Axis Bank offers multiple rewarding credit cards in its portfolio and Magnus was one of the best credit cards for a few years until Axis Bank decided to devalue it heavily.

While the Axis Magnus Credit Card still has watered-down benefits, the bank has created the Magnus Burgundy Credit Card to keep its affluent customers happy.

Overview

Table Of Content

• Eligibility
• Fees
• Rewards
• Accelerated EDGE Reward Points
• Travel Edge 5X Points
• Insurance Benefits
• Rewards Redemption
• Other Key Benefits and Charges
• Foreign Currency Markup fee
• Dining Benefits
• Complimentary Airport Lounge Access
• Pros and Cons
• Final Thoughts

Eligibility

If you already have an existing Axis Bank credit card, you can upgrade to Magnus provided the limit on your card is more than Rs 4 Lakh.

Fees

Once you do your first txn, you’ll get a link on SMS, accessing which you can redeem the desired welcome benefit in a matter of a few clicks.

Rewards

Excluded spends for renewal benefit along with respective MCCs:

• Wallet: 6540
• Rent: 6513
• Gold/ Jewellery: 5094, 5944
• Insurance: 6300, 6381, 5960, 6012, 6051
• Government Institutions: 9222, 9311, 9399, 9402
• Utilities: 4814, 4816, 4899, 4900
• Fuel: 5541, 5542, 5983

Reward Points can be redeemed on the EDGE REWARDS portal at a value of 1 Edge Reward = Re. 0.20 or Transfer to Partner Airlines/Hotels Rewards Program. Ideally, converting your points to the newly introduced Points transfer partners should be the only way to redeem Axis Edge Rewards.

Accelerated EDGE Reward Points

Not all spends count towards the threshold of Rs 1.5 Lakh of accelerated rewards and that is what makes it a little bit complicated. To keep it brief, we will just mention the exclusions for this spend target below:

• Travel EDGE spends till Rs 2 Lakh spend in a calendar month are not eligible. Anything above that is eligible and earns 35 EDGE RP/Rs 200.
• Rent payments till Rs 50,000 are eligible.
• Utilities, Government Institutions, Wallet, Insurance, Fuel, Gold/Jewellery spends are not eligible for AEP.
• Gyftr/Grab Deals spends are not eligible for AEP

So, reaching that Rs 1.5 Lakh spend threshold may not be easy after all.

Travel Edge 5X Points

• Earn 60 points / 200 INR (~12% as miles) up to 2L spends a month
• Earn 35 points / 200 INR (~7% as miles) beyond 2L spends a month

While 5X Rewards on Edge Rewards is good in a way, dealing with the Travel Edge portal is not an easy affair. In comparison, the Axis Atlas Credit Card is simple and better, with a 10% return on travel spends for most.

Insurance Benefits

Rewards Redemption

While redeeming on the AXIS EDGE REWARDS portal is the super simple option with a static value, we don’t get great value there.

Instead, one can transfer the points to airlines and hotels and get pretty good value.

• The total number of reward points you can convert in a calendar year is capped at 5,00,000 RPs for a single Customer ID.
• You can just link one Customer ID to a partner program loyalty membership at a given time. If you want to link another ID, you will first have to delete the existing primary ID and add the new one.
• The cardholder must wait at least 60 days to update their partner program Customer ID at the Travel EDGE portal.

Here’s a quick look at the transfer ratio.

The transfer ratio is 5:2 across all airlines & hotels.

If you’re wondering where to redeem, Accor Hotels (1.8 INR per Accor ALL Point) in Group A & ITC (1 INR per ITC Green point) in Group B are the popular options.

If you’re into Marriott, you can however transfer your points to ITC and then to Marriott (2 ITC points = 3 MB points), but this is limited to 10K points per quarter or so.

Other Key Benefits and Charges

• Fuel Surcharge Waiver: 1% Waiver for Fuel Transactions Between ₹400 and ₹4,000 (Capped at ₹400 Per Statement Cycle)
• Interest Rates: 3% Per Month (42.58% Annually)
• Cash Withdrawal Fees: Nil
• Rent Transaction fees: 1% per transaction (Max 1500)

Foreign Currency Markup fee

• Foreign Currency Markup Fee: 2%+GST = 2.4%
• Net Return: Rewards – Markup Fee = 2.4% – 2.4% = 0%

If you’re a non-burgundy customer & redeem points to transfer partners, you’ll ideally end up at no-profit / no-loss. But if you spend >1.5L in a month, you will anyway enjoy a higher reward rate because of the accelerated rewards.

Dining Benefits

You can avail of discounts of up to 30% up to ₹1000 at partner restaurants via EazyDiner. Offer valid once per month on a minimum order value of ₹2500.

We get the EazyDiner Prime membership automatically on the mobile number that is linked to our credit card around a week before the cardholder’s birthday date. So, if you log into EazyDiner with that mobile number, you will see the Prime membership. No activation code or email required.

Complimentary Airport Lounge Access

So, as you see above, the good news about the Atlas Card is that we can avail of complimentary lounge access for both the primary cardholder and guests, just like the Axis Reserve Credit Card.

We also have a minimum spend requirement to get complimentary airport lounge access. We now need spends of Rs 50,000 over a rolling period of last 3 calendar months to get complimentary airport lounge access. For example, if you need to access the airport lounge on 10th of March, then you should have spent Rs 50,000 in the period from 1st of December to 28th of February.

Pros and Cons

Final Thoughts

The Magnus Credit Card was once one of the best premium cards in India, but after multiple rewards devaluations, it’s no longer as rewarding as before. However, it can still be useful if you spend over ₹1.5 lakh per month—but only if you carefully track the long list of exclusions (like rent, fuel, and wallet reloads). That said, for most Axis Atlas Credit Card makes sense as it comes at half the fee and it’s even better if one is into travel. But if your spending is higher, you might probably need both, as there is a redemption cap on both.

Axis Magnus Credit Card

Overall Rating