Best Credit card for medical spends category

[the_dark_knight]

I am looking for a credit card which is personalised for spends on medical category like hospital bills, doctor/clinic payments, pharmacies payments for medicine purchases etc.

As per my research, I couldn't find any credit card in the market right now. Axis Bank has their Aura credit card but that doesn't provide any additional/accelerated reward points/benefits for the payments which I mentioned above. Basically that's just a normal card they are selling with some online doctor consultation services which is useless.

I think since medical spends is a mcc in itself, banks should come up with a dedicated cobranded or personalised credit card for the same like we already have it for groceries, travel, dining etc.nowadays.

Please let me know if there is any cc available in the market right now which I might be not aware of or can be added to this thread when such card is launched.

 

[nomad]

Take maybe Amazon Pay card or Axis Ace like cards which provide you some amount of cashback for all the qualifying spends where hospital bills etc should count.

@TechnoFino any suggestions here basis your recent post regarding card suggestions?

 

[the_dark_knight]

Take maybe Amazon Pay card or Axis Ace like cards which provide you some amount of cashback for all the qualifying spends where hospital bills etc should count.

@TechnoFino any suggestions here basis your recent post regarding card suggestions?

Yeah, so that basically boils down to the best credit cards for offline spends only.
As long as banks don't launch any medical mcc related cc, one has to choose the credit card which gives the best rewards on any general offline spends only.

 

[Bharat]

How about the least thought card AU LIT here..
Enable 5%cb feature for bills upto 10k per 30 day cycle form date of enabling the feature
Additionally can enable 5x reward on offline spends (if spends are >20k in 3 months)
Feature cost = 5% 299+GST (353/-).. 5x 299+GST

If you transact for 10k over 3months =30k
You'll get rs 1500 - 353 = 1147 = 3.8% reward rate but reduces if anything above 30k spends

If you transact for 10k over 3months =30k
You'll get rs 600 worth reward points - rs.353 = 247
This will increase according to increase in spends

 

[sleepysurya]

Reward Subscription Plan of yes credit card gives 5X on healthcare. However, one has to figure whether it's value for money or not as per their expenses.

 

[helloworld]

Apollo services: Apollo SBI
5x on Chemist and Pharmacy: Pulse SBI
Medical supplies: Doctors SBI

Accelarated on chemist, Pharmacy: YES Wellness
For checkups, insurance, nutrition etc.: Axis Aura, Union JCB

YES Reserv w/ 5x subscription: 9%

All of these exist from long time, do check product pages and apply suitable one, if required.

 

[the_dark_knight]

How about the least thought card AU LIT here..
Enable 5%cb feature for bills upto 10k per 30 day cycle form date of enabling the feature
Additionally can enable 5x reward on offline spends (if spends are >20k in 3 months)
Feature cost = 5% 299+GST (353/-).. 5x 299+GST

If you transact for 10k over 3months =30k
You'll get rs 1500 - 353 = 1147 = 3.8% reward rate but reduces if anything above 30k spends

If you transact for 10k over 3months =30k
You'll get rs 600 worth reward points - rs.353 = 247
This will increase according to increase in spends

This is exactly the mechanism I am using for medical expenses at hospitals currently.
However this AU lit card benefits are for any offline spends in general and they don't have accelerated spends or extra spends milestone for medical expenses category
My point is there doesn't seem any relevant card which can give extra benefits/rewards for medical spends only.
Obviously in the absence of such cards, one can still benefit by using cards in their collection optimally to meet various milestones and can still get benefited on medical(offline) spends

 

[Vasuki]

I am looking for a credit card which is personalised for spends on medical category like hospital bills, doctor/clinic payments, pharmacies payments for medicine purchases etc.

As per my research, I couldn't find any credit card in the market right now. Axis Bank has their Aura credit card but that doesn't provide any additional/accelerated reward points/benefits for the payments which I mentioned above. Basically that's just a normal card they are selling with some online doctor consultation services which is useless.

I think since medical spends is a mcc in itself, banks should come up with a dedicated cobranded or personalised credit card for the same like we already have it for groceries, travel, dining etc.nowadays.

Please let me know if there is any cc available in the market right now which I might be not aware of or can be added to this thread when such card is launched.

How much is the spend ?

 

[sourpai]

At this time Yes Reserv looks good with subscription plan. Online Hospital expenses will be 15% and Offline will be 7.5% with travel redemptions. It will break even at >50K expense

 

[the_dark_knight]

How much is the spend ?

Easily around >1lac on AVG per year if I just talk about medicines, lab tests, consultation and hospital bills.
Insurance spends are separate and am not including them in this category

 

[mail_amity]

Tataneu infinity would give you nice returns on 1MG (via tata neu app).
10% back as neucoins. Which you can directly use in the app for more spends on 1MG

 

[Trust Me]

Tataneu infinity would give you nice returns on 1MG (via tata neu app).
10% back as neucoins. Which you can directly use in the app for more spends on 1MG

What's so alluring in 1mg giving only 10% back as Neucoins?!

My offline pharmacies give 15-20% instant discount. Even Apollo gives 10% without any strings.

 

[mail_amity]

What's so alluring in 1mg giving only 10% back as Neucoins?!

My offline pharmacies give 15-20% instant discount. Even Apollo gives 10% without any strings.

1MG also has a ~20% discount on medications, as usual. The NEU returns are on top of that.
Hence the allurement.

Also, are offline pharmacies giving out 15-20% discounts around you? All I get is ~10% and some angry stares

 

[Trust Me]

Also, are offline pharmacies giving out 15-20% discounts around you? All I get is ~10% and some angry stares

Depends on the location, I guess. Some years back (before the appearance of online pharmacies, and big chain stores) it used to be only 0 to 6% discount, depending on the pharmacy.

Then some chain stores started appearing with 10% discount offers. The existing shops tried to stop that by forming some pharmacists' union. When that didn't work, they also gradually started offering some discounts (along with angry stares).

As online pharmacies started appearing, some local shops signed up with some chain stores and started offering larger discounts, and free home delivery. Then one such chain was acquired by Flipkart. Amazon is still far behind in pharmacy business.

Now there are multiple offline options offering 15-20% discount.

 

[Visith]

Depends on the location, I guess. Some years back (before the appearance of online pharmacies, and big chain stores) it used to be only 0 to 6% discount, depending on the pharmacy.

Then some chain stores started appearing with 10% discount offers. The existing shops tried to stop that by forming some pharmacists' union. When that didn't work, they also gradually started offering some discounts (along with angry stares).

As online pharmacies started appearing, some local shops signed up with some chain stores and started offering larger discounts, and free home delivery. Then one such chain was acquired by Flipkart. Amazon is still far behind in pharmacy business.

Now there are multiple offline options offering 15-20% discount.

Bro can you please tell which offline pharmacy chain is offering 15-20% discount? Is it any location specific?

 

[Trust Me]

Bro can you please tell which offline pharmacy chain is offering 15-20% discount? Is it any location specific?

They may be location-specific, I don't know for sure. There are several such chains in WB with offline presence.

 

[JayB]

Buy from Medplus. They offer 20% discount on medicine bills of more than 1000 INR. Same as Frank Ross Pharmacy but its presence is restricted to eastern side of the country.
However if you have SBI Pulse or Yes Wellness Plus you won’t get accelerated rewards on Medplus as it does not fall under Chemist/Pharmacy MCC.

 

[codenerd]

What's so alluring in 1mg giving only 10% back as Neucoins?!

My offline pharmacies give 15-20% instant discount. Even Apollo gives 10% without any strings.

My local offline pharmacy "Lifeline Diagnostics" gives flat 25% off on mostly all medicines in Kolkata!

 

[frezcoop]

I get max 12% off by one of the local pharmacy near doctor's clinic. I tried to ask for 15 and he said that they cannot give beyond 12 as it's the max in their system. Also problem with ordering online is for some medications if u get the power/brand/name wrong then it can turn real bad for the patient.

 

[Trust Me]

... Also problem with ordering online is for some medications if u get the power/brand/name wrong then it can turn real bad for the patient.

If you do get power/brand/name wrong, why would you still give it to the patient ?!

I've another concern with online medicine shops: many are just market places (like Amazon), and source the medicines from various shops. There is no way to know under what condition they store the medicines.

As a rule I avoid local single-storey offline shops, especially in hotter months when their room temperatures run several degrees higher than in multi-storey buildings with floors above.
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