HDFC Regalia/Millennia/Regalia First Lounge Access Update

[bhavyegoel]

Important update on Lounge Access via HDFC Credit Cards from December 1st, 2023.
HDFC Regalia First

1. Effective December 1st, 2023, Complimentary lounge access at lounges within and outside India can no longer be availed on Regalia First Card.

HDFC Millennia

1. To Access Domestic Lounges you need to spend Rs 1 lac in a quarter.
2. The number of domestic lounge visits on HDFC Millennia reduced to 1 from 2 per quarter

HDFC Regalia

1. To Access Domestic Lounges you need to spend Rs 1 lac in a quarter.
2. No condition is applicable for International Lounge access using PP issued with HDFC Regalia

HDFC Regalia Gold

1. No changes were made.

Looks like another attempt by HDFC Bank to pocket annual fees by making people upgrade to Regalia Gold who are holding LTF HDFC Regalia and HDFC Millennia.

 

[kgaurav00]

Debit Card Lounge List also revised

 

[shutapdiya]

Debit Card Lounge List also revised

bus yehi bacha tha HDFC ka, kar do isko bhi band completely

 

[sxchzy]

wallet load and cc spends arent considered for this

 

[sxchzy]

bus yehi bacha tha HDFC ka, kar do isko bhi band completely

mujhe kya mere pass to infinnia hai

 

[sloth2805]

I see a lot of people criticizing HDFC and suggesting that HDFC should keep criteria of max 10k spend per quarter.

Let’s be frank, no business wants to lose money. Banks give high rewards and lose money in the beginning just to onboard customers but of course in the long run they intend to make money on every product. As much as they can. A quick google search shows that MDR is 2-3% and banks pay 200 to 1000 per lounge visit. Best case scenario bank will just break even on spends of 10k even if we do not consider any other rewards.

Now I realize it’s not so simple and banks earn money in other ways as well from credit cards. But then no bank needs customers who have LTF cards and spend a very small bare minimum amount that doesn’t earn them any money. Getting free lounge access and giving nothing to the bank in return sounds too good to be true doesn’t it?

And it’s not a question of whether IDFC and ICICI are continuing to give lounge access with very low spends. Eventually any bank that wants to make money will roll back freebies or increase minimum spend threshold. I suppose HDFC feels comfortable enough in its position to not be bothered if they lose loss making customers.

 

[D₹V]

Millennia 1L spend also gave 1000 rupees voucher. So what is to be seen is whether you can choose between 1K voucher or lounge access or have both.

You'll get both

 

[Deleted member 9785]

Debit Card Lounge List also revised

saka no lagega. all other banks will follow in next 3 months or so

Banks are now differentiating between premium and freeloader customers

 

[Walter White]

 

[iNokia]

Kabhi Magnus wale bhi aise baithte the.

 

[Slayer]

Kabhi Magnus wale bhi aise baithte the.

Mein toh abhi bhi aise hi baitha hua hun

 

[sxchzy]

Kabhi Magnus wale bhi aise baithte the.

mein to magnus leke abhi bhi baitha hoo aise hi

 

[Walter White]

Kabhi Magnus wale bhi aise baithte the.

Other cards se matlab other HDFC Bank cards tha 😛

 

[D₹V]

mein to magnus leke abhi bhi baitha hoo aise hi

 

[Noctis7]

A quick google search shows that MDR is 2-3% and banks pay 200 to 1000 per lounge visit. Best case scenario bank will just break even on spends of 10k even if we do not consider any other rewards.

Most businesses negotiate with the banks and pays much lower mdr too, often even below 1%. Plus you now have the ever increasing marketshare of zero MDR UPI and Rupay, so banks are likely to limit spending on CCs and focus on profitability. This is still too drastic of a devaluation though and feel like HDFC will lose a lot of goodwill from it, could have done it more gradually.

 

[sxchzy]

lets see what happens
i am a dreamfolks shareholder will look to buy more

aaj hi lelena chahiye tha 6% bhaga

 

[Quantum]

HDFC to everyone except super premium credit card users:

 

[kochiro]

DC - 2/Quarter @₹5000/Quarter spends
CC - 1/Quarter @₹100000/Quarter spends

🤣

In millennia either you get 1k voucher or lounge. Not both

 

[shrewdoc]

In millennia either you get 1k voucher or lounge. Not both

I think you can take both.
1. Voucher you can take from rewards section of netbanking.
2. Lounge coupon is redeemable from smartbuy.

And believe me, Smartbuy/Payzapp are unrelated to your netbanking. So, can be redeemed individually in my opinion. Well, can only be tested after 1 Dec I think. We'll know for sure then.

 

[Akinich]

For LTF issued cards, I can assume that they'll provide a FYF upgrade to the metal variants, both to Infinnia and DCB and close those plastic cards in order to boost revenue.

Mine isn't a life time free. Its a paid plastic version. My dad has a LTF plastic version. Both of us got the cards by 2020. Will any of this make a difference?

 

[Samrat]

Yeah, for some. But people just don't have only one card with them in this era. Even if per card threshold is set to ₹20k, there would be a significant declutter at lounges, is what I believe. But this requires all card issuers to implement this.

Lounge Access should be a lifestyle benefit and I appreciate HDFC for implementing that, but ₹1L is an overkill. It should have been ₹50-75k I think.

Or they should increase the maximum cashback to ₹1500 on Millennia per statement cycle. This current combination just doesn't make any sense.

The MDR is around 2.5%. Of that HDFC gets maybe 1-1.2%.
On spends of 1lakh, HDFC will earn 1000-1200
For 1 lounge access, banks pay 990. So when they are offering 2, they are still paying approx 800 from their own instead of approx 2k that they were paying earlier.

They are cutting losses but the threshold needs to increase.

Other cards got 5k so that people atleast spend on them. They will also increase eventually with more volume. Right now, HDFC is the 2nd biggest card issuer. Compared to that Icici and IDFC, etc do not even come close to the volume. Naturally they will have low threshold to increase usage.