CA. Miles and points on credit cards. 30+ countries and counting ✈️
Bengaluru & Delhi
Joined September 2021
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I swiped ~₹11.5L on my credit card to buy a Škoda Kylaq. The reward points turned into ₹3L+ in hotel stays, a return of nearly 30% on a routine spend.
🚗 Car: Škoda Kylaq, about ₹11.5L
💳 Card: Magnus Burgundy
🏨 Reward Points: ~2L edge points converted to 1.6L ALL Accor at then conversion ratio of 5:4 (about ₹3.4L)
Last year, around the festive season, we bought our first car. As a cc geek, I was more excited about the reward points than the car itself 😂
Here's what I did.
First, I timed the purchase in an AEP month to get maximum value. Then actual purchase below:
A. MDR negotiation
The dealer wanted 2%, to cover MDR charges, to take a card. I negotiated it down to 1.25%, about ₹14k.
B. Paying the card bill
1️⃣ From savings
No loan and no extra interest. Only cost is the ₹14k fee.
Net benefit: about ₹3.25L in travel value.
Trade-off: ₹11.5L of savings gone in one go.
2️⃣ With a personal loan instead of a car loan (my pick)
A car loan pays the dealer directly, so a card swipe isn't possible. A personal loan gives you cash, and cash can be used to pay card bill.
Net swipe cost:
MDR fee: ~₹14k
Interest earned on the loan money (~40 days till the card bill was due): ~₹7k
Net cost: ~₹7k
The personal loan was about 10%, against 8% for a car loan.
Net benefit after the extra interest:
1 year: ~₹3.2L (extra interest ~₹13k)
3 years: ~₹2.9L (extra interest ~₹39k)
5 years: ~₹2.7L (extra interest ~₹67k)
Either way, the car cost the same, and the card paid for my stays in Egypt, Oman, Qatar, Japan, Hong Kong and Laos in 2026 ✈️
C. Things to consider
- Be extra careful with the MCC. Do a small dummy swipe first and call your card issuer to confirm which MCC the dealer's terminal is coded under before you put the full amount through.
- Accelerated points run only up to your credit limit + ₹1.5L in a month, so check your limit first.
- Axis has since cut Burgundy to Accor from 5:4 to 5:2, so the hotel return on the same swipe today is half. Savvy redemption experts can still get similar value by moving the points to airline miles and booking premium-cabin award tickets.
- The maths changes with other cards, but with the right earn rate and transfer partner it can still work in your favour.
Hey I took the card earlier this month specifically for this offer. So 15,000 free night award points plus about 33,000 milestone. 48k per card so for 5 card it works out to 240k.
Yeah, there are few good properties where we plan to go for a family holiday. Remaining MB points gets converted to Air miles.
Have 5 and 6th only the way...I need star gold other than that there is no use case for me..what if SBI AI doesn't have star status - that's why going slow.
Hey I took the card earlier this month only for this offer. So 15,000 free night award points plus about 33,000 milestone. 48k per card so for 5 card it works out to 240k.