HDFC Freedom Credit Card Rejection

[bhavyakjain]

Hello

I had applied for HDFC Freedom card from branch via offline process.
Next day, the branch agent called me and said I am getting Millennia as LTF if I want. I said yes and proceeded with digital journey.
The card got approved.
When I received the card, I called customers care to confirm if it was LTF. They denied nad said it is a paid card. I immediately closed the card BEFORE activation.

I also filed a complaint on HDFC support & grievance email. The branch manager called to me and tried to lighten the issue. He asked me to apply for Freedom card again. I also let it go since I didn't want to fight unnecessarily.

I was unable to apply online, since HDFC has a cooldown period.
I raised the same issue on the same thread with no response.

A couple days later, a branch agent contacted me from another branch asking me to apply online and mentioned he reached out due to aforementioned email.

I went ahead and applied via offline process.

Today I received the rejection mail for the Freedom card citing internal reasons.

I hold salary account with HDFC and ama preferred customer. I don't have any HDFC credit card yet. I have a monthly salary credit more than 2 lakhs. My CIBIL is 778.
I have other bank credit card with limits ranging 5 L to 12 L.

Can someone help here please?
I am looking to get HDFC card due to ongoing LTF offer, mainly for online instant discounts.

 

[HumorSimpson]

won't be spending much on Millenia as I use cashback card for most online usage
For offline I have axis Ace, these both serve me really good.

Last BBD I got a whopping 11K disc. for a laptop on HDFC core cards . So the 1K you pay is OK in my opinion.
Also, only HDFC rewards education paymnets.

 

[anonymuos]

What you should have done bro is emailed HDFC customer care and asked them to flip/downgrade your paid Millennia to LTF Freedom. Now 6 months later you will be able to apply for a core card again I guess. This stupid bank doesn't consider mis-selling to make an exception for relaxing the cooldown period.

 

[bhavyakjain]

What you should have done bro is emailed HDFC customer care and asked them to flip/downgrade your paid Millennia to LTF Freedom. Now 6 months later you will be able to apply for a core card again I guess. This stupid bank doesn't consider mis-selling to make an exception for relaxing the cooldown period.

By then, Freedom might not be LTF anymore
Is there anything I can do for now ?

 

[anonymuos]

By then, Freedom might not be LTF anymore
Is there anything I can do for now ?

There will be a CIBIL entry for HDFC so can't do anything for now and it will only add more entries without them approving any card so wait 6 months. Some core card LTF offer will hopefully come in 6 months, if not then definitely in 12 months. But a higher variant paid is better than lower variant LTF IMHO in case of HDFC as after a few years/spends you can get it converted to LTF. That said, if you're dead set on your card being LTF (since you actually closed the paid Millennia), then directly getting HDFC card as LTF happens mostly via pre-approved offer algorithms or festive offers to manually apply (these are less common on core cards) or C2C offline route.

 

[anonymuos]

By then, Freedom might not be LTF anymore
Is there anything I can do for now ?

Bro, I can feel your frustration although I am different category of customer - self employed so they have a bias in algorithms and criteria (much higher ITR requirement) unlike salaried. With a salary like yours, they should've granted you Millennia LTF. I've had my fair share of struggles with HDFC. Since 2022 I am trying to get Millennia credit card LTF, now at this point even if paid suppose I had wouldn't have mattered as my spends would have waived off charges or I would have managed to convert it to LTF with enough spends. But I still can't get it. They first declined it to me when I manually applied in 2022. Then was offered Business MoneyBack as a carrot via preapproved offer. It was a trap. Never take MoneyBack cards, and especially avoid Business MoneyBack variant which doesn't work on ANY instant discount Amazon/Flipkart offers. The mistake was putting self-employed in my profile due to which the stupid algorithm thinks self-employed don't need to shop from Amazon or Flipkart. They are never offered any consumer credit cards. Luckily just then around end of 2022, Neu cards had gotten launched. So I got Tata Neu Plus FYF approved quickly with shared limit with Business MoneyBack. I was disappointed in all the decisions I took.

A year later I got my Neu Plus FYF converted to Neu Plus LTF via IPL Spends contest. Then few months later, upgraded to Neu Infinity LTF via escalation email. Then closed the Business MoneyBack (another mistake). Applied for Millennia on C2C basis offline. Was declined again. Then got Swiggy LTF (I was one of the first to get it LTF on the same day they started LTF offer in May). That eased the pain a little bit of not having Millennia.

But now I was stuck with 2 cobranded cards and not a core card. So couldn't use my HDFC cards at all in Flipkart BBD or Amazon GIF sale as cobranded are disabled in most festive sales (although Neu Infinity did work in instant discounts in all sales before the BBD/GIF sale). Online official bank channel kept declining any core card despite 8 months of getting Swiggy LTF. It still said "You have recently applied" after 8 months. Offline C2C/branch won't even let me apply now for a core card, saying no core card EVER for you unless you close BOTH cobranded. Talked to my Preferred banking RM and BM but both refusing to help with a core card like Freedom or MoneyBack+. WTF. I was furious.

Finally I applied for Freedom as a core card as crappy as it is, in this current LTF offer but via PAYTM app channel (this is considered different than their usual crappy online channel on hdfcbank.com). Was approved LTF the next day. Now finally got Freedom LTF, Neu Infinity LTF and Swiggy LTF. This core card, Freedom is shit but like you I can now settle for LTF for instant offers, after few months/years, I can hopefully get it upgraded some day to Millennia or Regalia Gold (although I think Millennia is still more suitable for my requirements) than RG.

I was still angry that my journey towards a core card from HDFC was so long and painful, after 2 years of struggle, I got it due to uninformed bad decisions on my part and stupid hostile bank policies. So to loot HDFC to the maximum extent for instant offers, I quickly added my mom's name to my savings account which created her customer ID. Then requested 2 add-ons, one for Neu Infinity LTF and another for Freedom LTF. Still I felt I hadn't punished HDFC enough. So requested UPI RuPay the other day from MyCards from both mine and mom's numbers (these cards work on instant discounts even though rewards are useless, and LTF banner was showing for UPI RuPay!). It takes 10-15 working days to see them in My Cards. Hopefully will get them too so will have 4-5 cards that work for discounts, 2 Neu Infinity to loot RuPay offers from 2 numbers and 1 Swiggy. All LTF cards. In flat discounts, it doesn't matter if your card is Infinia or Freedom/MoneyBack+, HDFC have also said they are gonna stop double dip so reward points not given in sales.

Now I am being shown Pixel CC LTF offer in PayZapp but having just gotten Freedom, I know it's going to be declined plus with only 1.88L limit and not a single LE in 2 years, I don't want to split my HDFC CC limit just yet like a horcux. Maybe I can take Pixel in future LTF offer when I get an LE or when they come to their senses and stop splitting the limit.

 

[Shin-Chan]

Do not over complicate.

For HDFC we all have 1 simple goal to reach Infinia and the journey is somewhat like : Freedom/MB+ --> Millennia --> Regalia/Regalia Gold -> DCB/DCB Metal -> Infinia.

Now with your profile you shall negotiate with your HDFC PoC for your corporate get his number from HR; You should be getting atleast Regallia Gold, even if its Paid thats fine at time we need to look at the cost vs opportunity and here Regalia Gold Paid as first card is better than Freedom LTF.

Also the Base limit for Regalia will be higher than Freedom or Millennia hence take a step, knock on all the possible doors before taking a step forward.

Ignore all Noise, get your core card then get Swiggy CC and Chill !!

 

[aniketkr.sharma]

By then, Freedom might not be LTF anymore
Is there anything I can do for now ?

I think you are just not eligible now, who takes that much tension for ltf cards if earning more than 2 lakhs per month?

 

[rkv]

Hello

I had applied for HDFC Freedom card from branch via offline process.
Next day, the branch agent called me and said I am getting Millennia as LTF if I want. I said yes and proceeded with digital journey.
The card got approved.
When I received the card, I called customers care to confirm if it was LTF. They denied nad said it is a paid card. I immediately closed the card BEFORE activation.

I also filed a complaint on HDFC support & grievance email. The branch manager called to me and tried to lighten the issue. He asked me to apply for Freedom card again. I also let it go since I didn't want to fight unnecessarily.

I was unable to apply online, since HDFC has a cooldown period.
I raised the same issue on the same thread with no response.

A couple days later, a branch agent contacted me from another branch asking me to apply online and mentioned he reached out due to aforementioned email.

I went ahead and applied via offline process.

Today I received the rejection mail for the Freedom card citing internal reasons.

I hold salary account with HDFC and ama preferred customer. I don't have any HDFC credit card yet. I have a monthly salary credit more than 2 lakhs. My CIBIL is 778.
I have other bank credit card with limits ranging 5 L to 12 L.

Can someone help here please?
I am looking to get HDFC card due to ongoing LTF offer, mainly for online instant discounts.

Apply through paytm. No cooldown period. I got three ltf cards in this ltf season.

 

[newinnov]

Apply through paytm. No cooldown period. I got three ltf cards in this ltf season.

please mention your timeline and channel

 

[rkv]

Millenia. applied August. Approved September with 1l. Closed on October by not activating it.

Swiggy ltf- applied via bank website on November. Approved in two days with 1.92l limit.

Neu infinity ltf- applied through agent link in November. Approved as floater with swiggy.

Freedom ltf- applied through paytm. Approved with same limit as other cards.

 

[bhavyakjain]

Apply through paytm. No cooldown period. I got three ltf cards in this ltf season.

I tried
Applied for freedom but after cibil check automatically got converted to money-back paid
No option to switch