Axis MAGNUS Credit Card is one of the best Credit Cards in India. It’s been over three years since it was launched. But it started making all the noise when Axis Bank launched the points transfer portal on travel edge. Primarily due to its lucrative 25000 eDGE rewards on spend of INR 1 lac in a month. Apart from this milestone benefit, it has more features, making it among the Top three credit cards in India.
Axis Magnus Overview
Axis Magnus has everything for everyone. Whether you want to dine or go to movies, or travel. You get almost everything you can think of. Here is an overview of Axis Magnus:
| Type | Rewards |
| Card Variant | Visa Infinite |
| Joining Fees/Annual Fees | INR 10000 Plus Taxes |
| Welcome Benefits | INR 10K Tata Cliq Voucher or INR 10K Flight Ticket |
| Renewal Fees | INR 10000 Plus Taxes |
| Reversal of Annual Fees | Annual Spend of INR 15 Lac |
| Renewal Benefits | INR 10K Voucher |
| Forex Markup Charges | 2.00% Plus Taxes |
| Minimum Reward Rate | 1.20% |
| Maximize eDGE Reward Earn By | Achieving Milestones |
| Redemption Maximization | Transfer Points to Partners |
| Stand Out Feature | Monthly Milestone |
Eligibility
If your Salary or annual income as per your Income tax return is more than INR 18 Lac per annum, then you can apply for Axis Magnus Credit Card.
You can use the card-to-card option if your income is not more than INR 18 Lac. I have seen people getting Axis Magnus with an existing credit card limit of INR 4 Lac. And, Even with Amex Gold which has no pre-spending limit.
Annual Benefit on MAGNUS Credit Card
Axis is not generous enough to give lifetime free credit cards. However, if you have a salary account with Axis and a monthly salary credit of more than INR 3 Lac, you can probably get it free, at least for the first year.
Until then, you must pay an annual fee of INR 10,000 plus taxes. But the good thing is that you get renewal benefits.
Joining Fees & Benefits
When you signup for Axis Magnus and make your first transaction, you become eligible for either of one benefits.
- 10K Tata Cliq Voucher
- 10K Economy Class Domestic Ticket
Renewal Fees & Benefits
Usually, Card Issuers provide reward points usually equivalent in value to rewards. But with Axis Magnus, it is different. Every year you are eligible for Tata Cliq Voucher or Flight Ticket worth INR 10K. So it does take away the opportunity to earn edge rewards, but Tata Cliq Voucher is good too.
If your spending exceeds INR 15 Lac in your card anniversary year, your renewal fees will be waived. It is unclear whether you will receive renewal benefits in such cases. However, few of the cardholders have gotten it.
Which Annual Benefit to choose?
Of the two options, the Tata Cliq voucher seems a bit better. It is because you can use it immediately and it doesn’t come with any additional cost.
For a flight ticket, you must call “18001034962” to book the flight. Your flight not necessarily be direct and can be a connecting flight. So, you probably can exhaust INR 10K voucher on a connecting flight. And, to complete the flight booking, you will have to pay INR 1.
Since you only get one flight ticket in this offer, you must book the return flight yourself. If you live in a different city than your home city, you can use this voucher, but you may not be able to exhaust INR 10K.
Earning eDGE reward on Axis MAGNUS
For every spend of INR 200, you will earn 12 eDGE rewards on Axis Magnus.
However, you don’t earn regular edge rewards on any of the following transactions:
- Fuel
- Wallets
- EMI Transactions
- Insurance Spend of INR 1 Lac or more on per transaction basis
On your Insurance spend, you will earn a maximum of 6000 edge reward points per-transaction basis. That means any Insurance spend of INR 1 Lac or more will in a single transaction will only earn 6000 points. Other Axis Credit Cards earn reward points on insurance spend of INR 5K per transaction. This gives Axis Magnus an upper hand for insurance spend. Even HDFC Infinia earn 2000 reward points that too on per day basis.
Milestone Reward on Axis MAGNUS
Usually, Credit Cards give milestone rewards on cumulative spending in the card anniversary year. But these milestone rewards are okay but not that great. However, for Axis Magnus, you earn a milestone reward of 25000 edge rewards on a monthly spend of INR 1 Lac or more. So, you will earn 12 regular edge rewards for every spend of INR 200 and a 25000 milestone reward. In total, on INR 1 Lac spent, you can earn 31000 edge rewards.
But the following transactions are excluded from the calculation of milestone reward on Axis Magnus:
- Wallet Transactions
- Rent
- EMI Spends
Earlier rent transactions were included for milestone rewards, but these were excluded w.e.f. 05th march 2023. You will also have to pay a 1% Rent Surcharge additionally with a maximum of INR 1500 per month.
Maximizing earning of edge rewards on Axis Magnus
Sky is the Limit.
Yes, you can earn and accumulate huge edge rewards on Axis Magnus. It can be done with other Axis Credit Cards, but the value of Axis Magnus edge rewards is exceptional if redeemed for travel.
You can maximize Axis Magnus Edge Rewards earnings on:
- Standard Spending (12 Edge rewards for every INR 200 spent)
- Milestone Spending (25000 Edge rewards on a monthly spend of INR 1 Lac)
- Travel Edge (5x Edge Rewards, No Limit)
- Grab Deal (3x to 5x Edge Rewards, Monthly Limit of 10000 Edge Rewards)
- Voucher using gyftr (3x to 10x Edge Rewards, No Limit)
Let’s say you spent INR 1 Lac in one month with the following spends:
| Nature | Spending (INR) | Base Edge Rewards | Additional Edge Rewards |
| Fuel | 10000 | 0 | 0 |
| Travel Edge (5x) | 10000 | 600 | 2400 |
| Grab Deal (3x) | 10000 | 600 | 1200 |
| Amazon Shopping Voucher (5x) | 10000 | 600 | 2400 |
| Amazon Pay Voucher (3x) | 10000 | 600 | 1200 |
| Other Spending | 50000 | 600 | 2400 |
| Total | 1,00,000 | 3000 | 9600 |
| Milestone Reward | 25000 |
You can earn 37600 points on the above spend in just one month. Due to no limits on edge reward earnings, you can earn substantial edge rewards.
What if you don’t spend INR 1 Lac in any month?
Even if you could not spend INR 1 Lac in any month, you can use grab deals or the gyftr portal to earn additional edge rewards. You can use an amazon shopping voucher for groceries or other purchases. And Amazon Pay gift card voucher for paying on swiggy, uber, bill payments, insurance payments etc.
With these two options, you can quickly rack in many edge rewards.
If your lifestyle is not akin to online shopping, then you probably won’t be able to earn many reward points.
Usually, Axis MAGNUS can be worth holding if your annual spending is more than INR 6 Lacs, with anyone’s monthly spending being more than INR 1 Lac.
Spends Exclusions
Off late, banks have been getting behind in spending, which seems abnormal. It started with wallet transactions which are now being made applicable to other categories.
The below table shows which spending is excluded:
| Spending | Base Edge Rewards | Monthly Milestone | Annual Wavier |
| Wallet | 0 for INR 200 | Excluded | Excluded |
| Rent | 12 for INR 200 | Excluded | Excluded |
| Fuel | 0 for INR 200 | Included | Included |
| Insurance | Max 6000 Per Tx. | Included | Included |
Transfer Partners
Before Axis launched the points transfer program, Axis Magnus was not lucrative. But with the launch of the transfer program Axis Magnus has become a hot topic since the possibilities are endless.
Here are the Axis Magnus Transfer partners. All transfer partners’ points are converted into 4 points or miles for every five-edge reward.
| Partner | Program Name | Conversion Ratio | Minimum Points Transfer | Maximum Time (Working Days) |
| Air Asia | AirAsia rewards | 5:4 | 300 | 10 |
| Air France-KLM | Flying Blue | 5:4 | 300 | 1 |
| Air Vistara | Club Vistara | 5:4 | 300 | 10 |
| Etihad Airways | Etihad Guest | 5:4 | 300 | 1 |
| Ethiopian Airlines | ShebaMiles | 5:4 | 300 | 10 |
| IHG Resorts and Hotels | IHG One Rewards | 5:4 | 300 | 1 |
| ITC | Club ITC | 5:4 | 300 | 10 |
| Marriott International | Marriott Bonvoy | 5:4 | 300 | 10 |
| Qatar Airways | Privilege Club | 5:4 | 300 | 1 |
| Singapore Airlines | KrisFlyer | 5:4 | 300 | 10 |
| Spicejet | Spiceclub | 5:4 | 300 | 10 |
| Turkish Airlines | Miles & Smiles | 5:4 | 300 | 10 |
| United Airlines | United Mileage Plus | 5:4 | 300 | 1 |
Lounge Access
I find Axis Magnus Lounge Access benefit a notch higher than HDFC Infinia. Since you can get your guest access to an International lounge but not domestic lounges, such a benefit is available on minimal credit cards in India and worldwide.
There is no limit on lounge access for the primary cardholders. For Guest International Linge Visits, it is limited to 8 per year, which is sufficient.
| Self | Guest Visit (International) | Guest Visit (Domestic) |
| Unlimited | 8/Yr | 0/Yr |
Airport Concierge Service
As an Axis Magnus cardholder, you get eight complimentary end-to-end VIP services at the airport. Reviews for it have been primarily positive.
To avail of this service you need to visit the Axis website “extraordinaryweekends” and make a booking. However, your booking should be before 48 hours of travel. Once you make a booking, Confirmation for services will be sent 15 hours before travel time.
Eazy Dinner and Dining Benefit
With an Axis Magnus card, you also get an Eazy Diner Prime membership. You also get a 40% discount on paying a minimum bill of INR 2500 on Eazy Dinner with a maximum discount of INR 1000. You can use this offer twice a month.
So, you will get the usual restaurant discount on booking with Eazy Diner and then add 40% on paying the bill.
During the birthday month, you can get an additional discount of 50% (up to INR 3000). To get benefits, you need to make a call at 7669004444. You can use this benefit at any time during your birthday week. And, at a select restaurant, you can get a complimentary cake as well.
Check here for details.
Bookmyshow offer
This is another benefit of Axis Magnus if you like to watch movies at multiplex or non-movie events.
With this offer, you get up to INR 500 off on your second ticket with up to 5 bookings. So, you can get INR 2500 off in a great month.
Future of Axis Magnus
I believe banks have started to understand better how to keep the benefits intact and hit at areas which don’t seem to be in good faith. A recent example of this was the exclusion of Rent for the monthly milestones. It probably happened due to abuse of the system by a few cardholders. But not many raise an issue on that as milestone rewards remained intact.
But there could be a few tweaks over a period on Axis Magnus. Firstly, the amount spent on the government MCC code may be excluded, similar to HDFC Bank, for milestone rewards as cardholders have started to pay Income Tax with credit cards. This also happened to the contribution made to the NPS tier-II account. Secondly, the milestone spending limit may be increased. I don’t think Axis will change the transfer ratio soon.
Axis should ideally keep the good things and hit at possible abuse for the benefit of the honest cardholders instead of downgrading all.
Bottomline
Axis Magnus is one of India’s most rewarding credit cards if you use its reward points for travel. Its other benefits, such eazy dinners, BookMyShow takes care of luxury dining and movie experiences. Even the lounge access benefit for self & guests for international is excellent. And, there is the possibility of earning significant edge rewards. It does have a place in your wallet, probably at the top or maybe a notch lower.
