Thanks to the TF community members, I successfully upgraded my HDFC DCB LTF to HDFC Infinia Metal FYF after fighting for 3 months. Here's my story.
HDFC Relationship Context / Basic Info:
Data I was prepared with for the Escalation / Request for Upgrade:
So for existing customers - Spend of > INR 7.5L in trailing 6 months is the most important criteria apart from having a Credit Limit > INR 8L. For NTB customers having a decent salary and opening a salaried account (depending on the branch) could be more than sufficient to get an FYF Infinia Metal directly.
There were options during this journey where a ULIP of ~ INR 2L/year could have gotten me an Infinia. At this point, my investment portfolio couldn't accommodate such an investment even though the Tax-free IRR was equivalent to a good debt instrument. This is again an option if people want to diversify their investment / looking for alternative debt options.
I had a lot of support from the community through several messages and posts that I had written on this topic throughout the last 3 months. Multiple people cheering me on (@elite34700 and others) to not let existing customers be taken for a ride by large banks, thank you to everyone.
Hope this post helps someone else in their journey to Infinia Metal (or probably Infinia Reserve soon)
HDFC Relationship Context / Basic Info:
- Banking Relationship: Savings account (Preferred) for ~13 years
- AMB in HDFC Account: INR 10k
- Existing Cards with HDFC Bank
- Times Titanium Card (from 2016 onwards) - LTF - Credit Limit: 3.3L
- Diners Black (from 2019 onwards) - LTF - Alumni Program - Credit Limit: 3.9L
- Spends in the trailing 6 months on both cards
- Times Titanium - INR 1.9L
- Diners Black - INR 1L
- Other Products with HDFC
- Loan > 1cr
- No other products, loans or fixed deposits
- Main source of income: Salary
Data I was prepared with for the Escalation / Request for Upgrade:
- Banking history with HDFC along with all details (Savings account, Home Loan account, length of relationship, customer ID etc)
- ITR from last year (> INR 36L)
- Salary Slips for the last 3 months
- Bank statement of my salaried account from ICICI for the last 6 months
- Details & quantum of purchases I had routed to my family/friend's cards over the last 6 months (acceptability & reward cap issues)
- Projected spending with a detailed breakdown for the next 6 months
- Escalation 1: RM from my home branch. He rejected the request, internal policies
- Escalation 2: Credit Card customer care. They rejected the request, internal policies
- Escalation 3: grievance.redressalcc@hdfcbank.com. They rejected the request, internal policies
- Escalation 4: PriorityRedressal.CreditCards@hdfcbank.com. They rejected the request, internal policies
- Escalation 5: pnohdfcbank@hdfcbank.com. They rejected the request, internal policies
- Escalation 6: Customer care, one person said he would help me out. Request rejected, internal policies
- Escalation 7: infinia.services@hdfcbank.com. Request rejected, internal policies.
- Escalation 8: BM - Branch Manager of my Home Branch. Spoke to him and sent him an email. He was realistic, and told me spends was not there and to come back only when spends exceeded INR 7.5L in a trailing 6-month period. He said he was helpless in his conversation with the internal credit card team.
- Escalation 9: My RM provided the details of the escalation matrix. I sent an email to the CH - Cluster Head. Post which he forwarded the email to my Branch Manager and he reached out to me to help build a case - NRV across the rest of the family, how much funds I could move, can I move my salary account etc. But he clearly said don't do any of this now and that he was still not confident in my case as the credit cards team seemed to be rejecting things. They asked me to 'Upgrade' to Regalia if acceptability of DCB was my issue, spend INR 7.5L and then apply for Infinia
- Escalation 10: Post-new year, I called the Cluster Manager over the phone & spoke to him. I cited 10+ examples of cases where NTB people were offered Infinia and how they were ill-treating an existing customer who had better stats than the ones who had already been given Infinia. I told him I understood I don't meet the spend criteria, but if the yardstick for granting Infinia was used consistently for all users, I wouldn't even be wasting my time escalating things. He was extremely curt, and defended HDFC throughout the conversation. I finally asked him what is the way forward. He said the BM will take up the case again and see what can be done
- Escalation 11: Throughout all the escalations post my conversation with BM (escalation 8), he was always sympathetic to my case whenever I sent him examples of profiles that have gotten Infinia as an NTB especially. I updated him on my conversation with the cluster manager and told him I don't need Infinia, I am happy with DCB LTF, but I am extremely unhappy with the way HDFC is treating existing customers and I will not stop escalating even if it means I have to go to BBH, GH, CEO if necessary.
So for existing customers - Spend of > INR 7.5L in trailing 6 months is the most important criteria apart from having a Credit Limit > INR 8L. For NTB customers having a decent salary and opening a salaried account (depending on the branch) could be more than sufficient to get an FYF Infinia Metal directly.
There were options during this journey where a ULIP of ~ INR 2L/year could have gotten me an Infinia. At this point, my investment portfolio couldn't accommodate such an investment even though the Tax-free IRR was equivalent to a good debt instrument. This is again an option if people want to diversify their investment / looking for alternative debt options.
I had a lot of support from the community through several messages and posts that I had written on this topic throughout the last 3 months. Multiple people cheering me on (@elite34700 and others) to not let existing customers be taken for a ride by large banks, thank you to everyone.
Hope this post helps someone else in their journey to Infinia Metal (or probably Infinia Reserve soon)
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