5 Credit cards that can help you save big on your Property Rent in India

Have you ever-thought of paying your Property Rent on Credit card?

I am sure that each one of us, holding that flashy credit card, has given it a thought at-least once.

Credit cards shown in a Wallet (Source :Pixabay)

I have heard a great deal of stories of credit card hacks that earned a week of free lunches from Zomato, free domestic air trips and month-free rides on Uber.

Splurge on Food and travel are often discretionary and together hardly contribute to 5–10% of our monthly expenditure basket.

Big-ticket recurrent expenses namely Property rent, education fees and society maintenance on the other hand, constitute as much as 30–35% of our monthly outgo. However, to a large extent ,such payments are still dealt in cash with no option of credit at all.

Property Rentals can vary between Rs. 5K and 50K in most of our Indian cities and always remained elusive to be paid online. The very idea of paying Rent online strips a tenant of the worry of withdrawing cash from ever-dry ATMs and helps him present a proof of transaction to employer for HRA exemption. Add now the option of paying Rent on Credit card- The idea itself sounds attractive considering the Credit free period of 45–50 days & the miles/cashback offered by the card.

Credit card users can save as much as Rs.10,000/- a year by billing monthly Rent and targeting Tiered-benefits on the card

(Tiered benefits refer to rewards or vouchers earned by reaching certain annual spend limits on credit cards)

Here is a list of 5 most rewarding credit cards in India that can help you save big on your monthly rent payments to your landlord:

(Below illustration assumes Monthly Rent of Rs. 25K and considers Tiered benefits or waiver of Annual fees on card)

1. American Express Platinum Travel Card

Source: Amex cards and Google

• Annual fee: Rs.5,000 +GST
• Renewal benefit : None
• Tier benefit: Travel vouchers worth Rs. 7,700 for spend of 1.9 Lacs a year ; Rs.11,800 worth travel vouchers and Taj Experiences Gift Cards worth Rs. 10,000 for spends above 4 lacs in a year.
• Reward rate: 1 Membership reward point for Rs.50 spent (1 MRP = approx Rs. 0.4 at bulk conversion)

Potential savings on Rent : Rs. 10,100 (Effective reward rate is 3.37%)

2. HDFC Diners Black Credit card

Source: HDFC bank and Google

• Renewal benefit : 5000 reward points
• Tier benefit: None
• Reward rate: 5 Reward Points for every Rs. 150 (1 reward point= Rs.1)

Potential savings on Rent : Rs. 10,000 (Effective reward rate is 3.33%)

3. Standard chartered Ultimate Credit card

Source: Standard chartered and Google

• Annual fee: Rs.5,000 + GST
• Renewal benefit : None
• Tier benefit: None
• Reward rate: 5 reward points for every Rs.150 spent (1 reward point= Rs.1)

Potential savings on Rent : Rs. 10,000 (Effective reward rate is 3.33%)

4. YES First Exclusive Credit card

Source: YES bank and Google

• Annual fee: Rs.10,000 +GST
• Renewal benefit : 40,000 reward points
• Tier benefit: 25,000 reward points
• Reward rate: 10 Reward points for Rs.100 spent (1 reward point = Rs. 0.25)

Potential savings on Rent : Rs. 7,500 (Effective reward rate is 2.5%)

5. Citi Bank Premier miles Credit card

Source: Citi bank and Google

• Annual fee: Rs.3,000 +GST
• Renewal benefit : 10,000 premier miles
• Tier benefit: None
• Reward rate: 10 miles for Rs.100 spent on travel and 4 miles for other spends (1 premier mile = approx Rs. 0.5 with major airlines)

Potential savings on Rent : Rs. 6,000 (Effective reward rate is 2%)

Tiered Credit card users can make most of the card by billing their Property Rent , maintenance and all other expenses. For instance, Amex Platinum Travel credit card users can avail benefits worth Rs. 21,800/- (Rs.11,800 worth travel vouchers and Taj Experiences Gift Cards worth Rs. 10,000) by billing Rs. 1 Lac beyond their Rent payments in a year.

Along with the above benefits, credit card users can avail additional discounts & cashback on Paymatrix by using wallet or payment-specific promotions. The above listed credit cards enable significant savings to the user despite a convenience fee of 2.36 % levied by the platform. Further, wallet balances in Amazon Pay and Paypal can be easily spent on Rent payments every month while earning standard rewards on the Credit card.

Looking to save more on your Rent payments ? please sign up with Paymatrix

All the content in this blog post is provided for mere informative use , and do not construe as financial advice or planning.

Originally published by Mukesh chandra at medium.com on April 1, 2019.