The CardBuzz blog
Card-by-card write-ups from our team, features, fees, lounge access and who each card actually suits. For the numbers after every cap and exclusion, head to the card pages.
4360 posts · Page 70 of 364 · View the full archive
How-To GuidesWhen a Paid Credit Card Beats a Free One: A Decision Framework
"Never pay an annual fee" is popular advice, and it is wrong often enough to cost people money. A paid card that returns 3% on your spending beats a free card returning 1% — the fee is just a hurdle, not a verdict. This
How-To GuidesDowngrade vs Upgrade: Changing Your Credit Card Without Hurting Your Score
Cards should change as your life changes — but closing a card and opening another is the clumsy way to do it. Banks offer product changes: downgrades to cheaper variants and upgrades to premium ones, on the same account.
How-To GuidesRetention Offers: How to Negotiate Your Card's Annual Fee at Renewal
When the annual fee posts and the waiver did not trigger, most cardholders either pay silently or cancel in frustration. There is a third path: the retention offer — a fee reduction, bonus points, or spend-linked waiver
How-To GuidesFee Waiver Thresholds Explained: How Spend-Based Waivers Work
"Spend ₹X and the annual fee is waived" is one of the most valuable — and most misunderstood — lines in Indian credit cards. A waiver can turn a ₹10,000 card free, but only if your spending qualifies under rules that are
How-To GuidesAnnual Fee Break-Even Math: How Much You Must Spend to Justify a Paid Card
Every paid credit card asks the same question: does it earn you more than it costs? The answer is arithmetic, not instinct. This guide shows how to compute a card's break-even point — the spending level at which the card
How-To GuidesRedemption Mistakes That Quietly Destroy the Value of Your Reward Points
Most reward points do not lose value in dramatic devaluations — they bleed out through small, avoidable mistakes. This guide collects the ten most common ways Indian cardholders destroy point value, with the fix for each
How-To GuidesGift Card and Voucher Redemptions: Doing the Value Math Before You Click
Redeeming points for brand vouchers feels like free shopping — and it can be decent value. But voucher redemptions have their own maths: denomination traps, expiry dates, and per-point rates that vary wildly by brand. Th
How-To GuidesCombining Points Across Cards: Pooling, Family Accounts and Transfers
A single card rarely earns enough points for a meaningful redemption. The real power move is combining — pooling points across your own cards, across family members, or moving them where they count. This guide explains w
How-To GuidesCashback Cards Explained: How Cashback Is Calculated and Credited
Cashback cards are the no-nonsense corner of the rewards world: no points to value, no transfer partners to learn, just money back. But "money back" hides real mechanics — how cashback is calculated, when it is credited,
How-To GuidesRedemption Caps, Expiry Dates and Blackout Rules You Should Know
Reward points come with guardrails that can quietly erase their value: caps on how much you can earn or transfer, expiry dates on the points themselves, and blackout rules on the awards you want. This guide maps the five
How-To GuidesReward Point Valuation: A Simple Framework to Price Every Point You Earn
"How much is a reward point worth?" is the most important question in credit-card rewards, and most answers you see online are wrong — or rather, right only for the person who wrote them. A point's value depends on your
How-To GuidesCredit Card Travel Portals in India: How Portal Redemption Values Work
Bank travel portals — HDFC's SmartBuy travel section, Axis's Travel EDGE, the Amex travel desk, and their equivalents — sit between two worlds. They are easier than transferring points to airlines, and they usually pay b