Axis Magnus Magnus, Reserve & Other Axis Bank Credit Cards | Devaluation w.e.f. 1st Sep 2023.

[bugmenot]

-- Edited Post --

Final Update

Official PDFs are now out
Magnus - https://www.axisbank.com/docs/default-source/default-document-library/credit-cards/mgtc.pdf

Reserve - https://www.axisbank.com/docs/default-source/default-document-library/credit-cards/rstc.pdf

Revision of Axis Bank Miles/Rewards Transfer Program - https://www.axisbank.com/docs/defau...les-rewards-transfer-terms-and-conditions.pdf

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Update: 2nd August

MyZone - https://www.axisbank.com/docs/default-source/default-document-library/credit-cards/mztc.pdf
Privilege - https://www.axisbank.com/docs/default-source/default-document-library/credit-cards/pvtc.pdf
Select - https://www.axisbank.com/docs/default-source/default-document-library/credit-cards/sltc.pdf
Ace - https://www.axisbank.com/docs/default-source/default-document-library/credit-cards/actc.pdf

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Magnus devaluation highlights

1. Revision in welcome benefits, which are more or less matching with the leaked screenshots
2. Change in annual fee - ₹12,500 + GST
3. No more renewal benefit
4. Spend criteria for fee waiver is now double - 25L
5. Exclusion of government institutions and utilities MCCs for earning ERs
6. RIP 25,000ER/1L milestone benefit
7. Revised transfer ratio of 5:2
8. 5L ER points cap for transfer
9. Burgundy account scheme

Reserve devaluation highlights

1. Spend criteria for fee waiver is revised to 35L
2. Exclusion of government institutions and utilities MCCs for earning ERs
3. Revised transfer ratio of 5:2
4. 5L ER points cap for transfer
5. Burgundy private account scheme

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Aap Chronology Samajiye

• 📄 Few leaked screenshots of PDF started floating for Magnus and Reserve having potential devaulation
• 🐦Few folks on Twitter acknowledged the upcoming devaulation by contacting their RMs or insiders from CC department
• 🎧 Customer Care team were like "Whot Daa Phaak" is going on. They were unaware about these news, some were saying yes and some no
• 😡 Outrage | Speculation | Twitter Space | Points Transfer Tricks
• ✋ Then rumour mills started about devaulation being on hold
• 🔗 Official links of devaulation PDF started popping but "Darling of Cards" was missing
• 🔌 Axis pulled the plug and links started showing "404 - Not Found" except for unlucky Flipkart card
• 💣 BOMB - Axis Gift Edge devaulation
• 📩 Mass credit card cancellation and notice seeking clarification regarding commercial transactions
• 📉 Official PDF of Magnus and Reserve released
• 📉 Official PDF of MyZone, Privilege, Select and Ace released

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1. Flipkart - https://axisbank.com/docs/default-s...flipkart-credit-card-terms-and-conditions.pdf

Below given links are not opening now as they have been removed. You may check attached PDFs.

2. Reserve - https://axisbank.com/docs/default-s...-reserve-credit-card-terms-and-conditions.pdf
3. Select - https://axisbank.com/docs/default-s...k-select-credit-card-terms-and-conditions.pdf
4. Privilege - https://axisbank.com/docs/default-s...rivilege-credit-card-terms-and-conditions.pdf
5. MyZone - https://www.axisbank.com/docs/defau...-my-zone-credit-card-terms-and-conditions.pdf

By following the format, it is quite easy to create Magnus link, which could be https://axisbank.com/docs/default-source/default-document-library/credit-cards/axis-bank-magnus-credit-card-terms-and-conditions.pdf

 

[coinhunter]

I transferred all existing points to accor (new magnus user, so had about 25k).. i have pending may, June milestone benefits + 50k of accelerated ER pending. Was hoping to use everything on Accor for my planned eurotrip in October. My wife was so excited about getting free stays when she finally understood the wholw ER game ( she found the whole thing too complex before the eurotrip planning ).

Idk if axis is going to honor 5:4 for the pending points, don't have much hope to be honest.

Are you using Accor Plus or the Classic? Just curious.

 

[phagocyte536]

Are you using Accor Plus or the Classic? Just curious.

Classic. Thought of taking the plus before making bookings, but looks like all the plans will go to drain.

 

[phagocyte536]

Loss of transfer ratio on pending points will hurt me the most because we ended up doing those spends assuming a good reward.

Also i am contemplating to hang up on this CC game. Spent lot of time in last 4 months to study magnus, and accumulate points - all this will be for nothing. I believe my time can be spent elsewhere. Luckily wife has infinia, we'll take our spends back there + not play this "getting the most value for the spends" game.

 

[navam]

Loss of transfer ratio on pending points will hurt me the most because we ended up doing those spends assuming a good reward.

Also i am contemplating to hang up on this CC game. Spent lot of time in last 4 months to study magnus, and accumulate points - all this will be for nothing. I believe my time can be spent elsewhere. Luckily wife has infinia, we'll take our spends back there + not play this "getting the most value for the spends" game.

It was a fun 4 months though ?
I am with you on the roi for the time spent thought but I don't know why a free family trip to ITC goa was just much more pleasurable than the paid one to Maldives lol

 

[venkateshr]

Loss of transfer ratio on pending points will hurt me the most because we ended up doing those spends assuming a good reward.

Also i am contemplating to hang up on this CC game. Spent lot of time in last 4 months to study magnus, and accumulate points - all this will be for nothing. I believe my time can be spent elsewhere. Luckily wife has infinia, we'll take our spends back there + not play this "getting the most value for the spends" game.

The biggest drop is that max points conversion of some 5L in a year translating to 1L miles in a year. Thats the real downer as one cant do good round trips for 2 also with these points. For families of 4 like me, this is a big drop as no more points in accumulating these rewards and spending time chasing wild dreams. My kids would be most upset if i said a foreign trip and cannot do that. I hope this restriction of pts transfer isnt there in the final notification.

 

[phagocyte536]

It was a fun 4 months though ?
I am with you on the roi for the time spent thought but I don't know why a free family trip to ITC goa was just much more pleasurable than the paid one to Maldives lol

Definitely anything that comes free is more pleasurable 😅

Just that i was late to the game. Whoever started the game in last 3 months would have just got Base ER + travel edge ER by the time ratio of 5:4 is gone. I'm guessing my total ER earn for 5:4 will be 30k. Would have gotten similar reward rate on infinia without breaking my head. Anyway hindsight is always 20:20

 

[Consultant]

That's all folks !!

 

[ALOAK]

The biggest drop is that max points conversion of some 5L in a year translating to 1L miles in a year. Thats the real downer as one cant do good round trips for 2 also with these points. For families of 4 like me, this is a big drop as no more points in accumulating these rewards and spending time chasing wild dreams. My kids would be most upset if i said a foreign trip and cannot do that. I hope this restriction of pts transfer isnt there in the final notification.

I think more than your kids you would be frustrated as axis will not undo things they have done but give alternative if your kids want to go foreign we have education loan is what they will say.

 

[phagocyte536]

The moment some CC executives started confirming it to TF members i had lost all hope of this being fake news.

 

[venkateshr]

That's all folks !!

Why have they written many more at the end of the "Accor sentence" - many more of betrayals??

The long-lasting association looks like a smirk and has sarcasm written all over it.

With Reserve going to 5:1 who would even take it. They are seriously jerks who do not understand a wee bit of long term association in any manner. There are so many in India moving up the prosperity chain - has Axis kept this stuff or devalued slowly over some time and tightened their loopholes their trust factor would have increased manifold. This is actually throwing the baby out with the bath water!! Imbeciles all of them!!

 

[WhoU]

If they give us tata cliq voucher of 10k on renewal, then we might still keep the card because of its good offers on ED & BMS.

 

[Walter White]

The biggest drop is that max points conversion of some 5L in a year translating to 1L miles in a year. Thats the real downer as one cant do good round trips for 2 also with these points. For families of 4 like me, this is a big drop as no more points in accumulating these rewards and spending time chasing wild dreams. My kids would be most upset if i said a foreign trip and cannot do that. I hope this restriction of pts transfer isnt there in the final notification.

A trip of 4 means in case of Europe trip, just the flight tickets can set you back by close to 3L in case of revenue tickets. Not to add the cost of hotels and other expenses and also spending in a stronger currency and earning in a weaker one. I feel your pain as it's the same case here as well.

 

[CARDBITRAGE]

Why have they written many more at the end of the "Accor sentence" - many more of betrayals??

The long-lasting association looks like a smirk and has sarcasm written all over it.

With Reserve going to 5:1 who would even take it. They are seriously jerks who do not understand a wee bit of long term association in any manner. There are so many in India moving up the prosperity chain - has Axis kept this stuff or devalued slowly over some time and tightened their loopholes their trust factor would have increased manifold. This is actually throwing the baby out with the bath water!! Imbeciles all of them!!

Although it pains me that this happened. I think Axis did nothing wrong here. Should serve as a lesson to those who abused the system. As a publicly listed entity, Axis will always have it and it's investors best interest in mind. All these hacks and tricks did come at a cost, and this is it. Like always, the ones who play by the rules, pay the price. So like all things in life, you've gotta enjoy it while it lasts.

 

[pingtime]

Even for infinia reserve you will find jugaad to get ltf or fyf and even this card will get devalued after 2 or 3 yrs. Those who get it first make merry and last ones get trapped. What ever you do for commission anything can happen. You can't stop a backend team colluding with agency or branches colluding with cards team or agents. Just like how human resource team of all companies can't keep their hands clean and one must have observed they readily accept consultants candidate and rarely a good candidate referred by employee as company needs to pay whereas consultants share the funds which even VP of Hr are involved story same.

Lol, are Credit Cards are like crypto ponzi schemes?

 

[venkateshr]

Although it pains me that this happened. I think Axis did nothing wrong here. Should serve as a lesson to those who abused the system. As a publicly listed entity, Axis will always have it and it's investors best interest in mind. All these hacks and tricks did come at a cost, and this is it. Like always, the ones who play by the rules, pay the price. So like all things in life, you've gotta enjoy it while it lasts.

I do not deny that the fallout is sharp for all because of nefariousness of a few, but my limited point is with rising prosperity in India, genuine spenders who have reached a particular payscale and with family are many and they would have been happy to use a proper premium card for their families for int'l travel - which too incidentally is just starting in a way for many many Indians. If Axis had thought long term they could have been the numero uno with some right devaluations and not knee jerk ones like this. Working for a large group where such decisions are thought out and then implemented with caution so as not to alienate the core customer base, I can very well say that Axis has acted short sighted (inspite of great card products pre-deval) and this may very well prove to be the final nail for many Citi customers and even other premium customers to move en-masse to the next best available CC provider like HDFC or Amex.

 

[phagocyte536]

Although it pains me that this happened. I think Axis did nothing wrong here. Should serve as a lesson to those who abused the system. As a publicly listed entity, Axis will always have it and it's investors best interest in mind. All these hacks and tricks did come at a cost, and this is it. Like always, the ones who play by the rules, pay the price. So like all things in life, you've gotta enjoy it while it lasts.

What abuse? Can't such a huge bank anticipate the obvious abuse? Should have tightened the screws where needed quickly at least.

Also devaluation was expected, just not to the extent where most paid users would simply leave the card. This is no good for us or axis. Axis burnt all the money to eventually lose all the customers and also the trust

DCB and Infinia also went through devaluation but it was gradual, piece by piece. Also devalued infinia >>>>>>> devalued magnus by miles. Gradual devaluation will help retain most of the customer case since nobody feels completely cheated.

All the milestone post may and accelerated ER won't even be credited by aug 12th, people spent that hoping to redeem at 5:4. Axis is essentially doing retrospective devaluation starting from May. IMO retrospective devaluation is 100% breach of trust.

 

[venkateshr]

What abuse? Can't such a huge bank anticipate the obvious abuse? Should have tightened the screws where needed quickly at least.

Also devaluation was expected, just not to the extent where most paid users would simply leave the card. This is no good for us or axis. Axis burnt all the money to eventually lose all the customers and also the trust

DCB and Infinia also went through devaluation but it was gradual, piece by piece. Also devalued infinia >>>>>>> devalued magnus by miles. Gradual devaluation will help retain most of the customer case since nobody feels completely cheated.

All the milestone post may and accelerated ER won't even be credited by aug 12th, people spent that hoping to redeem at 5:4. Axis is essentially doing retrospective devaluation starting from May.

I fully agree. Tighten screws to limit exploitation. That's how softwares with many code issues get great over a period of time. At the same time trust and long term thinking + association is so essential for service industry. How can one regain such trust when cards like Reserve are devalued like next to junk. This is simply unbelievable when I think of such things coming from a private Corporate that got such good products for Indian consumers over the last 2 years.

That retrospective devaluation is going to hurt them as many would now approach the right channels. Since pts are getting credited in 120 days, the deval also should have been 120+ days, say from start of next CY for no issues.

 

[CARDBITRAGE]

I do not deny that the fallout is sharp for all because of nefariousness of a few, but my limited point is with rising prosperity in India, genuine spenders who have reached a particular payscale and with family are many and they would have been happy to use a proper premium card for their families for int'l travel - which too incidentally is just starting in a way for many many Indians. If Axis had thought long term they could have been the numero uno with some right devaluations and not knee jerk ones like this. Working for a large group where such decisions are thought out and then implemented with caution so as not to alienate the core customer base, I can very well say that Axis has acted short sighted (inspite of great card products pre-deval) and this may very well prove to be the final nail for many Citi customers and even other premium customers to move en-masse to the next best available CC provider like HDFC or Amex.

You are absolutely right. Well, Magnus and Reserve did start out with that intent. They catered to the right crowd, ones who had genuine spends and had a good flow of income. It was a top-of-the-line product designed keeping in mind the spends and lifestyle requirements of the HNIs. But somewhere along the line, they faltered and gave in to greed. They onboarded every Tom, Dick and Harry having interests in their cards. This led to all this chaos, and I hope they hold the person who gave the green light to that accountable. Maybe, it was out of desperation to show performance figures, but this will cost Axis dearly. And yes, do agree with you that this is a very drastic change that will leave a sour taste for all us patrons. But as I mentioned, a banking entity, when push comes to shove, you know they will make the hard choice. I do wonder how they remained blindsided to all the loopholes for soooooo long. Also with the recent acquisition, I don't think they could've held off on the deval if they were bleeding on their cards. We started to actually see the devals come in at around '23 FY end. After that, I did think the end is somewhat near. But as you expressed, this was quite a shocker. I would like to disagree with you and say, Magnus may still be better than Infinia if you have high spends. Yes, the returns won't be bonkers like before, but it is still somewhat manageable. Amex is a great company with a great portfolio, just not in India.

 

[CARDBITRAGE]

I fully agree. Tighten screws to limit exploitation. That's how softwares with many code issues get great over a period of time. At the same time trust and long term thinking + association is so essential for service industry. How can one regain such trust when cards like Reserve are devalued like next to junk. This is simply unbelievable when I think of such things coming from a private Corporate that got such good products for Indian consumers over the last 2 years.

That retrospective devaluation is going to hurt them as many would now approach the right channels. Since pts are getting credited in 120 days, the deval also should have been 120+ days, say from start of next CY for no issues.

Long-term thinking went out of the window the day they started mass issuance of cards. XD

 

[swipesmart]

I don't have much limit left. exhausted 100% limit in self assessment tax. bank account will get cash in few days.

Quick question.

1. I don't find option for axis bank card while paying tax.
2. If I have salary account and I pay advance taxed then can I inform my company and they don't deduct taxes? Is it possible?