This is not precisely a devaluation, so I won’t be referring to it as one. Still, Axis Bank Credit Cards is in the process of rolling out a 30-day notice to changes to all sorts of Axis Bank Credit Card products’ earnings and milestone spending as of March 5, 2023.

Rent Payments using Axis Bank Credit Cards will attract surcharges.

Effective March 5, 2023, a rent surcharge fee of 1%, capped at INR 1,500 per transaction, will be applicable on each rental transaction. This excludes the GST as notified from time to time and any other applicable taxes. Additionally, spends threshold for milestone benefits will exclude rent transactions on the following cards:

• Axis Bank Privilege Credit Card
• Axis Bank Select Credit Card
• Axis Bank Magnus Credit Card
• Axis Bank Atlas Credit Card

Also, no longer will Rent payments count on the following credit cards towards fee reversal milestones:

• Axis Bank Privilege Credit Card
• Axis Bank Select Credit Card
• Axis Bank Pride Platinum Credit Card
• Axis Bank Pride Signature Credit Card
• Axis Bank Titanium Credit Card
• Axis Bank Platinum Credit Card
• Axis Bank Indian Oil Credit Card
• Axis Bank Magnus Credit Card
• Axis Bank Reserve Credit card

I’ve maintained that two kinds of people would use the feature. One type needed liquidity for some additional time to pay their rent. The others would do it for the points or meet minimum spending criteria. Almost all banks want to close the latter since it is a cost to them, and if no one else is giving points for rent transactions, why should they?

Rent transactions are identified via Merchant code 6513, so please check if your favourite rent payment platform, such as Cred, NoBroker, RedGirraffe, Housing, and so on, counts as one or not.

Dynamic Currency Conversion markup will get a 1% fee.

Effective March 5, 2023, any Dynamic Currency Conversion (DCC) transactions where you pay internationally but with INR conversion on the terminal itself rather than later, a markup fee of 1% plus taxes will be added to that. In this, Axis Bank follows HDFC Bank, which implemented a similar fee effective January 1, 2023. However, the DCC markup fee will not apply to Burgundy Private Credit Card.

For the record, a DCC Markup fee has been charged for a long time by SBI Credit Cards (at least since 2019, if not earlier). This could be an innocuous fee which will be slammed to you when you are paying, let’s say, for Agoda.Com hotel rooms or tickets on the website of an international airline but billing in INR and so on.

Wallet Transactions are to be excluded from Milestone Benefits and Fee Reversal spending.

Wallet transactions, such as loading up your Paytm or PhonePe Wallet, will no longer count towards milestone benefits on the following cards:

• Axis Bank Privilege Credit Card
• Axis Bank Select Credit Card
• Axis Bank Magnus Credit Card
• Axis Bank Atlas Credit Card

Also, wallet transactions will be excluded from counting towards annual fee reversal as well on the following credit cards:

• Axis Bank Privilege Credit Card
• Axis Bank Select Credit Card
• Axis Bank Pride Platinum Credit Card
• Axis Bank Pride Signature Credit Card
• Axis Bank Titanium Credit Card
• Axis Bank Platinum Credit Card
• Axis Bank Indian Oil Credit Card
• Axis Bank Magnus Credit Card
• Axis Bank Reserve Credit card

Insurance spending will no longer count towards EDGE Rewards on some credit cards.

With respect to Insurance spending, most cards of Axis Bank which earn EDGE Rewards will not get Reward Points anymore from March 5, 2023, onwards. This does not include affluent credit cards, including Select and Privilege Credit Cards, which continue to earn points for insurance spending.

You can read the complete changes to T&C on all cards here and affluent credit cards here.

Cashback cards are affected too.

With effect from March 5, 2023, the following revisions will apply to the Flipkart Axis Bank Credit Card:

• A 1% transaction fee (plus 18% GST on transaction fee), capped at INR 1,500 per transaction, will be applicable on all transactions made towards payment of property management fees, rental commissions, rental payments or any such payments made through MCC 6513.
• A Dynamic Currency Conversion (DCC) markup fee of 1% (plus 18% GST on the markup fee) will be applicable on each overseas transaction performed through Indian currency.
• Utility bill payments, insurance premium payments, and education payments will not be eligible for cashback.

Bottomline

Many changes are coming to Axis Bank credit cards in March 2023. Rent Payments using Axis Bank Credit Cards will attract a 1% surcharge, apart from not counting towards milestone spends or annual fee reversal. Dynamic Currency Conversion will also attract a 1% fee (except on the Burgundy Private Credit Card), and most cards won’t earn points on insurance spending. Ultimately, it is not a devaluation because there is a focus on fixing loopholes and focusing on the profitability of customers, and in the process, stamping out the abuse of the cards in the hands of a few.

What do you make of these changes being introduced in the Axis Bank credit card portfolio? 

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