One of the most popular & rewarding offer in the industry at the moment is HDFC 10X rewards program that gives massive return on spend with select merchants especially when you hold HDFC super premium credit cards.
While that program is seeing devaluations back to back, American Express has come up with their version of Reward Multiplier program that gives upto 5X rewards on select cards with select merchants (10X on Centurion). Here’s how much points you can get on respective cards:
The Offer
| Offer | Upto 10X Rewards on Amex Cards |
| Offer Type | Accelerated Rewards on select merchants (Includes Amazon & Flipkart). Refer this page for the list of brands. |
| Max. Cap | 25,000 Points per month |
| Fulfilment | 120 Days from transaction date |
| Excluded Cards | Corporate Cards and Co-brand Cards |
| Excluded Products | There is a long list (esp. for Amazon & FK ). Refer T&C link below. |
| T&C | Refer this link for T&C |
One good thing about Amex Reward Multiplier is its decent Monthly Max. Cap. Hope that stays. However, overall return on spend is not attractive as it should. Here’s a quick look:
Savings
Here are approx. savings on respective cards, considering 50ps per MR point value. This is an average figure and it may be less/more based on how you redeem your points.
| Card Type | Rewards | Savings |
|---|---|---|
| Centurion | 10X | 12.5% to 25% |
| Platinum Charge | 5X | 6.25% – 12.5% |
| Gold Charge | 5X | 5% – 10% |
| Plat Travel & Reserve | 3X | 2.4% |
| MRCC | 2X | 1.3% – 2.3% |
| Smart Earn | 2X | 1% |
So as you see, for most cards its not worth to go through the 120 Day wait period following all these rules.
However, if you have the plat/gold charge cards, its a whole different story. If you know to play the points game you may easily get 12.5% return or even more with Marriott stays (or) by redeeming for 18K/24K points.
If I apply the numbers to my my last Marriott stay, the return could be as high as 30% but then its not usual and you shouldn’t be counting on the Suite rate to compare the savings.
How to Avail?
- Step 1: Select a merchant of your choice and click on “Shop Now”
- Step 2: Fill out a few simple details and proceed to merchant site
- Step 3: Shop all you want in the same session without closing the browser within 30 minutes
- Step 4: Proceed to check out with the same American Express® Card used for validation in step 2
I would suggest you to go through the T&C for precautions on this as they’ve clearly mentioned about the best practices.
Further you may record the video while making the txn if its a high value txn, so it would serve as a proof for escalation, just incase if things go wrong.
Limited Period Offers
Every now and then Amex sends out a better version of this Reward Multiplier offer as seen above. But this only lasts for few days.
Offer Sample: Now earn 22 points with your American Express® Card, from 16 January 2022 until 26 January 2022.
Good one, but Amex still needs to improve this program to compete well with HDFC. Ideally I would expect at-least 10X on Platinum Charge cards as 5X is too low compared to the competition.
Amex Vs HDFC
Its a nice way to save extra on spends which you anyway do. But if you have to compare it with HDFC, well then its totally a different topic.
For Entry level card holders who can’t get HDFC super premium cards, Amex offer is good. Further, your points wont expire fast like with HDFC and also you don’t have any redemption restrictions with Amex. So its overall good for this segment.
For Super Premium card holders Amex Reward Multiplier offer offers too low return even on their metal card. For ex, you can hardly save ~12.5% with Amex platinum charge card that costs 70K INR whereas you could save 33% on HDFC Infinia or Diners Black that hardly costs 10K INR.
Final Thoughts
While its not a great benefit in itself due to longer fulfilment time & poor reward rate on most cards, its still a good offer for all charge cards as it opens up lots of possibilities to play the points and miles game.
What’s your thoughts on the Amex Reward Multiplier? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments below.
I got this offer on my MRCC card
It is not much attractive for me, i got offer on my regalia as spending 51k will giv 2k voucher i got the same offer for two consecutive months hope u also get the same on lesser spends. I managed to spend 45k plus and balance i used on loadin wallets
I’m not targeted for HDFC spend based offers since past 3 months. But yes, they’re very lucrative most of the time.
The longer fulfillment cycle is a trick to prevent card churn. Because if you wish to surrender your card then ideally you would have to stop the spending 4 months in advance – which means you get only 8 months of benefit for the fee that you have paid in the current year. And that is a decision point they impinge on the card member – and may stop a few from cancelling if they have put in a substantial spend and are expecting the bonus MRs sometime after card renewal. We see somewhat similar trick from Amex for spend based targetted offers in Diwali – where the fulfillment was in Feb.
I doubt about that.
This delay is usually kept to get rid of cancellations/refunds/disputes as it involves too much work. But yes, its indirectly good for them in many ways.
That aside, speaking of renewal, I think we can still hold the card for upto ~3 months post renewal month to decide.
You mean to say that we can postpone the renewal fees by 3 months post renewal month?
You have to pay when it’s due. If you cancel within 3 months they refund you, no questions asked.
thanks for clearing my doubt!
I think the exclusions are very sensible, mostly common sense (Prime membership, Amazon Pay, Gift Cards). Thing to remember is — mobile phones (any sensible brand) is excluded. Apart from that the only thing that seems out of common sense is don’t buy gaming consoles from Amazon.
Essentially, this is kinda an affiliate program. All low value affiliate links have been excluded.
It will be live by 20th July as far as i know
Just called up Amex Plat Charge Card customer care. They are surprised to hear this offer! They were clueless.
Infact they weren’t even aware of the link provided in this article! (Well done Sid!)
But to be honest, if this were to be targeted, I would be super pissed with Amex. These kind of offers should be meant for everyone and not for a selected lot.
Credit goes to some other reader who shared it couple of days ago.
Usually the readers are very smart in finding the offers fast, than me 🙂
Just in.
Amex is now giving a 20% booster for August 14th and 15th.on their reward multiplier program i.e for Amex Plstinum charged card, we will now get 15 RW instead of 12.5 per 100.
Sid is amex insider lol
Sid brother Vanakam,
Flight booking through Amazon Excluded, but not on Flipkart…So Booking a flight with Flipakrt will give 5x rewards??
Appears to be YES for now. Hope Amex don’t change that later 😀
Flight bookings just got excluded now 🙄
I usually use all my credit card points to convert to miles. In this scenario, HDFC Diners Black and Citibank Prestige still trumps Amex Reserve. And Amex Plat Charge on marginally beats Citi but HDFZC is still better bet on multiplier spend. Let’s say we do shopping worth Rs 1500 on amazon.
On HDFC x5 multiplier (reduced recently) = 250 points = 250 Miles (1:1 conversion)
On Amex Platinum Charge (x5)= 185 points = 92.5 Miles (2:1)
On Amex Plat Reserve (x3)= 90 points = 45 Miles (2:1)
On Citi Prestige = 15 points =60 Miles (1:4)
On non multiplier spends Citi leaves back both HDFC and Amex. So basically unless you enjoy the various other perks of Plat Charge card, Citi Prestige and HDFC Infinia or Diners seem to better cc for those who only convert to Airmiles.
so you are saying for airmile rewards:
Rank 1: Citi Prestige
Rank 2: HDFC Infinia/Diners
Rank 3: Amex
Yes that’s the order for normal domestic and international purchases. The only exception for domestic purchases is if there is Hdfc smartbuy offer which will get you more miles than prestige.
Also, using amex one can transfer 1:1 to Marriott which gives you the ability to transfer to airlines FFPs which are otherwise not accessible to us ( Alaskan, United, AA etc). Thats pretty handy as well, but yeah earning Amex MR is hard.
I would swap Diners/ Infinia with Prestige since Prestige rarely has any spend promos. The going was good with the Smartbuy 10X
I’ve not been able to get my hands on an Amex. The MRCC application was rejected due to internal policy!
I have 5 cc’s including Regalia First and SBI Prime. All limits between 50k to 1L.
Any suggestions on how to go about the Amex application?
ITR ~ 4L / self employed
CIBIL: 782
MRCC Requirement: “I am Employed and have a Personal Annual Income of INR 4.5 lakhs and above or Self Employed with a Personal Annual Income of INR 6 lakhs and above.”
Is amex that strict? I’m not interested in the Smart Earn and had applied as salaried.
Thanks for the response!
Don’t go for Amex MRCC. Try to get Amex gold. They sometimes offer MRCC LTF if you’ve gold card.
Sid when you said-This 5X multiplier page was live since ~ 10th July but when asked about the eligibility to support, they give different answer at different times, unfortunately.
My submission is welcome to the platinum concierge service. Thjis way you would get first hand experience.
Like paytm tied up with Citi, Mobikwik has tied up with Amex.
Mobikwik co-branded Amex Blue Card, in which you can burn 3% supercash on every transaction (upto 1K pm). Annual fee 199 but you also get 200 supercash on first transaction every month (till Mar21). With potential opportunities to double dip, it beats paytm card hands down.
Thanks for spotting it.
So will we earn Super cash or Amex MR on our spends?
Its been taken off Mobikwik site/app in a matter of 5 days. May reappear with more details next time.
It said two things – earn 1% supercash; burn 3% supercash; it wasnt clear if both are possible on same transaction. And not sure if Amex Blue card will carry additional rewards either.
Spoke to Mobikwik CC to enquire this upcoming offering, he flatly denied there’s any.
@Sid bro
off topic
can we use credit cards for business purpose..since infinia gives 3.3% on any online spend,i am thinking of doing side business of bill payments of my friends with little over 1% discount to them.
I am employed and paying IT of around 1L for salary..
i have very good credit limit and expecting to get bill payments in between 20 to 30 lakhs per month
i have discussed with CA’s about taxation issues,but worried about bank policy where they say “card may be blocked and reward points would be revoked” when the card is used for buainess transactions like tat in their important terms & conditions page..
i have been doing transactions of 3 to 5L per month since past couple of years and so far no problem..
so do they really block the card for the above reason?..anyway I have ampay ICICI,axisflipkart and axis privilege card as alternate cards..
whats your thought sid & experts here
Two things:
– You may get an IT notice
– Yes, banks does that
More details in separate article shortly.
Thanks a lot bro ..
Expecting lot more details from your upcoming article
hi sid,
what if i have business version of cards from banks? will they block it? (business regalia, yes preferred)
regards
!RemindMe
Seriously though, subscription system of this site is broken. I should get email when new article goes live, doesn’t happen.
Very hard to follow my previous comments unless subscribed. Probably do something to change this mate. Bring unique username thing.
Same here 🙁
I have been doing transaction for my business since past 2 years. Annual spend had reach around 1.5 crore last year on my regalia. No problem of blocking from the bank side nor I have heard of any.
@Sid can you make detailed article in how we can use cc for business purpose effectively and example if anyone got blocked how & why. Greatly appreciated
Why are you still using a Regalia if your spend is 1.5cr?
Yes Sid, since you are a self-employed person, you should write an article on how rest of us business people can use CCs effectively, just like you do!
There maybe a possibility of IT notice but you can fend it off if you could explain all those transactions
Purchase Instant Vouchers of Amazon Pay Voucher with 10X RP. Then make the bill payments through Amazon Pay. I think this will be the best practice and will maximize your returns of 33% instead of 3.3%. However, I don’t believe this must be practiced with huge amount instead try with small caps.
amazon only allows as of now bill payment upto Rs 25000/- , HDFC has been delaying giving points since march 2020 on instant vouchers continuously citing lockdown , lets see how it goes
I guess bill payments for friends doesnt constitute business spends, unless those are bills of their businesses likes shops, offices, hotels, restaurants etc. If I pay house rent or house electricity bill of friends or book their flight ticket for personal travel, they are still personal spends.
But from bank’s perspective, with widespread use on single category such as energy bills, they ll certainly see this as misuse of card given to you for your own spends. They can revoke points and freeze the card if they want.
IT will also pick it up as bank needs to report credit card spends of over 10L pa. IT needs to match card spends with your income. Bank is aware of your income too, basis which they issued the card, and disproportionate spends will be easily picked up.
There are separate credit cards issued for business spends but those are for registered businesses.
If your spending is above Rs. 10 Lacs then Bank have to report to IT. They will verify the same with your Income. If it does not match then balance amount will be added to your Income and will be taxed along with Interest and Penalty.
Please don’t spread misinformation and fear if you don’t know how things work. If your tax and CC spends mismatch, in around 1-3 years you’d receive a notice. You can send an explanation of that online. If the AO is not satisfied, they will schedule to meet with you. If there is a reasonable explanation (please keep paper trail if you expensed to company, or paid for a friend, or did it for cashback, etc.) and it is clear that your income was what you stated, there will be no additional tax. You’re taxed on your income, not your CC spends.
Well Amex Guy, Things are not that easy either. All transactions reported under Rule 114e of Income Tax do have significance. Now a days all these transactions are being monitored closely at Centralised Processing Center in Gurgaon. They do seek clarifications and even Income tax Notices for Detailed scrutiny for all these type of transactions, i have my clients for different types.
Further in India every “meeting with AO” do have direct or indirect costs (:p). Income tax act has sufficient power to deem your income, more than what you have declared. Suppose one’s income is 8-10 lac p.a. and they are spending more that 20 lac in a FY, Dept will deem rest of the income is received by you in Cash or you have to explain each transaction meticulously and trust me when they seek explanation it won’t be easy without the help of a professional.
One of my client receive “love letter” every year just because of his heavy spends on Cards and we need to pay “tax” to sort out everything.
Here my intention is not to spread misinformation or fear, just plan your spend and keep your life simple. Also just to clarify to everyone the limit of 10 Lac is for a Financial Year not statement year.
I’d also like to add that the threshold of 10 lacs is per credit card company, obviously.
Yes, Rule 114E requires the bank to report credit card payments in excess of 10 lacs in a financial year in Form 61A, but if you’re spending that amount on behalf of your company or your friends or for cash back, it’s always better to keep a track record of all such spends and back it up with documentary evidence.
At the end of the day, the income tax department can only tax your income. If one is able to substantiate the nature and source of the credit card transactions, then it cannot be deemed as unexplained income or cash credits.
So the bottom line is, if you do such transitions, be ready to receive a notice but you’ve nothing to fear as long as one is able to back it up with explanations and documentary evidence. One doesn’t have to pay “tax” every time for genuine and bona fide transactions.
Just ensure that you’ve reported all the incomes correctly in your tax return. If that’s the case, one has nothing to worry about. But I agree that it may get messy, at least with lower level tax officers and one may get relief only by litigation if the assessing officer is not satisfied.
So if we spend 9L across multiple cards in such a way that it doesn’t touch 10L in a single bank, that is not as easily detected? 😛
That’s not what your comment said. It seems your client is deemed to misrepresent for some reason. First of, it’s not the spends but CC payments are reported if you want to get technical. Just spending inconsistent with your income ONLY triggers a notice and if you can explain it is okay.
I receive one of them for about every year as I expense a lot of my spends (mostly a lot of travel) to the company. I’ve always explained it online and they never bothered me again. I do mention that I have adequate paper trail. But never upload any documentation until they ask specifically. They never did.
You’re basically saying the same thing I am — if you have sufficient explanation with paper trail they won’t (and can’t) bother you. Your initial comment said that they’ll somehow magically take all spends over 10 lacs and add it to your income. That’s simply false fear mongering.
First of all, it is not that your spends can be taxed. Second, you must be paying your credit card bill through banking channel and that can easily be explained as trail can easily be traced in that case. If, in any case, you are making cash deposits in your bank accounts and then making CC payments, the cash deposits will be treated your income (If remianed unexplained before the AO) and not your spends.
@Sid, please let me know if my analysis is wrong.
For those who donot have the amazon icici or the axis flipkart cards, yes cart is giving 4x on amazon, flipkart, myntra , tata cliq.
For a Yes Exclusive holder, it may turn to a rate of 3.6% still higher than the 3x by the amex travel.
True since 4X of YFE means 6% reward rate, but the campaign runs only periodically and with fewer merchants than Amex. It used to be 5X earlier. Reward rate is still better than Amex PT 3X.
Abhi
Yes points are devalued to 0.15 against vouchers. They remain 0.25 against travel which hardly can be done.
So its 0.15 practically. That means default reward rate is 0.9% and 3.6% in 4x offers.
Yes for non-travel its been devalued. Likewise Amex also, for shopping vouchers is a poor rate of 25ps per RP. For travel bookings its relatively better at 40-50ps. Also YFE pts don’t expire, can be used anytime in future when travel restarts.
That way Stanchart Ultimate is better as it gives 3.5% for all kinds of spend including wallet loading. Annual fees is compensated by equivalent points (except GST). Unlimited Lounge access (both primary and add on cardholders), Only major problem is that the redemption options are most of the times are not great.
Hi Sid,
End date of offer has been added in terms and conditions page to 31st Oct 2020. You can update the article.
I am ok to wait 120 days to receive reward points,but Amazon exclusions is big time downer.
Siddharth,
How about subscribing NPS TIER II Rs. 4000 with AMEX MRCC card (Rs. 1000 each four times). Get AMEX card points of 1000 valuing Rs. 250. The NPS transaction charge is Rs. 42.48 ( 0.90% + 18% GST i.e. 1.062% on Rs 4000). Withdraw the amount three working days before due date of payment.
I got a flipkart spend offer on MRCC. Spend ₹9999 on flipkart and get 10% cashback!
Got another offer today! Spend ₹4000 at Decathalon (Online or Offline) and get 10% cashback!
Sid – This is now valid till October only. And they have added a 10X category for Centurion cardholders and excluded flights on Flipkart.
Thanks for the updates Varun.
till which month was it valid earlier? has amex reduced the offer validity timeline?
This offer is nothing… Even Citi and SBI Card giving awesome rewards..
Please tell more about these offers . I have both & havent recd any offers
Pretty much like Yes Cart then, runs periodically.
I did a transaction 5 days ago at an eligible merchant’s website through amex rewards multiplier using my plat charge but upon confirming with amex customer care my transaction isn’t eligible for 5x rewards because some stupid reason like I didn’t clear my browser etc. they also told that its a frequent issue and “a good chunk” of the transactions from many users has been rejected by amex technical team!! I did a 10K+ transaction but can’t earn 5x rewards on it 🙁 has anyone else had such a unfortunate experience with amex?
Hi all,
I have an amex corporate card since more than 2 years now (provided by the employer) but don’t have a personal amex card. What will the procedure be when I apply for a personal amex now, will I need to submit all Docs and start from scratch? Also, can I avail the referral based offers in this scenario or not?
Thanks!
I received this email today:
American Express® wishes you a Happy Independence Day!
You earn 2 points for every ₹100 spent with your American Express Card. The recently introduced Reward Multiplier gives you 6 points on every ₹100 spent. This Independence Day, you can earn 15 points on every ₹100 (exclusions apply) when you shop through Reward Multiplier only on 14 and 15 August 2020!
T and C: “During this promo period, Reward Multiplier offers of earning 5X Membership Rewards points on American Express® Platinum Card, 3X Membership Rewards points on American Express® Platinum ReserveSM Credit Card and American Express® Platinum Travel Credit Card and 2X Membership Rewards points on other American Express® Proprietary Cards will not be Applicable. Cardmember will instead get a higher accelerated earn of 15 Membership Rewards® Points on every spend of ₹100. Exclusions apply”
Does this mean we can get 15 MR points for Rs100 spend even on MRCC or Gold Charge cards? I received email for my Plat Travel card.
Again Amex is running bonus MR points offer:
Earn more- Now earn 15 Membership Rewards® points on every spend of INR 100
Limited period offer : Sep 26 – Oct 4, 2020
Shop on your favorite brands via Reward Multiplier and earn extra reward points every time you pay using your American Express® Card.
With 10 * Rs 1000 with MRCC and Gold Charge, we earn a cool 3500 Membership Rewards® points!
Small change.
Though Platinum and Gold charge are both earning 5x, the base earning is different on both cards. Hence, going by your logic, the savings on gold should be 5%-10% instead of the current one.
Keep up the good work Siddharth. Thanks!!!
Just updated, thanks.
How is 5x on gold charge card 6.25 -12.5%?
For charge card the usual reward ratio if redeemed for statement credit using 24k collection is 0.75% . So 5x is 3.75%. which is almost the default reward rate (3.3%) for DCB and infinia.
This is a nice offer. I could get 5x points on buying amazon e vouchers through reward multiplier on gold charge card and used it to pay my insurance premium. Even if i use 24k statement credit its 3.75% cash reward on insurance which is quite decent. Even better if i use it for mariott.
True. Hope they don’t come up with a max. cap for vouchers 🙂
I have Gold Charge and MRCC. Recently got Amex Plat Travel too. How do you get max out of amex points, I have been earning since few years roughly 24k points every 9 months or so and have always used it for statement credit. Mariott bonvoy transfer rates seems low to me. Any advice?
I redeem for a mix of Marriott & gold collection. You just need to find the sweet spot with Marriott.
There is already max cap for rewards multiplier 25k max points, not sure per card aur per account
How come you’re saying it’s 6.25%-12.5% for Metal by 24c GC (if having both Metal and MRCC)….
it’s coming out to be 4.7% as per my calculation….12.5% is the points % (1 per 40 multiplied by 5)….
where are we getting 1 rupee per point? only this could give me value of 12.5%!
Hello sidharth sir
All card max cap is same means Amex Platinum and amex PT Travel 25000???
And Sir Max Cap is 25000 is per card or one person all card means all account
Yes, same for all cards, Max cap is per card.
i was able to buy 40,000 worth of HP petro paycodes on 1 card , so IMO the limit may be only for amazon/flipkart
Limit is based on the Gyftr account
eVouchers are no longer available thru rewards multiplier…