Membership Rewards Credit Card (MRCC) from American Express is the credit card for beginners launched few years back to meet the demands and expectations of the customers who couldn’t afford the other premium Amex cards.
MRCC is one of the best credit cards in India and sometimes even considered better than the Amex Gold Charge Card for few reasons. The usual joining fee of this card is Rs.1000+GST but now Amex has made this card FREE for first year.
This is a great offer not only because its FREE for first year, but you can also get the renewal charges waived on spending 1.5L a year.
Earn Rs.3,200 for Applying
While its so good to see the card being given out for free, what if I say you can actually get PAID for applying the card?! Here’s how:
- Offer 1: Get 2000 MR Points on applying Add-on Cards – details here. That’s 4k points for applying 2 Add-on cards
- Offer 2: You get 2000 Bonus MR points on spending Rs.25,000 in first 90 days
- Offer 3: You get another 2000 Referral Bonus MR points on spending Rs.5,000 in first 90 days (if applied using below link)
- Total = 8000 Points (Value: Rs.3200 if you redeem for 18k points for cash)
While you can get 8k points just for applying and stacking multiple offers, you can get 1000 points a month by spending 4k (4*1k). So getting 18k points isn’t tough for most.
Here’s the detailed review of Amex MRCC card just incase if you wish to have a look.
Should I Get it?
While this card gives access to long list of Amex Offers, honestly speaking, you should rather go for the Amex Platinum travel card which is also currently FREE for a Limited Period. The Amex Platinum Travel card gives you more travel benefits if you can spend well.
So you have to decide and pick one based on your spending capacity. If you can spend >4 Lakhs a year, go for the Amex Platinum Travel Card. Or, if your ITR (eligibility: 4.5L) is low and if you are limited by spends, its better to go with Amex MRCC card.
Either way, these are unbelievable offers from Amex that are worth opting for, whenever available.
Bottomline
Its amazing to see American Express taking big decisions like this as there are also aggressive Amex Offers coming up every other week. Looks like these sign-up offers are essential for Amex to grow their customer base as there are huge customer base in this segment.
What’s your take in American Express’s recent aggressive efforts in acquiring new customers while woo-wing the existing customers?
According to you in this which is the best American Express Card?
Totally depends on one’s needs!
For me, a bit of both 🙂
That’s why i’ve Amex Gold Charge & Amex Plat Travel.
exactly same !
Can I apply from any city in India ?
What are the eligibility terms?
ITR > 4.5L salaried / 6L self-employed
Its the best card. Combine this with gold charge card and redeem for 24k points every year.
I have a Gold Charge card and have been offer the MRCC for free.
Cost: 5310 for 2 cards
If used correctly I can generate minimum of 26k points
OPTIONS for conversion
Statement credit: 10,000/- (Net profit: 4690/-)
Travel vouchers: 11,000/- (Net profit: 5690/-)
Bose Soundlink Colour 2: 11,500/- (Net profit: 6190/-)
Transfer to flight partner: Jet Privilege 13k points (16,250/- value, minimum profit: 10940/- as they generally have bonus points offers)
Transfer to hotel partner: Marriott 26k points (~ 11,000/- value)
That is a lot of options. If I don;t have the 2nd card then my points are reduced to half and I get lesser value out of the card
I hold three American Express card, the gold charge, membership rewards and platinum travel. For me the membership rewards offers the most rewarding experience if you are not a high spender or if your spends are spread across multiple cards like mine. One should always prefer Membership rewards over gold charge, since the former lets you mint 1000 bonus over just 4 x 1000+ transactions compared to 6 in gold. Over this it gives you traditional card facilities like EMI and minimum due and a transparent credit limit which the gold charge doesn’t. It might be argued that minimum due payment is something we shouldn’t be using ideally but it’s good to have them as a backup option for bad times.
Platinum Travel on the other hand comes good only if you’re a high spender. If you don’t end up spending more than 1.90 lakhs in the first year, the nearest look forward to reward is a complimentary travel vouchers. It just offers 4 complimentary domestic lounge access in a year Yes Bank cards offers more than that on their free cards like Prosperity Edge. Please also be careful that unlike some other travel targetted premium cards, it only offers free priority pass membership and not complimentary access to international lounges which is charged at the advertised discounted price of $27.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts.
Sid,
I recently applied rbl card,i have some questions:
1-how long do we wait for amex card after applying for last card.
2- what’s the minimum cibil score required for amex
3- what’s the ITR requirements for platinum travel card for self employed.
Thanking you for giving us such a wonderful informations.
1. No such wait period, 3 mths if you want to be extra cautious.
2. No confirmed no. But Usually >750
3. 6L
I had applied two cards HDFC RF and AMEX MRCC together. Got no effect on my credit score. You can also try if u want.:)
It’s not about the score. Banks will know you’ve applied multiple cards in a short time and when you do like in few days, the 2nd card issuer maynot know if the first application got approved or not, which may decide this card limit/approval etc.
I have been holding Amex Plat travel card since 5 years and recently got offer from Amex to apply for MRCC for LTF based upon my existing relationship of Plat travel card. Only condition for LTF free is to keep my existing relationship of Plat travel card intact. So applied the card and got it soon. I am using it to accrue bonus points parallel to my Plat Travel card points. It gives me best of both worlds 😉.
Does both the cards share limits ?
I got the offer the other way around. MRCC member and got an offer to upgrade to Platinum. Once I pay the fees for the platinum MRCC becomes lifetime free
Do they both have independent credit limits.
Bro do you have any card protection plan? Which one will be better? Any suggestions.
Most of us don’t need one. Makes sense only for a very few who travel a lot and wish to have higher control on the card safety.
i have american express gold credit card LTF, how different is this card from gold credit card
Applied through your referral link. Hope it gets approved.
Did you get the approval?
Nope. This is what the application status shows “we will not be able to process your application due to our internal policies”.
I hold a Platinum Travel Card and recently got MRCC as companion card LTF. So for Rs 5900 I get to have two AmEx cards. So for about Rs 4.5 lakhs spend per year I get about 20,000 MR points, Rs 16,000 travel vouchers and Rs 10,000 Taj voucher. This is apart from any AmEx offers from time to time. Pretty solid returns in my books which I value as close to 6.5% returns on spends. 😀
Does The Everyday Spend Amex card also have the 18k and 24k reward program? It doesnt look like its mentioned on their website. Which according to you is better? The Everyday Spend or the MRCC? Which one should I get? It looks like Everyday Spend gives 10x and 5x while MRCC doesnt. Please reply. Thanks in advance.
Everyday Spend Amex card is good with 5x/10x points but the limits of that bonus points are too low to sound attractive to me as you need to keep a tab on it. Considering that, MRCC is better, as spending 4k a month isn’t tough for majority of cardholders.
Thanks for replying, Sid!
Also I figured that for Everyday Spends, the points can be redeemed as Rs 250 for 1000 points (25%) whereas for MRCC is comes around Rs 400 for 1000 points (40% conversion) if you redeem at 18k. So it makes sense that MRCC is better.
Also could you confirm that if I hold MRCC and only do 4 * 1000 transanctions I will still earn around Rs 4800 and if I doesnt even reach 90k for 50% fee waiver I will still be in profit of around 3000 a year even if I paid the renewal fee around 1800 (inc GST).
PS: I have already applied using your referral link. 😀
Redeeming 18K MR will give you ₹7500 as statement credit or ₹8000 as Amazon voucher. Considering you choose statement credit, you’ll earn ₹416.67 for every 1000 MR point burnt. For spending ₹48000 annually, you’ll earn 12000 Bonus MR and 960 Regular MR. A total of 12960 MR. That is worth ₹5400. So you pay ₹1500+ GST ie ₹1770. Net profit is therefore, ₹3630/year!! If you use, Amazon voucher, the profit margin becomes, ₹4130.
By the way I didn’t even touch the fact that the return of ₹3630 for spending ₹48000/year is 7.56% return. If you chose Amazon voucher, the reward comes to ₹4130/₹48000 spent. That is 8.6% return. This is huge. 🙂
Wow, that’s a really detailed response. Thanks a lot Abishek! I really appreciate.
Yes, I am considering statement credit over amazon because I do not want to have the limitation to be able to spend the amount on Amazon only.
And yes the return percentage is really huge. 🙂
Amazon cash can not only be used on amazon but it can be used in 3rd party merchant shops like swiggy. Pay electricity and phone bills and what not. Besides, paying through amazon gives you cash back too. So that ₹8000 is worth at least ₹8500.
Renewal is 4500+ GST, huh?
Guess it has changed to 1500+GST with no renewal benefit of 5000 MR points as earlier as per my understanding from the product features link.
Isn’t offer 1 and offer 3 contradictory?? If I am applying for an add on card, I don’t think your referral counts and vice versa. I already hold platinum travel card and I received a call from their customer service for this card yesterday.
Add-on card offer is totally a different one. Added link to that offer in content.
From the personal experience one of the best card in terms of rewards ration
The addon card offer says that it needs to be approver by feb 28th,
Is the offer still valid?I applied for the card yesterday,do I need to apply for the addon cards from a specific link or the offer will be valid irrespective of where u apply the addon card from
Regards
It doesn’t matter where you apply Add-on card. The Add-on card offer recently extended till 31st March.
I just got myself an AMEX everyday spends Gold CC in Jan 2019, can I still apply given that its only 2 months that i’ve got my first AMEX card.
You need to wait for 6 months.
Hi, Membership Rewards user for a couple years now. I received an eMail today asking to upgrade to Platinum Travel and that my MR card would become lifetime free, provided I pay fees for the platinum one.
On the fine print, I see this note though :
Your existing American Express Membership Rewards Credit Card will NOT be cancelled and the Platinum Travel Credit Card will be an additional Card linked to your existing Card.
Does this mean the limits will be shared ?
Saran
Is there any prepaid card or something similar that can be loaded using amex? I want to avoid PayTM.
Hi
I applied for this card through this link and next day got a calll to submit documents and they sent a guy to collect it on 19th March. I havent received any further communication or acknowledgement from the bank yet.. What is the turnaround time for the applications?
Is there something I should do?
I still keep getting the automated emails form amex to submit the documents
Regards
Check with Amex support line quoting your PAN no. Or, alternatively check with the guy who collected the docs.
Hi
Got an update from the amex team and they said the application is still under verification and an amex guy visited my place yesterday to do the verification.
Does it normally take this much time..
Dint expect amex service to be so slow.. I had applied for the card on 16th March.. If they don’t approve it before 31st March I may lose the 2000 points for addon cards.
Hi guys
I got approved for the card and got a message from Bluedart that it will be delivered after 1st april. I tried calling customer care and applying for the supplementary card but they said it can be done only after the card is received .. So i guess i am gonna lose on the 2000 bonus points for supplementary cards 🙁
Great news,
The offer is extended to april 30th 🙂
Congratulations, Hussain!
I have applied for the card on 20th March and submitted the docs online. They called on 25th for email approval. Then again on 27th stating that they need additional docs (their mistake) and new email approval, which I did. After that no call/sms/email or any kind of update. Nobody has even visited for verification. I wonder what is happening. The online link for tracking the application just shows the same status from day one (20th March).
I see many have commented it takes 21 working days. Is this time limit just for the approval or includes the card delivery time as well. Ideally 21 working days would mean around 1 month of total time (inc non-working days). Which I think is really long.
My card got delivered today. So it took 15 days in total to get the delivery. Thanks Sid and others for the help.
I have applied using Sid’s referral link. Is there any way to check I followed the application process properly to ensure I get the 1000 RP for spending 5000. Also how soon will the RP be credited once I spend 5k.
Thanks,
Amir
The usual turnaround time for new card approval is 21 working days 😊
21 days? My first card was received in a week time!
It took 15 days for me when I Received my first Amex card Sid… When i enquired wid CC, they told dat it will take upto 21 Working days for new card. My 2nd n 3rd cards took less than a week…
for me 20 days…
So what’s the difference between MRCC and AmEx Gold card except the charge and credit part?
MRCC has a bonus 1000 points for 4 transacations of Rs 1000 or more every month. Gold Charge needs 6.
Also MRCC has a clear outlined annual fee waiver, for transacting more than 1.5 lac a year, and 50% waiver for 90k+ in a year.
Do we get RP using Amex Membership rewards and Plat travel for loading wallets like amazon pay paytm etc.
can both these cards be linked together in 1 account to pool in RP’s.
Thank You in Advance
I got my MRCC card delivered 2 days ago. Got a CL of 25k. I am really disappointment, especially when my Regalia has a CL of 8L.
Are you guys aware of any way I can increase the CL of my MRCC. 25k seems very less to me. I was not even aware they have CL as low as 25k. Please help if there is any quick way to enhance the CL.
Hi Sid, I Primarily receive my salary through a combination of cash and cheque (totalling to 45000/-).
I have applied for this card and AMEX has asked for bank statements reflecting salary credit which due to the above mentioned reason i am unable to. Will salary slip be sufficient?
Hey Sid,
I am having Amex payback credit card and Amex gold credit card.
I am planning to close the payback credit card (getting 2% overall returns in terms of flipkart vouchers for spending 2.5L pa) and then planning to apply for the MRCC card using your referral link.
Will I be getting the Nill joining fee and annual fee waiver options as advertised which I doubt since I am already a customer with Amex..? Please clarify.
MRCC is free for first year even for existing customers.
if you not spend 1.5 Lakhs in Second Year the need to pay the Fees + GST (Condition 1 will be applied in the limited period offer)
Annual Fee
First Year fee :
Rs. 1,000 plus taxes
NIL (Limited Period Offer)
Second Year onwards : NIL 1 –> you know what is this 1 represents . this 1 near to NILL is mentioned the below point
Annual Membership Renewal fee of Rs. 1,500 plus applicable taxes to be 100% waived off if total spends on the card in the immediately preceding membership year is Rs. 150,000; else 50% waived off if total spends on the card in the immediately preceding membership year is Rs. 90,000
Someone at work told me that the 15Lac ITR LTF was still running on this card so I called the CC and they said it is still running. When the agent came he said no such thing is running and you will have to pay 1500 p.a. instead which is the new offer running.
This is very lax of AMEX that their own agents dont know which offer is running or not.
When I had the YES Bank AMEX card they charged me twice for the same card “Joining+ Annual”, seems same weird logics are again coming on.
can you get AmeX Card on card to card basis?