[tejas08]

Originally Posted by SilentEngine

In terms of ease of redeeming reward points, Citi and Amex are easily the best I have used.

Citi allows to redeem points directly from some of the partner sites/apps such as MakeMyTrip. Redemption can even be done by a add-on card holder!

Amex (Gold/MRCC) has a simple process for statement credit and other redemptions.

I used to use HDFC Regalia as my primary card till last year, but the redemption process is horrible. Recently I tried redeeming for flight tickets but the portal just didn't work. I use it very sparingly now.

Lesser Pain, Lesser Gain.

HDFC gives 33.3% returns on two of the Super Premium Credit Cards. They are sure to make life difficult when it comes to redeeming them.

Having used all three (Citi, Amex & HDFC), I can definitely say that Citi and Amex are not going to come to the level of HDFC in terms of reward rate and HDFC is not going to come to the level of Amex / Citi on ease of redemption.

IIRC, for the Super Premium Cards, you can actually call up the Concierge service and ask them to book the flight / hotel on your points.

Originally Posted by diyguy

I use hdfc regalia for merchandise from their redemption site and for gold/diamond jewellery vouchers from Tanishq. I find this to be a good deal.

Why not book flights? Almost double reward rate than those vouchers unless the reward points are expiring in which case the vouchers make sense.

[diyguy]

Originally Posted by tejas08

IIRC, for the Super Premium Cards, you can actually call up the Concierge service and ask them to book the flight / hotel on your points.
Why not book flights? .

Personal flights are limited to two or three a year of which one is usually a group booking. I have not found these portal based bookings to ever be cheaper than options that we may find on the spot, either on the airline site or maybe via Amazon Pay due to a cashback. Will check this option the next time.

[SilentEngine]

Originally Posted by tejas08

Lesser Pain, Lesser Gain.



HDFC gives 33.3% returns on two of the Super Premium Credit Cards. They are sure to make life difficult when it comes to redeeming them.

Certainly. I don't have either DCB or Infinia. Regalia I have, has gradually degraded over the years (using since 4+ years), both in terms of reward rate or the card features in general. If you leave out the 10x/5x, there's nothing premium about Regalia these days.

Sample this for incompetency: I applied for an Add-on card for my wife. Card came but not the PIN. Setting PIN from net banking or ATM isn't possible for add-on cards. It's lying unused for a year now. Nor have they sent the add-on Priority Pass after multiple requests.

[Aditya_Bhp]

Originally Posted by SilentEngine

Sample this for incompetency: I applied for an Add-on card for my wife. Card came but not the PIN. Setting PIN from net banking or ATM isn't possible for add-on cards. It's lying unused for a year now. Nor have they sent the add-on Priority Pass after multiple requests.

You should go to an HDFC ATM to set the pin for the first time. There is an option in the atm menu just for this. Add-on Priority Pass will be sent only if you use the Add-on Credit Card.

True, the Regalia has been degraded. Used to redeem around 25k worth flight tickets 2 to 3 years back. But now I get around 15k worth points every year. Also, Club Vistara is no longer there, instead Zomato Gold has been added, which is basically useless. Need to redeem 2 business class upgrades given to me as part of the membership, but due to Vistara's poor connectivity, they are useless.

[nrahul]

Originally Posted by SilentEngine

Sample this for incompetency: I applied for an Add-on card for my wife. Card came but not the PIN. Setting PIN from net banking or ATM isn't possible for add-on cards. It's lying unused for a year now. Nor have they sent the add-on Priority Pass after multiple requests.

For HDFC Infinia, I was able to set the pin using HDFC ATM for the add-on card.

[SilentEngine]

Originally Posted by Aditya_Bhp

You should go to an HDFC ATM to set the pin for the first time. There is an option in the atm menu just for this. Add-on Priority Pass will be sent only if you use the Add-on Credit Card.

Thanks, I tried this once and it asked for the OTP. I tried both mine and my wife's number. Did not receive any OTP to complete the process. Will try again next time I go to HDFC ATM.

[Aditya_Bhp]

Originally Posted by SilentEngine

Thanks, I tried this once and it asked for the OTP. I tried both mine and my wife's number. Did not receive any OTP to complete the process. Will try again next time I go to HDFC ATM.

I guess you will have to check the mobile number linked with the card then, OTP is necessary is to create the pin, if my memory is correct, my add on card had a separate mobile number different from the primary.

[SilentEngine]

Originally Posted by Aditya_Bhp

I guess you will have to check the mobile number linked with the card then, OTP is necessary is to create the pin, if my memory is correct, my add on card had a separate mobile number different from the primary.

So I wonder if the card was setup without any mobile number. When I applied add-on, all I had to do was to provide my wife's customer ID, and the bank pulled rest of the information based on that. I guess I will have to call up the customer support to check what's going on.

[nrahul]

In my case, the OTP was sent to the phone number linked to the primary card. In fact, I'm not able to associate my wife's number with her card. Note, she is not HDFC customer.

[Ithaca]

Originally Posted by pseudo_coder

I use ICICI Amazon credit card. It doesn't have payback nonsense. I get 1% cashback on all spends, and 5% on Amazon, all directly as Amazon pay balance every month. My monthly spend on the card is about 50k, and I get 1000 to 2000 cashback every month. I also got Rs 750 on signing up. Good deal IMO.

This is good to know that the ICICI Amazon card does not have this payback issue.

Originally Posted by rkg

Why not redeem Payback points directly at brand factory/BigBazaar/FB/HPCL? No redemption charge at all

Here is a quote from the article I posted.

PAYBACK confirms that its redemption are free of charge and also confirms that PAYBACK does not charge for redemption.
ICICI says that they have a right to charge for redemption because they have a tie-up with PAYBACK.

Now let’s look at a scenario where it gets a little complicated, if you have a PAYBACK card from Brand Factory and you also have an ICICI Bank account and both of them are linked, this is when ICICI begins to loot you.
If you earn points at Brand Factory, the points get credited to your PAYBACK account and now when you spend those PAYBACK points, ICICI charges you a redemption fee.

The article says that the person has linked his Brand Factory Payback card to his ICICI Bank issued Payback card.
And Payback itself does not charge for redeeming points. This is done by ICICI bank.
So his mistake is linking both cards - maybe to save his time while checking points on either card.

As you have mentioned, the person simply has to delink his Brand Factory payback card from ICICI Payback card and redeem BF points without incurring any charges from ICICI Bank.

Source: Jago Investor Article

[digitalnirvana]

Hi I've got about 20k worth of insurance premiums to pay this week. Which credit card is the best in terms of cashback or rewards points?

I have HDFC regalia first, Amex rewards, ICICI amazon pay, Stanchart cashback, Citibank cashback, Kotak, HSBC etc. And almost all of the wallet apps.

Any advice would be appreciated.

[tejas08]

Originally Posted by digitalnirvana

Hi I've got about 20k worth of insurance premiums to pay this week. Which credit card is the best in terms of cashback or rewards points?

I have HDFC regalia first, Amex rewards, ICICI amazon pay, Stanchart cashback, Citibank cashback, Kotak, HSBC etc. And almost all of the wallet apps.

Any advice would be appreciated.

First Option - HDFC Regalia First (Only if single Transaction of above 10,000 Rs). HDFC is running a 5X Reward Points offer for insurance. But this is valid till 31-Dec-19 only. So hurry up.

Second Option - ICICI Amazon Pay.

[ani_meher]

For Amex card, an undisclosed ‘12k’ reward of redeeming 12000 points will get you a statement credit of Rs.5310. You can claim this only once a calendar year. You can redeem this only via chat from app/ emailing the support.

18k gets us Rs.7500 and 24k gets us Rs.10,000, so Rs.5310 for 12k is a better return.

[digitalnirvana]

Originally Posted by tejas08

First Option - HDFC Regalia First (Only if single Transaction of above 10,000 Rs). HDFC is running a 5X Reward Points offer for insurance. But this is valid till 31-Dec-19 only. So hurry up.

Second Option - ICICI Amazon Pay.

Thanks!
Is the HDFC offer for all cardholders or only those that received the communication? Also does it have to be done via the payzapp app?

[Aditya_Bhp]

Originally Posted by digitalnirvana

Thanks!
Is the HDFC offer for all cardholders or only those that received the communication? Also does it have to be done via the payzapp app?

You can look for all HDFC offers and their T&C on https://offers.smartbuy.hdfcbank.com/