How to block a lost American Express credit card immediately?

On the annual fee — most premium cards waive it if you spend ₹1.5L to ₹3L in the previous year. Wallet loads (Paytm, Amazon Pay balance) usually DON'T count. But utilities, fuel, and grocery do. Spend pattern matters more than absolute number.

The 'minimum due' trap is real. Banks love it because they charge ~36-42% interest on the carried-forward amount. If you can't pay the full bill this month, pay at least 50% — anything below that and the interest eats the rewards of the next 6 months.

Two things nobody tells you: (1) GST is charged on the annual fee, so a ₹1,000 fee becomes ₹1,180. (2) Reward points usually have an expiry of 2-3 years. Set a calendar reminder to redeem before they lapse.

On credit limit increase: most banks auto-review every 6 months. If you use 30-70% of the limit and pay in full, you'll get an automatic increase. Don't call and ask for it explicitly — banks take it as a sign of credit hunger and sometimes lower the limit instead.

Dispute process that worked for me: I called customer care within 24 hours, raised a dispute via the netbanking portal (uploading the receipt showing I never visited the merchant), and got a provisional credit in 5 working days. Permanent credit came after the bank's investigation in about 30 days.