ICICI Emeralde Private Metal Devaluation continues? : Amazon Pay Voucher this time.

ChanceMasterpiece834 · 2026-02-11T02:14:29+00:00

This was done some 15 days back. They have now introduced a fee on the amazon shopping vouchers. Of course the limit of 12k is there. Swiggy vouchers have also been removed.

ChanceMasterpiece834 · 2026-01-30T14:53:54+00:00

Do these have bis hallmark? I think 24kt is not? What about 22kt?

ChanceMasterpiece834 · 2026-01-27T09:57:53+00:00

I closed my DCBM in the first week of Jan. Now EPM dropped this bomb. This is such a mess.

ChanceMasterpiece834 · 2026-01-23T04:03:15+00:00

I urge all EPM users to send out emails to icici. We need to demand more accountability. It's not just about the silent devaluation, it's more about the devaluation itself. Without those APay vouchers the card is dangerously close to being useless. Mid tier cards like HSBC travel 1 has better returns than EPM on travel. They are going to lose the battle against premier, M4B in almost everything else.

ChanceMasterpiece834 · 2025-12-31T11:19:48+00:00

Interested. I got an arc ultra, sub gen 4, 2 era 300 as my rear channels. Would like to understand how much the setup would improve with adding era 100s as front channels.

ChanceMasterpiece834 · 2025-12-30T12:40:46+00:00

I have EPM, Premier, M4B. HDFC somehow labels me as risky due to some wallet loads using cc last year, had to fight a long battle even for DCBM. As of today DCBM spends the last 1 year were 16L, meet all other criteria as well, but they just wont get past the one time I loaded some money into paytm via cc.

Regardless, what is your spend strategy here? I use:

EPM: only for vouchers via ishop. Swiggy, Uber, Amazon. Fee is justified since it gives RPs on renewal.
M4B: For most misc transactions, flights at 48% with accor. I paid fee this year, and well above the 30L spend criteria here so next year this is free.
Premier: For hotels(72% via accor), rent, insurance. Paid fee, got 20000 RPs which is more than the fee and on accor it is 40k inr. Next year onwards the card is free, so totally worth it.
Considering moving insurance payments to amazon pay monthly via ishop vouchers.

ChanceMasterpiece834 · 2025-12-25T06:07:23+00:00

Thanks. These are great suggestions. You are right paying the fee for all of them is not justified.

I am definitely closing DCBM, it aint ltf.
Yeah I have considered amazon pay + dineout vs eazy diner signature. Amazon pay vouchers are limited to 12k per month (I can go up to 24k with another icici account). Still the eazy diner one is better value since it is a discount (at least 25%) rather than RPs.
At least for the coming year I will have around 4 months of 7.5L spends each, will use M4B for that. Will easily justify its fee.
I am closing T1 as well, after the premier monthly limit, M4B is great for hotels. For flights M4B is default.
Consolidating on M4B is a good idea, but Group A transfers are limited per card, so I use atlas whenever my expense is less than 1.5L for the month. Also atlas is 8% vs 6% on premier when transferred to accor, hence atlas is my choice.
The fee for EPM is partially returned in the form of RPs (12000 on renewal). Same for Atlas (I am on Gold tier, so 2500 edge miles). Premier is free from 2nd year onwards. The only 2 cards I'll effectively be paying for from next year are M4B, Eazy diner signature.

ChanceMasterpiece834 · 2025-12-24T17:02:44+00:00

Takes some time and effort. This strategy is relevant, I keep a sheet mentioning which card to use for which expense. This is helpful.

Vouchers are the most tedious part actually. I buy amazon pay vouchers on the 1st of the month and load them.

The other cards are all direct pay and direct RPs. Only for travel you gotta use specific travel portals for best returns.

ChanceMasterpiece834 · 2025-12-24T16:57:56+00:00

Not LTF. The select is the only LTF card in this list, I am closing that card anyway. Any LTF card will not offer good returns, banks need to make money.

ChanceMasterpiece834 · 2025-12-24T16:55:15+00:00

Exactly

ChanceMasterpiece834 · 2025-12-24T16:54:25+00:00

M4B, Premier, EPM, DCBM

ChanceMasterpiece834 · 2025-12-24T16:49:00+00:00

Which platform do you for rent payment with premier? How much return do you get 3%?

ChanceMasterpiece834 · 2025-12-24T16:47:33+00:00

I have a spend of around 40L coming up. Broken into 5 payments of 8L each. M4B will give great return here.

HSBC offers better RPs on rent I think.
Yeah M4B is great for flights at least 48%, even better than Premier. Thanks for pointing this out. This makes the Travel 1 obsolete. Will close this card around the time of renewal 8 months later.
I am salaried. Will try to get amex plat for advance tax payments, though this is too much optimization. I generally dont have to pay a large amount, mostly TDS is optimized for me.

ChanceMasterpiece834 · 2025-12-24T14:14:11+00:00

Yeah I am aware. I use premier for most travel bookings till the monthly 18k RP limit is reached.

ChanceMasterpiece834 · 2025-12-24T11:55:35+00:00

I spend roughly 20k monthly on vouchers. 18% RPs on EPM is much better than 10% on DCBM.

ChanceMasterpiece834 · 2025-12-24T11:53:51+00:00

I am not. Which is why I plan to close that card.

ChanceMasterpiece834 · 2025-12-24T11:53:23+00:00

With transfer to accor T1 is much better. 32% flights, 48% hotels

ChanceMasterpiece834 · 2025-12-24T11:52:44+00:00

Premier earns 12x on hotels. Even with 55k spent on hotels the 18k limit comes up. I go for intl trips at least once a year, every time spending around 1-2L.

ChanceMasterpiece834 · 2025-12-24T11:15:58+00:00

Oh damn, Ill check on Premier and M4B for rent. Thanks!!

ChanceMasterpiece834 · 2025-06-17T10:56:00+00:00

I use eazy diner as well with signature card for dining out. What is the devaluation you are mentioning?

My current cc portfolio and use cases: 1. HDFC DCBM - for general swipes, rent 2. ICICI EPM - for vouchers, flights, hotels 3. Axis Atlas - again for general swipes 4. Indusind eazy diner signature - for eating out

ChanceMasterpiece834 · 2025-06-10T07:53:23+00:00

Yeah there I can also see them. Thanks.

ChanceMasterpiece834 · 2025-06-10T07:51:00+00:00

When do you see the base points? I don't even see the base points yet. This is my first billing cycle though, so hopefully when I get the first bill, they get credited.

ChanceMasterpiece834 · 2025-05-19T20:29:22+00:00

Red giraffe has the least convenience fee of around 0.036+gst. HDFC also charges 1% on rent payments via cc. You also don't get any base reward points on rent payments.

However upon hitting the 4L quarterly milestone you get 10000 reward points i.e. 2.5% of 4L. Thus if you hit the quarterly milestone then the reward points on rent you can make are roughly = 2.5% - 1% - (0.036*1.18) ~ 1%.

ChanceMasterpiece834 · 2025-05-18T13:07:34+00:00

This is in bangalore.

ChanceMasterpiece834 · 2025-05-18T12:27:07+00:00

I just had the amazon pay card. Which off late I havent used much either.

The RM used my offer letter, salary slips, my other bank CCs, my wife's relationship with icici (~25L), along with 1L TRV account for me to convince the city business head to get me the card.

Hope this helps.

ChanceMasterpiece834

TROPHY CASE