Credit card - suggestion

[creditcard25]

As advised in other thread , opening a new thread to get advise from senior members here ..
I am looking for suggestion on which cards I should try to get / have to get maximum out of my spend..

... here are my expenses on a very high level (yearly approximation)

Education (fee + transport).- 6 L
Rent - 5L (though I assume not much might be possible here)
Travel (mostly flight & hotel (less)) - 3-4 L , this is majority domestic with occasional international - this expense is likely to be more but taking min
Insurance - 1.5L
Train travel - 20-50K (likely might be 0 also given most travel is via air)
Electricity - 60K
Gas 25K
Internet, Mobile, TV - 30K
Shopping amazon - 30K- 50K
Zomato - 20K
Eating outside - 30K
Grocery - 1 L (big basket)
Grocery - 2L (offline)
Shopping - 1.5 -2L (in store)
Misc - most year something major comes up (buying a new phone, laptop, a bigger vacation etc. etc.)

Given I never had a big fascination for Credit Card , I only hold
- Regalia Gold ( 8 months expense around 11 Lakh) - current points approx 35K , with 10K flight voucher for meeting milestone
- Axis Ace

Funny thing, First card HDFC sent me was Infinia a year back but I declined looking at fee and thought I will be on the losing end... guess did not do my research enough, I might still be able to give it a try but I see there is no guarantee they will offer me. Salary wise take home around 3.5L.. (if that makes any sense/ or gives help in guidance)

 

[Shubham330]

Go for infinia. You have alredy required limit.spend for 8L+ for 6 months then drop mail to hdfc Grievance.Redressalcc@hdfcbank.com they will upgrade it. You pay 12500 + GST but you get 12500 miles for that every year. So you pay gst only.


For Utilities: if your connections are of airtel then go for Axis Airtel.
Else follow amazon pay method mentioned in below section.


For Amazon Pay Spend: When I mentione Amazon pay that doesn't mean Amazon Shopping. It mean using Amazon wallet to pay on website apps. Almost 90% app have Amazon pay as payment option.
Use Amex Trifecta for Amazon vouchers
Refer:
Thread 'Amex Trifecta - Optimal Usage Guide' https://www.technofino.in/community/threads/amex-trifecta-optimal-usage-guide.2146/

If you are fan of cashback go for sbi cashback and if you are fan of miles go for axis atlas/M4b whichever you can get hands on for other spends which you can't put on infinia and amex.

 

[Vasuki]

As advised in other thread , opening a new thread to get advise from senior members here ..
I am looking for suggestion on which cards I should try to get / have to get maximum out of my spend..

... here are my expenses on a very high level (yearly approximation)

Education (fee + transport).- 6 L
Rent - 5L (though I assume not much might be possible here)
Travel (mostly flight & hotel (less)) - 3-4 L , this is majority domestic with occasional international - this expense is likely to be more but taking min
Insurance - 1.5L
Train travel - 20-50K (likely might be 0 also given most travel is via air)
Electricity - 60K
Gas 25K
Internet, Mobile, TV - 30K
Shopping amazon - 30K- 50K
Zomato - 20K
Eating outside - 30K
Grocery - 1 L (big basket)
Grocery - 2L (offline)
Shopping - 1.5 -2L (in store)
Misc - most year something major comes up (buying a new phone, laptop, a bigger vacation etc. etc.)

Given I never had a big fascination for Credit Card , I only hold
- Regalia Gold ( 8 months expense around 11 Lakh) - current points approx 35K , with 10K flight voucher for meeting milestone
- Axis Ace

Funny thing, First card HDFC sent me was Infinia a year back but I declined looking at fee and thought I will be on the losing end... guess did not do my research enough, I might still be able to give it a try but I see there is no guarantee they will offer me. Salary wise take home around 3.5L.. (if that makes any sense/ or gives help in guidance)

1- Get amex platinum travel for 4 lakh milestone
2- Pick up axis atlas for travel but 4% on offline spend will give you good return as it's almost 4 lakh
3- sbi cashback for other spend online

Fight for infinia 💪

For UPI you can get yes bank kiwi


Since u have ace u can get atlas by call
Amex u can get if u in service
Kiwi too

 

[creditcard25]

Go for infinia. You have alredy required limit.spend for 8L+ for 6 months then drop mail to hdfc Grievance.Redressalcc@hdfcbank.com they will upgrade it. You pay 12500 + GST but you get 12500 miles for that every year. So you pay gst only.


For Utilities: if your connections are of airtel then go for Axis Airtel.
Else follow amazon pay method mentioned in below section.


For Amazon Pay Spend: When I mentione Amazon pay that doesn't mean Amazon Shopping. It mean using Amazon wallet to pay on website apps. Almost 90% app have Amazon pay as payment option.
Use Amex Trifecta for Amazon vouchers
Refer:
Thread 'Amex Trifecta - Optimal Usage Guide' https://www.technofino.in/community/threads/amex-trifecta-optimal-usage-guide.2146/

If you are fan of cashback go for sbi cashback and if you are fan of miles go for axis atlas/M4b whichever you can get hands on for other spends which you can't put on infinia and amex.

Thanks - shall write to bank tomorrow to see if they would upgrade to Infinia .

However any calculations/ approximate I can see to see if I do all the above expenses , do I still end up on the right side after paying Yearly fee + transaction fee ( given most platforms will levy a charge such as school for using Cc )

I do only want 2-3 cards at max …

 

[creditcard25]

1- Get amex platinum travel for 4 lakh milestone
2- Pick up axis atlas for travel but 4% on offline spend will give you good return as it's almost 4 lakh
3- sbi cashback for other spend online

Fight for infinia 💪

For UPI you can get yes bank kiwi


Since u have ace u can get atlas by call
Amex u can get if u in service
Kiwi too

So it would mean
- infinia ( assuming I get one )
- Amex platinum travel
- axis atlas

Would you still suggest to get above given travel cost is around 3-5 L .

 

[Vasuki]

So it would mean
- infinia ( assuming I get one )
- Amex platinum travel
- axis atlas

Would you still suggest to get above given travel cost is around 3-5 L .

With 3-5 lakh u can easily get 10 % on atlas
Assuming 3 on atlas
4 lakh offline spend on atlas at 4% reward
Best card for offline spend
With 7.5 lakh u will reach gold tier I guess on atlas

Amex travel u can do education payment to reach 4 lakh milestone yearly

INFINIA if you get
U can shift amex payments

 

[creditcard25]

With 3-5 lakh u can easily get 10 % on atlas
Assuming 3 on atlas
4 lakh offline spend on atlas at 4% reward
Best card for offline spend
With 7.5 lakh u will reach gold tier I guess on atlas

Amex travel u can do education payment to reach 4 lakh milestone yearly

INFINIA if you get
U can shift amex payments

Thanks let me try infinia thing tomorrow - btw is it infinia or Amex OR both still ok .. just noticed school charges 2.6% for Amex and .78% for visa credit card … so that’s a big difference if I were to pay 6L fee with Amex vs infinia

 

[Shubham330]

Thanks - shall write to bank tomorrow to see if they would upgrade to Infinia .

However any calculations/ approximate I can see to see if I do all the above expenses , do I still end up on the right side after paying Yearly fee + transaction fee ( given most platforms will levy a charge such as school for using Cc )

I do only want 2-3 cards at max …

Now days every bank putting charges on education fees. But many cases those are applicable only if transaction done using third party. Not if done directly on school/college website or offline pos machine.
But confirm this in benefit guide TnC as it diffres bank to bank.

If you want 2-3 card max then i would suggest
1. Amex Plat Travel- spend only 4L on this yearly. Beyond 4L its not beneficial. Try putting spend which you can do using amex rewards multiplier or purchas of gv on amex gyftr

2.Try for M4B as it doesn't have capping for returns. Plus beyond 1.5L you get accelerated rewards. There are lot of exclusion categories but workarounds available for some of them. Such as for insurance purchase Amazon gv and use amazon pay to pay insurance. For rent it gives till 50K. If m4b not possible then go for Atlas. Base return is just 0.8% less than m4b. But it have capping on returns. Exclusions are 99% same as m4b.
Go for either of this card if you are looking to use return for miles. Anyway infinia will be there for miles but if you want one card as cashabck then go for SBI cashback only

3. Get infinia. Use it for smartbuy related things. As out of smartbuy axis will give you better than infinia.
But if you are going for sbi cashback then for sure get infinia. Put all online where return is more than 5% and all offline on infinia and less than 5% on sbi cashback.



So to Summurise combination you can pick are
1. Infinia, m4b, amex PlatTravel
2. infinia, Atlas, amex PlatTravel
3. Infina, Sbi cb, Amex PlatTravel

 

[Vasuki]

Thanks let me try infinia thing tomorrow - btw is it infinia or Amex OR both still ok .. just noticed school charges 2.6% for Amex and .78% for visa credit card … so that’s a big difference if I were to pay 6L fee with Amex vs infinia

Thread 'Amex Trifecta - Optimal Usage Guide' https://www.technofino.in/community/threads/amex-trifecta-optimal-usage-guide.2146/

U will still save 15k on amex travel for 4 lakh fees

 

[Shubham330]

Thanks - shall write to bank tomorrow to see if they would upgrade to Infinia .

However any calculations/ approximate I can see to see if I do all the above expenses , do I still end up on the right side after paying Yearly fee + transaction fee ( given most platforms will levy a charge such as school for using Cc )

I do only want 2-3 cards at max …

Sorry but don't have estimated calculation.

 

[creditcard25]

With 3-5 lakh u can easily get 10 % on atlas
Assuming 3 on atlas
4 lakh offline spend on atlas at 4% reward
Best card for offline spend
With 7.5 lakh u will reach gold tier I guess on atlas

Amex travel u can do education payment to reach 4 lakh milestone yearly

INFINIA if you get
U can shift amex payments

does it mean if I have Infinia , no need for Amex Platinum OR just use Infinia to do balance transfer/ payment for Amex..

 

[creditcard25]

Now days every bank putting charges on education fees. But many cases those are applicable only if transaction done using third party. Not if done directly on school/college website or offline pos machine.
But confirm this in benefit guide TnC as it diffres bank to bank.

If you want 2-3 card max then i would suggest
1. Amex Plat Travel- spend only 4L on this yearly. Beyond 4L its not beneficial. Try putting spend which you can do using amex rewards multiplier or purchas of gv on amex gyftr

2.Try for M4B as it doesn't have capping for returns. Plus beyond 1.5L you get accelerated rewards. There are lot of exclusion categories but workarounds available for some of them. Such as for insurance purchase Amazon gv and use amazon pay to pay insurance. For rent it gives till 50K. If m4b not possible then go for Atlas. Base return is just 0.8% less than m4b. But it have capping on returns. Exclusions are 99% same as m4b.
Go for either of this card if you are looking to use return for miles. Anyway infinia will be there for miles but if you want one card as cashabck then go for SBI cashback only

3. Get infinia. Use it for smartbuy related things. As out of smartbuy axis will give you better than infinia.
But if you are going for sbi cashback then for sure get infinia. Put all online where return is more than 5% and all offline on infinia and less than 5% on sbi cashback.



So to Summurise combination you can pick are
1. Infinia, m4b, amex PlatTravel
2. infinia, Atlas, amex PlatTravel
3. Infina, Sbi cb, Amex PlatTravel

this is helpful- just wrote to HDFC, lets see if they upgrade me or not. the only other category missing is all the UPI payments we do ( milk, vegetable, coffee, maid etc etc) this is usually small ticket items but very big in frequency and does add up significantly.. do we have any card which can be used ? I see earlier suggestion of Yesbank kiwi, would this be added to list for UPI?

 

[Vasuki]

does it mean if I have Infinia , no need for Amex Platinum OR just use Infinia to do balance transfer/ payment for Amex..

See having amex travel for 4 lakh milestone is must for you
Also if you have car and Hp petrol pump nearby
Amex Gold charge card gives best reward on fuel

On amex u can easily complete milestone by the spend u shown

Infinia will take time but I guess u will get it easily
Mail to grievance redressal email directly

Infinia will solve your apay voucher problem
U can redeem 30k AGV per month

If u take amex platinum travel gold charge comes complimentary I guess . U just have to request them

But atlas is must for you
Get it over call since u already have axis card
There will be no cibil hit
Same merge limit of existing cc
Then u can apply for l.e via slary slip

 

[Shubham330]

this is helpful- just wrote to HDFC, lets see if they upgrade me or not. the only other category missing is all the UPI payments we do ( milk, vegetable, coffee, maid etc etc) this is usually small ticket items but very big in frequency and does add up significantly.. do we have any card which can be used ? I see earlier suggestion of Yesbank kiwi, would this be added to list for UPI?

Yes. At this time kiwi is most rewarding for UPI. Try to take it. Its virtual only card. Keep this until devaluation

 

[Shubham330]

does it mean if I have Infinia , no need for Amex Platinum OR just use Infinia to do balance transfer/ payment for Amex..

I would suggest if your spends are more than 5-6 Lakh which are in guess by seeing your question. Get amex plat travel.
As it has two milestone 1.9L and 4L benefits. It will give you 48000 minimun(consideringg Without accelarated) point.
48000 Amex points= 48000 Marriot Bonvoy points.

Bonvoy points valued between 0.6₹ to 1.8₹ depends on hotel location.

So this card gives you 7.2% to 27%(may be more if added accelarated rewards and joining bonus) return

 

[creditcard25]

See having amex travel for 4 lakh milestone is must for you
Also if you have car and Hp petrol pump nearby
Amex Gold charge card gives best reward on fuel

On amex u can easily complete milestone by the spend u shown

Infinia will take time but I guess u will get it easily
Mail to grievance redressal email directly

Infinia will solve your apay voucher problem
U can redeem 30k AGV per month

If u take amex platinum travel gold charge comes complimentary I guess . U just have to request them

But atlas is must for you
Get it over call since u already have axis card
There will be no cibil hit
Same merge limit of existing cc
Then u can apply for l.e via slary slip

thank you - let me see what I can get out of below

So to Summurise combination you can pick are
1. Infinia, m4b, amex PlatTravel , KIWI
2. infinia, Atlas, amex PlatTravel , KIWI
3. Infina, Sbi cb, Amex PlatTravel, KIWI

Infinia - email is sent, lets see what HDFC says.. Amex , need to fix this serviceable city thing...