HDFC Bank on 19th Sep 2021 re-launched 3 of its existing entry-level credit cards. Here’s everything you need to know about what has changed and what’s expected in the coming month.
Re-Launch: New HDFC Millennia Credit Card
HDFC Millennia now comes with a major refresh making it a neat and simple credit card for beginners. The new features would go LIVE from 1st nov 2021.
- Points validity increased to 2yrs from 1yr
- Quarterly benefits added: 1K voucher on 1L spend
- Accelerated Rewards: 5% cashback on select merchants (Amazon, BookMyShow, Cult.fit, Flipkart, Myntra, Sony LIV, Swiggy, Tata CLiQ, Uber & Zomato / Max cap: 1000 rs per billing cycle)
- All spends: 1% cashback (incl. wallet loads)
- Min. Txn limit removed.
- Min. Points required to redeem is reduced to 500 instead of 2000
- Here’s the detailed comparison of the new & existing Millennia credit card
Ideally this update removed various tricky T&C that we’ve spoken about HDFC Millennia Credit Card initially.
Overall, HDFC Millennia credit card definitely gets a very good shape now, good enough to compete with other issuers. Ideally you could save about 2% on spends, provided if you spend ~1L a qtr.
Re-Launch: Other entry-level cards
Along with Millennia HDFC Bank has also refreshed the features of other entry level credit cards like
- Freedom
- Moneyback+ credit card.
I would wait to see the complete list of updated features and benefits before commenting on them. You may check the updates here as per the press release.
There is nothing much to expect in this segment anyway, so give it a pass.
Upcoming: Other cards Launch/re-launch
Most likely we can expect the other premium/super premium credit cards too to get a refresh, maybe minimal though.
One of the biggest expectation of yesterday’s press meet however was the launch of the new super/ultra premium metal card. But to everyone’s disappointment this has been postponed for unknown reasons.
That’s like Apple promising a new iPhone 13 and starting the event with stats and figures of the iPhone sales volume, then re-launch iPhone SE and that’s it.
Disappointed!
Anyway we’ve already seen some changes going live on Infinia pages (and later reverted back) for obvious reasons so that’s definitely coming, likely within a month – various readers say that it can go LIVE anywhere between 5th Oct and 31st oct as they got the info from various sources.
What we don’t know however is whether it’s going to be a new card with a new name and benefits (or) the re-launch of Infinia with a metal variant (or) both. We will have to wait and see.
From my understanding, HDFC would strengthen the existing cards for sure and we may or may not see a card with a new name.
That all said, these re-launches are all in favour of customers and I hope it continues for the upcoming launches and re-relaunches of premium & super premium cards as well.
Is the ₹1000 cap separate for the 5% and 1% cashback or combined?
It appears to be separate, but just to make sure.
Will they refresh Regalia?
Hearing some chatter that Diners is exiting India. So may be Infinia can be positioned/replace DCB. And Infinia metal will the top offering
Hi, is your source reliable? As in, does it seem likely. And in such a case, what happens to the existing customers any idea?
Thanks
They have issued 4L cards since ban was removed, so very aggressive. They even gave LTF infinia with even preferred saving account. So there should be new launches soon, and I hope exciting offers this festival season also.
I have Preferred account with hdfc & maintaining a good balance in the account, can you let me know how I can get Infinia LTF (don’t have 8L limit). Using Regalia First from last 2 year.
Thanks Siddharth for the update. I just checked and have a mail regarding an update to points system from November on my Millenia Diners. They have also offered an upgrade for my Regalia First to Millenia which doesn’t make any sense for me as I have a Millenia Diners as well.
I just had a curious question and maybe you or someone else here might be able to help. I have an Infinia bank account and get my salary credited there as well with HDFC and some decent cards from other banks, but somehow HDFC ‘s Credit card team doesn’t seem to care. (You can guess from the list of HDFC cards I currently have). HDFC doesn’t really offer 2 cards usually and I got in a Diners back in 2017 after some hassle to get lounge access/free movie tickets and received has a very low limit for that. Should I cancel it to get clean with them and get something better from them. I had been using Regalia First with hopes to get an upgrade to Regalia and then hopefully Infinia. But they offer me another Millenia now. *facepalm*
Have you sent the upgrade form with latest itr or salary slip ? That can help as have read on the blog based on other people experiences.
Hey Sid, I recently got millennial Credit card. Will new features applicable on the card I just received? Thanks!
Yes. Valid from 1 Nov for old cards also.
What were changes that were reverted on Inifinia? Already the 10x rewards on Diners is reduced to 5x.
Where has the 10x rewards reduced ‘exclusively’ for Diners? The reward earning rate (except the max cap) remains the same for DCB and Infinia on Smartbuy, along with some additional 10x partners for DCB.
Smartbuy has reduced from 10x to 5x on Amazon & GVs.
Diners 10x continues.
Anyway we’ve already seen some changes going live on Infinia pages (and later reverted back) for obvious reasons so that’s definitely coming…
I missed this, can someone please summarize what were these changes? Positive or negative?
Axis Ace still remains cashback card king with 2% back and person spending 1lac per qtr should focus on better cards.
Hey Sid. Can you help with what changes went live on Infinia page? I missed it and now very curious.
– Renewal fee waiver criteria increased from 8L p.a. to 10L p.a.
– Renewal Benefit: 12.5K points if renewal fee is paid.
– New Redemption option: Apple products and Tanishq vouchers via Smartbuy at a value of 1RP = Rs. 1
If thats true then looks like many are able to reach 8 Lakhs spend and get fee waiver for infinia. FOr me I loose around 1 to 2 lakhs of usage with DCB non acceptance but stil get my fee waived for 5 lakh spend. And thats the reason still sticking with DCB . Also i noticed that if i spend 50k odd in a month then bank is giving me 750 gift voucher of choice. Not sure whether its same with others too ?
Spoke to Infinia Customer Care and they said that this will be only for the Metal Infinia. Regular Infinia will not have any changes.
Unfortunately, more often than not CC executives don’t have a clue on changes, upgrades, devaluation or new products. I would take whatever they say with a pinch of salt! Let’s wait and see what happens when they actually introduce the new product.
This apple voucher thing would have been great as i just purchased iphone 13 pro by redeeming some croma vouchers via StanC Ultimate. I hope this gets implemented.
How can this be done..can you share the link.
If true looks like nice change.
sir- i checked and tanshiq it is valued around 75 paisa only-
Whaaaaat !!!! Apple products redemption at Rs 1 = 1RP…. Wow… that will be something man… I have 3L points with no travel in the last 2 years, and I was kinda losing interest in accumulating points.. but this will be a game-changer…
Hi Siddharth,
New redemption option: Apple products and Vouchers via Smartbuy at a value around 1RP = Rs. 0.70 currently live and will be active till 03Oct2021. This is the FestiveTreats Offer from 1-3 Oct.
1+1 complimentary buffet on weekends at participating ITC Hotels
2+1 complimentary nights at participating ITC Hotels
New Metal Card with AMF of 12500+GST
Now reward point(RP) valued at 0.7% instead of 0.5% against gift voucher(GV) redemption till 3-OCT. For example amazon Rs.100o GV for 1,420 RPs instead of 2,000 RPs previously, it’s same for both Infinia and Diners black.
…and a new Metal Infinia!
But if DCB and Infinia cards are being offered as LTF, not sure why to worry about renewal fee and renewal benifits. Just curious..
Who said they are offered as LTF in general? They are offered LTF free to very few and select customers. I think not more than 5-10% of total Infinia cards in HDFC’s portfolio are LTF.
“Anyway we’ve already seen some changes going live on Infinia pages (and later reverted back) for obvious reasons so that’s definitely coming, likely within a month – various readers say that it can go LIVE anywhere between 5th Oct and 31st oct as they got the info from various sources.”
Can someone enlighten me as to what these changes were, which were later reverted back?
Please tell if we buy from smartbuy amazon then will i get 5% for smartbuy and 5% through card as in statement it shows amazon smartbuy.
I am an advocate, HDFC does not provide credit cards to my profession apparently. Will I be able to book a high limit FD and ask the bank to offer me a card in exchange?
I feel it’s demotion rather than promotion. No 5 or even 2.5% cashback on big basket, utility bills or nobroker rent payment via payzapp. I applied for this card last week and was intended mainly for rent payment.
Now, it’s just a like Amazon pay or Flipkart axis card, both of which I already have as LTF. Currently I use Paytm Citi card which gives 3% on rent payment. Do you any other card, which gives more than this on rent payment now? Not counting the super premium cards like diners black, as I don’t have that much expenditure.
I will probably cancel it, if I didn’t get it under the LTF offer. Otherwise, one hdfc card is still good than nothing for those hdfc bank offers.
The additional 1000 voucher is really useless, as people with 5 lakh+ a year spending would rather take diners black card.
Doesn’t it seem like a downgrade as well, as all other online transactions other than Payzapp/Smartbuy used to have a separate 2.5 percent cashback? Insurance, utility payments and online transactions on all merchants used to give 2.5 percent with the minimum transaction limit and maximum cap of course.
Now payzapp 5 percent CB is removed in this card. Which will be the go to card for rent payment now?
Anybody can you please help?
My 2 cents, any card which give >2% returns on normal spends. HDFC Infinia, DCB, and even Regalia with 3x on PayZapp (present as of now). Also Vistara Co-branded cards, as they have good milestone reward and BOB Eterna with 3.75% rewards.
Do check TnC for Vistara and BOB cards.
Any update on when the next wave of card upgrades will be done? I’m sitting on a Regalia First since June 2020 and I’m hoping to land a Regalia at least.
Although there’s no change in annual fee, it’s worth mentioning that Millenia comes with a fee of 1180 pa.
@Rajesh, the cap on 5% and 1% cashback categories is 1000 each per month. Total 2000.
Pretty decent card if you spend 4L per year (1L per quarter) especially if you also have 10-20K spends per month on 5% cashback category.
I’ve applied for the Regalia LTF when they had a banner on their website reading your article. It’s been more than a month since it shows its in processing. What should i do? I haven’t received any calls/sms from HDFC.
The funny thing is they are considering Millennia card is upgrade to Regalia card. I got option like above.
Hi siddharth,
Today while going through Infinia Smartbuy portal, they are giving an option for redeeming your points at 1Rp=.70 paisa, instead of 1Rp=.50 paisa, what they normally offer for all the e-vouchers available under the rewards section of the portal.
Do you think this is a good way to redeem your reward points or wait for the change that is going to come in the near future. Please suggest.
Infinia Reward rate for vouchers redemption is currently at 2.34% compared to the earlier value of 1.66%.
Is this a recent change? Is it worth redeeming all the points right away or worth waiting for the possible upgrade
Out of topic question. Some mega jackpot is running on CRED. People are redeeming cred coins in the order of 40-60 lakhs in a single day. Anyone have any idea of how did they mange to do it?
50 Lakhs Jewelry had a redemption maximum of 1.03Cr.
God knows how can they redeem so many cred coins.
– Renewal fee waiver criteria increased from 8L p.a. to 10L p.a.
– Renewal Benefit: 12.5K points if renewal fee is paid.
– New Redemption option: Apple products and Tanishq vouchers via Smartbuy at a value of 1RP = Rs. 1
Oh wish they could just give the option to buy normal products as apple products are always overpriced and not worth it.
On top of that the imagine reseller sells at a premium compared to amazon. iphone nowadays drops so fast in value but imagine still sells at mrp.
iphone 12 is listed at 65k on imagine (haha) but is available on Amazon fk for less than 50k and closer to 45k. Almost 33% drop in 1 year and 33% loss while redeeming there.
I would say that option gives 0.60-0.70 paise valuation to your points, plus only apple products which is hardly used by anyone
Overall uselsss for my infinia, in my opinion.
Can u please share where you are getting iPhone 12 for less than 50K. iPhone MRP is always same across platforms sans platform specific discounts. Apple is the only manufacturer where the the rates do not fall drastically over years and as well support. Redeeming on Apple is a very good thing for majority.
iphone 12 Available on fk for plus members right now at 46k. iphone 12 mini is available for 34k
I guess you’re living in a world 2 years old where apple used to Have good resale value
It still has a good resale value. Sold an older iPhone and got a good price and bought 13 pro. Androids have the worst resale value especially Samsung. The 12 has got a price reduction due to 13 launch.
It’s available for 52k and the extra 5 K discount is on credit card that all Apple retailers also provide.
tanshiq vocher it is not rs 1 per point- where you got
Sid,
The new metal card(Infinia) from HDFC will cost 12,500 plus gst and more details about the card have started popping up around the net
URGENT
HDFC increased points value to 70 paisa for various vouchers etc. Only for 3 days till 03rd Oct 2021 just redeemed all points for Amazon vouchers…..approx 1 L
ALL,
If you are holding Infinia, please do not purchase Apple product with redeeming with points for ration of 1RP = Rs. 0.70. It will be becoming 1RP = Rs. 1 after the launch of Infinia Metal Card which will be in this week. This will also be applicable for current Infinia PVC card holder.
It’s almost 70p for Tanishq and Amazon. Redeemed all my points. First time I could feel worth of points 😂
Worst Department in HDFC Bank ,is Credit card Department. Even for closed credit card account of 2018 they send some nonsense charges and statements to pay some amount.That is why a premier Bank like HDFC BANK suffered huge loss of business and respect as it was banned by RBI, from issue of new cards until recently. That reflects badly managed Departments image.I hope they will not get banned by RBI again due poor operations.
That’s why they insist on having a savings account linked to credit card. I had a similar experience 15 years before, even after closing the card account they had blocked and deducted almost 5-6 times of the joining fee after 2 years. I had closed all relationship with them. But recently I was tempted to again have the credit card (dcb) after reading this blog 😀
I hope upcoming super premium credit card will be LTF like DCB and Infinia one.
DCB and Infinia are not LTF by default and now way new super premium card is going to be LTF as well.
I currently have HDFC millenia with 3L limit. I got LTF Regailia Int Offer from HDFC. Should i take it or leave it (Considering Millenia Rewards Points Redemption Value)
Hi,
Currently there are 2 LTF offers for HDFC credit cards, one via Bank bazaar and other directly via HDFC bank website. In both offers, different spend criteria are mentioned (to be spent within first 90 days).
I wanted to know how do we get confirmation of Life time free once we complete required spend criteria.
Also can we rely on Bank bazaar offer (criteria memtioned there looks more easier to achieve than that on hdfc website)?
HDFC Galaxia (Metal Titanium) Super Premium CC launching with 20K+GST fees and fees reversal on 25L annual.
Hdfc Galaxia is coming.
When?
I got an upgrade offer to Milennia from my Regalia First. Kinda disappointed. Has the least of all my CC limits now (1L). Should I apply fresh by sending ITR to a banking rep? ALso I’m assuming the Milennia upgrade isn’t worth it or is even an upgrade?
Hey Sid,
Heard some insider info that HDFC is launching another Ultra Premium card “Galaxia (Metal Titanium)” with 20,000 annual fee.
This will be done post Infinia Metal launch which is now scheduled for Oct end.
Looks like HDFC is on a kill to reclaim their lost business during the ban.
Therevis a rumour about GALAXIA METAL also.
HDFC has rolled back the MITC. Some rumors suggest that Galaxia will be on mastercard elite platform. But there is an embargo on mastercard, they can’t issue new cards to new customers, so this might be the reason HDFC delayed the launch for now. If this is true then I think a major devaluation might be seen in the RP of infinia card.
Or it could be other way. Infinia stays as is but Galaxia offers much better rewards
In the fees and charges I am not able to see Galaxia. Infinia metal edition is mentioned.
Has anyone saw the details of Galaxia
No devaluation to infinia see website, galaxia will offer so much bettr i heard 7rp per rs 150
I think all 3 credit cards are also coming soon on RuPay Platform.
HDFC Millennia Credit Card, Freedom Credit Card and Moneyback+ credit card.
Latest T&C mentioned about “RuPay” but no idea when Card will launch on RuPay Platform.
Hdfc BPCL is already on Rupay platform
when Hdfc BPCL launched ?
HDFC IndianOIL available on RuPay platform
and SBI CARD BPCL available on RuPay platform.
Hi Siddharth,
I already hold a HDFC Bank Infinia credit card, how can I get the HDFC Bank Millennia credit card.
If anyone has taken second HDFC credit card like my case then please guide.
Please guide.
Infinia Metal is now live and available on HDFC Bank website. We already know all the stuff through numerous leaks so nothing to add now.
Thanks for the update, Sameer.
Tanishq is also 0.70 conversion
Just to point out that the 2x reward points on dining at standalone restaurants is not available on the metal edition and will be withdrawn from the non-metal edition effective 1st December 2021.
Also the redemption for Apple products and Tanishq vouchers is limited to 70% of purchase value. The remainder should be paid by card.
Thank you for the update.
When we click on Fees & Charges in Mental card page. It redirects the page on PVC Infinia.
Hi, since Oct 29 Hdfc is issuing Millennia and below cards as LTF, you need to check smartpay and care user in the final page of application to make it so. Verify once before applying, I saw the offer in their website home screen as well
how to get millennia prepaid card?
paytm allows to add money with this card to get 1% cashback?
Millenia features via smartbuy updated again
offers.smartbuy.hdfcbank.com/offer_details/16677
Got link of this page in the statement and can see 10% cashback back on amazon
Valid from o1st Dec
Update: I got it wrong. The dates on this page are given as 2021-01-12 i and i read it as 01-12-2021 instead of 12-01-2021
Still don’t understand why HDFC send’s link of these previous card features in the current month statement
@Siddharth Do you have any info about HDFC RuPay Millennia Credit card ?
Only thing i know is RuPay Millennia Credit card is live but didn’t get any proper reply from hdfc bank. HDFC bank is issuing this card (RuPay Millennia) or not. 🤔🤔
Hi,
Is following possible with millenia credit card?
1. 20000/- Amazon gift voucher purchase through Amazon app –> 5% cashback as 1000/- per month
2. 10000/- Amazon gift voucher purchase through Smartbuy voucher –> 5% cashback as 500/- per month
3. Spending 1 lakh in a quarter –> 1000/- voucher
Please clarify.