nanoyasir

Have been into travel hacking game for couple of months now and only been able to accumulate 100k (70k AI FF Miles 30k points on Regalia) miles from couple of Credit card.As I was starting to look for best travel credit cards offered in India I hardly found Credit card with bonuses that exceeded 10-30k points unlike Chase and Sapphire.

Just wanted to check if there are any Indian's here who have been able to make it big points? Especially the way credit card companies have low rewards for spend and high points needed to redeem award flights?

Yoshi212

The practical answer to your question is that the market isn't the same as the US market which when it comes to high bonuses and perks is the gold standard. Even the UK & EU generally don't come close to the US bonuses & rewards.
Between competition, consumer focus & regulation each market is different.

Still, good luck and I hope someone can chime in on good deals within the Indian market.

irishguy28

No other country has sign up bonuses like the ones you find in the US.

It's a big and competitive market, with apparently enough spend for the credit card companies to offer such incentives. And credit cards are almost universally accepted by retailers.

No other country apparently has a market as competitively fought over - hence the poorer consumer offers. [There's not many other countries where credit cards are as widely accepted for even trivial payment totals. Some of the cards you mention offer what merchants often see as prohibitively high fees in some countries]

1flyer

In a nutshell: Indian CC customers are less valuable to firms than American ones.

GUWonder

The US credit card-issuing banks are also sort of in a race to lock in customers' wallet share before alternative, non-cash payment channels lock them out of the market; and the affiliate partners for the cards are also in major competition to sell points/miles; and payment processing charges/fees tend to be rather substantial in the US relative to various other markets. Together that makes for rather rich card "sign-up" offers.

In even relatively large markets beyond the US, the credit card market saturation point to encourage super-competitive marketing by card issuers and their affiliate partners seems to be getting skipped to some extent as non-credit card forms of electronic payment have more rapidly leaped up to become mass market approaches with lower charge processing costs; add in that bank card affiliate partners competing to sell points/miles in non-US markest isn't as hyper-competitive as in the US; and in the difference in processing charges/fees. All that together in most non-US markets just means the card signing offers just tend to not be as rich as in the US and won't be.

In a nutshell, the market for affiliate credit card customers in India is neither as hyper-competitive nor as financially lucrative for credit card-issuing banks and the credit card affiliate partners as it is in the US. But that holds true for most of the highest income countries in the world too. The US is truly exceptional in this regard.

Efrem

They do it in the U.S. because they think the expected long-term payoff from issuing one more card is, on average, greater than the cost of the bonus.

They do not do it in India because they think the expected long-term payoff from issuing one more card is, on average, less than the cost of the bonus.

Since their statistical expectations are based on careful analysis of large volumes of data, they're probably right in both places.

nanoyasir

Makes sense guys, So I guess should be happy with what Citi, SBI AI Signature and HDFC diners club offers.
But would be glad if we can have some insights on MF in India apart from Gift cards and rental payments.

Right that makes real sense. US market is highest with reward and redemption I reckon.

tmiw

Sure, but I get the feeling that some/most retailers in the US would rather that people not use cards at all, or at the very least, have debit cards comprise a far greater share of total card use than credit cards. A significant number of gas stations already charge extra for credit card use, for instance, and I could see stores like Walmart imposing them if the rules surrounding them became more consistent.

irishguy28

Of course, but that's not really the point. The US has moved to the stage where a retailer that doesn't accept cards is automatically shutting themselves off as an option for a large part of their target audience. Retailers will of course prefer other, less costly (to them) methods of payment, but the market is such that they nearly all accept all forms of plastic, however grudgingly.

Try using an Amex here in the Netherlands, for instance. 9 times out of 10 you'll find it's not even accepted!

tmiw

The point is that although they "have" to take cards due to customer demand, businesses aren't too happy about it. That's why they seem to only do the absolute minimum required by the networks here, IMO. For example, the new terminals they installed over the last couple of years have NFC/contactless hardware but most refuse to enable it (and those that have, still make tapping enough of a hassle that you might as well insert). Not to mention the fact that chip terminals are faster outside the US than in the US for various reasons, including dialup still being used fairly often by merchants.

That said, I wonder if part of the reason for the high rewards from US issuers is because some people wouldn't put up with cards otherwise.

irishguy28

No-one likes paying; but there is no payment method that doesn't have some cost for the retailer (Even those that deal solely in cash need to store it, bring it to the bank to lodge it, obtain change from the bank, protect it from theft [staff and/or third parties], etc).

I would wager that, in the US, there are more businesses now that refuse cash than refuse cards; if not, it's only a matter of time, as the group of the former is growing, as we march ever-onwards towards a cashless society

beckoa

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edealinfo12345

In the US, each transaction run through the card, generates 2.5% to 3% of the sales transaction to the credit card company (including all the parties in the payment processing continuum). For this amount, they can afford to give generous points. In other countries, it is nowhere close to 2.5% to 3%.

tmiw

The US also happens to be the only place that I can think of where the banks and merchants seemingly have such a poor relationship. I'm not sure the fees are the only reason for that, however, but may be a significant factor.

That said, a significant number of people also don't pay their entire balances off every month. Since credit cards are so big here, I would think that the banks could potentially use interest income to help pay for the rewards/benefits.

flyershmlyer

This. Also explains why you see so many 2x miles/cashback cards in the US, or even 3x/5x category ones, but these are rare elsewhere, where credit card use is just as prevalent.