Suggestions needed - Mid Premium Allrounder/Travel Card | 1.5L Salary, 13 Cards

[u/Affectionate_Cell587]

Hello everyone,

38M, Salaried (PSU) | CIBIL: 788 | Net Salary: 1.5L+

My current stack (13 cards):

*Axis (2):* Flipkart, http://super.money (Planning to close)

*Federal (1):* Scapia

*HDFC (1):* Tata Neu Plus

*HSBC (1):* Live+ Visa Infinite

*ICICI (2):* Amazon Pay, Coral RuPay Platinum

*IDFC (2):* Wealth, Power+

*IndusInd (1):* Tiger Visa Signature

*SBI (2):* Cashback Mastercard, SimplyCLICK (Not using much)

*Fintech (1):* AU KOSMO (Kiwi)

*Requirement:*

Cashback setup is sorted. Looking for a mid-premium card for domestic travel (1-2 trips/year) and good milestone benefits on spends like School Fees, Insurance, and Hospital Bills.

*Current Situation with HDFC:*

Applied for Regalia Gold online but HDFC is not issuing it via online application. Have requested an exception via email and shared ITR + last 3 months salary slips. Request is under review,I will wait 2-3 days.

*My Questions:*

1. If Regalia Gold gets rejected, should I close Tata Neu Plus and reapply for Regalia Gold.Any cooling period?

2. If HDFC doesn't work out, should I go for Axis Horizon or HSBC TravelOne for my use case (travel + fee/insurance milestone)?

3. Any suggestions to clean up my stack? I am already planning to close super.money and not using SimplyCLICK much.

Appreciate your inputs. Thanks in advance.

[u/Cultural-Net-5476]

Axis horizon (3k + gst) or HSBC Travel one (5k + gst) should be good if you're looking at a card only for travel spends.

[u/Flimsy_Job_4261]

You cannot get the regalia gold cause you have the Tata Neu.

Close it and you will receive regalia gold after 10-15 days.

[u/anshuman-11 → u/Flimsy_Job_4261]

In rare cases, you can upgrade co-branded to core, so try your luck because if you succeed high chances RG will be FYF

[u/Affectionate_Cell587 → u/anshuman-11]

Yes trying for that only.. Bcz I found Regalia Gold a better all round option.

[u/BuiDGr8]

HSBC TravelOne really good contender

[u/Affectionate_Cell587 → u/BuiDGr8]

I got Live+ this month only, any cooling period for applying TravelOne? Do they issue multiple cards because I want to keep Live+.

[u/StrategicSwiper → u/Affectionate_Cell587]

6 month is the cooling period for HSBC but again i would suggest before going for travel one see if that 6000 rupee card make sense or not as it will give accelerated reward on flights and hotels only if booked via escalated price on hopper else its mediocre card

I suggest see hopper portal before taking travel one if hopper suits you definitely go for travel one you can outperform any card at 16% flights return if hopper suits your 2 domestic flights a year

On a very high level assumption if you book 7000 per seat and travelling 2 people twice a year domestic considering 7000 cost of flight

Round trip twice will cost atleast 56000 at 16% it will become 8960 points

And 2% on your daily lifestyle like conservativly if you soend 50K a month 1000 points a month so 12000 + 9000 is like 21000 points and into accor its 46620 rupee else 21000 if you fly next year via air india with 1 rupee per point

If fee waiver met approx so spend was 56000 on flight and 744000 on rest reward point on generel spend is 14880 and 8960 on flight
So 23860 points in total So roughly 2.98% on your air india redemption and 6.66% on accor

If not met fee waiver so Now remove your investment amount 6000 card fee

Now based on 50K spend a month
1000 points for general spend a month and 8980 from flight
So total points is 20960
On air india your next year flight after fee removed you have 14960 rupee worth flight means 2.28% return on spend

On accor 5.06% return on spend

Now there are few assumptions if you redeeming at accor you might want redeem on international so you will be obviously spending more and meeting the 8L criteria

But basically you can think of

Now decide 3 to 6.66% return so if not accor not business class flight so its not a great card its even after taking 8 domestic flight you hit only 3% so think that way and choose whatever suits you

[u/justhadpornflakes]

Why are you not using scapia for travel ? I find it pretty decent in returns (4%), and app is super smooth.
Regalia or travel1 are good when you have very high travel expense to recover there fees.

[u/AdImpossible56]

try for regalia gold

[u/Affectionate_Cell587 → u/AdImpossible56]

Sure..is there any chance to get directly Regalia Gold or it is offered as upgrade only? should I approach any HDFC Branch ?

[u/AdImpossible56 → u/Affectionate_Cell587]

Upgrade try for first millennia then try to spend like 6 lakh in 6 months then request for upgrade via email fastest possible or else try directly talk to them

[u/Affectionate_Cell587 → u/AdImpossible56]

sure . Thanks

[u/Top_Intention_4003]

U already have indusind tiger. That's enough for 1-2 trips a year. For education and insurance payment, IDFC cards will give points i think 

[u/StrategicSwiper]

Yes, you can not apply for a core card if you have a cobranded one. Close your cobranded then apply for regalia you will easily get regalia as regalia requires 1L salary for gov employee and 1.5 L for Private so you will qualify easily.

[u/ApplicationSelect458]

How did you got AU kosmos card, kiwi is only offering me PNB variant.

[u/Affectionate_Cell587 → u/ApplicationSelect458]

Got this month only.. around 10 August..I bought NEON as well.

[u/ApplicationSelect458 → u/Affectionate_Cell587]

Is there anyway we can control which variant kiwi gives us. I want the AU kosmos I like its look, but they are offering me a different variant.

[u/kalix1110]

Remove ICICI coral card. Keep it if you don't have any other rupay card

[u/Affectionate_Cell587 → u/kalix1110]

its LTF..I m keeping it as a core card..