HDFC offering Infinia against investment - is it worth it?

[anirban.choudhury]

The fact is, amongst larger banks Axis's FD rates are amongst the highest! Some smaller banks do offer rates that are a bit higher. Some SFBs offer even higher rates. But fair comparisons should be apple to apple.
.

Buy why would I only consider large banks ?

 

[SSV]

My POV is simple
Cards have 2 types of benefits , spend based and non spend based

For non spend based , there are 100's of cards providing the same old benefits like lounge , golf , etc
For spend based benefits , one needs to spend and if one doesn't has that kinds of spends then the rewards are pretty basic , accelerated points just capped to 7500 miles which seems like a joke for a card which is claimed as the best rewarding card in India , Magnus Burgundy or Plat Charge where in gives unlined accelerated points under the monthly milestone and reward xcelerator respectively.

When I started with my credit card journey I too was enticed by the whims of Infinia as marketed by the so called social media influencer , but once I learnt the game with Magnus and other Amex cards , I can clearly say for spend based benefits none can beat the axis cards ( but you will need to bear with Axis ) or Amex ( for a more peaceful environment 🙂)

No rewards can justify this Period.
Doing an investment for a credit card is a strictly no from my side
No matter the even if it gave rewards as high as MB

No matter how infinite amount of rewards they give I won’t even touch banks like Axis with a barge pole… Period..
The rewards won’t justify the humiliation great a banker would do to their esteemed customers

 

[Trust Me]

... for me Axis stands at a good place and my issues have been taken care of always. While with HDFC, it's a long battle and no resolution. But your view may differ about these banks.

Haha, ... actually my personal view is diametrically opposite yours in this regard!

If I am to go by my own experience, I would have to truthfully and sincerely just swap Axis and HDFC in the first part of your statement above! 🙂

 

[Riya]

For vouchers it's again GC or MRCC

Infinia provides more than double the GC and MRCC returns... But managing a super premium card just for GV is not practical... These cards are for thise who actually SPEND

 

[anirban.choudhury]

No matter how infinite amount of rewards they give I won’t even touch banks like Axis with a barge pole… Period..
The rewards won’t justify the humiliation great a banker would do to their esteemed customers

That's again a personal experience
Axis has a love hate relationship
You just can't ignore Axis 😂😂

 

[anirban.choudhury]

Infinia provides more than double the GC and MRCC returns... But managing a super premium card just for GV is not practical... These cards are for thise who actually SPEND

If it's spends then again one can put everything on Magnus Burgundy
It's the father of all cards when it comes to high spending.

For 5-10k Amazon vouchers I would choose Amex cards over Infinia as the cumulative rewards would be better
Infinia - 12k voucher - 2000 points
Amex - 12k voucher - 1600 + 1240 points ( 2840 points )
For Airmiles both gets transferred at 1:0.5 for good FFP's
And 1:1 on smartbuy
1:1 on Marriot Bonvoy ( sometimes better on bonus ).

 

[SSV]

That's again a personal experience
Axis has a love hate relationship
You just can't ignore Axis 😂😂

That’s what I am saying, we don’t need to wait for bad things to happen to us..
If it happens to others means, it would happen to us tomorrow/ a day after tomorrow…it’s only a matter of time…
A wise man will learn from others experiences…
This unprofessional, unethical , disrespectful behaviour lies in the genes of axis, as it didn’t happen to us will no way warrant any serious relationship with axis irrespective of rewards they provide…
it should not be ignored as love hate relationship…

 

[Trust Me]

Buy why would I only consider large banks ?

Well, I can't speak for you, but if I'm to invest anything above 5 lakhs in FDs, I would be much more comfortable investing in one of the larger banks.

Of course, I'm quite puzzled myself as to the reason behind RBI not declaring Axis as one of the SIBs as well, while considering ICICI (which is of a similar size) as one! ... But that's a different topic.

 

[anirban.choudhury]

That’s what I am saying, we don’t need to wait for bad things to happen to us..
If it happens to others means, it would happen to us tomorrow/ a day after tomorrow…it’s only a matter of time…
A wise man will learn from others experiences…
This unprofessional, unethical , disrespectful behaviour lies in the gene of axis, as it didn’t happen to us will no way warrant any serious relationship with axis irrespective of rewards they provide…
it should not be ignored as love hate relationship…

But experiences can be different particularly for banking.

For me I had good experience with Axis and Icici but pretty bad with HDFC & IDFC
So I would never get into relationship with them, and that's why I closed my 0 MAB Imperia programme account with HDFC and a 0 MAB account with IDFC.

I can even go with Kotak , Indusind but never with those 2 banks.

If people were to ask me I would give them negative reviews about those 2 banks and I can 100 people who share the same experience with HDFC when it comes to baking.

 

[anirban.choudhury]

Well, I can't speak for you, but if I'm to invest anything above 5 lakhs in FDs, I would be much more comfortable investing in one of the larger banks.

Of course, I'm quite puzzled myself as to the reason behind RBI not declaring Axis as one of the SIBs as well, while considering ICICI (which is of a similar size) as one! ... But that's a different topic.

Rather than doing one 30 lakhs FD with one bank I would choose higher interest banks and do 6 * 5 FD's

 

[amitr29]

True true, M4B still much ahead in non-spend based benefits. Infinia should have got airport concierge by now, they have lagged in the game. Even IDFCFirst Wealth gives Airport Spa right?

It's just a good sport to hold onto all of them and use all benefits available. Make hay while the sun shines.

Agree, I spent 20 lacs on credit card for my house renovation. Spents were mostly offline on VRF, Decor, Furniture, Electronics etc. I received 3,15,000 points on M4B whereas would have received only 66,666 points on Infinia. This is a huge difference.

Infact just to compare Infinia with Marquee, if we spend a 1 lac month ( No Smartbuy etc), you get 2,16,000 points on Marquee and Infinia one gets 40000 points. So, at 0.25/point redemption on flights/hotels, Marquee will give value of 44000 against 40000 with Infinia

 

[amitr29]

No matter how infinite amount of rewards they give I won’t even touch banks like Axis with a barge pole… Period..
The rewards won’t justify the humiliation great a banker would do to their esteemed customers

For me, that idiot and useless bank is HDFC.. Pathetic bank.. Most stupid employees across and worst policies. I am sure no bank in India takes application for x card and send lower category Y card, though customer qualifies and they don't even take customer approval

 

[sid16]

Personally, I agree that Axis Bank experience has been vastly superior to HDFC Bank experience. I'm a Burgundy customer since a very long time and I have always received the right attention from the bank. On the other hand, Privy League relationship of Kotak is quite useless. Classic relationship of HDFC also has been quite useless. RMs of Kotak and HDFC keep changing but hardly do they come to you to develop relationships. Axis Bank has disrupted what was a monopolized credit card market of HDFC Bank. As consumers, we need such disruptions, else there will be no improvements and value additions for us.

 

[Trust Me]

Rather than doing one 30 lakhs FD with one bank I would choose higher interest banks and do 6 * 5 FD's

What if I have 300 L to invest in FDs?

 

[Riya]

What if I have 300 L to invest in FDs?

Then stop working and enjoy the interest.... 25L per annum is no less as passive income 🤣🤣

 

[anirban.choudhury]

What if I have 300 L to invest in FDs?

Then God Bless you

 

[SSV]

Then stop working and enjoy the interest.... 25L per annum is no less as passive income 🤣🤣

I guess he is already doing that.

@Trust Me , is a foreign returned, well settled gentleman, is my guess

 

[anirban.choudhury]

Agree, I spent 20 lacs on credit card for my house renovation. Spents were mostly offline on VRF, Decor, Furniture, Electronics etc. I received 3,15,000 points on M4B whereas would have received only 66,666 points on Infinia. This is a huge difference.

Infact just to compare Infinia with Marquee, if we spend a 1 lac month ( No Smartbuy etc), you get 2,16,000 points on Marquee and Infinia one gets 40000 points. So, at 0.25/point redemption on flights/hotels, Marquee will give value of 44000 against 40000 with Infinia

Absolutely there are 10's of cards which provides insanely higher returns on high spends
Still don't understand why there is a craze for Infinia

 

[techt]

What if I have 300 L to invest in FDs?

Apply for Magnus reserve.

 

[SSV]

Apply for Magnus reserve.

Is this a new hybrid card that you are designing in collaboration with AXES?? 🪓🪓