[montsa007]

Anyone had a Uni card & is waiting for their NX Card?

[Everlearner]

My Tataneu HDFC Rupay credit card got converted to lifetime free

[zensure]

I am looking for a better card. At present my goto card is ICICI Amazon Pay, which is ok. It used to be quite good and now I don't see much use. Will continue to have with low usage. Have a SC Titanium card, which I use exclusively for fuel and occassional restaurant pay. I continue to get 5% cash back on fuel, which is effectively about 3.5% or so after deductions.

Have Regalia as standby and Citi (First Citizen) Card, which I hardly use. Plan to surrender CITI, and possibly SC as well. Looking for suitable replacement card.

Annual card spend is about 7-8L, of which utility bills and fuel about 1.2L, Insurance about 80K. Rest are general spends with about ~2L or so online.

I definitely could use travel rewards. Wondering if Magnus is suitable for me, considering the 11.8K per annum as the entry fee.

Appreciate your suggestions.
-Suresh

[tejas08]

Originally Posted by zensure

I am looking for a better card. At present my goto card is ICICI Amazon Pay, which is ok. It used to be quite good and now I don't see much use. Will continue to have with low usage. Have a SC Titanium card, which I use exclusively for fuel and occassional restaurant pay. I continue to get 5% cash back on fuel, which is effectively about 3.5% or so after deductions.

Have Regalia as standby and Citi (First Citizen) Card, which I hardly use. Plan to surrender CITI, and possibly SC as well. Looking for suitable replacement card.

Annual card spend is about 7-8L, of which utility bills and fuel about 1.2L, Insurance about 80K. Rest are general spends with about ~2L or so online.

I definitely could use travel rewards. Wondering if Magnus is suitable for me, considering the 11.8K per annum as the entry fee.

Appreciate your suggestions.
-Suresh

Go Ahead with Magnus. You should be able to make at least 7-8% with reward multiplier portals even without hitting the Monthly 1 Lac Milestone bonus.

[zensure]

Thank you Tejas. One question - does Magnus too offer 5% cash back on Flipkart?

[tejas08]

Originally Posted by zensure

Thank you Tejas. One question - does Magnus too offer 5% cash back on Flipkart?

It does, but you are better off taking 5X Points instead of 5% Cashback. 5X can be worth anywhere between 12% to even 50% in terms of Travel Rewards.

[vinu_h]

I frequently come across "card declined for security reasons" when making a transaction outside India. Despite limit being available and international enabled this happens. How do you folks deal with this ? I don't want to carry large amounts of cash as backup.

You're at the cashier and in a queue and this happens, putting a lot of pressure. End up saying " try this card or that card"

[MyLife_MyCar]

Originally Posted by vinu_h

I frequently come across "card declined for security reasons" when making a transaction outside India. Despite limit being available and international enabled this happens. How do you folks deal with this ? I don't want to carry large amounts of cash as backup.

You're at the cashier and in a queue and this happens, putting a lot of pressure. End up saying " try this card or that card"

Just checking, does it happen always at the cash counter? If yes, did you enable the "POS transactions" under the International section?
Many a times I have seen people enabling International transactions with only "Online transactions" selected.

Otherwise there is no reason for a transaction to be declined, unless that particular card has no tie up with the merchant (rare case).
One such instance I know of is about recurring monthly payment for apple care, while purchasing from US, using hdfc credit card. Apple and hdfc have no partnership to allow such transactions.

[vinu_h]

Originally Posted by MyLife_MyCar

Just checking, does it happen always at the cash counter? If yes, did you enable the "POS transactions" under the International section?
Many a times I have seen people enabling International transactions with only "Online transactions" selected.i

If POS was the issue, SMS from the bank would call that out as the reason. If it helps, 100% of my online non-INR transactions go thru, while in India that is, offline is where the issue is.

[alexgv]

Originally Posted by vinu_h

I frequently come across "card declined for security reasons" when making a transaction outside India. Despite limit being available and international enabled this happens. How do you folks deal with this ? I don't want to carry large amounts of cash as backup.

You're at the cashier and in a queue and this happens, putting a lot of pressure. End up saying " try this card or that card"

Some banks like Hdfc and Citi bank has a section on international travel dates update on their online banking where we can mention the dates we are travelling and the countries. Also the phone number on which you can be reached for confirmation while travelling. I have done this and then it worked smoothly.

[fiat_tarun]

Originally Posted by vinu_h

I frequently come across "card declined for security reasons" when making a transaction outside India. ...

Originally Posted by alexgv

Some banks like Hdfc and Citi bank has a section on international travel dates update on their online banking where we can mention the dates we are travelling and the countries. ...

As mentioned above, call you bank before you travel and inform them of the places you will be travelling to with the dates. Once this is logged in the system it won't flag these transactions as suspect. This has worked well for me with Citibank & HDFC.

[itwasntme]

Originally Posted by vinu_h

I frequently come across "card declined for security reasons" when making a transaction outside India.

Can be the AI bot trying to figure out the chances of it being a fraudulent 'cloned card' transaction at a relatively higher risk retailer / product purchase in a higher risk country or region. Further, it also can also be deeply variable bank-to-bank and whether you are an Indian resident or PIO holder.

For example, SBI is quite OCD and tends to temporarily block the transaction and/or robocall the cardholder to verify.

As others have suggested, log into the bank website proactively and intimate them with your travel plans and local numbers (if different from your registered mobile number).

[s4ch]

Originally Posted by tejas08

Singapore Airlines - 1.72 Lac Miles for Two Business Class Return Tickets from India to 8 different countries in South East Asia

Turkish Airlines - 1.32 Lac Miles for Two Business Class Return Tickets from India to anywhere in Europe.

Its not at all difficult to get two business class tickets on one flight. I am deeply involved in Airmiles myself and need 3 Business Class Tickets for Family travel. I also spend about 6-8 Hours a weeks in finding award seats for Friends, family and Clients.

The key to success is knowing which airlines work best for which sector in terms of Award seat availability.

Thanks for all your posts over the last few years about credit card points. Has been very helpful.

Just a question on booking tickets using credit card points: How do you do this?

Do you book points through the credit card travel portal, i.e. like Edgetravel for Axis Bank? Or transfer the points to the Airmiles account directly and then book with the airline?

I ask because on Axis Bank for example, there is an option to redeem Edge Reward points while booking through their Edgetravel portal. For example, I was recently able to redeem 2500 points for 700rs discount on a domestic ticket. Is this the best way to use these points or am I missing a trick?

[Jaguar]

Originally Posted by tejas08

As for 1.7 Lac Miles not being good enough for Two Business Class Return Tickets:

Singapore Airlines - 1.72 Lac Miles for Two Business Class Return Tickets from India to 8 different countries in South East Asia

Turkish Airlines - 1.32 Lac Miles for Two Business Class Return Tickets from India to anywhere in Europe.

How many reward points are required to accumulate 1.7 lakh miles? Do you have any ballpark numbers for Axis edge rewards, Amex points, etc?

Amex had an offer where 10k points could be converted to 13k Bonvoy points. Bonvoy to Airmiles conversion is mostly 3:1. So 10k Amex points are worth around 4300 air miles. Using this calculation, one needs around 4 lakh CC points to get 1.7 lakh Miles. Does this look correct?

[tejas08]

Originally Posted by s4ch

Thanks for all your posts over the last few years about credit card points. Has been very helpful.

Just a question on booking tickets using credit card points: How do you do this?

Do you book points through the credit card travel portal, i.e. like Edgetravel for Axis Bank? Or transfer the points to the Airmiles account directly and then book with the airline?

I ask because on Axis Bank for example, there is an option to redeem Edge Reward points while booking through their Edgetravel portal. For example, I was recently able to redeem 2500 points for 700rs discount on a domestic ticket. Is this the best way to use these points or am I missing a trick?

Transferring the Points to a Frequent Flyer Account of an Airline and then booking Flights is the way to do it for better value. For example:

Mumbai to Delhi Vistara Flight can be booked directly thru TravelEdge Portal or by converting Edge Rewards to Club Vistara Points. Points required would be

- Via TravelEdge - Value of Ticket x 5 Edge Rewards (So for a ticket worth Rs. 5000, you need 25,000 Edge Rewards)

- Via Club Vistara - 6250 Edge Rewards + Taxes (Approx. Rs. 5xx)

This video explains a lot about Airmiles Basics. Not my channel. I was just a guest on the Video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=meiMcNYtQGY

Originally Posted by Jaguar

How many reward points are required to accumulate 1.7 lakh miles? Do you have any ballpark numbers for Axis edge rewards, Amex points, etc?

Amex had an offer where 10k points could be converted to 13k Bonvoy points. Bonvoy to Airmiles conversion is mostly 3:1. So 10k Amex points are worth around 4300 air miles. Using this calculation, one needs around 4 lakh CC points to get 1.7 lakh Miles. Does this look correct?

Well, that's one way to do it. Probably the most painful way.

But its about understanding how you can accumulate & convert to Airmiles at a much higher rate.

Singapore Airlines is a direct transfer partner of Amex with a conversion ratio of 2:1. So for 1.7 Lacs Miles, you need 3.4 Lacs Amex Points.

Now you move to Axis, the conversion ratio is 5:4. So for 1.7 Lacs Miles, you need 212,500 Axis Credit Card Reward Points (Called as Edge Rewards).

This is not the only difference between Amex & Axis. Axis Credit Cards earn much higher number of points per 100 Rs. as compared to Amex. So you reach 212,500 Points with much lesser spends on Axis as you would need to earn the same amount of points on Amex Cards.

Hope I simplified it enough.