Please help me optimise my card stack. Keep / Remove / Replace?
This is my current card stack. I am considering consolidation or replacing. Been confused about how to optimise. Axis Horizon? HSBC Travel One? Regalia Gold? HDFC has not been giving me Regalia Gold due to salary criteria even though I have an Imperia account through family banking. I don't want any card for lounge access as I have an add-on card that does the job for me as far as airport lounge is concerned.
What triggered this rethinking of my card stack is the realisation that I have booked 15 flights this year and I plan to keep travelling more over the coming years. Some were higher than usual rates and having points / air miles would have helped in these situations in my opinion. Should I consider a travel card? And what should I close?
I have been getting an average of 4-5% return in cashback every month as of now. A lot of the spends on my cards end up being group spends that then get split amongst my friends and I.
Below are some details for context:
Current Cibil: 775
Age: 24
Monthly Income and Employment status: Salary ~1.4L
Monthly Expenses & Spending Patterns:
- Food, Grocery, Dining Out: ~40-50k (I pay for friends, which we then split)
- Furniture Rental: Furlenco and Rentomojo
- Commute: Rapido, Uber
- Travel:
- 2 Trains every month
- 15 Flights this year: 12 domestic and 2 international
- Mostly Airbnbs, no hotels
- Concerts and shows: Bookmyshow, District, Skillboxes
- Shopping: Mostly Amazon, Myntra or D2C websites
Top 5 Monthly spend categories and Top 5 Annual spend categories: mentioned above
Preferences for Credit Card Features: No hotel redemptions required as such. Focus is flights if possible.
Reward Preference (Cashback or Reward Points): I have been getting cashback for the past 2 years. Want to get the best return possible, plus I think airmiles / points help with booking flights when rates are very high.
Lounge Access Required: No
Other Special Needs: NA