DCB HDFC flagging e wallet transactions

[shashiishere]

This is an email I have received from HDFC for the second time raising concerns about my e wallet transactions.

I had received a similar email without the threatening part of blocking my card about 2 months ago and has raised queries about the email with infinia.services customer care. Received totally generic reply saying follow MITC. When I when through the MITC I didn't find anything specific to wallet loads. Does anybody have experienced something similar? What should be done next?

PS I'm not rotating money from wallets. Just using for UPI transactions

 

[noobdipesh]

How much are you spending on average per month?

 

[blackarrow]

What is subject line of this mail

 

[shashiishere]

How much are you spending on average per month?

On an average about 50 to 60k loaded to Amazon wallet with convenience fee.

 

[Pissant]

On an average about 50 to 60k loaded to Amazon wallet with convenience fee.

How do you spend this much on UPI?

 

[shashiishere]

How do you spend this much on UPI?

I used it to pay rent, maid etc

 

[Pissant]

I used it to pay rent, maid etc

oh. Makes sense. But at that point why not just use something like RedGiraffe to pay rent?

 

[shashiishere]

I am using this method for the last few months as my landlord doesn't have a pan card

 

[Pissant]

Well they are definitely keeping an eye on your wallet transactions so I would suggest using another card.

 

[Harsha896]

I am using this method for the last few months as my landlord doesn't have a pan card

why only hdfc card, maybe if you have multiple cc, better to split it as anyway hdfc dont have any benefits for wallet loads or you using it for milestone benefits?

 

[shashiishere]

why only hdfc card, maybe if you have multiple cc, better to split it as anyway hdfc dont have any benefits for wallet loads or you using it for milestone benefits?

Yes I use mainly for milestones on my DCB metal

 

[sourpai]

Even with milestone, isn't it a net loss? Amazon charges 2.36% for wallet loads while HDFC does not give any reward points.

Isn't direct UPI better?

 

[harshgupta940]

ASFAIK wallet txns are not eligible for base 3.33% RP so you are only getting 10k/4lk (2.5%)
So net value back of 0.14% after deducting the convience fee (2.36%).
Now this is when you are considering 1RP = Rs 1 but practically when you use your RP even for Flights/Hotels the value of 1RP = Rs 0.9 (max) as you miss out on 5x/10x RP and sometimes even have to pay higher amount on Smartbuy as compared to other options.
So that 2.5% milestone bonus is effectively 2.25% which is indeed good for normal spends but for these txns it is a net loss of 0.11%

Now definitely if you calculate the reward rate with the logic that you would not be able to reach the milestone if you weren't doing 50k/month wallet txns then your effective reward rate on those wallet txns increases to 3.64% (6% ((10000*0.9)/150000) -2.36%) but I still don't feel this is worth the risk of getting the credit card account closed as the absolute value of 3.64%*150000 = 5460 / quater that too in form of Reward Points isn't something to take so much risk for.

Instead if you were paying rent using CC you could have got Idfc Vistara while it was available to apply

I hope you get my point

 

[shashiishere]

Even with milestone, isn't it a net loss? Amazon charges 2.36% for wallet loads while HDFC does not give any reward points.

Isn't direct UPI better?

Yes I use it to complete quarterly milestones of 10000 points if I'm short

 

[shashiishere]

ASFAIK wallet txns are not eligible for base 3.33% RP so you are only getting 10k/4lk (2.5%)
So net value back of 0.14% after deducting the convience fee (2.36%).
Now this is when you are considering 1RP = Rs 1 but practically when you use your RP even for Flights/Hotels the value of 1RP = Rs 0.9 (max) as you miss out on 5x/10x RP and sometimes even have to pay higher amount on Smartbuy as compared to other options.
So that 2.5% milestone bonus is effectively 2.25% which is indeed good for normal spends but for these txns it is a net loss of 0.11%

Now definitely if you calculate the reward rate with the logic that you would not be able to reach the milestone if you weren't doing 50k/month wallet txns then your effective reward rate on those wallet txns increases to 3.64% (6% ((10000*0.9)/150000) -2.36%) but I still don't feel this is worth the risk of getting the credit card account closed as the absolute value of 3.64%*150000 = 5460 / quater that too in form of Reward Points isn't something to take so much risk for.

Instead if you were paying rent using CC you could have got Idfc Vistara while it was available to apply

I hope you get my point

Thanks I got your point and I'll try to shifting to other cards. But have you guys come across any limits or number of e wallet transactions in the MITC or just unofficially the bank has its own limits?

 

[Lobogris]

I used it to pay rent, maid etc

This is money rotation.

 

[harshgupta940]

Thanks I got your point and I'll try to shifting to other cards. But have you guys come across any limits or number of e wallet transactions in the MITC or just unofficially the bank has its own limits?

Actually e wallet & rent mccs are often fed into their algorithm to check for any misuse of the credit card and this is the most used way to rotate money using credit cards.

Credit cards are meant to keep you in the debt trap and some oversmart users who are unable to pay their CC bills instead of converting expenses to emis from them use these methods to rotate money and the banks have to either give them RPs on those txns (like in this case you took milestone benefit) or doesn't earn on it and also have that amount blocked for a long time.

PS I'm not rotating money from wallets. Just using for UPI transactions

So even if you explain them that you are not rotating money they don't care about where you are going to use that money after it gets loaded into your wallet as their automated system doesn't understand this.

 

[vaibhav111vaibhav111 is verified member.]

On an average about 50 to 60k loaded to Amazon wallet with convenience fee.

so it seem in next devaluation hdfc might even mentioned this so be prepare and obviously try to not to spend for few months until there a Clarity or use some other milestone card.

 

[Nishan11]

This is an email I have received from HDFC for the second time raising concerns about my e wallet transactions.

I had received a similar email without the threatening part of blocking my card about 2 months ago and has raised queries about the email with infinia.services customer care. Received totally generic reply saying follow MITC. When I when through the MITC I didn't find anything specific to wallet loads. Does anybody have experienced something similar? What should be done next?

PS I'm not rotating money from wallets. Just using for UPI transactions

Take hdfc virtual rupay card as floater to your primary card, add money on phonepe through upi, will charge slightly more than amazon but you will not get notice as it's upi transaction.


** First be full KYC member of phonepe so you can withdraw amount. After being full kyc member, you can withdraw money after 24 hours of adding it.

** I don't support rotation, just suggesting a way if you still wish to do this.

 

[okotoki]

Take hdfc virtual rupay card as floater to your primary card, add money on phonepe through upi, will charge slightly more than amazon but you will not get notice as it's upi transaction.


** First be full KYC member of phonepe so you can withdraw amount. After being full kyc member, you can withdraw money after 24 hours of adding it.

** I don't support rotation, just suggesting a way if you still wish to do this.

Even if we do PhonePe Wallet Load using UPI CC, the MCC is still 6540 - Wallet Load. So, it will fall under the same category, just that it'd be through HDFC UPI Virtual CC and PhonePe charges ~3% convenience fee.