I'm the first person in India to get a credit card limit of ₹1000

[tempmirzaa]

 

[Gau₹av]

I have been trying for just a 5K CLE on my IDFC Card for years and they are not doing it. So, I can understand the fruestration of the OP.

Backstory.
I hold an IDFC First Select CC with a CL of 4.95 Lacs, I have been wanting to get IDFC First Wealth CC (I already hold Wealth SB with TRV of 10L+). But Despite multiple attempts over the last year, they have not given a CLE of just 5K. Because floor limit of Wealth is 5L, once I have a CL of 5, I can request for a variant upgrade.

It is frustrating.

They are extremely stubborn for no reason, and negotiation via email falls on deaf ears. But you can try for IDFC Wealth based on your Wealth banking relationship over phone call with customer care even if your limit is not 5L+. I had Wealth banking too but made the uninformed mistake of going for WOW card since back in 2022, there weren't many easily obtainable and LTF/low priced 0-forex credit cards and my spends on forex txns were high in 2022. Now there are many options for 0-forex. But I was declined any unsecured credit card due to "policy" even after closing WOW card after a year.

Despite a very good TRV with IDFC, and my parents accounts also Wealth, they wouldn't even let me apply for an unsecured card due to "policy". They are that indifferent. It just gave some error every time. Talked to PNO to allow me a fair chance to allow me to apply and considering my TRV give me Wealth only. After RBI ombudsman threats, PNO issued Classic with 1L limit despite 3L limit already on IndusInd Legend (had applied on C2C basis online after closing WOW and it was throwing error due to owning WOW card in the past but they had the application details). Thereafter I just used the card regularly and got 1.15L LE, then 1.32L LE. Every year now they are giving auto LE via WhatsApp if spends are good. Meanwhile my friends who hardly use the card are getting HUGE LEs, far bigger.

My CL is still at 1.32L but since they decided to make all add-ons + image cards paid from Feb 2025 (an idea inspired by the greedy ICICI Bank), I wanted Wealth CC + enough addons before that addons-becoming-paid date no matter what so I once again decided to try and leverage my Wealth banking relationship via customer care (note: not via credit card team) which is hopeless and insists on 5L limit.

You have to first negotiate with customer care on phone call and tell them your SPENDS in financial year, on-time payment record and Wealth banking relationship, and get them to raise a service request described as "Card upgrade without limit enhancement". Tell them you don't want LE, only card upgrade. The Reward rate of Wealth is now exactly the same as Millennia/Classic/Select after the May 2024 devaluation. Only the movie benefits and lounge and some other benefits are there like refund of canceled flight ticket for any reason etc.

If one customer service person doesn't agree, hang up and connect to a different one. Eventually I got Wealth CC at 1.32L, and also image (personalized) card, plus addons. The earlier Image Card from Classic remained at Classic, it wasn't upgraded so now I've 1 Classic (image card), 1 Wealth, 1 Wealth image card and 1 addon all LTF. The benefit of Classic is it gives 25% discount on a single ticket on District app without any minimum order value, otherwise for BOGO 250 there's Wealth CC. In terms of reward rate, they are all the same anyway - a dismal 0.5% reward rate up to first 20K, and 1% RR at 40K, 1.3% at 80K, 1.5% around 1.5L spends. Try it via customer care, you may get it.

About how to approach them for upgrade this way - I learned it from some post on this great community only, it's buried somewhere