Best card among magnus, mrcc, dcb & platinum

[tapishj]

I have the following cards:
1. Got magnus 1 month back
2. LTF DCB
3. Amex mrcc
4. Amex platinum travel (milestone achieved)
5. Sbi cashback

My monthly spends are around 60-70K, can push to 1L for a few months of the year. And i primarily use these cards to buy Apay GV and pay bills/swiggy/uber via that.

Considering these, and the recent devaluation talks for magnus, what should be my preferred card?
(I can use miles/hotel transfers for travel as well)

 

[thedator]

Magnus, of course till the time it devalues.

Whats of more importance to you matters. Cashback or mile / points for consumption.

Decide based on that.

 

[tapishj]

Magnus, of course till the time it devalues.

Whats of more importance to you matters. Cashback or mile / points for consumption.

Decide based on that.

Point conversion is ok for me. Whatever extracts the maximum value.

 

[thedator]

Point conversion is ok for me. Whatever extracts the maximum value.

Then go for Magnus till deval. Just do note that your 25k bonus points for july that you will get in sep may end up getting worth 5k only if axis changes the conversion ratio. So retrospective loss possible.
For regular points, keep transferring every 15 days or so.

 

[BeingIncog]

AMONG magnUS. title made me chuckle.

 

[kowsikbabu]

Is there any way to get Amex MRCC LTF?

 

[thedator]

Is there any way to get Amex MRCC LTF?

Not possible now.

 

[abby]

Agree.. magnus till devaluation (considering the fact taht

 

[tapishj]

Any thoughts now? After deval news.
Few points on my mind, can correct if wrong:
1. July Milestone will get converted in 5:4 ratio.
For people who recently got Magnus and might still get one or two milestone benefits, which is the best transfer partner, considering value of points & validity (considering nothing is planned as of now)?
I see a lot of people talking about Accor, but want to get a general opinion here.
2. August milestone will fetch 25K points worth 10K miles, for the sake of argument let's consider them to be of 10K INR. Still a good deal for august right?
3. From Sept onwards, back to using different cards for different things? MRCC up to 20K, SBI cashback for online, & DCB for rest of spends + flights?

 

[dominic1229]

I have the following cards:
1. Got magnus 1 month back
2. LTF DCB
3. Amex mrcc
4. Amex platinum travel (milestone achieved)
5. Sbi cashback

My monthly spends are around 60-70K, can push to 1L for a few months of the year. And i primarily use these cards to buy Apay GV and pay bills/swiggy/uber via that.

Considering these, and the recent devaluation talks for magnus, what should be my preferred card?
(I can use miles/hotel transfers for travel as well)

After deval, let's ignore magnus from this list. I will say DCB Ltf is your best card.

Considering your spending style you must get AmEx gold too (for 5x rewards from amex gyftr). That way you can get 25K worth of amazon gv from amex gyftr (minimum 10% return if planning to redeem for Marriot Bonvoy's hotels) and 20K worth of amazon gv from Dcb (9% return).
This will cover your spends till 45K at an amazing return/reward rate.
For swiggy and uber beyond 45k, you can purchase their vouchers directly using both these cards.
This will give you even better value than SBI cashback due to it's exclusions.

 

[sheru]

you must get AmEx gold too (for 5x rewards from amex gyftr). That way you can get 25K worth of amazon gv from amex gyftr (minimum 10% return if planning to redeem for Marriot Bonvoy's hotels)

25k AGV limit is per Amex Reward Multiplier Account or per Amex card? Any idea?

 

[dominic1229]

25k AGV limit is per Amex Reward Multiplier Account or per Amex card? Any idea?

As per AmEx TnC, it is a combination of mobile number and card number.

 

[dominic1229]

25k AGV limit is per Amex Reward Multiplier Account or per Amex card? Any idea?

From what I understand, a person with 3 AmEx cards can get max 75K worth of amazon gv.
But, I don't recommend using 2x or 3x bonus cards to max out amazon gv on amex.

 

[sheru]

From what I understand, a person with 3 AmEx cards can get max 75K worth of amazon gv.
But, I don't recommend using 2x or 3x bonus cards to max out amazon gv on amex.

Even i think they would allow upto 75k for people with more than two Amex..

Also AGVs never go waste.. 😉
More the merrier.

 

[tapishj]

After deval, let's ignore magnus from this list. I will say DCB Ltf is your best card.

Considering your spending style you must get AmEx gold too (for 5x rewards from amex gyftr). That way you can get 25K worth of amazon gv from amex gyftr (minimum 10% return if planning to redeem for Marriot Bonvoy's hotels) and 20K worth of amazon gv from Dcb (9% return).
This will cover your spends till 45K at an amazing return/reward rate.
For swiggy and uber beyond 45k, you can purchase their vouchers directly using both these cards.
This will give you even better value than SBI cashback due to it's exclusions.

Your suggestion is great! I never explored Amex Gold's 5X reward rate on Apay. In fact, until now, wasn't event using DCB's 3X.
Roughly 10% return on spends till 45K via Apay is great!
Do you have any suggestions for spends like 60-70K which can give even better returns? Even if it means moving away from APay route, and maybe with VISA partner.
@dominic1229

 

[dominic1229]

Your suggestion is great! I never explored Amex Gold's 5X reward rate on Apay. In fact, until now, wasn't event using DCB's 3X.
Roughly 10% return on spends till 45K via Apay is great!
Do you have any suggestions for spends like 60-70K which can give even better returns? Even if it means moving away from APay route, and maybe with VISA partner.
@dominic1229

Do note that HDFC DCB will be charged with 1.475% convenience fee when buying Apay GV (no fee on Amazon Shopping voucher that can only be used on amazon) but Amex will charge you 0% conv fee/additional fee.
For better returns, you can get Apay GVs and then use them to buy vouchers from Amazon.

example: Apay GV using DCB at 9%-1.475% = 7.5% approx savings, then use that to buy vouchers at additional discounts from Amazon.in.
I did notice that for some vouchers from amazon, they don't accept apay balance, tested and failed for Swiggy gv from amazon.in. Worked on Google play gift card for additional 2% off and used apay balance (I use google play credits to pay for Youtube, spotify and some in-app purchases). You will have to test for which brands GV/GC this will work.
You can also use Apay on Uber to pay for rides. Currently, they give amazon prime users 5% cashback. So, we already get bonus RP on Apay GV and then we can get additional 5% on uber.
Swiggy vouchers at Gyftr are usually discounted. Currently no discount for HDFC and AmEX but 2 weeks ago, I saw 2.5% off on swiggy vouchers and grabbed around 30K worth of swiggy vouchers (i use it for food+groceries+any small daily use stuff available on instamart). So, in such case you can get 9%+2.5% off, much better than those 10% deals at swiggy. Bonus tip: When paying with swiggy money there is no minimum order issue (as seen in most card, cart should be of minimum value of 500, 700 etc.). But, yes the free delivery rule will apply (200 for instamart and less for swiggy food).

Another example is booking flights from MMT, if you don't use Airmiles/Club vistara points. MMT Gift card can be used to book flights. right now it is at 2% off, so that means you get flat 11-12% approx. off on flights booking of max 30K (MMT allows using max 3 gift cards at a time, so 10K x 3 = 30K).

Attached a sample calculation for a voucher at 1.5% off and MMT 2% deal using DCB Gyftr.

Hope this helps. I started using Smartbuy and AmEx Gyftr from June 2023, so I am also new to this and still learning to maximize discounts/bonus reward points.

 

[tapishj]

Do note that HDFC DCB will be charged with 1.475% convenience fee when buying Apay GV (no fee on Amazon Shopping voucher that can only be used on amazon) but Amex will charge you 0% conv fee/additional fee.
For better returns, you can get Apay GVs and then use them to buy vouchers from Amazon.

example: Apay GV using DCB at 9%-1.475% = 7.5% approx savings, then use that to buy vouchers at additional discounts from Amazon.in.
I did notice that for some vouchers from amazon, they don't accept apay balance, tested and failed for Swiggy gv from amazon.in. Worked on Google play gift card for additional 2% off and used apay balance (I use google play credits to pay for Youtube, spotify and some in-app purchases). You will have to test for which brands GV/GC this will work.
You can also use Apay on Uber to pay for rides. Currently, they give amazon prime users 5% cashback. So, we already get bonus RP on Apay GV and then we can get additional 5% on uber.
Swiggy vouchers at Gyftr are usually discounted. Currently no discount for HDFC and AmEX but 2 weeks ago, I saw 2.5% off on swiggy vouchers and grabbed around 30K worth of swiggy vouchers (i use it for food+groceries+any small daily use stuff available on instamart). So, in such case you can get 9%+2.5% off, much better than those 10% deals at swiggy. Bonus tip: When paying with swiggy money there is no minimum order issue (as seen in most card, cart should be of minimum value of 500, 700 etc.). But, yes the free delivery rule will apply (200 for instamart and less for swiggy food).

Another example is booking flights from MMT, if you don't use Airmiles/Club vistara points. MMT Gift card can be used to book flights. right now it is at 2% off, so that means you get flat 11-12% approx. off on flights booking of max 30K (MMT allows using max 3 gift cards at a time, so 10K x 3 = 30K).

Attached a sample calculation for a voucher at 1.5% off and MMT 2% deal using DCB Gyftr.

Hope this helps. I started using Smartbuy and AmEx Gyftr from June 2023, so I am also new to this and still learning to maximize discounts/bonus reward points.

For flights, try HDFC smartbuy. with DCB 5X reward, on flights we get about 16.5% back. With certain max caps (daily/monthly)
For single/two tickets, this works well.

 

[dominic1229]

For flights, try HDFC smartbuy. with DCB 5X reward, on flights we get about 16.5% back. With certain max caps (daily/monthly)
For single/two tickets, this works well.

Yes, I tried that. Actually, I started using Gyftr vouchers since June 2023. But, I have used Smartbuy flight booking regularly from a long time to redeem Regalia reward points and earn 5x RP. DCB and Infinia are even better as they have amazing return on hotels with 10X bonus.

Next month, I will try Club vistara for the first time when I get 25K points from my dead Magnus.

 

[tapishj]

@dominic1229 Are you seeing the same?
HDFC smartbuy seems to have increased the processing fees for Apay & Amazon shopping vouchers, lowering the effective return.

Did a quick calculation,
Axis Magnus ER (until August end) would give around 7.2% returns. (base points converted at 5:4 & bonus points converted at 5:2 - for Accor let's say)
DCB after revised charges would be around 6.5% (Did this math for 10K Apay voucher & 5K Shopping vocher)
Amex Plat is pathetic at 3% (3X bonus reward rate)
MRCC is much better if you account for the 2000 bonus you'll get from 20K spends + 1.5K x 4 transactions + 2X bonus on gyftr - 7.17%

Note: Amex is calculated w.r.t. redemption at Taj.

 

[dominic1229]

@dominic1229 Are you seeing the same?
HDFC smartbuy seems to have increased the processing fees for Apay & Amazon shopping vouchers, lowering the effective return.

Did a quick calculation,
Axis Magnus ER (until August end) would give around 7.2% returns. (base points converted at 5:4 & bonus points converted at 5:2 - for Accor let's say)
DCB after revised charges would be around 6.5% (Did this math for 10K Apay voucher & 5K Shopping vocher)
Amex Plat is pathetic at 3% (3X bonus reward rate)
MRCC is much better if you account for the 2000 bonus you'll get from 20K spends + 1.5K x 4 transactions + 2X bonus on gyftr - 7.17%

Note: Amex is calculated w.r.t. redemption at Taj.

Yes, sadly HDFC has destroyed Amazon vouchers for Regalia and DCB. Looka good only for infinia.

In AmEx, try to get amex gold for 5x rewards on Amazon Pay and discount on Amazon shopping voucher.