We plan something but God decides different things for us.
First of all, sorry for coming back and forth again on this.
I was searching for a salary account and had tried and tested multiple banks. Started with Citi in 2012 - that was good till they closed down. I didn't opt to move to Axis.
Instead I moved to ICICI - I had a lot of bad experiences from the customer care and staff. Their products are just garbage, without any premium value.
Coming from Citi, I felt too mediocre with ICICI. Also, they juggled with previlege banking, wealth banking, and other such stuff. their credit cards were also below average, nothing exciting.
Then I closed ICICI and moved to HSBC - I had a very short stint with HSBC in 2011-12 and that time it was good. But this time I felt that their mobile app and tech are still stuck in 2012 and not moved forward. They were super slow and not transparent at all. I being impatient, was too diificult for me to work with them and decided to moved on.
I then opened a salary account with HDFC - surprisingly, it was too good for me. I had nothing but good experiences from HDFC throughout. Till now, I am happy with HDFC - even though I have only the preferred account. HDF being the leader of Indian credit card market, and having a bunch of very good cards, I am happy that I could get most of the cards that I wanted - HDFC Swiggy, Tata Neu Infinity, Marriott Bonvoy and Regalia Gold.
With their entry and retention conditions too high and becoming stricter for DCB and Infinia, I don't think I will be eligible for these cards anytime soon.
They are also bringing a lot of restrictions on getting the card, spend conditions for retaining the cards, avenues for earning points and transfer partners are good, but 70% golden handcuff for redeeming them via smartbuy.
As for my cards, yearly I am spending the majority on Atlas and Platinum Travel (~19L), a small portion on Swiggy and Tata Neu cards (~5L), and another small portion on Regalia Gold and Marriott cards (~5L). Howmuchever I disagree and resist, I need to accept the fact that my overall spends are around 30L per year. Some months heavier and some months lesser.
That's when some experienced people of this forum to suggested to move to Magnus for Burgundy from Axis - where the overall returns would be much higher compared to these smaller ones.
Today I visited three banks -
1. ICICI - To close my salary account. They accepted the request, They gave a form to sign. The BM tried to persuade me to continue as savings account, but I didn't want any more relationship with them.
2. HSBC - To give one more chance. Mainly because they are rising in the credit card market and coming up with good offers etc. That's when they told me that they are hiking the eligibility of Premier to 3.5L from Jan 2026 onwards. If I choose HSBC, I need to open their normal salary account and get going with that. I wil never reach Premier anytime. But I decided not to go with HSBC again.
3. Axis - I know that they offer Burgundy salary account for 2L+ salary credit as my company is in class A tier. Plus I spoke to the credit card RM and she told that I can get M4B soon after opening the account and first salary credit (directly as M4B and not magnus and upgrade). This seemed to light a bulb in my head. If I move my salary account to Axis, I would get Burgundy account + M4B card. The drawback is 30k fees which I feel is a little higher for me. The higest fee card that I have now is 5000+GST. Plus I am still not sure if M4B is really for me, or I can continue with the existing cards.
If I move to M4B, there are some things that I need to consider:
1. I will have to route all my spends on this card, leaving behind all the other cards - to meet 1.5L+ for AEP.
2. I will have to use the voucher route a lot because there are many exclusions for M4B and I need to cover for all of that.
3. See if the exclusions are same as Atlas, (I need points on education fees payment, rest is still fine)
4. Be prepared for frequent changes and devaluations, especially M4B deval is round the corner and can be expected any time.
5. Need to decide what to do with other cards. I may continue Atlas, Plat Travel, Regalia Gold, and Marriott but with reduced spends.
6. Current credit limit on Atlas is only 1.56L, I need to increase it heavily.
Two more things I need to consider:
1. Most importantly if I loose my job at any point, how do I continue with this? (I may close the account and card, and continue with lower cards)
2. What should I do with the existing HDFC preferred salary account? (I may mostly continue it because overall I had good experience with HDFC)
But it was surprising to me that I am eligible for M4B and can get it. I was thinking I was not eligible for the super premium cards in the same league (like EPM, Premier, Infinia, etc). I am overall happy with Atlas, ans I expect a similar experience with Burgundy and M4B as well.
There is only one big expense coming up this year - a house construction, and at this point, I am not sure how much will be the total cost, I expect it to be somewhere around 40L and I am not sure how much of that can be spent using the card. Because it is not a builder, and we still haven't decided whether to give as contract or pay as you go for construction, it's in the very early phase now.
I also need to know the point earning structure of M4B. I know it is 12ER/200 and 35ER/200 above 1.5L.
1. Like Atlas, does it give any accelerated points for direct flight bookings from airline website?
2. Like Atlas, does it give any accelerated points for direct hotel bookings from hotel website or offline swipes at hotels?
3. General search shows that it gives 60ER/200 for TravelEdge, is it still giving that? (I maynot use TravelEdge often)
4. Is education spends covered in M4B?
Lastly, after all this, if I am NOT going with M4B, I will continue with Atlas, Plat Travel, Regalia Gold, (and TravelOne).
be mindful that crossing 10L annual spends on one card, will initiate entry in your AIS and if your earning is not matching with your spends, then nirmala tayi will come after you
according to me axis m4b is a HNI card with fees of around 30k+gst, axis shitty system knows your salary 2L+ and if your spends are going to be around 2L per month then they will definitely come and ask for receipts in future.
1. Like Atlas, does it give any accelerated points for direct flight bookings from airline website? : NO
2. Like Atlas, does it give any accelerated points for direct hotel bookings from hotel website or offline swipes at hotels? : NO
3. General search shows that it gives 60ER/200 for TravelEdge, is it still giving that? (I maynot use TravelEdge often) : YES , but traveledge prices are mostly inflated
4. Is education spends covered in M4B? Yes
HDFC cards are only good, if you know how to play with gyftr vouchers and smartbuy portal, for you spends pattern hdfc dcbm is the ideal choice, but not achieve able with your salary.
I would suggest if some huge spends is coming in near future, you can try axis m4b(though i am not 100% convinced about this card)
We plan something but God decides different things for us.
First of all, sorry for coming back and forth again on this.
I was searching for a salary account and had tried and tested multiple banks. Started with Citi in 2012 - that was good till they closed down. I didn't opt to move to Axis.
Instead I moved to ICICI - I had a lot of bad experiences from the customer care and staff. Their products are just garbage, without any premium value.
Coming from Citi, I felt too mediocre with ICICI. Also, they juggled with previlege banking, wealth banking, and other such stuff. their credit cards were also below average, nothing exciting.
Then I closed ICICI and moved to HSBC - I had a very short stint with HSBC in 2011-12 and that time it was good. But this time I felt that their mobile app and tech are still stuck in 2012 and not moved forward. They were super slow and not transparent at all. I being impatient, was too diificult for me to work with them and decided to moved on.
I then opened a salary account with HDFC - surprisingly, it was too good for me. I had nothing but good experiences from HDFC throughout. Till now, I am happy with HDFC - even though I have only the preferred account. HDF being the leader of Indian credit card market, and having a bunch of very good cards, I am happy that I could get most of the cards that I wanted - HDFC Swiggy, Tata Neu Infinity, Marriott Bonvoy and Regalia Gold.
With their entry and retention conditions too high and becoming stricter for DCB and Infinia, I don't think I will be eligible for these cards anytime soon.
They are also bringing a lot of restrictions on getting the card, spend conditions for retaining the cards, avenues for earning points and transfer partners are good, but 70% golden handcuff for redeeming them via smartbuy.
As for my cards, yearly I am spending the majority on Atlas and Platinum Travel (~19L), a small portion on Swiggy and Tata Neu cards (~5L), and another small portion on Regalia Gold and Marriott cards (~5L). Howmuchever I disagree and resist, I need to accept the fact that my overall spends are around 30L per year. Some months heavier and some months lesser.
That's when some experienced people of this forum to suggested to move to Magnus for Burgundy from Axis - where the overall returns would be much higher compared to these smaller ones.
Today I visited three banks -
1. ICICI - To close my salary account. They accepted the request, They gave a form to sign. The BM tried to persuade me to continue as savings account, but I didn't want any more relationship with them.
2. HSBC - To give one more chance. Mainly because they are rising in the credit card market and coming up with good offers etc. That's when they told me that they are hiking the eligibility of Premier to 3.5L from Jan 2026 onwards. If I choose HSBC, I need to open their normal salary account and get going with that. I wil never reach Premier anytime. But I decided not to go with HSBC again.
3. Axis - I know that they offer Burgundy salary account for 2L+ salary credit as my company is in class A tier. Plus I spoke to the credit card RM and she told that I can get M4B soon after opening the account and first salary credit (directly as M4B and not magnus and upgrade). This seemed to light a bulb in my head. If I move my salary account to Axis, I would get Burgundy account + M4B card. The drawback is 30k fees which I feel is a little higher for me. The higest fee card that I have now is 5000+GST. Plus I am still not sure if M4B is really for me, or I can continue with the existing cards.
If I move to M4B, there are some things that I need to consider:
1. I will have to route all my spends on this card, leaving behind all the other cards - to meet 1.5L+ for AEP.
2. I will have to use the voucher route a lot because there are many exclusions for M4B and I need to cover for all of that.
3. See if the exclusions are same as Atlas, (I need points on education fees payment, rest is still fine)
4. Be prepared for frequent changes and devaluations, especially M4B deval is round the corner and can be expected any time.
5. Need to decide what to do with other cards. I may continue Atlas, Plat Travel, Regalia Gold, and Marriott but with reduced spends.
6. Current credit limit on Atlas is only 1.56L, I need to increase it heavily.
Two more things I need to consider:
1. Most importantly if I loose my job at any point, how do I continue with this? (I may close the account and card, and continue with lower cards)
2. What should I do with the existing HDFC preferred salary account? (I may mostly continue it because overall I had good experience with HDFC)
But it was surprising to me that I am eligible for M4B and can get it. I was thinking I was not eligible for the super premium cards in the same league (like EPM, Premier, Infinia, etc). I am overall happy with Atlas, ans I expect a similar experience with Burgundy and M4B as well.
There is only one big expense coming up this year - a house construction, and at this point, I am not sure how much will be the total cost, I expect it to be somewhere around 40L and I am not sure how much of that can be spent using the card. Because it is not a builder, and we still haven't decided whether to give as contract or pay as you go for construction, it's in the very early phase now.
I also need to know the point earning structure of M4B. I know it is 12ER/200 and 35ER/200 above 1.5L.
1. Like Atlas, does it give any accelerated points for direct flight bookings from airline website?
2. Like Atlas, does it give any accelerated points for direct hotel bookings from hotel website or offline swipes at hotels?
3. General search shows that it gives 60ER/200 for TravelEdge, is it still giving that? (I maynot use TravelEdge often)
4. Is education spends covered in M4B?
Lastly, after all this, if I am NOT going with M4B, I will continue with Atlas, Plat Travel, Regalia Gold, (and TravelOne).
I personally feel your current stack is better than getting a m4b and diverting. It also places a lot of faith on axis to not devalue which I've never seen them not do.
@cardio_guy Thanks for this specific thread..as till now completely focused on cashback cards only but slowly slowly trying to understand miless and points parts as well
