A discussion on HDFC's "opposite" mentality

[lpshreyas]

I would like to start with saying that this topic is based on my personal 7 years of experience with the bank, which is why I have posted this as a topic of discussion.

Here's a quick overview of my history with HDFC :

• Opened salary account in February 2017
• Got offered an LTF credit card with it. Can't recall which card it was but I have had Millennia at least since 2018, so I either started with it, or it got upgraded at some point in under 2 years.
• Started with a limit of 1.2L which increased periodically to 4.5L. The last LE was offered sometime in early 2021.
• During this period, my spends were around 10-15k annually. And since 2021, I have consistently spent over 3L annually.
• The same year, Diner's Club Privilege started showing up as an upgrade option.
• Next year, I noticed the option to upgrade my account to the Preferred banking program and upgraded it.
• In 2024, I got Neu Infinity FYF (March) and Swiggy (June). This has taken my annual spends across all 3 cards to around 5L till date.
• This month, the Diner's Club Privilege upgrade disappeared from my account.

During the last year, I have requested the bank for a limit enhancement multiple times with no avail. My request for Regalia Gold has not been heeded. And now, even the existing Diner's Privilege upgrade has been taken back despite being eligible for Regalia-level LTF card under the corporate benefits program.

To me, it looks like HDFC has a very clear (and a very stupid) opposite logic when comes to customer service. The more you use their services and prove your credit-worthiness, the less likely they are to treat you as a valued customer. And all while maintaining 100% timely payments over 7 years, 800+ credit score (which has dropped to 781 due my recent spree of acquiring 9 new cards this year).

 

[brucelee]

I believe it's more to do with the core banking system which HDFC uses which I guess is Oracle Flexcube, unless you have a strong in-house tech team who can fully leverage the capabilities of the system you can only expect half baked risk profile matching for customers. It's also tough for them to move away from it once they adopt it.
I feel banks like SBI, ICICI have robust and nimble systems with domestic core banking products like Bancs and Finnacle where customisations are handled by the TCS, Infy themselves.

 

[lpshreyas]

I feel banks like SBI, ICICI have robust and nimble systems

You say that, but this made me realize I am facing the exact same thing with my ICICI amazon pay card as well. I went from 2L starting limit in 2020 to 6.5L during the height of the pandemic when I rarely used the card. Come 2022, my spends went up exponentially on this card as well(from around 30k in 2021 to over 2L in 2022) and only received a 10k limit enhancement in mid 2023. Nothing since then