American Express SmartEarn Credit Card Review

While American Express is known for their premium cards with amazing customer support they also issue one of the highly rewarding entry-level credit card in the country in the name of Membership Rewards Credit Card (MRCC).

Even though its an entry-level credit card, you can get return on spend as good as any other super premium credit card and even more.

Overview

Fees

Joining Fee: 1,000 INR+GST

Annual Fee: 4,500 INR+GST

Reward Type

Reward Points

Return

1 – 10%

Rating


Benefits

Milestone Rewards, Fuel Surcharge Waiver

Table Of Content

Eligibility

Credit Score750+
OccupationSalaried
Income for SalariedRs 6 Lakh+

Fees

Joining FeeRs 1000+GST ~Rs 1180
Welcome Benefit4000 Membership Reward(MR) points
Extra 2000 MR points with referral
Annual FeeRs 4500+GST ~Rs 5310
Annual Fee WaiverSpend Rs 5,000 within the first 30 days to get Rs 500 cashback & Rs 250 Amazon gift voucher (for applying online)
Renewal Benefit5000 MR points if the annual fee is charged

Rewards

Type of SpendRewards PointReturn Rate @1 per RP
Retail Spends2 RP/Rs 1501.3%
Incremental Annual Spends > Rs 4 Lakh10 RP/Rs 150 6.5%
Bail and Bond Payments, Education and Government, E-wallet, Financial Institutions, Fuel, Insurance, Jewelry, Money Transfer, Non-Financial Institutions, Real Estate Agent and Managers, Tax Payments, Utilities0 RP0%

Any annual spends beyond Rs 4 Lakh earn 5X reward points. This has a cap of 15,000 RP and we hit this on spending Rs 2.25 Lakh.

We get a total of 20333 RP (5333 standard RPs + 15,000 accelerated RPs) on spends of Rs 6.25 Lakhs in a membership year.

Milestone

No Milestone Benefits.

Rewards Redemption

The HSBC Visa Platinum card has multiple redemption options in the reward redemption catalog. We can get Amazon, Flipkart and other gift vouchers as well. But, the value of 1 RP is around 20 paise in these cases. We would not recommend using these redemption options.

Transfer PartnerConversion Ratio
Air India – Flying Returns2 RP = 1 Air India mile
Club Vistara2 RP = 1 Club Vistara mile
Singapore Airlines – Kris Flyer2 RP = 1 Kris Flyer Mile
British Airways Executive Club – Avios2 RP = 1 Avios Mile
Etihad Airways2 RP = 1 Airmile
InterMiles2 RP = 1 InterMile

So we get around 10167 miles on Rs 6.25 Lakhs spend. This makes it 1.6 Miles/Rs 100, a decent earn rate for an entry-level LTF credit card.

Hotel Transfer

Transfer PartnerConversion Ratio
Taj InnerCircle 5RP = 1 TIC

1 TIC point = ~Rs.5

For 45000 HSBC reward points in a year you will get 9000 TIC points. With this, you can get 7 nights stay in Taj Surya Coimbatore or 3 nights in Taj Fisherman’s Cove Chennai

Other Key Benefits and Charges

  • Fuel Surcharge Waiver: 1% fuel surcharge waiver up to Rs 250 in a calendar month for transactions between Rs 400 and Rs 4000
  • Foreign Currency Markup: 3.5%+GST ~4.1%
  • Interest Rates: 3.49% per month

BookMyShow BOGO Offer

BookMyShow BOGO up to Rs 250 on the second ticket. Valid once per calendar month and for transactions done on a Saturday.

Complimentary Airport Lounge Access

  • Domestic Airport Lounge Access: Not Available
  • International Airport Lounge Access: Not Available

Pros and Cons

Pros

  1. Lifetime free credit card
  2. Redemption to redeem rewards against airmiles
  3. Good welcome benefits at zero annual fee

Cons

  1. Low rewards earning rate
  2. No lifestyle-related offers apart from a basic rewards program
  3. No complimentary lounge access is offered

Final Thoughts

So I have mixed views on this card as extracting value from it isn’t easy unless you’re into the points game. Airline transfers & Hotel transfers are the only ways to get handsome returns and suits only for those who could put 10L spend a year on it, nothing less, nothing more!

HSBC Platinum Card

Rewards
Charges
Benefits
Overall Rating
Do the reward points expire for the HSBC Visa Platinum credit card?

Yes, the reward points earned are valid for three years from the date of credit.

No, there is no airport lounge access on this card.

Ayush Awasthi

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