Axis Bank Credit Card Cancellation Notice: Another Round Of Card Cancellation & Some Unknown Updates

[TechnoFino]

Hello TFCians,
I'm sure you are aware of the recent credit card cancellation notices that have been sent to many users. Screenshots of these notices are being shared across various groups, Twitter, and our community as well. Numerous individuals have received these notices, requesting clarification on transactions made with merchants intended for business purposes. Personally, I find it implausible to present transactions from merchants like show bharatNXT as personal expenses.

Source: Thread started by ChurningSidd
​

However, what you may not be aware of is that Axis Bank is actively tracking a list of individuals. Those on Twitter playing the "community game" or selling loopholes are unaware that they are being monitored. Someone, or possibly a few individuals, is sending emails to Axis Bank officials. I won't answer how I know all of this for obvious reasons.
You may be wondering how Axis Bank found out about the reserve and Axis Magnus travel edge bugs. Actually, those loopholes were reported to Axis Bank officers by some individuals; they didn't discover them on their own.

Axis Bank has already reviewed the credit card transactions of some heavy spenders and gained insight into how their customers are rotating money. You can expect to see more cancellation notices sent to numerous customers in the near future.
One individual, for instance, was using their credit card to purchase lakhs worth of fuel every month, leading to the cancellation of their credit card as well.

It is strongly advised not to use your credit card for business purposes or to rotate money. If you have engaged in such practices in the past, it is recommended to transfer your points as soon as possible.

 

[Deleted member 9785]

you can add your family member's bank account as a business payment and then pay them using CC (eg RBL), they charge 1.09% for business payments during offers. then I pay that credit card(eg RBL) bill using Hdfc bill pay so I get 1% back. so with 0.09%, I can rotate money.

business transactions now comes under PMLA/Black money and ED

 

[Sharjeelshaikh]

you can add your family member's bank account as a business payment and then pay them using CC (eg RBL), they charge 1.09% for business payments during offers. then I pay that credit card(eg RBL) bill using Hdfc bill pay so I get 1% back. so with 0.09%, I can rotate money.

Bahut confusing hai for layman like me.

 

[rogerthat]

#firstworldproblems

 

[Sharjeelshaikh]

business transactions now comes under PMLA/Black money and ED

Aise chindi amount ke lia lol

 

[captaintorchtm]

He should have moved it to a hotel which uses static pricing. Airline game is complex.

its FOMO only, he must have seen some furu talking about Japan or read something about Japan on twitter and moved it to japan airlines without exxploring other options.

 

[Sharjeelshaikh]

Axis Bank to magnus abusers

 

[sxchzy]

But axis doesn't give points for wallet load if I'm correct

 

[Sharjeelshaikh]

Arrre saaala .bahut jaldi letter aayega aapko bhi best of luck

 

[sxchzy]

Arrre saaala .bahut jaldi letter aayega aapko bhi best of luck

nahi aayega
kyuki
1 i paid the surcharge on adding money
2 yeh merchant b2c merchant hai b2b nahi to axis isse personal spend hi manega

 

[Deleted member 9785]

points reverse to karenge hi. Also i doubt it is counted towards milestone

 

[sxchzy]

points reverse to karenge hi. Also i doubt it is counted towards milestone

points ka pata nahi vo to bank pe hai milestone mein hoga if mcc is not 6540

 

[sxchzy]

@VISHESH_BANSAL iska mcc kya hoga any idea

 

[VijayflyRaven]

It could be a bug and it won’t be fixed unless we publicise it. Let’s not make it too visible. 😂

 

[VISHESH_BANSAL]

@VISHESH_BANSAL iska mcc kya hoga any idea

No Idea.
I stopped using Paytm.

 

[vina]

Why though? It's rent payment. It's personal and you have proof of it.

Other gateways like cred, nobroker etc are not considered for milestone.

I don't know why are you arguing with me. May be you are not, hard to tell from the way you have written it.

Assuming you are not arguing (else kindly ignore, I would rather not give both of us a heartburn) - the issue is rent payments via bharatnxt were in fact counted towards Milestones because they were being shown as utility payments.

This is (I think) the reason that in the leaked communication about Magnus devaluations they removed utility MCC from milestone computation.


As for other things, I'm guessing they probably would have spoken with bharatnxt to properly classify the transactions, and quite possibly bharatnxt showed them the middle finger. so how do they ban it? use the fact that bharatnxt itself claims to be B2B (that is in their terms and conditions) while Axis (and every other card provider) expressly prohibits b2b transactions on the cards - you need to take a business card for that, which most wouldn't because rewards are non existent there.

 

[vina]

see axis doesnt have a problem with rotaters
they have a problem with people using b2b gateways which their system flags it as a buisness spend

you give too little credit to their systems

it is not very hard to figure out who is misusing the card. there aren't too many ways, and for a retail user (even crafty ones) pattern will emerge very quickly, and they are attacking all of those:

(1) you can be a smart guy and open a razorpay account (or from another provider) in your Mom's name; start transferring money into that, pay 2% handling fee (Mom will pay) while getting way more than 2% in rewards - this can only be done one just a few cards that offer over 2% returns on all spends. But if you do that, on every transaction the bank will see the same account. Some can go a bit more crafty and Mom can open accounts on 3-4 different platforms; this is harder, but not impossible - banks do get to know more details that payment gateway; a computer analysis will trigger alarm in most cases
(2) bharatnxt is 100% suspect, especially if you are paying rent. You'll be paying in the first few days of the month (same dates every month) and even if you split the transaction (which I'm sure most aren't doing), they will sum up to the same amount. Also your landlord is very likely not going to work with you, so all are going to the same account - in case bharatnxt is sharing the end account details there you have it. B2B is just a ploy to stop them.
(3) I'm quite certain the bharatnxt problem is not just rent - quite a few people are paying themselves through card. the platform charge is under 2% (including GST) and reward rate on some cards is lower. But even without rewards - most small business people can't get bank credit for 2% per 50 days, which is the deal here. And a bank that has a reasonable suspicion that this is going on must act under the law - they would be giving a far more risky loan which RBI requires them to classify as such


my guess is, the banks were tolerating this; they always new what is going on, but the additional expense was probably excellent free marketing. Imagine Axis trying to push its cards on TV and other media vs many dozens of youtubers doing so on their own.
I think now either they have met their advertising goals or the expense is too high. Likely a combination of both. So they are trying to bring back some balance.

 

[thanix]

Really nice to see Axis is identifying and issuing notices as per their audits. But they should provide specific transaction data as per their finding to the user to respond to a notice.

I think Axis has just to reverse the points and remove those milestone benefits for those months if the enquiry established it was business spends.

For future, is it not possible to slap a processing fee and no reward points and exclusion of milestone benefits for these B2B websites which are used with business spend processing gateways? To avoid impact to genuine business credit card spenders, give it as cashback.

 

[sxchzy]

you give too little credit to their systems

it is not very hard to figure out who is misusing the card. there aren't too many ways, and for a retail user (even crafty ones) pattern will emerge very quickly, and they are attacking all of those:

(1) you can be a smart guy and open a razorpay account (or from another provider) in your Mom's name; start transferring money into that, pay 2% handling fee (Mom will pay) while getting way more than 2% in rewards - this can only be done one just a few cards that offer over 2% returns on all spends. But if you do that, on every transaction the bank will see the same account. Some can go a bit more crafty and Mom can open accounts on 3-4 different platforms; this is harder, but not impossible - banks do get to know more details that payment gateway; a computer analysis will trigger alarm in most cases
(2) bharatnxt is 100% suspect, especially if you are paying rent. You'll be paying in the first few days of the month (same dates every month) and even if you split the transaction (which I'm sure most aren't doing), they will sum up to the same amount. Also your landlord is very likely not going to work with you, so all are going to the same account - in case bharatnxt is sharing the end account details there you have it. B2B is just a ploy to stop them.
(3) I'm quite certain the bharatnxt problem is not just rent - quite a few people are paying themselves through card. the platform charge is under 2% (including GST) and reward rate on some cards is lower. But even without rewards - most small business people can't get bank credit for 2% per 50 days, which is the deal here. And a bank that has a reasonable suspicion that this is going on must act under the law - they would be giving a far more risky loan which RBI requires them to classify as such


my guess is, the banks were tolerating this; they always new what is going on, but the additional expense was probably excellent free marketing. Imagine Axis trying to push its cards on TV and other media vs many dozens of youtubers doing so on their own.
I think now either they have met their advertising goals or the expense is too high. Likely a combination of both. So they are trying to bring back some balance.

well i have never used bharatnxt so it shouldnt be a problem for me.
the only way i have used magnus to create artifical spends is through direct wallet loads where i was receiving the surcharge paid back as cashback by paytm into my fuel wallet.

 

[MilesMax]

I don't know why are you arguing with me. May be you are not, hard to tell from the way you have written it.

Assuming you are not arguing (else kindly ignore, I would rather not give both of us a heartburn) - the issue is rent payments via bharatnxt were in fact counted towards Milestones because they were being shown as utility payments.

This is (I think) the reason that in the leaked communication about Magnus devaluations they removed utility MCC from milestone computation.


As for other things, I'm guessing they probably would have spoken with bharatnxt to properly classify the transactions, and quite possibly bharatnxt showed them the middle finger. so how do they ban it? use the fact that bharatnxt itself claims to be B2B (that is in their terms and conditions) while Axis (and every other card provider) expressly prohibits b2b transactions on the cards - you need to take a business card for that, which most wouldn't because rewards are non existent there.

No, I was not arguing with you. Why do I have to argue, it's your card and your wish.
Sorry if my message sounded that way.

I was just checking if there is any other reason you stopped using BharatNxt other than the ban issue because you were using it for genuine rent payments and not for rotating money. You could have easily proved its rent payment. That is all.

Oh, I didn't realise the leaked communication had BharatNxt MCCs removed. Thanks for the info.

 

[ALOAK]

i have loaded 30-50k in totality over the months through paytm wallet after paying surcharge and i have received points for the same and no emails received

Axis do give points for paytm wallet loads. Are they giving now?