Thread by @2021Kashif

Can brand name & perception sometimes cost you customers?

The answer is Yes & Amex cards are a prime case study on it ✨

Tonight, we break a myth that Amex cards are useful only for rich people and not suitable for entry level & beginners 🧵 #ccgeek

1️⃣ Why beginners are hesitant?

🔷 Amex have positioned themselves as premium brand, so they feel it is out of reach!
🔷 Many fear high fee 😓
🔷 Less number of serviceable cities
🔷 Blindly sharing referral w/o explaining optimization creates suspicion in mind of applicant!

2️⃣ Is Amex cards actually useful for people with bare minimum expenses?

🔷 Yes and to prove the same let's take example of a person having 12K - 30K per month expenses 🙋

🔷 Amex is famous for premium cards but irony is their entry level cards are most rewarding 😉

3️⃣ Which Amex card will be best for beginners?

🔷 There are three good cards from house of Amex
1. Amex MRCC
2. Amex Gold Charge
3. Amex Plat Travel

🔷 There are two not so useful cards too (99% people should not apply for it)
1. Amex Smart earn
2. Amex Plat reserve

4️⃣ Enough of all this gyan, come to main point

- Yes sir, let's talk about optimizing return 😁

1. ₹1500 X 4 payments on Amex MRCC = 120 regular + 1000 bonus points (ignoring RM)

2. ₹1000 X 6 payments on Amex Gold = 120 regular + 1000 bonus points + 480 points on RM portal

You will earn 2720 MR points on an expense of ₹12K per month.

Person spending 10K generally will not be interested in airmiles.

Under 24K gold collection, you will get 14K taj voucher or 9K amazon voucher for 24K MR points!

Amazon voucher will give a value of ₹0.375/point ❇️

🔷Yearly points through MRCC & Gold will be 2720 X 12 = 32,640 MR points

🔷Assuming you will be redeeming it in batch of 24K, value in rupees will be 32,640 * 0.375 = ₹12,240

🔷Return rate will be ₹12,240/₹144000= 8.5%🤯

Did you imagine that at the beginning of thread?

Now, let's take another case where monthly expense is 26K.

This time, we will spend 6K on Gold charge as usual but 20K on MRCC to get another 1K points for completing 20K spend milestone.

2720 (earlier calculation) + 280 (normal points on extra 14K) + 1000 (extra bonus)

🔷Yearly points through MRCC & Gold will be 4000 X 12 = 48000 MR points

🔷Assuming you will be redeeming it in batch of 24K, value in rupee will be 48000 * 0.375 = ₹18,000

🔷Return rate will be ₹18,000/₹312000= 5.76%🤯

But, Kashif reward rate reduced🤷‍♂️

Fikar not 😉

Instead of spending on one MRCC + Gold, get another MRCC + Gold combo on any of your family member's name.

Spend 24K on these 4 cards to get same 8.5% return.

But, I am too sophisticated for all that (20 transactions one by one in a month)

🔷 Fair enough, if you can spend 4,00,000 in a year (33,333 per month) Amex Plat travel is a match made in heaven.

🔷You get 8000 normal points + 40000 bonus points on completing 4L milestone.

🔷You also get 10K Taj voucher😃(I will value this at 8K)
🔷Total Value in rupee will be 48K * 0.375 i.e. 18000 + 8000 (for Taj GV) = ₹26000
🔷Return rate will be ₹26,000/₹400000= 6.5%🤯

Even at its lowest, it is still better than all cashback cards!

All good but again Kashif, entry level cards don't charge fee like Amex

🔷Joining fee is 1000 for MRCC, 1000 for Gold & 3500 for Plat travel

🔷Renewal fee is 4500 for MRCC, 4500 for Gold & 5000 for Plat travel

These are too much for India where people are crazy for LTF cards!

🔷Yes, but this is where power of referral kicks in🔥(DM for referral)

🔷You get First year free (0 joining fee) for MRCC & Plat travel

🔷You get reduced renewal fee of 2500 for MRCC

So, for first year if you apply all 3 cards through referral, it will only cost 1000+taxes✨

Renewal is your choice. Amex is generally open for negotiation and fee waiver.

Try your luck and if they don't agree, close the card.

After one year Amex experience, you will be able to judge value of Amex better than w/o holding it.

5⃣ Conclusion

It is just a myth that Amex cards are not good in terms of rewards!

It actually saddens me that we are not able to promote good features of Amex & Magnus at large scale.

I would recommend Amex cards more to beginners than high spenders.

Enjoy the rewards😀

That's all folks!
Just one request, please don't spam with your referral links (even I have not posted mine)

If you found it helpful
- Like & retweet will surely motivate me to write more!

https://twitter.com/2021Kashif/status/1653489098756354048?s=20

- Following @2021Kashif will be a moral booster!

See you soon :)