Hi All,
Just wanted to share my journey over the years with HDFC credit cards and eventually getting Infinia Metal as it might be helpful for others who might be in a similar pursuit.
May 2016 - First relationship of any sorts with HDFC in the form of HDFC Diners Club Rewardz CC [Now discontinued]. The card was offered LTF with a limit of 60K. Rarely used this card and annual spends would be <50k for a few years.
Mar 2018 - Got an upgrade offer and upgraded to HDFC Diners Club Privilege LTF and LE to 3L. Usage was still minimal and I was still not very much familiar on how to maximize CC benefits. Annual spends remained at <50K.
May 2020 - Again got an upgrade offer to Millenia LTF which I took and spends had increased to ~2L annually. Still had only CC relationship with HDFC. Believe I had missed couple of LE offers and the limit remained at 3L since 2018. Had started exploring other CCs but was only inclined to LTF cards like Amazon Pay ICICI.
Mar 2021 - Opened salary account with HDFC but wasn't offered any new CC (neither did I ask). No new LE offers also, so continued to hold Millenia LTF at 3L CL.
Jan 2023 - Had an international trip coming up and this is when I actually started researching about best CCs. Started my application for Axis Magnus and reached out to HDFC to upgrade my Millenia LTF to Diners Black / Regalia LTF as few of my colleagues had already got Regalia LTF while opening salary account itself. Knew Millenia might be better but wanted Regalia for international lounge access as I hadn't yet received Axis Magnus. Reached out to my RM who wasn't helpful and denied upgrade. Mailed and dropped a complaint to the customer care to upgrade my Millenia and after 15 days of back and forth and multiple escalations I was upgraded to Regalia LTF with 8L limit and also upgraded to HDFC Preferred banking. Was asked to submit my salary slip at this step.
Oct 2023 - Knowing I had completed more than 6 mos. with Regalia I reached out to the nearest HDFC branch (not my home branch) and tried to get an upgrade. Had minimal spends on Regalia (~1L in 6 mos.). This is when I realized about alumni offer and leveraging that I got Diners Black Plastic LTF with CL of 10L. Sadly, I had no idea about alumni offer before this and neither did anyone from HDFC / my alma mater ever mention this. Anyway, was just asked to submit my degree certificate and this upgrade was done within a week. Also got 2 add-ons for my parents who didn't have any relationship with HDFC earlier. At this stage, i also confirmed with the branch that to get Infinia one needs to spend 7.5L in last 6 mos., limit should be 8L+ and the last card upgrade should have happened atleast 6 mos. prior.
10th May 2024 - By this date I had spent ~8L in last 6 mos. on my DCB LTF. The statement wasn't generated yet and majority of my spends (~5L) were still unbilled and done in May itself.
13th May 2024 - Bill was still not generated so was skeptical to drop a mail to grievance for card upgrade. Instead, went to the same branch as last time and thankfully the staff recognized me. Told them my last 6 mos. spends and how diners' acceptability seemed to be a problem. They seemed to be aligned and asked me to fill the upgrade form and submit to them. They assured that the upgrade process would be smooth and they would also mark it high priority. Wasn't asked to furnish any other document.
16th May 2024 - Had received my DCB statement by now and followed up with the branch on status. They mentioned it was in-process at Chennai office and it was marked as high priority. Continued to wait and check my HDFC app regularly.
20th May 2024 - Around afternoon, I could see FYF Visa Infinia Metal with CL of 10L in my HDFC app and all the dues and RPs were transferred. They card was dispatched the very next day.
Overall, I would consider this journey to be rather smooth and I don't think I had to go out of my way to manufacture spends to get to Infinia. I route most of my spends through Smartbuy so DCB LTF was definitely not a bad card but the enhanced RP capping and 5x on Instant vouchers definitely makes a strong case for Infinia with my use case.
Thanks for reading and hope this helps someone in their journey!
Just wanted to share my journey over the years with HDFC credit cards and eventually getting Infinia Metal as it might be helpful for others who might be in a similar pursuit.
May 2016 - First relationship of any sorts with HDFC in the form of HDFC Diners Club Rewardz CC [Now discontinued]. The card was offered LTF with a limit of 60K. Rarely used this card and annual spends would be <50k for a few years.
Mar 2018 - Got an upgrade offer and upgraded to HDFC Diners Club Privilege LTF and LE to 3L. Usage was still minimal and I was still not very much familiar on how to maximize CC benefits. Annual spends remained at <50K.
May 2020 - Again got an upgrade offer to Millenia LTF which I took and spends had increased to ~2L annually. Still had only CC relationship with HDFC. Believe I had missed couple of LE offers and the limit remained at 3L since 2018. Had started exploring other CCs but was only inclined to LTF cards like Amazon Pay ICICI.
Mar 2021 - Opened salary account with HDFC but wasn't offered any new CC (neither did I ask). No new LE offers also, so continued to hold Millenia LTF at 3L CL.
Jan 2023 - Had an international trip coming up and this is when I actually started researching about best CCs. Started my application for Axis Magnus and reached out to HDFC to upgrade my Millenia LTF to Diners Black / Regalia LTF as few of my colleagues had already got Regalia LTF while opening salary account itself. Knew Millenia might be better but wanted Regalia for international lounge access as I hadn't yet received Axis Magnus. Reached out to my RM who wasn't helpful and denied upgrade. Mailed and dropped a complaint to the customer care to upgrade my Millenia and after 15 days of back and forth and multiple escalations I was upgraded to Regalia LTF with 8L limit and also upgraded to HDFC Preferred banking. Was asked to submit my salary slip at this step.
Oct 2023 - Knowing I had completed more than 6 mos. with Regalia I reached out to the nearest HDFC branch (not my home branch) and tried to get an upgrade. Had minimal spends on Regalia (~1L in 6 mos.). This is when I realized about alumni offer and leveraging that I got Diners Black Plastic LTF with CL of 10L. Sadly, I had no idea about alumni offer before this and neither did anyone from HDFC / my alma mater ever mention this. Anyway, was just asked to submit my degree certificate and this upgrade was done within a week. Also got 2 add-ons for my parents who didn't have any relationship with HDFC earlier. At this stage, i also confirmed with the branch that to get Infinia one needs to spend 7.5L in last 6 mos., limit should be 8L+ and the last card upgrade should have happened atleast 6 mos. prior.
10th May 2024 - By this date I had spent ~8L in last 6 mos. on my DCB LTF. The statement wasn't generated yet and majority of my spends (~5L) were still unbilled and done in May itself.
13th May 2024 - Bill was still not generated so was skeptical to drop a mail to grievance for card upgrade. Instead, went to the same branch as last time and thankfully the staff recognized me. Told them my last 6 mos. spends and how diners' acceptability seemed to be a problem. They seemed to be aligned and asked me to fill the upgrade form and submit to them. They assured that the upgrade process would be smooth and they would also mark it high priority. Wasn't asked to furnish any other document.
16th May 2024 - Had received my DCB statement by now and followed up with the branch on status. They mentioned it was in-process at Chennai office and it was marked as high priority. Continued to wait and check my HDFC app regularly.
20th May 2024 - Around afternoon, I could see FYF Visa Infinia Metal with CL of 10L in my HDFC app and all the dues and RPs were transferred. They card was dispatched the very next day.
Overall, I would consider this journey to be rather smooth and I don't think I had to go out of my way to manufacture spends to get to Infinia. I route most of my spends through Smartbuy so DCB LTF was definitely not a bad card but the enhanced RP capping and 5x on Instant vouchers definitely makes a strong case for Infinia with my use case.
Thanks for reading and hope this helps someone in their journey!
