u/CiggyStardusst

Cibil 800

Salary 2LPM after tax

Spends: 50-60k on regular stuff, amazon, gadgets etc. office pays for domestic travel. 1 or 2 intl. personal trips per year.

Current cards:

Amex plat reserve (used for everything) (7L credit limit)

Hdfc Diners club purple (just took it to have a card with HDFC) (1L credit limit)

ICICI Platinum chip (secured against an FD) (1L credit limit)

Card requirements: I’m ok with any fees so long as its a good card. But I have had enough of ICICI.

Reason for a new card: I have some online subscriptions like Microsoft which don’t accept Amex or Diners club cards. So for these subscriptions (spending will be at most 5k per month) I want a Visa or Mastercard, to leave on autopay. Steam website also doesn’t accept amex, and amex got rid of gyftr steam vouchers now.

I would not mind a good card, even if fees are a bit high. I’m keeping Amex to get points for flight ticket upgrades to business class. Amex ratio is pretty bad for this, I understand, but I don’t know what better option there is because Amex points never expire. (Amex has been extremely reliable).

Some cards I had my eye on were: HDFC Swiggy black, Marriott Bonvoy HDFC (I do spend at marriott restaurant frequently, but again the problem is being stuck on Diner’s Club network), Standard Chartered (again I feel why bother with them because they don’t have much presence in India).
People say Axis is being devalued so maybe I should avoid Axis.

Rupay I’m happy with anything, for small UPI amounts (less than 500). Maybe spend max of 1k per month.

I understand most criticisms and flaws people point out here. (People here mention Customer support, devaluation, bad concierge, not accepting at many POS, low point transfer value)

But one big benefit not many praise is that the points never expire.

HDFC Axis ICICI HSBC all have 3 years expiry. Meaning, earning points is only beneficial to you *so long as your spends are regular and consistent.*

Based on your spending level, of course these cards will give you great returns in the form of vouchers or hotel stays or flights etc.

But the fact that Amex doesn’t expire is honestly so underrated.

Maybe it is just my personal spending. But consider this: I recently bought a laptop for 4L. I dont need another laptop for another 7 or 8 years easily. These points, I have no use for them and no reason to spend. I would much rather save over 10 years and then enjoy a big luxury vacation, business class intl flight and good 5 star hotel.

So maybe it depends on your personal preferences. For me I feel having ongoing expenditures is too much. Last month my expenses were 4.5L (laptop and some household stuff). For the next 6 months my expenses will be like 5k rupees total 😂. So it feels nice there is no pressure in the back of your mind to use the reward points before they expire. Just let it sit in my account, i’ll look at it in 5 or 10 years and see what I can do with it.