How to maximise the rewards on my spends?

[prachetadas09]

Hello Good Folks !!

I am very confused and the more I read, I seem to go into the rewards rabbit hole. Need your help to understand of I an doing it right?

I got Infinia (with one addon), Amex Gold charge (with one addon) and Axis Airtel

I do most of my spends on Infinia including Amazon, Flipkart, Big Basket, Swiggy with GVs, flights and hotels on smartbuy etc, insurance

I use Amex Gold for fuel purchases. I have around 10k to 12k fuel spends exclusively on Indian Oil. I collect the rewards and redeem with the 24k reward points milestone benefits as 8k Apay voucher.

Axis Airtel for paying Airtel Black bill, electricity bill.

I recently got HDFC Imperia platinum DC and will pay to pay the Amex and Axis bills to get 1% CB on HDFC billpay

I believe I am missing out on rewards on fuel transactions, Rent (60k per month)and apartment maintenance charges, tax payments and my UPI spends, and maybe on credit card payments.

Need your opinion and suggestions, which cards would be best to cover all the above user cases with maximum rewards possible.

Cards I have considered (but unsure if it will solve my situation)

1. AMEX trifecta for rent and fuel but not sure how to best optimise the spends and use the rewards
2. Tata NEU Infinity for UPI, not sure as rewards are only good for tata apps. My spends on tata apps is low but can still use if I need to use the coins.
3. HDFC BizPower Rupay for tax payments and UPI (Have talked to RM and got a confirmation. Bizblack spend limit was high for my spends)

Will this help? Am I missing something? Or should I try something else?
Please help 🙏
Thanks in advance

 

[blankuser_0001838]

You're missing out on SBI cashback credit card which gives 5% cashback on online transactions (utility, insurance, fuel & govt spends are excluded) and it receives 1% cashback on offline spends.
It has a monthly cap of 5000, you can earn 60K per year with it.
Axis Airtel is purely a waste of money if you have high bills as it has caps on it, 25% cashback with a 250rs cap & 10% utility spends with 250rs cap and 10% on preferred merchant with 500rs cap.
(these are monthly caps while 1% unlimited cashback has no cap)

You can use Axis Ace card instead for bill payments on google pay and earn 5% cashback
and 4% cashback on partner brands
and 1.5% cashback on all other spends
(axis ace has unlimited cashback with no cap)

Use Kotak myntra upi card or kiwi card for upi spends.

Kotak myntra gives 1.25% cashback on all spends (including upi)
and Kiwi gives upto 5% cashback on upi
(refer kiwi website for detailed information on upi cashback).
Kiwi is a LFT card
while kotak myntra isn't

Continue to use infinia for smartbuy, lifestyle & travel spends
Amex gold or ICICI HPCL Super Saver or SBI BPCL for fuel.

ICICI HPCL Super saver is great for cashback on HPCL fuel spends & gas refill payments (it gives higher cashback when you use hp pay app) and rewards on grocery spends
SBI BPCL is good for high rewards on BPCL Fuel spends

Hope this helps!
It can help you save many lakhs a year.

 

[msk1437]

I am missing out on rewards on fuel transactions, Rent (60k per month)and apartment maintenance charges, tax payments and my UPI spends, and maybe on credit card payments.

Your classification of spends look similar to me. Here's what I use for my requirements:

Along with Infinia, Amex gc+mrcc, axis airtel,

I use these for the mentioned categories:
Fuel - amex gc/ sbi vistara
Rent - sbi vistara (via payzapp + redgirraffe -- only milestone vouchers)
Tax payments - IDFC vistara
UPI - Tata neu infinity/ IDFC vistara rupay floater

Be aware of vistara air india merger and take it if it works for you

 

[prachetadas09]

Your classification of spends look similar to me. Here's what I use for my requirements:

Along with Infinia, Amex gc+mrcc, axis airtel,

I use these for the mentioned categories:
Fuel - amex gc/ sbi vistara
Rent - sbi vistara (via payzapp + redgirraffe -- only milestone vouchers)
Tax payments - IDFC vistara
UPI - Tata neu infinity/ IDFC vistara rupay floater

Be aware of vistara air india merger and take it if

Your classification of spends look similar to me. Here's what I use for my requirements:

Along with Infinia, Amex gc+mrcc, axis airtel,

I use these for the mentioned categories:
Fuel - amex gc/ sbi vistara
Rent - sbi vistara (via payzapp + redgirraffe -- only milestone vouchers)
Tax payments - IDFC vistara
UPI - Tata neu infinity/ IDFC vistara rupay floater

Be aware of vistara air india merger and take it if it works for you

Thanks, I will evaluate SBI vistara and IDFC vistara. Only thing which has discouraged me from SBI vistara is that I don't find Vistara on my routes, and now the merger. But will evaluate.

How do you use or maximise the SBI vistara card on rent and fuel?


Also, For Tax Payments and UPI
HDFC Biz power is better, right?
: Get Rs 10 for every 150 spent.
What's the reward rate on IDFC vistara?

 

[msk1437]

How do you use or maximise the SBI vistara card on rent and fuel?


Also, For Tax Payments and UPI
HDFC Biz power is better, right?
: Get Rs 10 for every 150 spent.
What's the reward rate on IDFC vistara?

For rent, I'm paying via redgirraffe + payzapp
For fuel, I'm right now paying directly with sbi vistara. Can go on to optimize with hp pay vouchers and all but my fuel spends are pretty rare.
My tax payments aren't that high and only once a year, so it wasn't that required for me to take BizBlack

For upi, haven't explored BizBlack rupay. What's its reward rate?

 

[prachetadas09]

You're missing out on SBI cashback credit card which gives 5% cashback on online transactions (utility, insurance, fuel & govt spends are excluded) and it receives 1% cashback on offline spends.
It has a monthly cap of 5000, you can earn 60K per year with it.
Axis Airtel is purely a waste of money if you have high bills as it has caps on it, 25% cashback with a 250rs cap & 10% utility spends with 250rs cap and 10% on preferred merchant with 500rs cap.
(these are monthly caps while 1% unlimited cashback has no cap)

My internet and phone bills are total 2000 per month. Utility bills are below 1000 per month, hence axis airtel gives better reward rate even with the caps. Agree, for higher bills SBI cashback would be a better choice.

I will evaluate the Kiwi and Kotak cards.

Thanks a lot for your suggestions.

 

[prachetadas09]

For upi, haven't explored BizBlack rupay. What's its reward rate?

For bizblack,
it's 5 rp for every 150. Same like Diners Black. This one is on Diners network so acceptance issues will be there. But This won't work on UPI directly. Also the renewal fees is 10k

I am looking for the bizpower, which gives 20 RP for every 150 on taxes. Each RP equals 0.5p. Other benefits same as regalia 4 RP for every 150. This one has lower spend limit and lower renewal fees and comes in Visa and Rupay variant. more suited for my use case