[varkey]

Originally Posted by VaibhaoT

......I started following the documented procedure to upgrade the Diners Black to Infinia. But none of them were helping. As usual my assigned RM was good for nothing. I gave him very good investment incentive to upgrade my card, but he did not even try to upgrade.
Finally out of frustration I reached out to the corporate relationship manager which was assigned for my employer. Somehow even they did not give much heed to my email.

Could you please share the documented steps that you followed to request for an upgrade to Infinia?

I currently hold a Regalia, and been wanting to upgrade to the Infinia. Until recently I only had a basic zero balance savings account with HDFC from my college days, so did not have an RM or anything. Last month I got the HDFC savings account converted to Savings Max, kept some 1-2L in it and submitted the card upgrade form to Infinia FYF with my payslips and bank statements. I mailed these directly to their processing centre in Chennai by post.
Few days later got a mail asking me to re-submit the upgrade form with all documentation as they couldn't process the form I sent. I am not sure why they need to be cryptic about it, and wasn't sure what other documentation they need. My current credit limit is >10 L.

In the recent months I have not used the Regalia much as SBI Cashback card is giving better returns for online spends. Wonder if that's why. I'd qualify for Preferred/Imperia relationship based on salary credits, but my employer does not have a tie up with HDFC. Last I checked, HDFC needs the account to be tagged to the partnered employer to convert it into a salary account. My employer doesn't have any restriction on which account to use though.

So what's the best path to get an upgrade to Infinia? Does anybody know what the internal criteria for this is?.

[logicalidiot]

Originally Posted by SgtRepeat

CheQ is the new player in the market. They offer 1% of the credit card bill amount paid as CheQ chips, which can be redeemed for vouchers or credited to your bank account as cash.

Thanks for sharing about this. I think I'll move on from Cred for credit card payments as the rewards have been devalued or reduced drastically over the last few weeks.

Cred was really worth the hype when it initially came into the market. I wasn't an early bird to the app but still was early enough than majority of the users now. I remember the coins they gave for payments were amazingly VFM. To give you a picture, you could redeem the coins for Sunburn event tickets, party events and travel packages directly. It was so good that it became the talk of the town. But unfortunately the coins are literally of no use now except to use it reduce the price of the products offered in their store - again most of the time, the deal is more or less the same or worse than other shopping portals.

Later, they brought in cash rewards at some point, where you get small amount of cashback for 5 days after the payment of the credit card bill. I had soon figured out that splitting the bill allowed me to mint more cashback's i.e. instead of paying 15k in total and getting cashback for 5 days, I split my payment into 3k each for 5 times. So this basically allowed me to get cashback amounts daily for a number of days. Imagine doing this with multiple credit cards . But alas, even though this is still in place, the cashback frequency has reduced drastically.

Anyways, time to see CheQ now. I installed the app, registered and did a trial payment for my Axis Bank & IndusInd CCs. The payments got credited instantaneously. Initial impressions good.

[DetectiveMiles]

Originally Posted by logicalidiot

Thanks for sharing about this. I think I'll move on from Cred for credit card payments as the rewards have been devalued or reduced drastically over the last few weeks.

Anyways, time to see CheQ now. I installed the app, registered and did a trial payment for my Axis Bank & IndusInd CCs. The payments got credited instantaneously. Initial impressions good.

If you are using CheQ, make sure you pay on a bank working day, so it reflects on your card same day. If it is a holiday, payment date will remain same but takes one working day to update on card account, unlike Cred.

[VaibhaoT]

Originally Posted by varkey

Could you please share the documented steps that you followed to request for an upgrade to Infinia?

I currently hold a Regalia, and been wanting to upgrade to the Infinia. Until recently I only had a basic zero balance savings account with HDFC from my college days, so did not have an RM or anything. Last month I got the HDFC savings account converted to Savings Max, kept some 1-2L in it and submitted the card upgrade form to Infinia FYF with my payslips and bank statements. I mailed these directly to their processing centre in Chennai by post.
Few days later got a mail asking me to re-submit the upgrade form with all documentation as they couldn't process the form I sent. I am not sure why they need to be cryptic about it, and wasn't sure what other documentation they need. My current credit limit is >10 L.

Procedure is more or less same. Only thing is, at end of all rejection email there is contact details for next level of escalation. In case if you have not already followed up with next level of escalations, do that.
As per best of my understanding, minimum credit limit requirement for Infinia is 10 Lakh, which you already have. How much is your annual usage of Regalia? They look at the healthy usage as well when upgrading. HDFC gets very cranky when Infina upgrade request is initiated by customer. It took me more than a year to get my card upgraded, so be patient and keep trying.

[sram]

Having a very bad experiencing with amex customer care. I have health insurance purchased via amex last year, During purchase it was bharthi axa, then it was bought by icici. Now its due of renewal. Tried to renew via their website, it failed. So called amex customer care, they asked me to call the insurance team, they forwarded the call to ICICI waited in call for 20 minutes nobody picked up. Again called amex CC, they said they will arrange call back, Never received. when Followed up again same cycle repeats. Thinking of closing the card(MRCC) itself altogether.

[vinu_h]

Originally Posted by shipnil

Looks like devaluation of SBI cashback card started. Got the following message.

SBI and others knew of these loop holes and has done well to plug them, with many us honest users losing out due to it.

particularly millennials, are resorting to various tactics to manipulate credit card reward systems to earn even more rewards and cashback. One of the most commonly used methods is to make fake rent payments to friends and family members. Numerous platforms now permit tenants to use their credit cards to pay their monthly rent for a nominal fee (typically 1% of the rent amount), with the funds transferred directly to the landlord’s bank account. This presents an excellent opportunity to earn rewards and enjoy an interest-free credit period of around 45 days.

[JithinR]

Originally Posted by logicalidiot

Anyways, time to see CheQ now. I installed the app, registered and did a trial payment for my Axis Bank & IndusInd CCs. The payments got credited instantaneously. Initial impressions good.

I was actually late to the Credit card game and so late to using apps like Cred. Agreed that it's of no use other than to have a single app to make bill payments for all credit cards.

I am planning to switch over too and saw on other forums that HDFC Debit card can be used to make payment on other bank credit card bills through their net banking portal and gives 1% cashback on it. The posts were mostly from last year so I am not sure if this is still in effect. But I was thinking that straight up cashback beats any kind of coins or points.

[thanixravindran]

Originally Posted by JithinR

I am planning to switch over too and saw on other forums that HDFC Debit card can be used to make payment on other bank credit card bills through their net banking portal and gives 1% cashback on it. The posts were mostly from last year so I am not sure if this is still in effect. But I was thinking that straight up cashback beats any kind of coins or points.

It is still available with HDFC Bank easyshop platinum Debit card. Monthly capping is 750 INR though. It will be given as cashback points and you need to encash it in netbanking.

[SgtRepeat]

Originally Posted by thanixravindran

It is still available with HDFC Bank easyshop platinum Debit card. Monthly capping is 750 INR though. It will be given as cashback points and you need to encash it in netbanking.

I have an HDFC EasyShop Platinum debit card and tried using the bill pay method from the HDFC app to pay my ICICI credit card bill and the transaction failed thrice since yesterday. Customer care says it could be a server error from their end.

I'd rather stick to CheQ or CRED if HDFC bill pay is going to be so unreliable.

[sram]

I am trying to book a resort in wayanad, I have a regalia card and tried to book the hotel via smartbuy portal which gives 5% cash back and 5x reward points. I tried directly on the cleartrip portal, Though base price is same, on cleartrip portal it applied some discount automatically and the effective price is less than smartbuy price.
Tried the same with mmt also, still the price was higher by some INR 700 via smartbuy booking. Not sure if I am forced to pay more in the name of reward points.

[thanixravindran]

Originally Posted by SgtRepeat

I have an HDFC EasyShop Platinum debit card and tried using the bill pay method from the HDFC app to pay my ICICI credit card bill and the transaction failed thrice since yesterday..

Is this the first time you registered the biller because status shows verification pending. It takes a day or two for the biller to be verified and then you can make the payment. Also, note all the payment settlement is not instant. So allow sufficient time for the payment to be settled in your other bank credit card account.

Originally Posted by sram

I am trying to book a resort in wayanad,
Tried the same with mmt also, still the price was higher by some INR 700 via smartbuy booking. Not sure if I am forced to pay more in the name of reward points.

This is the case most of the times. Always compare the discount through the websites and compare with Smartbuy and decide accordingly. If you directly reach out to the resort, you may get further discount also.

[aadya]

Originally Posted by sram

I am trying to book a resort in wayanad, I have a regalia card and tried to Not sure if I am forced to pay more in the name of reward points.

In general there is no favourable pricing when we go for redemption of rewards, but most often, for travel the portal itself fetches offer from various partners. The offer might not be the best but reasonable when comparing various sites.

Originally Posted by VaibhaoT

Procedure is more or less same. Only thing is, at end of all rejection email there is contact details for next level of escalation.

Originally Posted by varkey

Could you please share the documented steps that you followed to request for an upgrade to Infinia?
So what's the best path to get an upgrade to Infinia? Does anybody know what the internal criteria for this is?.

Previous credit card limit of Rs.10 Lakhs, Annual income of Rs.32lakhs, Previous year card usage of Rs.8Lakhs, these are the criterias it appears to be used for Infinia. I fulfilled first two when i have applied but was told I was not eligible, but two days after crossed the usage of 8L they approved it automatically, I noticed it in the upgrade card option being activated in netbanking.

Originally Posted by DetectiveMiles

If you are using CheQ, make sure you pay on a bank working day, so it reflects on your card same day. If it is a holiday, payment date will remain same but takes one working day to update on card account, unlike Cred.

I have noticed on holidays but most often i get the confirmation from card with NEFT speed(about 30 minutes after the actual transaction)

[varkey]

Originally Posted by sram

I have health insurance purchased via amex last year, During purchase it was bharthi axa, then it was bought by icici. Now its due of renewal.

I also have the same policy, initially from BhartiAxa and when policies from BhartiAxa got acquired by ICICI Lombard, this policy also got transferred. However I promptly got a renewal reminder email asking me to confirm renewal and later got a call to confirm. Renewal was processed without any hiccups. This year the benefits have increased especially the OPD benefits. Also, now it’s directly serviced by ICICI Lombard and no MediAssist as TPA.

[VaibhaoT]

Originally Posted by sram

I am trying to book a resort in wayanad, I have a regalia card and tried to book the hotel via smartbuy portal which gives 5% cash back and 5x reward points. I tried directly on the cleartrip portal, Though base price is same, on cleartrip portal it applied some discount automatically and the effective price is less than smartbuy price.
Tried the same with mmt also, still the price was higher by some INR 700 via smartbuy booking. Not sure if I am forced to pay more in the name of reward points.

Smartbuy don't offer additional discounts that you may get if booked directly through other portal.
I have a workaround for this problem. Lets say you want to book hotel A. Go to the MMT site through HDFC Smartbuy partner link, book any hotel (lets call hotel B) of value equal to you actual cost of the hotel A and cancellation fees is zero. This way you will get the reward multiplier benefit.
After that cancel the booking of Hotel B directly on MMT & get the refund in wallet and not on the original payment method. With this wallet amount you can book your actual intended hotel A with the coupon code and the rates available MMT.

[varkey]

Originally Posted by VaibhaoT

How much is your annual usage of Regalia? They look at the healthy usage as well when upgrading. HDFC gets very cranky when Infina upgrade request is initiated by customer. It took me more than a year to get my card upgraded, so be patient and keep trying.

Thanks, I will persist and keep sending the requests. After the first ambiguous message, I resent the documents with the latest upgrade form template and this time I got a more direct rejection .
I have now sent an email to "PriorityRedressal.CreditCards@hdfcbank.com", let's see.

Originally Posted by aadya

Previous credit card limit of Rs.10 Lakhs, Annual income of Rs.32lakhs, Previous year card usage of Rs.8Lakhs, these are the criterias it appears to be used for Infinia. I fulfilled first two when i have applied but was told I was not eligible, but two days after crossed the usage of 8L they approved it automatically, I noticed it in the upgrade card option being activated in netbanking.

Great, yeah I satisfy the first two conditions, but my usage of the Regalia card has come down, definitely not in the 8L range, mostly due to lack of benefits and my other cards give a better return. If I do get upgraded to the Infinia, the usage would definitely go up, but as-is I find the benefits from Regalia not of much value.