Axis Magnus Magnus, Reserve & Other Axis Bank Credit Cards | Devaluation w.e.f. 1st Sep 2023.

[bugmenot]

-- Edited Post --

Final Update

Official PDFs are now out
Magnus - https://www.axisbank.com/docs/default-source/default-document-library/credit-cards/mgtc.pdf

Reserve - https://www.axisbank.com/docs/default-source/default-document-library/credit-cards/rstc.pdf

Revision of Axis Bank Miles/Rewards Transfer Program - https://www.axisbank.com/docs/defau...les-rewards-transfer-terms-and-conditions.pdf

---

Update: 2nd August

MyZone - https://www.axisbank.com/docs/default-source/default-document-library/credit-cards/mztc.pdf
Privilege - https://www.axisbank.com/docs/default-source/default-document-library/credit-cards/pvtc.pdf
Select - https://www.axisbank.com/docs/default-source/default-document-library/credit-cards/sltc.pdf
Ace - https://www.axisbank.com/docs/default-source/default-document-library/credit-cards/actc.pdf

---

Magnus devaluation highlights

1. Revision in welcome benefits, which are more or less matching with the leaked screenshots
2. Change in annual fee - ₹12,500 + GST
3. No more renewal benefit
4. Spend criteria for fee waiver is now double - 25L
5. Exclusion of government institutions and utilities MCCs for earning ERs
6. RIP 25,000ER/1L milestone benefit
7. Revised transfer ratio of 5:2
8. 5L ER points cap for transfer
9. Burgundy account scheme

Reserve devaluation highlights

1. Spend criteria for fee waiver is revised to 35L
2. Exclusion of government institutions and utilities MCCs for earning ERs
3. Revised transfer ratio of 5:2
4. 5L ER points cap for transfer
5. Burgundy private account scheme

---

Aap Chronology Samajiye

• 📄 Few leaked screenshots of PDF started floating for Magnus and Reserve having potential devaulation
• 🐦Few folks on Twitter acknowledged the upcoming devaulation by contacting their RMs or insiders from CC department
• 🎧 Customer Care team were like "Whot Daa Phaak" is going on. They were unaware about these news, some were saying yes and some no
• 😡 Outrage | Speculation | Twitter Space | Points Transfer Tricks
• ✋ Then rumour mills started about devaulation being on hold
• 🔗 Official links of devaulation PDF started popping but "Darling of Cards" was missing
• 🔌 Axis pulled the plug and links started showing "404 - Not Found" except for unlucky Flipkart card
• 💣 BOMB - Axis Gift Edge devaulation
• 📩 Mass credit card cancellation and notice seeking clarification regarding commercial transactions
• 📉 Official PDF of Magnus and Reserve released
• 📉 Official PDF of MyZone, Privilege, Select and Ace released

---

1. Flipkart - https://axisbank.com/docs/default-s...flipkart-credit-card-terms-and-conditions.pdf

Below given links are not opening now as they have been removed. You may check attached PDFs.

2. Reserve - https://axisbank.com/docs/default-s...-reserve-credit-card-terms-and-conditions.pdf
3. Select - https://axisbank.com/docs/default-s...k-select-credit-card-terms-and-conditions.pdf
4. Privilege - https://axisbank.com/docs/default-s...rivilege-credit-card-terms-and-conditions.pdf
5. MyZone - https://www.axisbank.com/docs/defau...-my-zone-credit-card-terms-and-conditions.pdf

By following the format, it is quite easy to create Magnus link, which could be https://axisbank.com/docs/default-source/default-document-library/credit-cards/axis-bank-magnus-credit-card-terms-and-conditions.pdf

 

[abhi2992]

If someone is offering points for cash. I am willing to purchase points

What is a fair ratio per you.? The community here will dissect it so be fair and square

 

[neogen]

Though I would like to agree, but I will feel better to leave the thread open. Call me superstitious, after this thread the devaluation of redemption didn't happen 😂

And other reason is enjoying the witty responses and dry humour too 😜

Official response:

All Members here are well aware that these things are not official yet. Its just a discussion based on information received through various sources.

Take this thread on a lighter note.

Meaning - maje lelo aur lete raho. 🍿📽️

🍅🍅🍅🍅🍅🍅🍅🍅🍅🍅🍅

 

[R!ppEr]

Meaning - maje lelo aur lete raho. 🍿📽️

🍅🍅🍅🍅🍅🍅🍅🍅🍅🍅🍅

those tomato emojis

 

[Sharjeelshaikh]

What is a fair ratio per you.? The community here will dissect it so be fair and square

1:5

 

[samba113]

Let’s not make it public as it will be removed next. DM me if you don’t know how to get 2% extra on BOB and kotak cards.

Can you PM me how to get extra 2%. Tomorrow i have pay 55k bob etarna credit card bill

 

[Zarieal]

Can you PM me how to get extra 2%. Tomorrow i have pay 55k bob etarna credit card bill

Mee too please

 

[Harry1]

Can you PM me how to get extra 2%. Tomorrow i have pay 55k bob etarna credit card bill

After that, u DM me😂.

My guess is he does payzapp wallet load using some other credit card which gives 1-2% on wallet load and then use that for bill payment. And another 1% when he actually pays bill from debit card.

But I won't count these as bob benefits.

 

[Sharjeelshaikh]

After that, u DM me😂.

My guess is he does payzapp wallet load using some other credit card which gives 1-2% on wallet load and then use that for bill payment. And another 1% when he actually pays bill from debit card.

But I won't count three as bob benefits.

By paying through HDFC portal

 

[VijayflyRaven]

Can you PM me how to get extra 2%. Tomorrow i have pay 55k bob etarna credit card bill

Use PayZapp wallet to pay Bob and kotak.

 

[VijayflyRaven]

After that, u DM me😂.

My guess is he does payzapp wallet load using some other credit card which gives 1-2% on wallet load and then use that for bill payment. And another 1% when he actually pays bill from debit card.

But I won't count these as bob benefits.

You can use BOb too for that. Then it will be Bob benefits. That will be 3.75+3.75.

 

[sanju8486]

You can use BOb too for that. Then it will be Bob benefits. That will be 3.75+3.75.

Kindly DM me the same Sir .

How to maximize the benefits from BOB?

 

[VijayflyRaven]

Kindly DM me the same Sir .

How to maximize the benefits from BOB?

Just add money to PayZapp wallet using any card that gives reward. Then pay using that wallet balance.

 

[VijayflyRaven]

All Magnus users seem to be hunting for the 6% or more rewards card. Looks like Magnus has created an expectation of 6% base rewards for us.

 

[Harry1]

You can use BOb too for that. Then it will be Bob benefits. That will be 3.75+3.75.

These are actually money rotation techniques. I don't consider this as 3.75+2 or 3.75+3.75.

@Abhishek012 made the thread on this 3-4 months back only when new payzapp app was launched🤣. And I think I was the first person who shared it here. I am just surprised why payzapp still hasn't fixed it.

 

[VijayflyRaven]

These are actually money rotation techniques. I don't consider this as 3.75+2 or 3.75+3.75.

@Abhishek012 made the thread on this 3-4 months back only when new payzapp app was launched🤣. And I think I was the first person who shared it here. I am just surprised why payzapp still hasn't fixed it.

It will be patched. UPI was also patched after a long long time.

If someone wants to avoid rotation, Idfc seems to have 2.5% rate for debit card. It might be another option to avoid rotation.

 

[vina]

what I'm thinking now: they may not change the 5:4 ratio for Magnus any more. Let me explain:

at this point except for the 5:4 conversion, with the devaluation of gyftr and grabdeals, and restrictions put on portals like bharatnxt (who were showing transactions as utility payments) and taxes (govt transactions) along with prior restrictions on rents etc. - they have made it very hard for people to honestly expend 1lakh a month on the card. It is not easy to do that every month without these major expenses for a family of 4 plus grandparents. I have so far not used any of these tricks, and since the rent payments went away, it has been hard to get to 1lakh without wasting money (though so far I have managed).

In fact the way it works - in the months when it isn't hard to hit 1lakh, I end up hitting a lot higher (this month will be over 1.5lakhs; Last November I hit over 2 lakhs). And then there are months where I have to plan quite a bit to get ahead of 80k

Gyftr was helping quite significantly in those months, but now that's not a great route. Also I had a situation last month when I ended up taking a lot of gyftr vouchers for flipkart, amazon and swiggy, and then I figured it will take me a lot longer than 2 months to actually spend the money in normal course (wife got some medical issue, so supplies for that helped spend quite a bit, otherwise I would have over 50% of the money right now) - this voucher route is not scalable in any reasonable long run

bottomline is - there will be very few people who will be able to consistently hit the milestone *without then consistently going way over it* - and if you go over the milestone, the reward rate falls precipitously.

on top of that - even if you hit milestone every month, with the latest devaluation, the best non-travel reward rate you can get out of this card is still good (or may be ok), but nothing phenomenal. Infinia does about the same on travel without any planning (and quite a bit better with some planning). And my guess is so will Amex cards.

as for travel expense - with 5:4 yes the travel will beat anything any everything. But if you think about it, other than Accor, rest of them are not really totally out of bounds. Vast majority of cardholders would actually be making use of Vistara (on which lately it had become a lot harder to get CV flights - was not a problem back in Jan, and was a big problem in May). On ITC you can actually use the green points to pay for food alone in a few hotels, but every other program (including Accor) requires you to stay with them - now that's not small but (i) how many vacation days can you take to actually go stay (and I'm talking about people who can in fact consistently hit 1lakh per month - those people are busy and usually have school going kids; else they have arthritis) in hotels? (2) if you travel for stays, you end up staying more and very few can do so much math that they'll spend a bit on magnus and a bit on other cards (3) going to ITC for food-only is absolutely idiotic, the rates in Bangalore are nearly 3k per head, and while the food is great you can get similar food in independent restaurants at less than half that much - so the value is automatically much lower
I don't think Axis would be paying nearly as much to non-Accor, non-Vistara partners as it is to these two.

so - unless Infinia is devaluing in short order (or Axis negotiators and planners are complete fools) I don't see any further major devaluations happening now

I applied for Infinia today. May or may not get it. HDFC had rejected my application at least 3 times in the past (after inviting me by email to apply - go figure !) so last year I gave up the regalia I had - I had stopped using it 4 years ago after I got ICICI Amazon and Axis Flipkart cards (I didn't know a lot about Smartbuy, and the deals like Prime Day that's going on now give significant discounts in any case; which we all forget in "card analysis")

Anyway. Yesterday somebody wrote that Amex Platinum (and even Gold) may be better than Magnus if we assume that the rumored Magnus devaluation PDF circulating widely is real. So I did some calculations yesterday (I'll assume the PDF was real, and hence not talk about point conversions at all):

On Amex:

the best reward it seems one can get on Amex is via Reward Multiplier - and that gives max 5x (Platinum and Gold cards). for Platinum that comes to 5 points per Rs. 40 spent.

However the value of the reward points is at best rs 7/18 each when converted to Amazon etc. (7000 rupees worth, for 18000 points). so one gets about 4.86% reward rate when converted to Amazon

with Magnus there are plenty of options on the equivalent of Reward Multiplier (gyftr platform) - so one can get 5x there too, but I'll keep it at 3x. So for 200rs spent, one can get 36 ER points. for those 200 rupees spent, if milestone is reached, one gets another 50 points, making a total of 86 points. for Rs. 200

This is equivalent to 86/5 = 16.3 rupees worth of amazon vouchers (for rs 200) - or a reward rate of about 8.15%

obviously there are several caveats - you need to get to the milestone on Magnus, and Platinum has a few other benefits in addition. However Platinum costs a ton. Gold costs less but the return is 4/5th that of Platinum (and additional benefits a lot fewer).

So for those who don't particularly spend on travel too much and can meet milestones most months of the year, Magnus still clearly beats Amex cards. Not the least because if you only beat the milestone every month, then the return is 6% guaranteed on nearly everything (including retail spends) - you can't do reward multipliers on nearly everything.


I also calculated for Infinia (obviously, I applied today)
For Infinia:

Again, I'll ignore travel at first. Many of us don't travel that much, nor do we enjoy eating at five stars outside of a couple of birthdays a year; but more on that later.

If one can spend significant amounts every month, then the best way to do it is through Gyftr gift cards. Assuming I could do that with Infinia, the RP conversion in many cases came 5x (in very few cases 10x, but one can't spend too much there except for travel. e.g. one such case in SONYliv) - in other words you get 25 RP for 150rupees spent. I'll ignore other discounts for now because (I checked a few cases) the overall numbers didn't look very different between this and Magnus.

Now converting to Amazon (and many other) gift coupons, you can get 0.5 rupees per RP - in other words reward rate of about 12.5rupees per 150 rupees spent or about 8.3% . There were discounts on gyftr that were a bit higher than those for Magnus. I would say there is an additional difference of between 0 and 1%. For spending on Apple and Tanishq you get better on Infinia - I personally don't do either (I don't like Apple), but Tanishq long term gold value is a lot higher, about 1.35x higher than converting to Amazon. So Infinia will beat by about 2-3% if you convert a lot of points to Tanishq. The issue of course is you got to spend a third of that money out of your own pocket, and I'm guessing (I don't know) if you pay by this route, you forego any other discounts Tanishq may be given at the time. I would say 2-3% additional nevertheless.

The real kicker though is travel : on travel on Infinia now it is possible to spend RPs at nearly 2x the above numbers and also earn 50RP per 150rupees on hotel spends and 25RP per rupee on flights - the latter is similar to gyftr, but the former is double of Magnus (a bit less than double actually; you get about 2% more on Magnus for travel than for other spends) in points recovery.

I wont go into the details - on travel Infinia is better by anywhere between 2x to 4x. For most people it'll be about 2x to 3x for travel.


And so while Amex doesn't, Infinia does seem to beat Magnus hands down.

But one other thing remains - as long as one is spending slightly above 1lakh in the aggregate in a calendar month, Magnus returns a minimum of 6% even on the expenses that are not done through Gyftr (or reward mutliplier) coupons or travel. Infinia does, at best (i.e. if RPs are used 100% for travel) 3.5% there. Given that most people will spend nearly half of the money in that kind of spends, I don't think the non-travel difference is in favour on Infinia. I think on aggregate Infinia would still be better for most people, but not far better.


I'm applying for Infinia because in many months (though not most) I go very significantly above 1lakh in expenses. And in such months the incremental reward on Magnus will now suck (and really bad at that). so the plan is - first 1lakh on Magnus, rest on Infinia; and all travel on Infinia going forward.

that is, if the Infinia application is approved in the first place of course.

 

[vina]

I applied for Infinia today. May or may not get it. HDFC had rejected my application at least 3 times in the past (after inviting me by email to apply - go figure !) so last year I gave up the regalia I had - I had stopped using it 4 years ago after I got ICICI Amazon and Axis Flipkart cards (I didn't know a lot about Smartbuy, and the deals like Prime Day that's going on now give significant discounts in any case; which we all forget in "card analysis")

Anyway. Yesterday somebody wrote that Amex Platinum (and even Gold) may be better than Magnus if we assume that the rumored Magnus devaluation PDF circulating widely is real. So I did some calculations yesterday (I'll assume the PDF was real, and hence not talk about point conversions at all):

On Amex:

the best reward it seems one can get on Amex is via Reward Multiplier - and that gives max 5x (Platinum and Gold cards). for Platinum that comes to 5 points per Rs. 40 spent.

However the value of the reward points is at best rs 7/18 each when converted to Amazon etc. (7000 rupees worth, for 18000 points). so one gets about 4.86% reward rate when converted to Amazon

with Magnus there are plenty of options on the equivalent of Reward Multiplier (gyftr platform) - so one can get 5x there too, but I'll keep it at 3x. So for 200rs spent, one can get 36 ER points. for those 200 rupees spent, if milestone is reached, one gets another 50 points, making a total of 86 points. for Rs. 200

This is equivalent to 86/5 = 16.3 rupees worth of amazon vouchers (for rs 200) - or a reward rate of about 8.15%

obviously there are several caveats - you need to get to the milestone on Magnus, and Platinum has a few other benefits in addition. However Platinum costs a ton. Gold costs less but the return is 4/5th that of Platinum (and additional benefits a lot fewer).

So for those who don't particularly spend on travel too much and can meet milestones most months of the year, Magnus still clearly beats Amex cards. Not the least because if you only beat the milestone every month, then the return is 6% guaranteed on nearly everything (including retail spends) - you can't do reward multipliers on nearly everything.


I also calculated for Infinia (obviously, I applied today)
For Infinia:

Again, I'll ignore travel at first. Many of us don't travel that much, nor do we enjoy eating at five stars outside of a couple of birthdays a year; but more on that later.

If one can spend significant amounts every month, then the best way to do it is through Gyftr gift cards. Assuming I could do that with Infinia, the RP conversion in many cases came 5x (in very few cases 10x, but one can't spend too much there except for travel. e.g. one such case in SONYliv) - in other words you get 25 RP for 150rupees spent. I'll ignore other discounts for now because (I checked a few cases) the overall numbers didn't look very different between this and Magnus.

Now converting to Amazon (and many other) gift coupons, you can get 0.5 rupees per RP - in other words reward rate of about 12.5rupees per 150 rupees spent or about 8.3% . There were discounts on gyftr that were a bit higher than those for Magnus. I would say there is an additional difference of between 0 and 1%. For spending on Apple and Tanishq you get better on Infinia - I personally don't do either (I don't like Apple), but Tanishq long term gold value is a lot higher, about 1.35x higher than converting to Amazon. So Infinia will beat by about 2-3% if you convert a lot of points to Tanishq. The issue of course is you got to spend a third of that money out of your own pocket, and I'm guessing (I don't know) if you pay by this route, you forego any other discounts Tanishq may be given at the time. I would say 2-3% additional nevertheless.

The real kicker though is travel : on travel on Infinia now it is possible to spend RPs at nearly 2x the above numbers and also earn 50RP per 150rupees on hotel spends and 25RP per rupee on flights - the latter is similar to gyftr, but the former is double of Magnus (a bit less than double actually; you get about 2% more on Magnus for travel than for other spends) in points recovery.

I wont go into the details - on travel Infinia is better by anywhere between 2x to 4x. For most people it'll be about 2x to 3x for travel.


And so while Amex doesn't, Infinia does seem to beat Magnus hands down.

But one other thing remains - as long as one is spending slightly above 1lakh in the aggregate in a calendar month, Magnus returns a minimum of 6% even on the expenses that are not done through Gyftr (or reward mutliplier) coupons or travel. Infinia does, at best (i.e. if RPs are used 100% for travel) 3.5% there. Given that most people will spend nearly half of the money in that kind of spends, I don't think the non-travel difference is in favour on Infinia. I think on aggregate Infinia would still be better for most people, but not far better.


I'm applying for Infinia because in many months (though not most) I go very significantly above 1lakh in expenses. And in such months the incremental reward on Magnus will now suck (and really bad at that). so the plan is - first 1lakh on Magnus, rest on Infinia; and all travel on Infinia going forward.

that is, if the Infinia application is approved in the first place of course.

By the way, this month I'll be easily topping 1lakh on Magnus. and at the same time there is a sale on Amazon (Prime Day) today and tomorrow

So this is what I did - I spent a ton of money and got the max Prime Day discount possible with my ICICI Amazon card - turns out you can get 10% cash benefit on that one too without trying too hard. and like I wrote in the attached post, except for travel and Tanishq, you can't beat that 10% with Infinia or Magnus (and forget Amex completely)

 

[pprakash11]

I applied for Infinia today. May or may not get it. HDFC had rejected my application at least 3 times in the past (after inviting me by email to apply - go figure !) so last year I gave up the regalia I had - I had stopped using it 4 years ago after I got ICICI Amazon and Axis Flipkart cards (I didn't know a lot about Smartbuy, and the deals like Prime Day that's going on now give significant discounts in any case; which we all forget in "card analysis")

Anyway. Yesterday somebody wrote that Amex Platinum (and even Gold) may be better than Magnus if we assume that the rumored Magnus devaluation PDF circulating widely is real. So I did some calculations yesterday (I'll assume the PDF was real, and hence not talk about point conversions at all):

On Amex:

the best reward it seems one can get on Amex is via Reward Multiplier - and that gives max 5x (Platinum and Gold cards). for Platinum that comes to 5 points per Rs. 40 spent.

However the value of the reward points is at best rs 7/18 each when converted to Amazon etc. (7000 rupees worth, for 18000 points). so one gets about 4.86% reward rate when converted to Amazon

with Magnus there are plenty of options on the equivalent of Reward Multiplier (gyftr platform) - so one can get 5x there too, but I'll keep it at 3x. So for 200rs spent, one can get 36 ER points. for those 200 rupees spent, if milestone is reached, one gets another 50 points, making a total of 86 points. for Rs. 200

This is equivalent to 86/5 = 16.3 rupees worth of amazon vouchers (for rs 200) - or a reward rate of about 8.15%

obviously there are several caveats - you need to get to the milestone on Magnus, and Platinum has a few other benefits in addition. However Platinum costs a ton. Gold costs less but the return is 4/5th that of Platinum (and additional benefits a lot fewer).

So for those who don't particularly spend on travel too much and can meet milestones most months of the year, Magnus still clearly beats Amex cards. Not the least because if you only beat the milestone every month, then the return is 6% guaranteed on nearly everything (including retail spends) - you can't do reward multipliers on nearly everything.


I also calculated for Infinia (obviously, I applied today)
For Infinia:

Again, I'll ignore travel at first. Many of us don't travel that much, nor do we enjoy eating at five stars outside of a couple of birthdays a year; but more on that later.

If one can spend significant amounts every month, then the best way to do it is through Gyftr gift cards. Assuming I could do that with Infinia, the RP conversion in many cases came 5x (in very few cases 10x, but one can't spend too much there except for travel. e.g. one such case in SONYliv) - in other words you get 25 RP for 150rupees spent. I'll ignore other discounts for now because (I checked a few cases) the overall numbers didn't look very different between this and Magnus.

Now converting to Amazon (and many other) gift coupons, you can get 0.5 rupees per RP - in other words reward rate of about 12.5rupees per 150 rupees spent or about 8.3% . There were discounts on gyftr that were a bit higher than those for Magnus. I would say there is an additional difference of between 0 and 1%. For spending on Apple and Tanishq you get better on Infinia - I personally don't do either (I don't like Apple), but Tanishq long term gold value is a lot higher, about 1.35x higher than converting to Amazon. So Infinia will beat by about 2-3% if you convert a lot of points to Tanishq. The issue of course is you got to spend a third of that money out of your own pocket, and I'm guessing (I don't know) if you pay by this route, you forego any other discounts Tanishq may be given at the time. I would say 2-3% additional nevertheless.

The real kicker though is travel : on travel on Infinia now it is possible to spend RPs at nearly 2x the above numbers and also earn 50RP per 150rupees on hotel spends and 25RP per rupee on flights - the latter is similar to gyftr, but the former is double of Magnus (a bit less than double actually; you get about 2% more on Magnus for travel than for other spends) in points recovery.

I wont go into the details - on travel Infinia is better by anywhere between 2x to 4x. For most people it'll be about 2x to 3x for travel.


And so while Amex doesn't, Infinia does seem to beat Magnus hands down.

But one other thing remains - as long as one is spending slightly above 1lakh in the aggregate in a calendar month, Magnus returns a minimum of 6% even on the expenses that are not done through Gyftr (or reward mutliplier) coupons or travel. Infinia does, at best (i.e. if RPs are used 100% for travel) 3.5% there. Given that most people will spend nearly half of the money in that kind of spends, I don't think the non-travel difference is in favour on Infinia. I think on aggregate Infinia would still be better for most people, but not far better.


I'm applying for Infinia because in many months (though not most) I go very significantly above 1lakh in expenses. And in such months the incremental reward on Magnus will now suck (and really bad at that). so the plan is - first 1lakh on Magnus, rest on Infinia; and all travel on Infinia going forward.

that is, if the Infinia application is approved in the first place of course.

In how much time you typed this ? 🙄🙄

 

[anirban.choudhury]

Not now, but within next 2 month they will remove 25k bonus monthly milestone.

They will not remove 25k monthly milestone
They are going to change transfer rate to 5:1 / 5:2 from 5:4

 

[thedator]

In how much time you typed this ? 🙄🙄

Ye junoon hai