card and so I applied but got rejected. This is 3rd time in 3 years for Axis card, not sure why?
I got ICICI card as I have savings account, same for IDFC. I was lucky in case of AMEX.
I have asked for reasons from HDFC and AXIS but no answer so far.
Should I open savings account in either HDFC or AXIS so I can get credit card and may be I can close savings account? If yes then which bank is better?
Click to expand...
Please don't mind me asking this. Is your salary of 1.5L per month or annual?
 
it’s odd that your application got rejected even after having a good Cibil and financial background.

How did you submitted these application? By yourself or by agent?

Also, I would suggest to apply for the card using referral, it would have slightly better chances of approval.
 
netsec said:
it’s odd that your application got rejected even after having a good Cibil and financial background.

How did you submitted these application? By yourself or by agent?

Also, I would suggest to apply for the card using referral, it would have slightly better chances of approval.
Click to expand...
Applied myself thru apps like Flipkart, Airtel, Tata Neu.
 
It is surprising that your credit card applications are rejected despite your decent income and CIBIL score. I do know and have experienced that banks do operate on certain whims sometimes, especially in case of approving credit cards and LE and there are no set rules and policies, atleast in public and many times it seems it is based on the discretion of a particular staff to whom the approval request goes and depends upon how they are feeling at that time!!!!!! However, it still seems surprising in your case given your overall profile and the cards that got rejected, because they were not even premium cards, they were largely entry level cards.

However, a credit report is much more than just the score and while the score may be the summary and an overall indicator of credit behaviour, many times their maybe some default somewhere, some late payment or settlement, that has happened in the past and has now been closed, and over the last few years credit behaviour has been good and the score has improved, but the detailed credit report carries it always and some bank or its executive responsible for the approval may not be forgiving and take that into account. Ideally, they should take the score into account a good score indicates improvement in financial behaviour, someone may think otherwise and hold it against the applicant.

I am not saying this may have been the case with you, it may just be a possibility and if so, work harder and make sure there is no more negative behaviour and hopefully in future the changed behaviour will be rewarded. If this was not the case, then ignore what I said and keep wondering why certain banks are not approving, but in this case I would suggest do check your CIBIL report thoroughly once to see if even by mistake something wrong has not been reported under any past loan/card.
 
pramod.sumeru said:
Applied myself thru apps like Flipkart, Airtel, Tata Neu.
Click to expand...

Apply through the branch or an employee of the bank. Since you are currently residing in a rental accommodation, the address on your proofs would be different from your residential address. This could be an issue especially during online KYC. Any semi-experienced bank employee would know the workaround.
Otherwise, like everybody else can't see any reason your cards would be rejected.
Just give it a try, maybe it'll work.

Also, opening an HNI type account like HDFC classic or Preferred, and maintaining the balance for a few months does help in getting a pre-approved offer from the bank. (Just choose the right bank and they'll start you up with a nice midlevel CC)-- Wouldn't advice it just for a CC.

ATB!
 
abhishek0882 said:
It is surprising that your credit card applications are rejected despite your decent income and CIBIL score. I do know and have experienced that banks do operate on certain whims sometimes, especially in case of approving credit cards and LE and there are no set rules and policies, atleast in public and many times it seems it is based on the discretion of a particular staff to whom the approval request goes and depends upon how they are feeling at that time!!!!!! However, it still seems surprising in your case given your overall profile and the cards that got rejected, because they were not even premium cards, they were largely entry level cards.

However, a credit report is much more than just the score and while the score may be the summary and an overall indicator of credit behaviour, many times their maybe some default somewhere, some late payment or settlement, that has happened in the past and has now been closed, and over the last few years credit behaviour has been good and the score has improved, but the detailed credit report carries it always and some bank or its executive responsible for the approval may not be forgiving and take that into account. Ideally, they should take the score into account a good score indicates improvement in financial behaviour, someone may think otherwise and hold it against the applicant.

I am not saying this may have been the case with you, it may just be a possibility and if so, work harder and make sure there is no more negative behaviour and hopefully in future the changed behaviour will be rewarded. If this was not the case, then ignore what I said and keep wondering why certain banks are not approving, but in this case I would suggest do check your CIBIL report thoroughly once to see if even by mistake something wrong has not been reported under any past loan/card.
Click to expand...
Thanks for detailed post. No late payments or defaults, not once. I glanced thru credit report and don't find anything but I am sure there is something in report that only Banks have access to and I am not.
Sometimes around 10 years ago I applied for SBI card and somehow there were two applications processed by two different teams and both applications for same card got approved. There multiple verifications and calls with numerous agents to clarify things, it went on for a month. Finally I lost my patient and told them cancel my cards, I don't need one. They warned me this could have impact in future but I was in no mood to proceed further with SBI given how they made a mess. May be this is haunting me still :)
 
4uziaul said:
My recommendation

HDFC Millenia - For travel related bookings through smartbuy portal, plus you get up to 1000 CB on Amazon and different Ecom portals.

AU LIT - Check out this card too, highly customisable and it will cover mostly all your spends.

SBI Cashback - Even though this has been recently devalued, but still it's good. Only problem is sometimes it misses giving the cashback for an eligible transaction, and you have to keep an eye out for that 😉

For insurance keep accumulating Amazon Pay GV using SBI CB and Au Lit card and pay with it.
Click to expand...
Sbi cb se Amazon gift voucher how
 
Try Scapia. It can be helpful for travel spend and its out of the Axis, HDFC, SBI trio.
For UPI, you can try BOB SNAPDEAL / PNB Rupay Select Credit Card.
Also try to find out the reason for rejections. Either ask banks directly or write to nodal officers to disclose the reason for rejection.

​

 
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