I run a manufacturing business and spend a lot on bills, marketing spends and online shopping. I’m looking for suggestions on optimizing my credit card mix based on my spending habits. Currently, I hold the following cards:
HDFC Infinia Metal – Spent ~₹38 Lakhs last year.
Amex Platinum Travel – Spent ~₹7.5L last year but stopped using it after meeting all the thresholds.
ICICI Sapphiro Visa – Primarily used for BookMyShow (1+1 offer).
Amazon ICICI – Not used much since I buy Amazon vouchers via GYFTR on SmartBuy.
Tata Neo Infinity – Used mainly for UPI payments (~₹30K-₹35K per month).
Looking at my total spends (~₹50L last year), I feel I could optimize my card portfolio better to maximize rewards, cashback, or travel benefits. I don’t mind premium or super-premium cards if they provide real value.
Any recommendations for new cards I should consider? Would appreciate insights from those with high spending patterns!
I guess for a heavy spender like you, the card which makes the most sense is Axis Magnus Burgundy. Just get that one and put all your spends on one single card.
While 50L a year automatically ensures 4L per month on an average, but try and consolidate maximum of the spends in lesser months, for example - do 7-8L in 3-4 months, and even out the balance in the remaining 8-9 months. Magnus gives 17.5% Edge Rewards on spends exceeding 1.5L per month. So if I take 1.5L x 12 = 18L spends p.a. are rewarded at 6% while the balance 32L will get rewarded at 17.5%. One can improve their returns by only using 8-10L in the 6% category by spending less in most months (50-60k only) and getting 17.5% on 40-42L by spending more in few months. The more you consolidate your spends and get higher numbers in a month, the more accelerated points you get.
And one big caveat: Axis has a lot exclusions in their rewarding criteria such as no points on fuel, insurance, gold, utilities, education, tax, govt spending, wallet load etc. So if majority of the spends are in these categories then no point of taking Magnus for Burgundy. Also, the 10L AQB in savings account has an opportunity cost of 40-50k p.a. as one can earn better returns by parking those funds somewhere else.
Problem is, what will I do with all those points? Can’t redeem more than 2L points in group A in a year and then pray they don’t get devalued next year. Group B isn’t very enticing imo.
I mean definitely do Magnus Burgundy but maybe not all of 50L?
Group B is quite good for anyone who travels domestically via Air India (per point is 0.5 Re to 0.6 Re) and internationally to Europe or USA (per point is 0.7-0.9 Re for economy and 1+ Rs for higher classes). Also, ITC in group B is not a bad stay choice.
Say OP has 15L 6% spends and 35L 17.5% spends. Total points = 7L.
Can use 2L in Group A easily, best is Accor. 2L points = 2.88L INR worth.
5L in group B: 2L domestic = 1L INR, and 3L international = 2.7L INR.
Total 7L points = 6.6L INR. Let’s be super conservative and round down this to 6L INR.
So for 50L spends, getting guaranteed 6L INR (as used very low thresholds for earning accelerated points and minimum INR values of each point). Let’s include 35k annual charge and 45k opportunity cost, so for 50.8L spends, getting 6L INR worth redemption i.e. 11.8%.
To clarify - the redemptions give OP a higher degree of freedom over the kind of properties and airlines he/she wants to choose (not as much as Smartbuy portal) but still a wide enough variety. Which other card comes close to 12% redemption with such degree of freedom?
Final bit: if OP can be more accommodating with timing of spends then they can do 10L@6% and [email protected]% = 7.6L points = 6.4L INR = 12.5% redemption value in INR.
If 8L@6% and [email protected]%, then 12.8% redemption and so on.
For domestic flights: use your existing Smartbuy and other Air India points (if any).Then use the Axis travel edge portal, gives 30% points (capped to 2L INR per month).
Use GYFTR for all the other spends till you exhaust your 15k RP quota for per month. I keep an excel template where different voucher % category exists - 6.66%, 13.32%, 30%. Each time I use GYFTR or Smartbuy, I just add the amount in those columns and it autopopulates how much accelerated RP and corresponding spend for each category is remaining for that month.
Then move to Burgundy for all other eligible spends. Keep it simple.
And consolidate as many high value purchases in a few months if possible. For example, we wanted to replace our 7 year-old fridge and 11-year old TV (both work fine, but were becoming a bit cumbersome to use, luckily our househelp was willing to send it to her village for second-hand use so it was easier to convince my parents for the purchase) but I kept on delaying it because I also knew that my parents were planning to go on an international trip this year. So, in the month when I did all their bookings and spent 4-5L, in that very month I bought the TV and fridge - another 1.25L. I too had planned to do an international trip 4-5 months later but my travel dates weren’t concrete. So, I booked refundable tickets for my travel plan (it also helps with visa application) in that very month to consolidate my spends and increase it by 1L more. The 2.25L of extra purchases happened @ 17.5%.