Membership Rewards Credit Card (MRCC) is one of the oldest & widely used credit card in India. In this post I will explain why MRCC is a perfect fit for your wallet. Very few Indians know about American Express (Amex) so before we jump on to the review of Membership Rewards Credit Card, here is some background.
About American Express
Amex is one of best credit card provider in the world. They are well known for their Membership Rewards. Amex’s business is in Wealth Management, Insurance, Private Equity etc like any other bank but in India, they are more focused on credit card business. They have one of the best customer care service in India & before wasting too much time let’s move on to the review.
Is Membership Rewards Credit Card Free?
No. This card comes with Joining Fee of INR 1000 & Yearly Fee of INR 4500. For limited time, joining fee is waived-off completely with annual fee of only INR 1500 + 18% GST.
Any Welcome or Annual benefit?
Yes.
- Welcome Benefit : You will get 2000 Membership Rewards (MR) points as welcome or joining benefit.
Renewal Benefit: You can get 5000 MR points after paying renewal fees. This is valid only for first year.- Referral Benefit : For limited time, you will get 2000 MR points if you apply through my referral.
Please read TnC for bonus MR points as they keep altering it. At the time of posting, welcome & referral benefit are offered on cumulative spend of INR 25000 & INR 5000 respectively in first 90 days.
Can I get rid of Annual Fees?
Absolutely. On spending INR 1.5L in membership year, 100% of the fee is waived whereas on spending more than INR 90K in membership year 50% of the fee is waived. This is indeed a great deal.
Am I eligible?
- Personal Annual income of 4.5L & above.
- Existing Credit card of any bank
- Resident Indian
How do I earn Membership Rewards point on my credit card?
You get 1 MR point on spending INR 50 which is 20 MR points on spending INR 1000. Here comes the best part of holding this credit card. Earn 1,000 Bonus MR points for simply using your card 4 times on transactions of INR 1,000 and above every month. Earn 1000 Bonus MR points for shopping above 20000 in a calendar month. Read it again but you need to understand this clearly. You can earn 12000 MR points on spending only INR 4000 per month & if your spends are more than 20000 each month, you get 24000 points with just bonus points. You will know importance of this feature later in the article.
How much MR points are worth?
You can redeem MR points with either of two options:
18000 Points
- Taj voucher worth Rs. 9,000
- Shoppers Stop voucher worth Rs. 8,000
- Myntra voucher worth Rs. 8,000
- Big Basket voucher worth Rs. 8,000
- Amazon voucher worth Rs. 7,000
- Croma voucher worth Rs. 7,000
- Flipkart voucher worth Rs. 7,000
24000 Points
- Taj voucher worth Rs. 14,000
- Shoppers Stop voucher worth Rs. 11,000
- Vistara voucher worth Rs. 11,000
- Tanishq voucher worth Rs. 10,000
- Amazon voucher worth Rs. 9,000
- Croma voucher worth Rs. 9,000
- Flipkart voucher worth Rs. 9,000
Is the card worth it?
Feature of earning 1000 points every month on spending INR 4000 is the coolest thus card is completely worth it. Here are few examples with some analytics to help you decide,
Note: I am using INR 1500 + 18% GST as annual fees & amazon e-gift voucher worth 8000 for analytics. Payment of fees is once a year & you can redeem Amazon voucher after completing 18000 MR point but I distributed them for analytical purposes
- I can spend only INR 4000 (4*1000) in a month.
Amazon Voucher line clearly indicates that even if you spend 4000 a month, card is worth paying the fees.
- I can spend more than 90K but less than 1.5L.
With half the fees, line of Voucher is steeper than earlier & the graph says it all.
There is clearly no point in plotting graph when you spend more than 1.5L since there wont be any fees to be paid.
Bottomline
Holding this card in your wallet is no brainer. Amex also comes up with many partner offers with Swiggy, Makemytrip, bookmyshow etc. All these can be utilised using this card. If you have made up your mind, go ahead and Apply Now.
What do you think about this card? Share your views in comments below.