Transcription
We are going to do the credit card awards. Best credit card for UPS. Best credit card for dining and grocery. Best lifetime free credit card.
So let's say you and me went, 10,000 rupees was our bill. Uh, if you pre-book on 50% off, then if you use a card on top of that, you get 25% off, up to 5,000 rupees. So now my 5,000 bill became 4,000.
What are you saying? What is the best credit card for cash back? It's the credit card. I give this one the best one right now because it can go up to 10% cash back. The reason why I rank this slightly higher than other cashback cards is because this is giving you points on insurance and utilities as well.
Next year I'm going to be going to the Banyan Tree in Bali. It is 90,000 rupees a night, and the experience is once in a lifetime. You have a bathtub, you have a room, you have a forest overlooking. Are you paying for this? I'm using [a credit card] to stay there for free. People who want amazing, amazing luxury benefits. So what is the best credit card for luxury?
So India currently has 10 cr credit card users. This number has more than five times in the last 10 years, and this number is about to double in another 5 years. So by 2030, we're going to have 20 cr credit card users in India. So while the number of credit cards issued is increasing, the knowledge about what is the right credit card to use and how to redeem them in the right manner is missing. And to learn about that and to demystify this entire credit card world, we are calling Mr. Ali Hajani, once again, India's leading credit card expert.
Ali, thank you so much for coming once again.
Thanks, uh, for having me, Sharon. Always good to be here. Now let's get to what are the updates in the world of credit card since we last spoke.
Right. So can you talk about some of the biggest changes, things which have caused a lot of, you know, explosions in the world of credit card? So can you please educate us on that?
Yeah. So, uh, probably two things come to mind. Uh, number one is, uh, uh, in all of 2024, uh, so many people used to ask me about, is this credit card good? Is it that credit card good? Heard about the ICICI Coral or the Sapphiro or these cards from ICICI because if you think in India, the three biggest banks in our country, like by far the three are HDFC, Axis, and uh, ICICI and then a KOTC as well.
Right.
Right. And the only ones focusing on the credit card game were HDFC and Access. When I say focusing, I mean looking at what the consumer wants. They had flagship cards. They had flagship cards that actually gave better returns than other cards. ICICI and Kotak also have cards. Uh, Kotak had a ban for the last one year. So they couldn't focus on cards by the RBI. Their I think system was a little bit uh, not secure initially. So they had to uh, do that. But uh, that's where ICICI now the biggest change is starting to up their credit card game. I believe 2025 is going to be the year of ICICI for credit cards.
Really?
Yeah. So most credit cards in general, when you swipe or tap it anyway, give you x amount of points when you spend, like five points when you spend 200 rupees, 100 rupees, right, that you call in the credit card world as a base conversion rate, okay? You understand what the value of that point is, best-case scenario, like maybe if I use it on a flight or, and then you figure out, okay, this card is giving me 2 to 3% returns or something, but what HDFC, Access, other brands, MX have were things like using it on our portal will give you five times the points or 10 times the points. So if you got a 3% return rate or a 3.3% return rate on an HDFC Infinia and you used their HDFC Infinia portal, the smart buy portal, you get 5x the points. So it becomes 16.5% returns. So anytime you're booking a 10,000 rupee flight, you're getting 1,600 points, which is 1,600 rupees back on your next flight.
Wow. So the way of looking at this is that when I invest in the stock market, I get 15, 16% returns. But when I'm spending money, I'm usually getting zero returns. But by using the right credit cards, I can get 10 to 15% kind of a returns on even my expenditure on things like flights and hotels that I'm anyway doing.
Yeah. So you get the most returns on nonessential [Music] uh, expenses like experiential expense expenses like events or um, flights and hotels and luxury purchases, things like that because card companies want you to spend more, but you can also make a lot of returns on your essential uh, expenses as well, like utilities, insuranceances, daily groceries, you can accelerate those as well.
So coming back to the point that I was making on the change in the market, ICICI recently also launched their portal. Okay. Now uh, and that is if HDFC infinia or HDFC portal was giving 5x, uh, ICICI said, okay, let's give 6x on flights, really? If yeah, HDFC is giving 10x on hotels, okay, let's give 12x on hotels. So this is like your customer acquisition strategy. It's their customer acquisition strategy. Access, if you remember, did this two years ago with their Magnus credit card, and they burned a lot of money giving freebies.
So is this this card you're talking about which ICICI has come up with this one? This is one of the best cards in India today. It's the ICICI [card]. Guys, this is not a promotion. I just got this because Ali told me he said this is the best. I asked him which is the best card. He told me this is the best card. So I got it. But what is so special about this? I think I'll I'll break this into two parts. So, first off, yeah, now there are two or three cards from ICICI that are really killing it with this portal. So, this card gives you a 2% return rate uh, on your spending. So, if you use it on the ICICI portal on flights or vouchers, you get 6x. So, now you get 12%.
Right. Or if you buy hotels with it, uh, you get 12x. So, 12x into the base 2% is 24% returns.
Yeah. If I use this card to swipe in hotels, I get 24% returns.
Yeah. You have to book the hotel on the ICICI portal. Got it?
Right. Like, for example, I recently went to Kashmir, and uh, there's Marriott hotels there, this that, but the best hotel in Kashmir is this hotel called Kyber. And that hotel cost 30, 40,000 a night, and it doesn't have a loyalty program or to get free, but you can find it on the Infinia or the ICICI portal. Book it and get 24% points back.
Damn. So if I'm spending 30,000 on a hotel, 24% back, how much? 24% back. So that's like almost 10,000 rupees back. 7,800 rupees back.
Yes.
Wow. So, there is one card that's slightly better than this in terms of return rates, which is ICICI's flagship card called the Emerald Private. What is better than that? That's 3% base. So, you tell me now that's 18% and 36%. So, get that also now.
Yeah. But why I like this card and the reason I also got this card uh, was because I mean, at this point if I go to ICICI and ask them for the emerald private, pulling some strings, the influencer card, it can work, and I can get the emerald private, so it has 3% base and again that 12x and 6x and so 12x become 18, 36%. Instead of 24, wow, and I'm sure these cards are not easy to get also, right? Let's also, you know, give that disclaimer to the audience who's watching here. What is the minimum criteria for getting a card like this?
It does require at least like uh, I think a two lakh income per month.
Uh, per month. Not so bad. But that's net. So that means you ideally have to have like a 2.7 lakh.
Oh, post tax. Yeah, I think I think you we can actually double check. But yeah, for example, the emerald private uh, as far as I remember is three lakhs net, which is probably a four lakh CTC. So somebody who is having like a 50, 60 lakhs per annum CTC can get the kind of card like that. And those are what the target audience they're looking for.
Yeah. Simply they won't give that kind of discounts.
Right. Another reason why I like this card or I got this card specifically is the return rate is great, but they are filling a gap in the market where u I feel American Express hasn't been focusing like uh, last year I uh, when I had this conversation with you, I talked about the MX Plat charge card which I paid almost 80,000 rupees for.
Yeah.
Right. Now you paid 80,000 rupees for that.
Yeah. 70 at the time. Now it's about 78,000. So this again in terms of return rate is not the best, but you buy it for the lifestyle and luxury perks like the concierge service or benefits on uh, different things like luxury products or luxury experiences, things like that. So Times Black is kind of doing that in India today where for that HNI who's not only return rate focused but looking at maybe those experiences, I think you can get like a helicopter ride if you spend 10 lakhs on this card, a resort for free.
What are you saying?
Uh, then they have spend 10 lakhs on this card. So these kind of luxury perks come with a card like this.
Got it. The other update is that MX has now stopped sourcing credit cards.
What?
Why? Why did you
Yeah. So we don't have an official confirmation on uh, I can't get this anymore if I want to. This is gone. This is not available for a few months now. It could be 2, 3, 4 months, 6 months. Uh, there are sources on different platforms, Reddit, Twitter, uh, in the sources I have just, for example, I'm in touch with a lot of folks at AMX. They are just telling me that we don't know how long it could be. My understanding, my theory of this to some extent is now I've been using MX for 9 years now, right? And uh, in the last one, one and a half year, MX has gotten very popular in the market, especially in tier 1 cities. Everyone's getting an MX, and they have a beautiful referral program. So if I, for example, refer 300 people to MX, those 300 people who have gotten it will now refer 3,000 more people, and that network effect keeps going, and in the last one, one and a half year, they have sourced so many cards that I think was a little more than their support team could handle. Now, I have never been on an MX helpline or chatted with AMX and had to wait more than 2 minutes. I think last month I messaged the AMX support team for a query. It's a you're in Q 29 minutes.
Oh, which is unlikely for someone like AMX, and the global MX compliance team is not okay with that. They're okay with dropping revenue but not the brand name they spent so many years building. So I feel like the global team has pressurized and saying, hey, India team, you guys figure out how we're going to handle the scale of these things before you restart issuing more cards. So I think it's like the global team telling them to get their act together.
Interesting. Cool. So now let's come down to uh, the requirements of the common man. Right. So now everybody in Mumbai or Bangalore or any of the big cities is paying rent. Right. So can you talk about a little bit of credit card hacks when it comes to paying off my rent because that's the biggest expense that anybody has?
Yeah. So 99% of credit cards will have an exclusion criteria where they will not give you any returns on rent. So even, for example, this card or most cards do not give you points on your rental transactions, but then that amount you spend on rent still counts towards that reaching the milestone. Okay. So now you have to think of cards that give you milestones that you can uh, kind of avail as benefits. So last year Vistara cards used to be great when Vistara was a thing where if you spend one and a half lakh, one and a every one and a half lakh you spend, you get a business class ticket free.
Yeah, you're right. That was the first time I went business class with no money.
Yeah. Because of that great card.
Correct. So that is where even if you don't get the points, I tell people to use that card and then pay rent with it because it's coming to your two and a half. You get the free ticket. That ticket is at least 10,000 rupees.
M, so you have to play with milestones now.
Makes sense. So which are the cards which are good with milestones?
Exactly. So now I'm teaching you the way you need to think. Okay, I'm not getting points. What are the milestone cards? Exactly like you asked. Right. So first off, uh, American Express Platinum Travel for people who already have it. Not this one. The platinum travel card gives you 40,000 points when you spend four lakh rupees as milestones.
Wow. 40,000 points is equal to 40,000 rupees. Between 20 to even 50,000 rupees. Uh, because you will redeem it for hotels which have dynamic pricing depending on which hotel you redeem it for.
Yeah, dynamic pricing is very interesting. But as per my understanding, the only cards that are worth doing this on are maybe three or four. So I'll share. So, for example, the MX Platinum Travel although is great for uh, rental payments, no platform accepts MX because uh, not everyone wants to pay the high MDR fee.
M, so you can't pay your rent on a Cred or a um, or Housing.com or any app, Giraffe. Red Giraffe. So Red Giraffe is the best platform to pay your rent. It has a 0.5% fee while others have two or 3%. But AMX is not accepted there.
Okay. So what you need to do is you need to open MobiKwik or another wallet application, load your uh, MX money into that wallet application and withdraw that money to your bank. That's possible. You can withdraw money from your credit card to your bank. It will cost you about 3% in fees. So, it's not worth it on 90% cards. So, the other hack is using other cards. The hack is that you can do this for a delta or free money. But in case you don't have this, uh, two other cards that give you points on rent is HSBC premier that gives you 3%. Then minus the Red Giraffe free fee, it's 2.5%. This gives points, not even milestones. But it's a very HNI card. You have to have a strong uh, top-end card with a top-end relationship with HSBC. Second is the Axis Magnus Burgundy return rate of almost 5%, 4.8%.
Uh, on what? On the rent spent? No, 4.8% is the standard uh, return rate on the card.
Okay. And uh, you can spend on rent and earn points up to 50,000 of rent in a month.
Okay. And this card is also tough to get. No, the Burgundy one. It's tough to get. So either you use HNI cards or you use this MX hack or you look for other cards that have milestones like Times Black. If you like the milestones then you can use it. So you're telling on a platform like Red Giraffe uh, AMX is not accepted even though you want to pay rent. So if AMX is not accepted, you are giving that MobiKwik route, but that again I have to pay 3% in fees, and then if I make some money, it's like not a big delta could be like 10,000, 20,000 rupees depending on how much I spend, but that's not that great as well. But if I have to if AMX is not something that I can use on a platform like Red Giraffe, then what are the other cards except for the you know, excluding the super premier cards, which which everybody can get access to.
Correct. So, there are no great cards right now that give you points on uh, rent. If there are any, I'll definitely share it. But, um, if you take the logic I just explained of looking at milestones, uh, one card you can probably check out is the HDFC Marriott Bonvoy card.
Okay. Like, uh, you know how when you spend a certain amount, 3, 6, 9, like lakhs, you would get a free Vistara ticket. This card gives you a free Marriott stay, okay? Up to 15,000 points when you spend six lakhs, 9 lakhs, and 15 lakhs.
Okay. Now, the milestone when you hit it with rent on Red Giraffe, you won't get the base points, but you'll still get that free night. It's not tested. I have to test it. I just got the card.
Okay. So, I'll start paying my rent with that to see if I can get uh, the free stays. The free stays. And it counts towards my milestone. But with Times Black, for example, it counts.
Times Black. You've tried.
Yeah. So with this card, if I pay my rent, I can get free stays at five-star hotels.
Uh, a few. Yeah, you'll get like at two lakhs spend, you get a Club voucher. So you can use that for an experience. Five lakhs, you'll get a uh, I think a Tata CLiQ luxury voucher.
Yeah. So short answer, research the HSBC premier, Axis Magnus Burgundy or the um, MX Plat via MobiKwik if you want to pay your rent. Return rates are okay, 2, 3%.
So okay, so my next question is about uh, using a credit card to purchase insurance, right? Are there any hacks around this?
Yeah, so you can uh, piggyback off of what I just said where a lot of cards exclude insurance, but again the MX Plat travel uh, gives you the milestones on insurance spends, and uh, they are accepted on platforms as well, so you can just use the MX card. Okay. Second is if your insurance is less than 15,000 rupees, you can use any platform uh, sorry, you can use any card to buy vouchers. Okay. So the Emerald Private gives you 3% base and 6x multiple when you buy vouchers. So 18% return rate on vouchers.
Okay.
Right. So you buy an Amazon Pay voucher, loaded to your Amazon Pay balance, and on Amazon you'll find an option to pay your insurance.
Oh, okay. So but that's capped at 15,000 rupees of insurance. So, for example, my car insurance was 14,000 rupees the last quarter. So I just I paid it in my last quarter. It's for a year. Uh, and I paid that, and I got I think 12% returns cuz I use Times Black.
Okay. But uh, that is one way to do it. And uh, a few other ways to pay your insurance uh, is using cards like Tata Neu Infinia. That gives you I think 5% cash back on your insurance spend when you do it on the Neu app.
Okay. Um, and HDFC cards actually give you direct points on your insurance. So if you have like a 1 lakh premium to pay, the HDFC Infinia gives you 3, 3.3% returns that I have this one.
Yeah. So if you have a high insurance premium, you will still get points up to 5,000 rupees. So around 1 and a half lakh worth of insurance you can pay with this card per day. The cap is 5,000 points. So simple answer uh, paying your insurance, Amex travel via milestones, pay directly on the insurance. Tata Neu Infinia on the Tata Neu Infinia app.
Okay. The Tata Neu app, 5% for insurance. Check the cappings. I think it's 5,000.
Okay. Uh, HDFC Infinia, HDFC Diners Club Black, HDFC Regalia Gold, all give base points when you pay your insurance directly.
Okay. And fourth option is Amazon Pay vouchers uh, if your insurance is less than 15,000.
Got it. So that's your insurance answer.
Got it. So now let's talk about making an investment, right? A lot of people might not be aware that you can, but you can actually earn credit card points by investing as well, right? And one popular investment in India, the most popular investment is gold, right? A lot of people like to buy gold in India, and we're the second largest purchaser of gold in the whole world, so are there any credit card hacks that I can use when I make an investment in gold?
Yeah, so for the first statement, I slightly want to correct you there that Uh, credit cards. I advocate to get returns on your spends. I get a lot of people messaging me asking me, can I make my SIP payments? Can I make my home loan payments? Can I make my mutual fund payments through a credit card? And my answer to that is no. That is an investment instrument. This is a spending instrument. So, ideally, no. Gold, like you rightly said, is also an investment and probably the only one where this loophole exists.
Correct.
Okay. So um, what is the loophole?
Yeah, I'll tell you the loophole is kind of patched now. You can still do it in smaller quantities, but I'll tell you what I did for the last two months. Okay. So u, for example, ICICI launched that iShop portal I spoke about, right? And you could get 12 to 18% on vouchers if you're using the Times Black or the Emerald Private, and they could let you buy Amazon Pay vouchers. Okay? If you go on HDFC or AMX's site, you will see that they cap out how many Amazon Pay vouchers you can buy in a month. Okay? You can buy 10,000 Amazon vouchers in a month. Okay? Right? They these guys didn't have a cap initially for the first couple of months. So, you could buy as many Amazon Pay vouchers as you want. Okay? So, the it's a three-step process. So you buy Amazon Pay vouchers, maybe about 70, 80,000 rupees worth of Amazon Pay vouchers and use the Emerald Private metal, for example, get 18% return, so for easy calculation, I bought one lakh rupees worth of Amazon vouchers hypothetically. I get 18,000 points back, okay? Right, so my effective cost is 82,000 okay for those vouchers. Now the second hack is you go to this website called Maximize Money, okay? Right, it's a website. It it lets you buy vouchers, okay? And it lets you uh, buy these vouchers at a discount. So I could buy Myntra vouchers at a 5.5% discount. Okay? And when you go to the checkout page or the payment page, it lets you pay with Amazon Pay balance. Okay? So I bought a lakh of Amazon Pay balance. Okay? I will buy Myntra vouchers now. Let's say 50,000 or whatever Myntra vouchers. I will get a 5.5% discount on the Myntra voucher also. Okay? So now my 18% plus 5.5% discount, 18% cash back in points, plus 5.5% uh, discount by using that Amazon Pay balance and changing it into a Myntra voucher. Got me 5.5% extra. Okay, then you go to Myntra. Okay, open Myntra. Now you have a bunch of Myntra money, right? You go to Myntra, type in gold coin, and you'll see Kalyan Jewellers gold coin. Uh, depending on when you're watching this video, it pegs to the gold rate. But right now if you check it's maybe around 95,000 rupees uh, for a 10 g gold coin.
Yeah.
Right. And the rate in India right now is 90 approx. So it's you're paying a 5,000 premium. But Myntra has these midnight sales where they give you 3, 4% discount once in a while. Once a week that sale comes. So I got that 95,000 vouch that gold coin. I got a 4% discount. It became 91,000. Then on top of that, I got 18% cash back on my uh, Emerald Private, for example. I use Times Black. Uh, and on top of that, you get 5.5% discount using the Maximize Money hack. Okay. And effectively, my gold price was under 75,000 per 10 g while most people are probably buying at 90. Uh, positives, it's an investment, and it's great. Negatives, it is a loophole that you're exploiting. Number two, it is uh, it can be done in smaller quantities only. You can only I could only buy like 10, 10 grams a month, and that's a lakh a month and at a 20% haircut or a discount at normal gold rate. So you were buying gold at a 20% discount in the last 2 months, and now this loophole has been um, addressed. The loophole, the only address uh, like how it's been addressed is that they've added a cap of 12,000 rupees that you can buy. Again, they're very looking, looking closely at the market. Okay, HDFC is giving a 10,000 cap. Let's give a 12,000 cap. Which I say I say.
Yeah. So I talk in terms of the Amazon Pay which vouchers that you can buy.
Yeah. Amazon Pay vouchers that you can buy. That is per month. That's uh, per month.
Yeah. Even now I can buy 12,000 rupees worth of gold every month at a 20% discount using the hack that you just said. 20% discount from Myntra, maybe 15% from average gold price because Myntra is going to be a slight premium to your normal. So around a 15% discount I can buy gold uh, worth 12,000 rupees every month using the hacks that you just...
Said. Yeah, you can. Damn. And you did this a couple of months back when the limit was unlimited. You could have bought anything. Yeah, you could have bought a crow's worth of gold. No, I think they had some caps on how much you could do. Uh, like Amazon doesn't let you add more than a lakh worth of balance to your account, or Maximize Money only lets you transfer 50,000 over a period. So yeah, this was the sweet spot.
No. Amazing. I think that was an amazing hack. I don't know, um, whether a loophole or not, but it just goes to show that if you're creative enough about understanding everything about the world of credit cards and how different things interact with each other, like, you know, uh, you can make that additional 20% 20% you know, returns here and there. So that was really shocking for me, to be honest, and I'm sure you guys are also shocked with what you guys are hearing today.
Yeah. So Alien, now we are going to do the credit card awards, right? The best credit cards for 2025 across 10 different categories. Are you ready?
Let's go. Let's go. All right. Number one, best credit card for UPI. The best credit card today for uh UPI payments and like a rupee credit card that you can get and uh connected to your UPI is the Yes Bank Kiwi credit card. It's the Yes Bank Click card partnered with Kiwi. Okay, it's a co-branded card. So, you download the Kiwi app, uh, and you get this. Now, why this is the best I'll also explain. Um, is because most credit cards in India, when you link to UPI, will give you 1.5 to 2% returns on your UPI spends. Okay? Right? Uh, this card, when you get it, uh, there's a lifetime free variant where you link it and you'll get 1.5% back. No questions, no hesitations. The cashback is cashback direct. And uh, the Kiwi app is also very easy to use. Okay.
Now 1.5% isn't that exciting, but that's the standard norm, 1.5 to 2%. Okay. Now they have this Kiwi Neon subscription. Okay. Which you buy for 1,000 bucks and uh, then you're you get the milestone benefits. Now this card gives you UPI milestones. So when you spend 50,000, they give you an additional 1% cashback in a month. Yeah. So first of all, when you get the Neon subscription, your cashback increases from 1.5% to 2%. Okay. So you'll get 2% cashback on all your UPI spends. Okay. Then now this is a yearly milestone. In a year, if you spend 50,000 on UPI, as soon as you hit 50,000, they've they give you an extra 1% cashback. So hypothetically, if you spend 50,000, you got 2% plus 1, 3%. Okay. If you spend 1 lakh rupees, they give you an additional 2% cashback. If you just do all the math together, making it very simple, Shahan, if you spend one and a half lakh in UPI or online spend or whatever on the card in the whole year, this is like barely 15K per month. 12,500 rupees exact per month or something, um, is when you're getting 5% cashback overall. So you will get 7,500 rupees cashback on that one and a half lakh expense that you made.
Wow. Right. So that is a 5% cashback that you've gotten. Uh, and that can be a mixture of online spending, UPI, everything, right? So 5% on UPI is unheard of, right? U minus the 1,000 rupees membership you bought. So net net 4.1%.
Got it. Best card by far. No one's even at 3%. No one's even at 2 and a half%. So yeah.
Interesting. So the the award for the best credit card for UPI goes to the Yes Bank Kiwi card.
Yes, sir. Got it. Award number two, best lifetime free credit card. The best lifetime free credit card according to me is this credit card by Indescent Bank. It's called the Indescent Tiger credit card. Okay. Now, this is a free credit card and it gives you I think eight domestic lounge visits every year. Okay. Um, why I'm even mentioning that or why that's great is because you would have seen in the last year most credit cards have moved to a spend-based model. Spend 50k in the previous quarter, then you get lounge access to make sure people are using the cards. This card, no requirement for spend, and it's free, so you got free lounge access. Second is I think you get two international free lounge access visits as well. No credit card, no free credit card in India is giving you international lounge access. Okay, you get free golf, like in case you want to go try playing golf. That's usually a premium card benefit, right? You only hear Infinia Amex, these cards giving you golf access. Yes, this one gives you golf access. Um, and this also gives you a few other benefits, uh, like movie tickets. So, it'll give you a 500 rupee movie voucher for free. Now, most cards will always tell you to spend something, that you buy one movie ticket, get one movie ticket back. Correct. Is just take one free movie ticket. 500 rupee voucher.
Wow. So, that's a lot of cost incurred by the bank. They give you only two movie tickets in a year, but that's a free 1,000 rupees that they're giving you for nothing, right? Um, they also have a spend-tiered system. I won't get into that, uh, right now, but uh, the more you spend, the more points they give you. And uh, you can transfer these points to airlines and stuff. No free card lets you transfer your points. Now, the ratio you can transfer to is not very good. It's you can transfer to Singapore Air, but uh, I think I I mean I spoke to the head of this card earlier and they're launching for Air India and for Qatar maybe later this year. So you tell me if you're getting free domestic lounge access, international lounge access, golf, movies, option to transfer your points for free, like crazy, why not?
Now let's come to the best card for lounge access. There are a lot of good cards for lounge access, like I just told you a free card, Indescent Tiger is giving you lounge access benefits, but if you do travel, I'm I'm taking this question as you want a lot of lounge benefits, like uh, multiple lounge access visits for you, your family. In this scenario, my favorite card for lounge access is the HDFC Marriott Bonvoy credit card. This card comes at a fee of 3,000 rupees, and when you open the Marriott app, it will show you you have one free night award. Okay. And then uh, if you let's say want to book a 20,000 point hotel, you can book that also. But the free night award will cover only 15,000 points. You'll have to have 5,000 points to transfer it from your AMX account or something like that. So I stayed at Courtyard in Mahabhar, which was 22,000 points. I used my free night award and 7,000 points of my own.
Got it. Got it. But if you want to stay only in 15,000 points, there are some hotels like in Bangkok, uh, in uh Phuket, in Bali, there are hotels in uh India also under 15,000. And usually the rupee value of these rooms are more than the points number, right?
Yeah. It's dynamic in Marriott. Marriott has a very uh sophisticated structure that they've come up with. So let's say in offseason, when let's say a normal hotel room costs uh 30,000 rupees, right, in offseason they'll probably sell it for 15,000 rupees or 17,000 rupees, right? Their points also reflect a dynamic structure, so on peak season, that those points can go up to 50, 60,000 also, so then you're better off paying in rupees, uh, and in low season it can go much lower also, like it might even go down to 10, 12,000 points, lower than the rupee value. It yeah, you uh, the it can be higher or lower because it's dynamic based on uh the hotel, the location, the seasonality, and all of those.
How do I stay on top of these things? You follow me on Instagram. Follow that credit card guy. I'm so glad you picked it up, man. You are a natural influencer.
All right, so finally, you're saying the HDFC Merit is the best for lounge access.
Oh, yeah. So, that's the joining benefit. And the lounge benefit on this is 12 domestic lounge visits every year, 12 international lounge visits every year.
Wow. And you can get add-on cards up to three for your family members. Okay. Next card is for international travelers, right? People who love going on international trips and they want the best forex credit card. What is the best forex credit card for people who are planning their next Europe trip, Australia trip, US trip, you name it. Tell me.
So, I'll actually add a learning to this, so for for users to learn something in terms of how to select the right Forex card, and I'll give you my verdict of what I think the best Forex card is today. Um, like I told you at the start of this podcast, every card will give you certain points when you spend, and then you calculate the point value and you come to a return rate. Okay, this card is giving me two or 3% return rate, right? So, for example, I use my Times Black card abroad. This card gives me 2.5% on forex on whenever I swipe it abroad. I also have
Yeah. So you can use it, you can use it Infinia also, but this is 2 and a half% on my international expenditure. Yes. So once you understand what I mean by uh return rates, you'll understand the concept of why when you should use a credit card and when you should use a forex card or whatever. So this card, for example, gives you 2.5% returns on your spending. If you spend one lakh rupees, Sharan, you will get 2,500 points on this card. So if I go to Paris and buy a one lakh rupee worth of a Gucci bag or something, I get 2 and a half thousand rupees back.
Correct. But every credit card has a 4x fee, right? This card's forex fee is 1.5%. Plus GST 18% on that 1.5%, net 1.8%. Or 1.7 something%. Right now you you got 2.5%. You lost 1.7%. Net net you still profited 8%. Yeah. So I know so many HNI, so many people who still use Forex cards because it's branded as what? 0% Forex, best 0% Forex, best. Uh, so I'm not getting charged on Forex. But they're not realizing that swiping their credit card is actually giving them a return. It's net positive. They just look, oh, Forex fee here, so it's net negative. So when your return rate on your credit card is higher than the forex fee, you should be using your credit card, or you can use your credit card. But I have one counter question here. People who get these zero uh % forex card, they usually lock in the currency rate at the time of getting that card. But if I don't do that and if I follow your advice, let's say I go with this card and I start swiping in Europe for one, two weeks, then my forex rate or the conversion rate keeps changing, right? So how do I know that? What if the bank is charging a bigger conversion rate then and I'm not even aware of it because, you know, I'm not tracking those conversions on every transaction. Yeah. So how do I go about doing that?
So a bank will always charge you a slightly higher rate than what's on Google. Uh, and so will a forex card most of the time. Uh, and so even if you go to a money scope and try to uh give your cash rupees and get dollars, they also have a slight markup, right. So that markup is there everywhere. That's universal. But uh, your point is very valid, uh, where let's say today the rate is favorable for yourself and then you get a 4x card and buy $1,000 worth of forex and lock it in. Yeah, then that can be better. But uh, that's not always the case. Last week the dollar was 87. Today's the dollar is 85. So okay, u it can actually go down in some situations, as so the risk is there both ways, whether you lock in the price today or you start spending it as the currency fluctuations keep happening. Correct, so risk can go both ways, you're saying, but uh, most of these return rate benefits that I just talked about are on your premium cards. The best mass zero forex card that anybody can get, regardless of if you're going abroad to spend 5,000, 10,000, if your salary is 20,000 rupees, 2 lakh rupees, whatever. No nonsense zero forex card and free. It's free is the Scapia credit card.
Scapia. Scapia by Federal Bank. Uh, it's great for forex transactions. The app is very easy to use. Uh, 0% Forex has some lounge benefits also domestically. M now uh, one thing that I see users making a mistake in, uh, which is just very silly because uh, of things you don't know is when you apply for this card, it gives you the option to apply for a rupee variant or a visa variant. Now if you're planning to use this card abroad, you definitely need to get the visa variant because rupees probably won't work abroad. Yeah. So these are small things that people don't think of and they just think, oh, rupees might be better, but that is where if you're going abroad, get the visa variant of this card.
Got it. I give you two alternatives also. The AU IX iggo card is good and uh, the RBL World Safari is also good. These cards are also 0% 4x. Okay. So, anyone can get any of these non-biased. So, and this is 0 4x. Zero forex. Any three cards, whichever one you want.
Got it. Cool. Next question. Best credit card for dining and groceries. So, the best card in this scenario is, according to me, I'll give you a few options, but I'll give you my number one. And number one for this category is the Easy Diner Signature credit card by Indescent Bank. Okay. Uh, it's a co-branded card with Easy Diner. So if you use Easy Diner, you can get uh, you get the get the card, use the Easy Diner app. Now Easy Diner has a lot of discounts where if you prior book, like let's say you and me uh go out for dinner and uh, it's you we go to like a five-star restaurant or something, you can get 40 to 50% off on pre-booking. So let's say, for example, we're going to Indian Accent. I think that's one of your favorite restaurants. I also went there recently with my mom and dad and they loved it.
Yeah. Uh, but it's quite expensive. It's uh, I think it was for four of us, the bill came to almost 25,000 rupees if I'm not wrong. No alcohol.
Yeah. 6,000 bucks is that tasting menu.
Correct. So that's how much I spent. So tell me how could I have used this card that you're telling me to get some discounts?
Yeah. So it I don't think it works on um on uh Indian Accent, but let's say you went in BKC, right next to it at the Sofitel. Okay. Uh, and you had a 25,000 or let's say two people went, you and me went, 10,000 rupees was our bill. Uh, if you pre-book on Easy Diner, 50% off, then if you use the Easy Diner card on top of that, you get 25% off on top of that, up to 1,000 rupees. So now my 5,000 bill became 4,000. So that's pretty good for dining at a five-star hotel, and I think but how does it make sense for them? Like how are they giving you a 50% discount on your five-star hotel bill?
Yeah. So I think it's a win-win situation. If you go into the micros, um, a five-star hotel has money it makes from room revenue and from FNB. Now FNB, they make money when from in-house guests and from external guests. If you talk to any five-star hotel, the number of walk-ins they get for people coming just to dine at that restaurant is very minimal. Because over the last five or six years, standalone restaurants in India have come a class apart, like an Indian Accent, or there are so many of these tasting menus. In Bangalore, there's uh Naru for that ramen. I love that. Then there's uh Masala Library for these experiential ones. Uh, what is the other one? There's Farmlore in Bangalore. It's like Indian Accent concept, but standalone restaurants are really coming up. So they have overtaken the five-star hotels.
Yeah. Now nobody goes to a five-star hotel and goes to dine at that, right? So to make extra revenue, obviously those are inflated prices. So even at 50%, the restaurant is making money. So that 50% discount is footed by the uh hotel. M now the card discount is footed a little bit by Easy Diner, then the card, and then they make money through people transacting on that card in other places. It's basically a ma a whole macro game on the credit cards, bank. Got it, so a lot of mathematics behind it.
My next question is, obviously we travel a lot, yeah, we have all our vehicles, right? Some people might be using Uber, but a lot of people have their own vehicles. Now fuel is one of the biggest expenditures of any Indian family household. Most people spend spend at least 15 to 20,000 rupees on fuel, especially if you're living in a big city and you're stuck in traffic 2 hours every day. So, what is the best credit card for petrol, diesel?
Best card for fuel is the RBL Extra. It's a card that gives you 7.5% returns on your fuel.
Wow. Really? Uh, plus the 1% surcharge waiver that you would get. So, that's actually pretty good. It's capped at about 12,000 odd rupees per month that you can spend on fuel, which is good enough for an uh average uh fuel spend. So, if I spend 10,000 rupees on fuel every month, you're telling me that 750 rupees I can get cashback.
750 uh bucks you will get back in your RBL points. Uh, and it's an RBL Indian Oil card. Indian Oil Petroleum card. So, next time once you accumulate that 750 rupees, I can use that to buy more fuel. Next time you go, you say I want to buy fuel, they'll give you 750 bucks. So 7L worth of fuel for free.
Wow. That's how the card works.
Amazing. But that's only for Indian Oil. If you want Bharat Petroleum, there's SBI BPCL Octane.
Oh, this is for creating loyalty to petrol pumps. Indian Oil. Yeah. So that's how the credit card makes uh loyalty towards that petrol pump and the cashback is uh counted for because you're getting loyalty and people are coming back. Very interesting. The world of credit cards creates so many opportunities for loyalty and business and all of that. Such an interesting space.
Cool. Now, let's talk about pure cash. Like, I don't want any of these things, Ali. I don't want flights. I don't want hotels. I don't want restaurants. I just want cashback money. What is the best credit card for cashback?
The best credit card according to me for cashback today, it's a subjective answer and I want to sound correct, but I'll tell you my favorite. It's the Tata Neu uh credit card. It is the Tata Neu Infinity credit card. Um, if you follow my uh Instagram page, you would see that I really vocally talk about other cashback cards like SBI cashback and Swiggy HDFC. Uh, and I'll explain why each of these is good. I give this one the best one right now because you get 5% cashback uh whenever you spend on this card on Tata related products. Okay. So if I'm and because Tata is such a big ecosystem, this makes it versatile also. If you're shopping at Westside, uh, if you're if you're buying groceries, you use Big Basket. If you're flying, you use Air India. It's all Tata. It's a whole ecosystem play. So everything that I could possibly spend money on, Tata is obviously one of the largest companies in India. So you can if if you're somebody who can switch your expenses to Tata, you get 5% cashback on the card and 5% cashback if you use the Tata Neu app. So it can go up to 10% cashback. It's it's addition 5% cashback plus 5% Tata Neu points. So total it's all in Tata Neu points, but points are worth one rupee to one point, and you can redeem points unlimited. You can buy a whole uh item for just points. It's there's no uh what are you saying?
Amazing. So up to 10% cashback I can get that up to 10% cashback. And number two is the reason why I rank this slightly higher than other cashback cards is because this is giving you points on insurance and utilities as well. Now SBI cashback is a great card. 5% cashback on every website you go to. Not just Amazon, not just Flipkart. Any website you go, SBI cashback is giving you 5% cashback. But it's not giving on utilities, it's not giving on uh insurance. So this one, when you mean utility, mean like electricity bill and all?
Yes. Electricity bill, let's say your broadband, things like that.
Mhm. Right. So this is where your utilities are sorted, your insurance is sorted, Tata products are sorted, and you get it very easily in coins. So yeah, in order of my preference, it's Tata Neu Infinity, SBI cashback, Swiggy HDFC. Now if you're more of a Swiggy user, for you Swiggy becomes better. If you're somebody who uses random websites more than the generic e-commerce sites, like people who don't shop on a Nykaa or a Myntra but will go to like a brand website like shop on a zara.com, then SBI cashback is better. So it's these three are one of them you have to get, but which one is right for you depends on you.
Got it. Cool. Next is the best credit card for traveling.
Best travel credit card according to me right now is the Axis Atlas credit card. I also use this. I also have it, but I didn't bring it today.
Can you just show me yours? It's the Axis Atlas credit card. H quite popular, right? It has become very very popular. Now this what's so special about this credit card? Why is this like so social media popular?
Uh, because I made it social media popular. I know that, but humble also, Ali. Okay. But uh, I mean I made it social media popular because it is such a good card. Now Shahan, I'll tell you if you like traveling to hotels, right, and let's say you like staying at any Accor hotel. Accor is your brands under Accor are your Raffles, Banyan Tree, Sofitel, Novotel, Ibis, of these name, crazy hotel under Accor. So next year I'm going to be going to the Raffles, not the Raffles, the Banyan Tree in Bali. The Banyan Tree in Bali. Banyan Tree Buahan. Google it. It is 90,000 rupees a night, and the experience is once in a lifetime. I'll tell. So the hotel does not have rooms. Like the rooms are open. Like your walls are trees. It's in it's in the it's in literally the
So basically for 90,000 rupees they're going to give me a forest.
Yes. Did anyone make the room? You're like paid up, sleep, go sleep over there, one lakh rupees for that. It's a luxury experience. You get the paid without the hassle of the cockroaches, the mosquitoes, the this. It's you have a bathtub, you have a room, you have a forest overlooking all of that. And the privacy doesn't come from walls. The privacy is coming from the the the trees, and the rooms are so spaced out. So it's a luxury. Snakes and all over there. I I I'll tell you next year when I go. So 90k per night for this place.
Huh? But let me tell you why this card is
Are you paying are you paying for this?
I'm using my Axis Atlas to stay there for free.
For free? How? Tell me how.
Yeah. This card gives you two points for every 100 rupees that you spend. Okay. Right. And you can transfer these points at a 1 is to 2 ratio to any partner. Okay. Okay. Now I will transfer it to Accor. Okay. So I spend 100 rupees, I get two of these points. Now when I transfer to Accor, it becomes four.
Four. Okay. Four points. And each Accor point is worth almost 2 rupees of value. Accor is a currency of itself. It's pegged to the euro. So each Accor point, if you convert to rupee, it's almost two rupees. So that four into two, eight rupees. So that means for every 100 rupees that I spend, I'm getting 8 rupees back in Accor hotels. Okay. So plus milestone benefits plus other benefits, if you do the back calculation, the return rate on this card if you tap it is 7.2%, if you count Accor, if you're using it at Accor, okay, so I spend around 15 lakh rupees on this card, okay, and I earn about 50, 60,000 points, uh, and I'll transfer some to Accor or some to ITC, whatever. Now the cap is 30,000 you can transfer every year to Accor, so that becomes 60,000 Accor. 60,000 Accor is worth 1.2, two lakh rupees. Okay. And I've been doing this for this year, last year, and half of the year before. So, so you get one night stay free.
No, going back to what I said, I've been doing this for this year, last year, and I'll do it next year. You've been saving up. I've been saving up, and I've been using also, but overall I have about 250k Accor points right now. So, it's worth five lakhs. So, three, four nights. Maybe I'll do two nights here, two nights in Raffles, two nights in Masamara in Fairmont, things like that.
Amazing. Amazing. So you've been spending like 15 lakhs a year for the last 2-3 years, and now you're going to get a five-night stay free in a five-star hotel in Bali, which costs 90k per night in the jungle with no snakes. Right? That's the that's the bottom line. Yeah. Mind you, I've been using my points also, uh, in different places whenever I go. Now, uh, there are different redemptions I'm doing next month also. I'll use my Accor points, but yeah, huh.
Just one last benefit I'll talk about the card is so I told you every time you spend 100 rupees, you get 8 rupees back. Correct. Now if you use it to book a flight, every 100 rupees you spend, you get five points for flights. Yeah. So you don't get two, you get five. Now I spent 100 rupees on a flight; I got five points. Five points when I convert to AOR becomes 10 points. Each AOR point is worth two. So 20. So 20% returns. Yes, on your flight expenditure. Yeah. So to go to Bali also, you will spend using this card to buy the flights, and if the flight is worth 50,000 rupees, you're going to get 10,000 rupees worth of hotel stay again, free. It's yeah, the very the crux of it or the very easy way to a very easy way to say it is if you're spending a lakh of rupees on flights, you can assume you can get 20,000 of hotel stay on that same trip. It's as simple as that.
All right. So, the next credit card is for people who want luxury, people who want amazing, amazing luxury benefits. So, what is the best credit card for luxury? So, I am a big fan of certain luxury products, like um, I do like my luxury purchases. I do like my luxury experiences. I like Can can you show me your watch? Which watch is that? This is a Movado. Can you like show a little bit? You bought this on a credit card? No, no, this is an old watch. I bought this many years back, but yeah, it's a very famous US-based uh, like I bought it in the US, but it's very famous in the US. Like what are the luxury items that you own? Like I really like sunglasses, I like uh watches. I like sunglasses cost like what 10,000 bucks? No, you'd be surprised at a good Tom Ford maybe 35-40,000 okay or yeah, what you see better or something like that. No, it's just uh a lot of people like good shirts, they like good shoes. They like good belts. Some people like good phones. I like sunglasses. Okay. I like watches. And I like perfumes. So, okay. What's the most expensive perfume that you own? Uh, I have the Tom Ford ombre leather.
Ombre leather. How much is that? Yeah. I think uh I don't remember. I bought it a year ago, and I still have like 20% left. But it was probably about 20-25,000 rupees. I bought it in Dubai. Yeah. 25,000 for perfume. Yeah. Fine. So, you clearly like luxury items. Yeah. Yeah. So, what is the best credit card? So, for luxury items, uh, I used to use the American Express Platinum Charge card. I'll show to the camera here. Uh, this was my luxury pick for 2024. Um, it used to give me 10 to 20x points when I used to shop for luxury products on certain sites. The concierge service was nice. The MX lounge was nice. Uh, but the fees are not that justified. And because AMX really, really pushed this card, it just became a more commoner card, I felt. So what is the new winner now? Now for me, I'm switching. Uh, I've removed my MX. So I'm going to be canceling this next month, and uh, I'm going to be using the Times Black. Okay. Um, again, not a promotion, but I have genuine uses for it. Um, I got this card, like I said, a couple months ago. See, I like luxury, but that doesn't mean I'm going to go super crazy without any returns on it. Like even if I buy a 30,000 sunglass and I'm getting 10-12,000 back in points, that's still something I'm using towards something else. So my effective cost goes down. So this card I got because it made sense in terms of luxury and return rate, like the gold thing I did or Amazon vouchers I buy for my genuine expenses. It gives a good return rate. Forex it gives me cash uh returns. And for luxury purchases now next year, next month literally in the month of April, I'm going to Hong Kong. Okay. Now I'm going to Hong Kong in China. That's part business, part leisure. Now, if I'm going to Hong Kong, I want to go to Disneyland. Right. Now, if you spend two lakhs on this card, you get a Cluke voucher. What is Cluke voucher? Cluke is a website where you will book all of your international experiences. So, today if you want to go to Universal Studio, you want to go to uh uh any water park, you want to go for any experience, uh, you will book it on Cluke. Cluke is your experience app. It's a global app. Okay. Right. So you get a so I Disneyland cost 7,000 rupees in Hong Kong. I got a 10k Cluke voucher. Okay. So it's helping you with those kind of experiences that was actually useful to me. So my luxury pick of the year is that is the ICICI Times Black credit card is the ICICI Times Black credit card. Two lakhs is giving me my Hong Kong Cluke voucher. Uh, 10,000 I think five lakhs spent gives me an additional Tata Click vouchers uh luxury vouchers. But these are like fine, but tell me like you know I want to spend big. Let's say I'm going to Dubai or Europe and I want to buy um what's that expensive bag that women like? Birkins, right, which is like an eight lakh kind of a bag. Now I'm not saying I'm buying it, but the people who are watching this and they're like you know millionaires who want to gift this to their wife or the the woman wants to buy this Birkin bag. What is the best credit card? This is like a 10 lakh bag if I'm not wrong or a 50 lakh bag. What is this?
Correct. It's very expensive. I haven't converted it in rupees, but yeah. So what is the credit card that I need to use for these kind of luxury purchases which is not like 10,000 20,000 which is like 4 lakh 5 lakh 10 lakh? Correct. So a generic luxury uh card for me was the Times Black. What you're talking about uh I would label as the best uh credit card. Okay. Or the best credit card for high spending. A person buying that bag is probably a very, very high spender. Yeah. It's probably spending like 30 lakhs a month. Yeah. Or even even 10 lakhs a month. It's crazy to spend 10 lakhs a month. You probably need to be earning 3-4 crores a year. Yeah. Minimum. And uh yeah, if you're spending 10 lakhs on non-essential, that's crazy, right? Yeah. So for me uh the best UHNI card in India is probably the Axis Magnus Burgundy credit card.
Oh, another one for Axis. What's so special about this Burgundy credit card? Yeah. So, a UHNI doesn't give a about points and all and he's not going to go to a any shop or any website and take out three credit cards and think which one should I use where, right? So, for a UHNI simplicity matters, and this card and the problem with other cards is that they have cappings. Oh, if you spend one lakh then you'll get points, and it's capped at that or two lakhs you'll cap at that. M this card has no capping on how many points you can earn. So if you go buy a 10 lakh rupee bag, you can earn unlimited points on it, and they give you bonuses for spending more. Very simple. I'll explain to you. This card gives you 12 points when you spend 200 rupees. Now if you do the back calculation, points is worth how much? How much can it transfer? You will come to a conclusion that this card is giving you a 4.8% return. If I spend 100 rupees, I will get 4.8 rupees back. Now, if you h spend more than 1.5 lakh rupees in a month, then everything above 1.5 lakh rupees, they almost triple your conversion. It'll give you 35 points, not 12, 35 points per 200 rupees spent. Now, you do the back calculation, you get 14% return rate on everything you spend above 1.5 lakh.
Why? Why didn't you tell me this? Because I'm not an ultra-high-net-worth individual. You didn't tell me this. This sounds like a good card. Shan, I think uh you live frugally. You you talk about financial independence. I don't think you spend so much, do you? But I mean, whenever I go on a vacation, I might for my family, for my, you know, I might need it. I want it. Okay, then we'll I'll get you in touch with my Axis guy, and you can cancel all your other cards and only use that card. That's the only card I need. Yes. And the reason for that is because you're rewarded extra for spending more. Right? Let's say you hit that 1.5 lakh spend, and everything above that is now giving you more. Why do you want to spend somewhere else? Correct? Right. You will give get this card, give it to your mom, give it to your sister, give me one also, and let us all spend on it so that I get the points. So you get the points. So the point is to spend more on it. Just watch out for the exclusion. You won't get points on gold. You won't get points on uh insurance. You get points on rent up to 50,000 of rent only, which is fine. Not bad. 50,000 you put on it, and it's coming towards the accelerator. Right. You're trying to hit 1.5 lakh spend in a month so that everything else is accelerated. Right. So that first 50k is just covered in your end only. Correct. So a great card for that. Amazing. That's why when people tell me what card should I use for my 10 lakh car down payment? Yeah. Now you know the answer. Your first 1.5 lakh will give you 4.8%. But the remainder 8.5 lakhs that you're spending on that car down payment you 14% returns. Amazing. So my pick for heavy spenders, HNI is the Axis Magnus Burgundy.
So Ali, I think u amazing, amazing interaction. I think it was so valuable. I don't think a video like this exists anywhere. A completely unbiased uh award ceremony for the best credit cards in India today. There are more than 200 plus credit cards, but we have picked the top 10 credit cards across different categories for this month. Right? As you know, guys, the world of credit cards keeps changing every single month. That's why we're going to keep having these videos once every 1 month or once every two months so that you guys are also updated about what the hell is happening. So until then, guys, I'll see you in the next one. [Music]