Infinia Infinia Upgrade Offer - Should i reject?

[nits123]

I received infinia upgrade offer FYF. Currently, i have Regalia GOLD LTF...My annual spend on this card is tad below 10 lac so that it is not reported in AIS even though income is much higher still i prefer to keep spend below 10 lakh. I requested HDFC to convert FYF to LTF but i doubt they will oblige...My RM is dumbo...Any other options i have to convert this offer to LTF or Should i let go this offer and wait for LTF offer in future.

I observed that if we reject PAID offer then HDFC do provide a LTF in future....I rejected PAID DCB metal and received Regalia GOLD LTF...Maybe i am wrong.

 

[Maikalal Jaikishan]

I am starting to understand. I am not a high flyer, so this is perhaps not for me.

 

[techt]

I am starting to understand. I am not a high flyer, so this is perhaps not for me.

Yes. This is not for many. Only useful for frequent flyers.

 

[Maikalal Jaikishan]

Yes. This is not for many. Only useful for frequent flyers.

Yes, I reject this card on the basis of my sad lifestyle before HDFC can reject me on the basis of my sad income statement and spends hehehehe. Easy way to protect my self esteem lol

 

[MusicalMind]

You'll get 12500 points on renewal ₹1=1 point for flights and hotels so you basically get ₹12500 back. You only need to pay GST which is worth for this card

 

[Maikalal Jaikishan]

You'll get 12500 points on renewal ₹1=1 point for flights and hotels so you basically get ₹12500 back. You only need to pay GST which is worth for this card

Oh that's nice. Let me try and contact my RM with talks of a huge FD. I feel like playing a game hehehe. If he asks for my ITR I will act offended.

 

[deepcards]

Take it. It's almost the best card out there. and you get 12.5k RPs (which are worth 12.5k Rs. if spent on Apple, Tanishq, and also 1:1 transfer possible in some cases) and also on flight bookings.
I personally don't use points on Hotel Bookings via the smartbuy portal- as the room rent mentioned there is higher then on other portals- but it works good for flight bookings (specially international) and some Apple products and Tanishq vouchers.

From what I have read almost everywhere, HDFC never offers it as LTF. If someone got it, I won't believe them (unless they opened a high amount FD or some other useless thing- which I will never prefer just to get a credit card for LTF).

 

[Maikalal Jaikishan]

Take it. It's almost the best card out there. and you get 12.5k RPs (which are worth 12.5k Rs. if spent on Apple, Tanishq, and also 1:1 transfer possible in some cases) and also on flight bookings.
I personally don't use points on Hotel Bookings via the smartbuy portal- as the room rent mentioned there is higher then on other portals- but it works good for flight bookings (specially international) and some Apple products and Tanishq vouchers.

From what I have read almost everywhere, HDFC never offers it as LTF. If someone got it, I won't believe them (unless they opened a high amount FD or some other useless thing- which I will never prefer just to get a credit card for LTF).

I do spend a lot on Apple products because I stay at home watching youtube travel videos instead of actually travelling (chronic fatigue syndrome) , so I will give this a try with FD for science.

 

[techt]

Oh that's nice. Let me try and contact my RM with talks of a huge FD. I feel like playing a game hehehe. If he asks for my ITR I will act offended.

Those 12500 points worth fall to half, if you redeem for amazon voucher. Effectively you will be paying about 8k fee.

 

[anirban.choudhury]

I received infinia upgrade offer FYF. Currently, i have Regalia GOLD LTF...My annual spend on this card is tad below 10 lac so that it is not reported in AIS even though income is much higher still i prefer to keep spend below 10 lakh. I requested HDFC to convert FYF to LTF but i doubt they will oblige...My RM is dumbo...Any other options i have to convert this offer to LTF or Should i let go this offer and wait for LTF offer in future.

I observed that if we reject PAID offer then HDFC do provide a LTF in future....I rejected PAID DCB metal and received Regalia GOLD LTF...Maybe i am wrong.

If you feel after paying 12500+gst you can still get a better value out of it , then you should probably take it otherwise you can skip, the 12500 points that you will get against the fees is completely at the mercy of the bank , they can devalue it or worse they can completely withdraw it so your decision should not consider that fact.
If your regalia was paid I would have said take the offer , use it for 1 year and then downgrade back to Regalia

I had a similar situation when I upgraded my LTF DCB to paid DCB metal , the differentiator in my case was I was anyway hitting the annual fees waiver for that card , and with my spending pattern I couldn't have easily got the quarterly milestone which would have given me a higher return than Infinia.
But unfortunately HDFC devalued it's points which in turn had made my DCB pretty useless.

 

[Maikalal Jaikishan]

Is Infinia a better deal than Amex Plat charge? The fee difference is huge (12.5 vs 60k) but Infinia is a lot harder to get.

 

[Maikalal Jaikishan]

Benefits of this card outweigh the annual fee. Effective annual fee is only gst portion if you are not able to spend 10L. If you travel by flight couple of times a year, you can definitely milk more benefits than annual fees.

Is Infinia better than Amex Plat if the travel is once a year overseas?

 

[deepcards]

I do spend a lot on Apple products because I stay at home watching youtube travel videos instead of actually travelling (chronic fatigue syndrome) , so I will give this a try with FD for science.

Ok, so I am not sure what Apple products you are interested in, but I still believe that's redeeming your points for an iPhone is not the best use of your points- as many times you can get some 3k off on iphone and other discounts/deals- at flipkart/croma/etc.

e.g. iPhone 15 128GB needs 79,900 Points, but you can get it in around 69,000 with some discounts and offers on flipkart (even much lesser sometimes). so in that way, the 1:1 ratio becomes 1:0.87 or something.

Best is to use them for flight bookings and some hotel miles transfers. But as you said, "Chronic Fatigue Syndrome": so best is for you to decide if this would suit your needs or not.

For me, off late i have been traveling a lot post-covid- so it worked for me. (although, I got the upgrade offer once in Dec 21, at that time I didn't upgrade, and when I realize it can be good value for money, I had to ask again and again the HDFC card team- finally they offered this to me last year when I had spent around 7-8 lacs in the last 6 months on my Regalia).

 

[Maikalal Jaikishan]

Ok, so I am not sure what Apple products you are interested in, but I still believe that's redeeming your points for an iPhone is not the best use of your points- as many times you can get some 3k off on iphone and other discounts/deals- at flipkart/croma/etc.

e.g. iPhone 15 128GB needs 79,900 Points, but you can get it in around 69,000 with some discounts and offers on flipkart (even much lesser sometimes). so in that way, the 1:1 ratio becomes 1:0.87 or something.

Best is to use them for flight bookings and some hotel miles transfers. But as you said, "Chronic Fatigue Syndrome": so best is for you to decide if this would suit your needs or not.

For me, off late i have been traveling a lot post-covid- so it worked for me. (although, I got the upgrade offer once in Dec 21, at that time I didn't upgrade, and when I realize it can be good value for money, I had to ask again and again the HDFC card team- finally they offered this to me last year when I had spent around 7-8 lacs in the last 6 months on my Regalia).

Thanks for the insight.

 

[deepcards]

Is Infinia better than Amex Plat if the travel is once a year overseas?

Amex Plat is for the luxury loving people- it's benefits, afaik, are designed towards those, who travel a lot internationally. And I am not sure if those kind of people would worry about the reward rate, etc.

 

[Swastik]

Is Infinia better than Amex Plat if the travel is once a year overseas?

Yup (+ 3 Words)

 

[Maikalal Jaikishan]

Amex Plat is for the luxury loving people- it's benefits, afaik, are designed towards those, who travel a lot internationally. And I am not sure if those kind of people would worry about the reward rate, etc.

Considering that people say Amex will stop offering renewal points after the first year, I tend to agree with this.

 

[deepcards]

Considering that people say Amex will stop offering renewal points after the first year, I tend to agree with this.

I am not sure about Amex Plat, but with Amex Plat Reserve, they do offer if your spends are anywhere >2-3 Lacs p.a. So for Amex Plat Reserve, they offer a taj voucher worth 10k Rs. after paying the renewal fees of 10k + GST (if your spends are >5L).
I hold an Amex Plat Reserve since last 6 years, and got the fee waived off 3 times, one time they used 5k points to pay the fees, once they gave me 15k points when I paid the fees and once they offered me a Taj Voucher (even though my spends were less. You just need to call them and say that you want the fees reviewed or close the card.

For Plat Charge card, Im not sure how that works or if someone who is paying 60k in fees for a card will be doing that.

 

[Maikalal Jaikishan]

I am not sure about Amex Plat, but with Amex Plat Reserve, they do offer if your spends are anywhere >2-3 Lacs p.a. So for Amex Plat Reserve, they offer a taj voucher worth 10k Rs. after paying the renewal fees of 10k + GST (if your spends are >5L).
I hold an Amex Plat Reserve since last 6 years, and got the fee waived off 3 times, one time they used 5k points to pay the fees, once they gave me 15k points when I paid the fees and once they offered me a Taj Voucher (even though my spends were less. You just need to call them and say that you want the fees reviewed or close the card.

For Plat Charge card, Im not sure how that works or if someone who is paying 60k in fees for a card will be doing that.

Ah that is awesome! Paisa vasool!

 

[Trio]

Amex Plat Reserve is an useless card IMHO.No complimentary International Lounge access...5 Lakh Spend based 10k Worthless gift voucher when you can get a better deal through other sources...