The AMEX Trilogy: 3 cards you need to have for maximum returns

Dhairya Sathvara
Dhairya Sathvara

A lot of people ask me questions on maximising the MR Points. MR stands for Membership Reward Points, which is the currency offered by AMEX for those of you who don't know. You can use this to redeem rewards, flight tickets and convert them to hotel points. The possibilities are endless.

However, earning these MR points is very slow. Even on their premium cards like AMEX Platinum Charge Card. So, in one year, how do I maximise it or earn a lot of MR points? I use 3 AMEX cards in a year strategically to accumulate MR points.

Since all three cards earn me the same point currency (No guesses here - It's MR), I can pool points from different cards and use them for one specific goal.

  1. The three cards to have

    The three AMEX cards you need to have are
    American Express Platinum Charge Card
    American Express Platinum Travel Credit Card
    American Express Membership Rewards Credit Card.

    All the above three have fees associated with them - however, if you sign up for the Platinum Charge card, you do not have to pay for your other cards. Sweet, isn't it? You can also check out individual reviews for the above cards simply by clicking on the above hyperlinks.

    I suggest these cards because the Platinum Travel Card and Membership Rewards card has Milestone Benefits and Monthly Bonus Benefits, respectively. This combination is what accelerates the point earn rate overall.

    If you are using one card, you will eventually realise you are not making enough points even on the same spends. Hence a combination of two or more cards with varying milestone benefits and bonuses help.
  2. How many points on each card
    You can earn about 1,10,000 MR points minimum on the Plat, 32,000 MR Points on Plat Travel by spending a minimum of INR 4,00,000 and 12,000 MR Points on the Membership Rewards CC.

    So the minimum you are getting is about 154K MR points yearly, only the minimum spends on each card. Post the minimum spends one can accelerate this figure if you use the offers and deals at the right time. For example, the Reward Multiplier or occasional offers AMEX comes up with.
  3. Referral Earn
    One of the ways I earn a little more top-up is by asking people to use my referral code whenever they want to apply for a new card. This is a slow process, and you are not even sure how you much MR points you can make in a year - but on average, I have been able to make about 30K MR points post each successful referral. Not bad, for starters, I would say. You will be a winner here if you can share your referral code with multiple people here.

I have been contemplating for a while if I need to get another AMEX card for points maximisation - however, I am not sure if that makes sense. So waiting it out and weighing all my options.

Also, if you have other strategies on maximising your MR points in a year via minimum spending, I am all ears. Do let me know in the comments section below.


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Dhairya Sathvara Twitter

Ardent traveller, big time foodie, credit card & points junkie and a self-professed adventurer. Still has not been able to decide if he loves mountains or beaches more. Always planning his next trip.