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Time to consolidate and actually move to just one card (with backup) with a focus on my lifestyle needs

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kaykayporty

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My regular expenses are the following - amount to about 40K CC monthly expenses in a tier-1 city.

  1. Uber - 3-4K per month
  2. Bigbasket - 4K per month
  3. Swiggy - 3000 per month
  4. Amazon (very minimal and have APay CC)
  5. Offline dining twice a month - Total 5K
  6. All bill payments - Electricity, Internet - Total on average 5500
  7. Once/Twice a month - a movie - 1000 per month
  8. Yearly subscriptions (Spotify, Google One)
  9. Once a year insurance spend - 20K
  10. Other miscellaneous expenses mostly offline.
I take a trip once or twice a year. Total of that would be 1.5 lakhs. And of course, other big purchases once a year of 60-100K

Total yearly expenses - close to 8 lakhs.

---
Cards I currently have:
  1. Regalia (LTF) -
    1. I don't use it anymore and only kept it for Priority Pass.
  2. Tata Neu Infinity (FYF) -
    1. Bill payments - electricity and internet
    2. Groceries from BigBasket
    3. I don't understand how 1.5% works for each transaction. That's not clear in the statement. I think it's cumulative.
    4. I ideally want to move away from this card since most merchant transactions are done via CC and most merchants don't use CC on UPI.
  3. Amazon ICICI (LTF) -
    1. I use it for offline transactions.
    2. Amazon, obviously.
  4. Scapia (LTF) -
    1. For 0 forex charges only
    2. Want to keep it for international travel and also not paying forex charges for international transactions.

Most expenses are on Amazon ICICI (amazon and offline), Tata Neu Infinity (bigbasket and all international transactions are on Scapia (1K a month)

---
What I want and what is my expectation:
I don't want to manage so many cards and want to simplify my life. Rewards are lovely but my mental peace is far more rewarding to me.

  1. I want to move to just one card for most things. Since most expenses are online, acceptance (like AMEX) isn't in an issue.
    1. Tracking transactions amongst so many cards is difficult, and I want to make life simple.
    2. A backup card, should be LTF, would be great.
  2. A simple reward rate of 2% is good enough for me for offline. Online can be managed with gift cards from Gyftr so sky is the limit.
    1. Tracking so many cards and their transactions and rewards is time consuming.
  3. What have I been redeeming my rewards on till date:
    1. I have been redeeming my points in Regalia for flights and hotels - which has worked well for me, but the value is too low. Only done twice with flights and once with a hotel.
    2. AmazonPay has been extremely rewarding but is, of course, limited to Amazon. But 5% is really great. Not stopping this card.
    3. Tata Neu has helped cut down on grocery bills so that's pretty good as well. I don't use other Tata brands at all.
    4. Scapia is useless for me since I travel rarely and the prices on their app are high. Zero forex for when I travel.
  4. I have no problem with reward points as I'm patient for them to accumulate over time. But it shouldn't devalue quickly.
    1. I'll consume them on a flight or a hotel booking.
    2. I don't stay in Marriot or such. Something mid-range like Ibis or Lemon tree (max).
I want a long-term card - something I should not be thinking about. I want to get out of the card game but stay with one primary card (with one or two more as backup).
 
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If you want to have only one card then it must be Atlas for both online & offline
4.00--6.33% return in the form of Hotel points and air miles
 
Magnus burgundy is also good but it requires a 30 lac total relationship value with Axis Bank
 
A
drsel said:
If you want to have only one card then it must be Atlas for both online & offline
4.00--6.33% return in the form of Hotel points and air miles
Click to expand...
Agreed to get Atlas - it damn good.
Another option would be to get DCB Metal since for 8L spends - you can get fee waiver. Even Infinia if you can get hold of it.
 
drsel said:
If you want to have only one card then it must be Atlas for both online & offline
4.00--6.33% return in the form of Hotel points and air miles
Click to expand...
I would have said yes but isn't Axis extremely prone to devaluation. After what I saw with Magnus - I don't want worry about this 1-2 years down the line.

There are rumours of Atlas devaluation as well.
 
sousnake said:
A

Agreed to get Atlas - it damn good.
Another option would be to get DCB Metal since for 8L spends - you can get fee waiver. Even Infinia if you can get hold of it.
Click to expand...
I'm considering moving to DCB Plastic/Metal - but isn't their acceptance lower than AMEX? Even internationally.

I don't think I'll get a hold of Infinia. It's invite only and requires a robust relationship with the bank. I only have a salary account with HDFC.
 
kaykayporty said:
I would have said yes but isn't Axis extremely prone to devaluation. After what I saw with Magnus - I don't want worry about this 1-2 years down the line.

There are rumours of Atlas devaluation as well.
Click to expand...
Enjoy Atlas while you still can.
don't worry about future devalutions.
all cards get devalued, even Infinia points are worth only 50% for 7 airline and Hotel partners
 
kaykayporty said:
I'm considering moving to DCB Plastic/Metal - but isn't their acceptance lower than AMEX? Even internationally.

I don't think I'll get a hold of Infinia. It's invite only and requires a robust relationship with the bank. I only have a salary account with HDFC.
Click to expand...
Dcb plastic or metal does not return your joining fee, that is a guaranteed loss.
The joining benefits have no real cash value
 
drsel said:
Enjoy Atlas while you still can.
don't worry about future devalutions.
all cards get devalued, even Infinia points are worth only 50% for 7 airline and Hotel partners
Click to expand...
Yeah, but not within a year. I'm looking for something paid and long term.

Atlas will be my last option.

Why not AMEX though?
 
"Rewards are lovely but my mental peace is far more rewarding to me." - Very true.

My suggestion - If you use two cards, use both from the same bank, so that it is easy to track.
If you use Amazon Pay ICICI, then get ICICI Emeralde also (or at least Sapphiro). Just use these 2 cards, nothing else.

My case -
I use Amazon Pay ICICI for almost everything, keeping Sapphiro as a backup. (I rarely use Sapphiro for petrol fillings like 10k per quarter)
Amazon pay - Online 5% & 2% and offline 1% is good enough. The average cashback comes to around 2-3% for me.

I don't use any of the other cards that I have. (Just keeping them to show off :P). I have turned OFF all transactions in all other cards.

Life is much simpler, calm, and sufficient now. I learned recently that the extra Rs 100 - 500 cashback is not going to make any significant change in my life. :) All the best.
 
sourpai said:
Try to get DCB FYF.

Acceptance is not much of an issue in India, especially if you are staying in Metro or tier 1 cities. Abroad - may be yes. I have used DCB for 2-3 years in the past
Click to expand...
I don't have the expenses to justify the metal.

Are they still issuing the plastic one?
 
You could consider BoB Snapdeal - it gives 2.5% on everything online and 1% on everything offline / UPI. They're somewhat stingy with limit, so maybe you can keep some LTFs to keep your utilization low.

Also, if you sync up the billing and payment dates, it shouldn't be that hard.
 
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