[Aroy]

Originally Posted by Warwithwheels

QUICK help on my HDFC Diners club credit card.

Facts:

Minimum Amount Due: 20,000
Payment date: 1 Feb 2020
Apple cash back credited on 28th Jan: 6000
IMPS Payment made on 1.2.2020: Rs. 15,000
Total Credits: Rs. 21,000/-

The bank has charged me a late fee of INR 950. is it right?

I have found HDFC to be extremely rigid in their approach, and the help line is of no help.

I suggest that you send an e-mail to Bank Ombudsman. I once had a similar case and after fighting for over three months wrote to the ombudsman. Case resolved within a week. Now I have got rid of the HDFC card as their customer service is atrocious.

On the other hand ICICI is much more customer friendly. My BIL had cancelled tickets worth over 80K and the refund came after the statement was generated. He spoke to ICICI on the helpline and they made sure that he did not have to pay the amount tat was refunded and sent him an e-mail to that effect.

[tejas08]

Originally Posted by Warwithwheels

QUICK help on my HDFC Diners club credit card.

Facts:

Minimum Amount Due: 20,000
Payment date: 1 Feb 2020
Apple cash back credited on 28th Jan: 6000
IMPS Payment made on 1.2.2020: Rs. 15,000
Total Credits: Rs. 21,000/-

The bank has charged me a late fee of INR 950. is it right?

This has been a debatable topic for long. Cashback credits are not seen as payments made by the cardholder towards credit card dues. This has happened with many other credit card issuers too. While Aroy has indicated that he has been successful against HDFC in going through Ombudsman but I am sure that would have been a long bitter experience overall.

My Two vents, always pay up the whole amount in such cases. That cashback credit isn't going anywhere. You can always use it in the next statement.

Originally Posted by neofromcapone

Guys, I would appreciate your advice.

I need to get a credit card for fuel purchases.
Citibank has a card with up to 71 litres of free fuel annually on fuel and
StanChart has one with up to 5% cash back on fuel spends.
Which one should I go with or is there any other alternative.

And which would be the best option for lounge access in India and UK
I would rather have them as separate cards.

Thanks in Advance.

If you have a regular fuel bunk where you fill up, get a credit card which has a tie-up with that Fuel Company (Citi - IOCL, SBI - BPCL & ICICI - HPCL). Else go for StanChart SVT.

For Lounge access, it depends on a lot a factors.
- How many lounge accesses are you looking for in a year for both Domestic & International?
- Is it only for you or for family too?
- Which all credit cards are you eligible for based on your income or existing credit cards held?

HDFC Diners Club Black, Infinia & Yes First Exclusive takes care of both 1 & 2. The third point becomes critical to get one of these cards.

Then there are tons of other cards with limited lounge accesses or no access to Add-On Cardholders etc.

Originally Posted by Aroy

I have found HDFC to be extremely rigid in their approach, and the help line is of no help.

I suggest that you send an e-mail to Bank Ombudsman. I once had a similar case and after fighting for over three months wrote to the ombudsman. Case resolved within a week. Now I have got rid of the HDFC card as their customer service is atrocious.

On the other hand ICICI is much more customer friendly. My BIL had cancelled tickets worth over 80K and the refund came after the statement was generated. He spoke to ICICI on the helpline and they made sure that he did not have to pay the amount tat was refunded and sent him an e-mail to that effect.

I agree. The regular HDFC Credit Card Customer care is useless. However, the Premium Card Customer Care service is excellent. If they are unable to resolve your issue, they will arrange a call back too. This is based on the experience of owning a Regalia which was later upgraded to Diners Club Black.

While ICICI may offer good customer support, their rewards are pathetic. HDFC wins in the Rewards dept. by miles and hence, HDFC credit cards cant be ignored by a person who loves minting credit card rewards.

[AZT]

Originally Posted by tejas08

I agree. The regular HDFC Credit Card Customer care is useless. However, the Premium Card Customer Care service is excellent. If they are unable to resolve your issue, they will arrange a call back too. This is based on the experience of owning a Regalia which was later upgraded to Diners Club Black.

I have an HDFC Diners Rewardz and its silly how they ask you send a written form / request to cancel the card or even upgrade it. I've made Amex my primary use card simply because of customer service and how easy it is to talk to the phone banking team. I wasn't aware of the separate customer call center for premium cards, regular call center is the slowest I have dealt with.

[Guite]

HDFC do have this old fashioned system of needing written application for every service request. Sometimes its irritating.

[Safety is Param]

Originally Posted by Warwithwheels

Facts:

Minimum Amount Due: 20,000
Payment date: 1 Feb 2020
Apple cash back credited on 28th Jan: 6000
IMPS Payment made on 1.2.2020: Rs. 15,000
Total Credits: Rs. 21,000/-

The bank has charged me a late fee of INR 950. is it right?

As far as I know -

1. the minimum amount due should be paid in a single transaction OR

2. there should at least be one payment credited to your Credit Card account - before or on the due date - which is equal to or greater than the minimum amount due. Again, single transaction.

In your example, if the minimum amount due is INR 20,000/- then you cannot pay it in chunks (e.g. 10k + 10k or 5k + 15k)

[warrioraks]

Originally Posted by tejas08

I agree. The regular HDFC Credit Card Customer care is useless. However, the Premium Card Customer Care service is excellent. If they are unable to resolve your issue, they will arrange a call back too. This is based on the experience of owning a Regalia which was later upgraded to Diners Club Black.

Would you please share how to reach the premier card customer care. I have a DCB card and the only exclusive number I found on HDFC website was for travel concierge.

On a related note, I feel that HDFC has lost all sense of customer service no matter what kind of customer you are (premium or otherwise). Specifically their grievance redressal team sucks and any process which leads to cancellation of a service or a refund is intentionally made tedious.
Currently I have an open issue (from last two months) where I was charged for lounge access at Copenhagen airport even though DCB app shows it as a partner lounge entitled to free entry. Have gone through all channels without a resolution, and have recently escalated to nodal officer. Might have to escalate it to Ombudsman like another bhpian mentioned. Let's see if anything good comes out of this but for now, HDFC seems to be coming across as - 'Hardship Delivered For Customers'

[tejas08]

Originally Posted by AZT

I have an HDFC Diners Rewardz and its silly how they ask you send a written form / request to cancel the card or even upgrade it. I've made Amex my primary use card simply because of customer service and how easy it is to talk to the phone banking team. I wasn't aware of the separate customer call center for premium cards, regular call center is the slowest I have dealt with.

Here's how I rate the customer service experience for the Credit Cards I have owned:

1. American Express
2. SBI
3. Citibank
4. Yes Bank
5. Standard Chartered
6. HDFC Premium Card Services
7. HDFC Regular Customer Care

As you can see, I have still rated HDFC premium card services just above HDFC regular customer care. . Almost all other Credit Cards I own or have owned sit above HDFC Customer care.

Rating is one thing but my usage preference is in the exact opposite order. HDFC DCB comes first, then the SCB Ultimate. Yes First Exclusive & Citi Premier Miles are just sitting in the wallet like those 12th Man in a cricket team.

Originally Posted by warrioraks

Would you please share how to reach the premier card customer care. I have a DCB card and the only exclusive number I found on HDFC website was for travel concierge.

18001023310

You should be able to see this on the back on the card too.

[warrioraks]

Originally Posted by tejas08

Here's how I rate the customer service experience for the Credit Cards I have owned:

18001023310

You should be able to see this on the back on the card too.

Thank you, typical case of 'missing the woods for the trees'

[Guite]

Originally Posted by Warwithwheels

Minimum Amount Due: 20,000
Payment date: 1 Feb 2020
Apple cash back credited on 28th Jan: 6000
IMPS Payment made on 1.2.2020: Rs. 15,000
Total Credits: Rs. 21,000/-

The bank has charged me a late fee of INR 950. is it right?

Cash back was not counted as payment although it would subsequently be adjusted in your bill. Technically you were short by 5000 rupees on due date. Yes this is debatable, how it is handled depends on individual bank policies.

Originally Posted by Safety is Param

As far as I know -
1. the minimum amount due should be paid in a single transaction

Is this really true? I don't know because I have never tried paying just minimum amount due.

[rajesh1868]

Originally Posted by gupta_chd

How to redeem points accrued on Citi Indian Oil Platinum card for free fuel? I am not receiving any SMS for points redemption after refueling at IO petrol pumps as suggested by communication from Citi Bank..

So i called the customer care today as i have also not received the sms to redeem. So here is what they told.

We will receive this sms only if the swipe amount is less than or equal to the points. No partial redemption possible. I had filled for 2.5k and my points was about 1.5k. I was told that had i swiped twice - one for 1.5k and next for 1k, i would have received it.

So planning to fill for 1.5k next time and redeem it.

For people who were suggesting to redeem at the time of filling: the process has changed to the above.

[gupta_chd]

Originally Posted by rajesh1868

We will receive this sms only if the swipe amount is less than or equal to the points. No partial redemption possible. I had filled for 2.5k and my points was about 1.5k. I was told that had i swiped twice - one for 1.5k and next for 1k, i would have received it.

I do not believe this is exactly what happens. I had 1032 points when I filled fuel worth 1000 and did not get any SMS. Few days later i.e. on Wednesday, I filled fuel worth 983 and got the SMS for redemption and redeemed successfully. So it might be that there systems are still being updated/tested and it will take a while for it to be fairly working. Or there might be some more parameters which we aren't aware of or a combination of both.

[haridsv]

Originally Posted by tejas08

Here's how I rate the customer service experience for the Credit Cards I have owned:

1. American Express
2. SBI
3. Citibank
4. Yes Bank
5. Standard Chartered
6. HDFC Premium Card Services
7. HDFC Regular Customer Care

I can vouch for Amex and Citibank customer service, though I cancelled Citibank card a couple of years back because of the poor rewards I was getting. My experience with SC and HDFC customer service has also been very poor. I especially despise SC customer service. They are extremely slow to respond and ask for details that have been already stated before. E.g. I requested for a supplementary card about 2 months back and pinged them about 3 or 4 times and I still don't have it. I also dislike the SC promotions as the terms are very vague and opaque and as usual reaching out to them for clarifications won't help. Strangely, most of the times, they inform me about the ongoing promotions almost in the middle of the period, so even when the offer is really good, it is hard to take advantage of it. E.g., they have these offers to get extra rewards for meeting a certain spend, but if I don't know about it at the beginning of the offer period, I can't adjust my spending pattern.

[Brishti]

I have American Express Platinum Reserve Credit Card since a year now and they had sent me some insurance offer on mail so I called them up and asked for price quotes for new car purchase "Compass@22lac & Seltos@17.5lac"

The price for 3 year OD was not only less than policy bazaar, I have to only deal with excellent AMEX customer care and not bharti axa customer care for everything. Which ever car I end up getting this is a great deal and justifies the Platinum Reserve Credit Card fee.

[F150]

Originally Posted by tejas08

That's HDFC way of selling credit cards. Crazy bunch of approvers. I had the same issue. Had to open a bank account and apply through the branch to get the card. Surprisingly, when applied through bank they gave me a handsome Credit Limit. Also, 9 months later I even got the card upgraded to Diner's Club Black.

All these days I have been using Citi Bank rewards cards which was not racking up any points. Citi bank recently stopped the Paytm CITIFRIDAY offer, which was the last nail in the coffin.

I hold a HDFC Bank - "classic banking" account since 2015 and after lot of follow up from my personal banker, I applied for Regalia card. I received it last month and have started using it inplace of the Citi rewards card. The bank gave me a Regalia card as life time free.

What are my chances to get the upgrade to Diners Club Black ? What should be the right spending pattern ? My credit usage is some where between 5 and 6 lacs per year.

Please advise.

[ananthacharya]

Originally Posted by Holyghost

What should I do to get my Platinum HDFC card converted to their Premium cards? I have been holding their card for more than 15 years and over the years they kept on increasing credit limit and currently has 10L+ credit limit. But they never upgraded my card. I recently called their customer service to enquire about upgrade options but they said I am not eligible for any other better cards.
I have not been actively using the card for many years since the reward rate is negligible. I use it only when there are cash back offers on Amazon/Flipkart etc. Also I do not have any savings account with HDFC. Would opening savings account help?

Try logging into Netbanking portal (Or Credit card portal in case of no banking Accounts with HDFC) and check the option for "Credit Card Upgrade" on the left side menu. I was on the same lines as you, and this option was enabled for me even though i didnt get any mail, call or SMS regarding upgrade posibility. Got the new upgraded credit card in hand within 3 days.