Amex stops earning MR points on fuel

From 12 June 2025, fuel spends on Indian American Express cards stop earning Membership Rewards entirely. Before this, filling the tank minted MR like any other swipe; now it mints nothing.

There’s one deliberate mercy in the fine print: fuel spend still counts toward the monthly milestone. That matters more than it sounds. On the Membership Rewards Card, the whole game is hitting the monthly targets — roughly 2,000 bonus MR a month on two easy milestones, which is where the card’s real return lives. Your ₹20k monthly target isn’t any harder to hit; you just earn nothing on the fuel portion along the way.

At our ₹0.50-per-MR valuation, the direct loss on a tank of petrol is small change. The milestone carve-out keeps the strategy intact.

Our take: minor nerf, correctly read. Keep using Amex for fuel only when you need the spend to clear a milestone. Otherwise, fuel belongs on whichever card in your wallet still bothers to pay you for it.