
Many people ask me which cards to hold and how to maximise reward points on spending. While it’s difficult to give a generic answer, I will attempt to answer this by sharing the credit cards I hold, how I try to maximise reward points, and my credit card strategy. Again, these cards and strategies may not be best suited for you, but they would give you direction to think about your own credit card strategy.
What’s in My Wallet and Credit Card Strategy?
I currently hold 13 credit cards pictured above. (image generated using ccreward.app). While I hold 13 credit cards, the bulk of my spending happens on only a handful of credit cards. The rest of the credit cards rest in my cupboard waiting for their chance to get swiped.
The bulk of my spending happens on the HDFC Diners Black Metal and the Axis Atlas credit cards, followed by the Amex Trifecta of the Amex Plat Travel, Amex MRCC and the Amex Gold Charge cards.
Top Cards in My Wallet
HDFC Diners Black Metal
The HDFC Diners Black Metal is my primary credit card for most of my spending. Simply because it gives a 3.3% reward rate on most spending. Further, I use SmartBuy quite often for voucher purchases and train ticket booking to improve my reward rate. Also, the HDFC Diners Black Metal gives 10k quarterly milestone reward points on spending 4lakhs in a calendar quarter. While I don’t always get the 10k reward points, it is possible 2-3 times a year; thus giving a 5.8% reward rate in those quarters.
Frequent spend categories: Bill Payments, Utilities, Train Booking, Weekend Dining, SmartBuy vouchers and bookings.
Axis Atlas
Axis Atlas is my backup credit card in my wallet as HDFC Diners is not accepted at times. Further, since I have enabled tap payments on this card; many of my small ticket payments happen thru this. Also, I make a point that my office-related travel spends are done on Axis Atlas.
Further, everyone in my family has an Axis Atlas addon simply because it’s on Visa and my experience with Axis for add-on issuance has been very smooth. Thus, most of the shopping, and grocery spending happens on Axis Atlas
Frequent spend categories: Hotel/Flight bookings, Shopping, Groceries, Dining, Small ticket payments.
Amex Platinum Travel
Amex Platinum Travel for me has been my insurance payment credit card since 2020. I try and pay all my insurance premiums using this card. To maximise the points here, I warehouse Amazon Pay vouchers every month using this card and use them for when premiums are due.
Frequent spend categories: Insurance payments and Amazon Pay vouchers.
Amex Gold Charge card
I use the Amex Gold Charge card to invest in NPS every month and earn 1000 reward points. NPS gives tax benefits on investments of up to 50k under the separate subsection of 80C. Thus I use the Amex Gold charge card for 6*1000 transactions every month and get 1000 reward points.
Frequent spend categories: NPS
Amex MRCC
I use the Amex MRCC credit card with the Amex Gold card to get 1000 MR reward points every month. However, not able to fully maximise the 4*1500 and 20k monthly spend milestones on the MRCC nowadays.
HDFC Tata Neu Infinity
HDFC Tata Neu Infinity is the only Rupay card that I own. Thus, it is my default credit card to make payments via credit card on UPI. The monthly spending on this card is very low as I don’t have a lot of UPI spending in a month.
Frequent spend categories: UPI payments.
Forex credit cards in my wallet
AU ixigo Credit Card
The Au ixigo credit card is my go-to credit card for 0% forex payments. The USP of this card is that it gives a 1% reward rate on forex spends and has a 0% forex charge. I took this card on the Visa platform and used it primarily for forex spending if any.
Frequent spend categories: Forex spends
Federal Scapia
I applied for the Federal Scapia credit card in 2023 when I was travelling to Mauritius for holidays. The USP of this credit card is a 2% reward rate and 0% forex, however, the drawback is no reward points on forex spending. The Federal Scapia credit card is my backup 0% Forex credit card.
Frequent spend categories: Forex spends
Cards I rarely use
One Card
I have had One Card since 2020, but my spending on this card is very low. I tend to reach out for this card only for Swiggy/Zomato offers if any otherwise spends are hardly any on this card.
Cards that will likely move out of my wallet
HDFC Swiggy
HDFC Swiggy is one of the best cashback credit cards with 10% cashback on Swiggy and 1% cashback otherwise. However, I don’t see much utility for myself as my spending on Swiggy/Zomato tends to happen via SmartBuy vouchers or other similar sites. Given its LTF for me, not sure what to do.
BoB Eterna
BoB Eterna is another LTF credit card that I have and haven’t for long. Again, not sure what to do with the credit card. Will probably close it this year.
ICICI Amazon Pay
ICICI Amazon Pay credit is another LTF credit card that is not being used and is lying in my drawer gathering dust.
Cards that I will close this year
Axis Horizon
Got the Axis Horizon as a replacement for Citi Premiermiles. Axis Horizon is notches below Axis Atlas in nearly every sense, however, I had a fee waiver in 2024 so kept this card at that time. Will definitely be getting rid of this card in 2025.
My credit card strategy for 2025
My credit card strategy for 2025 is to follow the KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid!) principle. I have realised over the years that the 80/20 rule holds true for credit card spending. Over 80% of my spending happens on 2-3 credit cards. The other credit cards are either LTF or just show pieces in my credit card collection. Thus, the endeavour will be to juice out HDFC Diners Black, Axis Atlas and Amex credit cards for their miles-earning abilities.
Further, I need to do more research on Rupay credit cards out there. Please suggest if you are aware of any. Also, I am keen to evaluate Axis Olympus, HSBC Premier and Amex Platinum Charge cards for addition to my wallet. However, any addition will be accompanied by equal or more deletion and thus not sure how this will go.
What do you think of my portfolio and credit card strategy? Are there any areas where I can improve it? Feel free to ask any questions or share your thoughts in the comments. I’d also love to hear your feedback if you can share your portfolio too!
Disclaimer
In the interest of full disclosure, Credit Cardz may earn a referral bonus for anyone that’s approved through some of the links in this post. However, opinions and views expressed here are of the author's alone and not those of the bank, credit card issuer, or anyone else and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any of these entities.
Get a Tata Neu Infinity HDFC Bank Credit Card (Rupay) for UPI purpose
Have that already. But asking if there is any better upi card than tat neu infinity
1.Why dont u use SBI Cash Back which gives 5% CB on online transactions? 2. How to redeem RP for HDFC Diners black? 3. Are all these cards LTF?
1. Sbi cashback 5% on online spends has many exclusions. Importantly no cashback on utilities and insurance. So instead of chasing 5% on other categories I try to all spends on diners black or axis so that i can achieve milestones for higher reward rate.
2. Hdfc points can be redeemed for hotels/flights booking on smartbuy. They can also be transferred to multiple transfer partners across hotels/airlines
3. No they are not ltf. But my spends are enough to get fee waiver on hdfc. For axis/amex i pay the annual fees
I expected you to have a few better cards since you are the admin here. I believe you should gun for Infinia.
Next, you should have the HSBC Live+ for 10% CB as a backup for grocery and dining since I couldn’t understand why you would use Axis Atlas for those categories.
I think AU Ixigo was devalued a few weeks ago and does not give reward points on forex spends. AU Zenith+ is a better card in terms of forex as it gives 0.83% return on forex spend post charges and 16 BMS BOGO upto 500 per year.
For UPI, you are golden unless you want to go down Kiwi card route but that is only if you have lots of spends which you don’t.
Onecard is crap and does not give offers now at all. HSBC Live+ can replace that plus it has statement cashback credit.
For HNI cards, you can look at HDFC Marriott Bonvoy and Yes Marquee cards.
Rest I believe you are golden.
Thanks fot your suggestions Aniket.
Regarding Infinia, even I want to get my hands on that card, but my banker is asking for ULIP or high amount FD for it. I am not willing for it. Moreover, reward rate is very similar on Diners Black and quarterly milestone of 10k has no exclusions.
Have evaluated Hsbc live+, however I am now more interested in accumulating miles/hotel rewards to subsidize my holiday spends and thus using atlas. Moreover, offline grocery is not a big spend for me.
Will evaluate au Zenith, but dont think au ixigo is devalued. If you have any email/link please share, i might have missed it.
Will evaluate yes marquee and marriott too.
Thanks for your inputs once again.
I was surprised when HDFC Infinia didnt find a mention here, also for Rupay cards you may evaluate one of those BOB co-branded cards, I have one BOB HPCL which I use for petrol payments as well as UPI. For Grocery purchases, RBL Shoprite card can be of use as it has ~5% reward points.
Thanks fot your suggestions Sachin.
Regarding Infinia, even I want to get my hands on that card, but my banker is asking for ULIP or high amount FD for it. I am not willing for it. Moreover, reward rate is very similar on Diners Black and quarterly milestone of 10k has no exclusions.
I am now more interested in accumulating miles/hotel rewards to subsidize my holiday spends and thus using atlas. Moreover, offline grocery is not a big spend for me.
However, will evaluate bob hpcl and rbl shoprite.
Thanks again for your suggestions
I am holding below cards for my upi spents.
1.ICICI HPCL Super Saver RuPay Variant:
To achieve an annual fee waiver, ₹1.5L needs to be spent annually. This can be broken down as follows:
• ₹60K/year on fuel: Eligible for a 5% cashback in the form of reward points, effectively making it a value-maximizing card for fuel expenses.
• ₹24K/year on groceries using UPI: Also eligible for a 5% cashback in reward points, adding value for grocery purchases.
• Remaining ₹66K/year: Earns a 0.5% cashback in reward points for general spending, contributing to overall rewards.
The net reward rate comes to 3% for ₹1.5L annual spending, factoring in the fee waiver and reward structure.
2.HDFC Pixel Play RuPay Variant (LTF):
This card offers:
• 1% cashback on UPI spends, which can be redeemed but only in multiples of ₹1000.
While the cashback is modest, the lack of an annual fee (Lifetime Free) ensures a straightforward benefit without additional costs.
3.SBI BPCL Octane RuPay Variant:
• Rewards 2.5% as points for online grocery purchases via UPI.
• For the basic BPCL RuPay variant, a 1.25% points structure may apply under similar conditions.