My Experience in getting HDFC Infinia Metal Card
I have multiple cards ( many would be junk) and got them over period of last 15-20 years when people come to office for promotions. Many times I okayed because it would help the sales guy who had come.
It had become a total mess so I decided to cut down most of the cards and keep only 2 or 3 Premium cards.
My requirement is simple. Should be able to use anywhere and everywhere and unlimited Lounge access across the world for me, my wife and my son who is 10 years. I came across some great videos by TechnoFino and zeroed in on 2 cards HDFC Infinia and Axis Magnus.
- I cancelled my Amex card as I was unnecessarily paying the fees while usage was limited.
- I went to my Axis Bank Branch and asked to issue me a Magnus. Same day they filled the form and in exactly 4 working days card was delivered to my place. I need to apply for add-on for my wife. As she is on a vacation to her parents place will apply once she is back
- ICICI Bank is my Salaried account. Upgrade option of Emerald always pops up . But when I checked with my Bank I came to know that only Primary card holder gets Priority Pass. So its of no use to me for international travels ( Axis Magnus has 8 Visitors access so it covers my son during international travel)
- I went to HDFC Bank. And the whole story began
I have HDFC Times Card with a limit of 13.68 lakhs. I have had HDFC card from past 15 years. In between they sent me a new card as my old card was being phased out but I was not there in India etc..and finally I landed up with a Times Card 🤷♂️
When I selected Upgrade option in net banking and app it says This is the Best Card that you have🤦♂️ . I get at least 10 calls a day to covert my spends to EMI
🙂 which is extremely frustrating
When I went to bank they said we can submit the forms for upgrade of card. But generally I do not get time to visit during Bank times.
I called Customer care and they said "This is the best card I can get"
🙂 . Upon Insisting they asked me to write to Credit Cards team Chennai.
I wrote to them by mentioning my salary ( current month Salary * 12) as net in hand Salary. They responded that Infinia is an invite only card but they can check if Iam eligible for DCB or not once I sent my application to Chennai. I was not interested in DCB based on my Amex experience.
I suddenly realized that mentioning my net in hand salary after taxes was wrong thing I did. I then wrote to grievance team. This time I mentioned my Gross Annual Salary which was way above the requirement for Infinia and questioned them : Are you saying for a person with this Gross Salary and other relation ships with HDFC this is the best card you can offer ? I mentioned that I was planning to close all my 10-15 credit cards and keep only 2-3 premium cards and for the same if was checking with HDFC if Iam eligible for Infinia or not. I received and automated email with Docket number . Days passed but nothing happened. I then called the grievance number. They said they have already responded which I never received. I said I have not received and asked them to forward. They said they do not have access to forward and that they will ask the concerned team to do so. They gave me an ETA of 3 days. I asked ETA of 3 days to just forward me an email which they are claiming they have sent. They said yes and that I have to wait. 3 days past and again the same story.. This continued for few iterations...Then one guy turned out to be good and asked me to call PNO.. He navigated me through HDFC website and gave me PNO numbers and email ID's
I decided to call the PNO for Tamilnadu region ( I am from Pune). This PNO guy was a gentleman. He listened to my issue and then gave me 2 email ID's which also included PNO email ID and asked me to forward my email. On 20th May I forwarded the email. Within 1 hour I started getting SMS's a special case officer by the name Rekha was assigned. I got 2 emails one of them from Priority Redressal mentioning that they are looking into my case and they will get back to me on or before 31st May. ( 11 days).. I thought another time pass thing. I waited till 30th May and when nothing happened I called the Grievance Redressal. To my surprise all people knew me by my name😂 by now . The lady told I will get a response by 31st May. On 31st May nothing happened till 4:00 PM and I gave a call and the answer was that I will definitely get an email before EOD.
At 8:00 PM I got a big apology email and that they do not want to loose a valued customer like me. They had walked through all the discussions I had with them in their apology email and in the end they mentioned that Infinia is Invite only🤣 . But after looking at my profile they may look into my case and asked me to send the self signed upgrade form.
Their message was like we are sorry for all that had happened. Infinia is an invite only but after going through your profile and relationship with HDFC we can look at Infinia with FYF. Had I said said I want to cancel my card I think they would have given me life time free 😎 . But I did not want to stretch it further. On 1st June Morning I emailed the upgrade form and mentioned Iam okay. Within 1 hour I started getting bombarded with emails and SMS's most of them mentioning all my Docket numbers and that they are closed now.
At 8:00 PM 1st June I got 2 emails one was from Rekha my case officer mentioning that a new Ticket has been raised and that it will be resolved on or before 3rd June. today morning 2nd June I checked my app and I can see Infinia card reflecting with 13.68 Lakhs limit
🙂
My next steps: Will apply for HDFC Addon card. Will continue only with Infinia and Magnus and close most of the other cards especially recent ones. Just FYI all the cards be it Amex, SCB Ultimate, ICICI, Citi, HDFC etc had 10 lakhs plus Limit.
What worked for me
- Followed the process of hierarchy while escalating. The PNO had the sympathy that I was harassed for over a month.
- All my Credit cards had a limit of over 10 Lakhs
- My Annual salary was way above the threshold for Infinia
- My spend on HDFC was not high as its a useless card but my spend on other cards were high. I shared my Income tax SFT statement. Any spend above 10 lakhs on credit card gets captured in SFT. My CitiBank spend was 19.8 lakhs
- I do have a decent relationship with HDFC though my Primary Bank is ICICI. ( HDFC Term insurance, HDFC Car Insurance, HDFC Home Loan ( closed though) , Bank Account etc)
I would like to thank Technofino ( watched his videos and read this blog - all 36 pages😊 )
Apologies for typos.
I do have some idea now as how it works within HDFC and can definitely give my two cents if any one is interested on this forum.
Rgds
Krishna
