Is HDFC Infinia or SC Ultimate the best card for usage in the UK?

[metacoder]

I have had HDFC Infinia since 2020. They upgraded my Regalia once I used that card for more than ₹12,00,000/- for a year. I have a high usage of around ₹15L - ₹20L.

I've recently moved to the UK but gave my parents the addon card for things like grocery and other heavy expenses. After moving here, I realised the reward rate on Credit Cards in the UK is abysmal. Some cards offer no reward points; others offer 1%, which is the maximum I've seen until now.

I did some calculations and discovered something interesting.

Reward rate of Infinia is ~3.3%
International transaction charges ~2.36% (2% + GST)
GVP (Global Value Program): 1% cashback on international transactions. (₹1000/- capping per month)
-----------
Total reward + cashback = 3.3% + 1% - 2.36% = 1.94%
1.94% - 0.7% (when converting to INR, they don't give you the market value) = 1.3%

My question to the community is, is this something anyone else has explored? Is using Infinia truly more beneficial than any other Credit Card in the UK? Or am I losing something because of high forex rates?

P.S. Standard Chartered Ultimate will also give similar reward rates when combined with HDFC Bill Pay for 1% cashback on HDFC Platinum Debit Cards. Sadly, I don't have SC Ultimate, would be great if someone could give me a contact person for a Bengaluru address.

Note: Found out that MasterCard and VISA happen to give you a worse value when converting. £1 = ₹96.46 when the market rate was ~₹95. Brings down the value by 0.7%

 

[hariselio]

Temporary move to UK or long-term one? If it's long-term means, are you sure you it's allowed to use?

 

[metacoder]

I asked the folks at my nearby branch if I needed to do anything when I moved out for a long-term assignment. They said you can use it. But I understand the use case when a customer who moves abroad refuses to pay their dues.

 

[Mogambo]

Ultimate offers absolute 3.3rs value, where as Infinia offers 3.3rs only on hotel and travel redemptions + restictions.

 

[Subhankar]

SC Ultimate charges 3.5% + GST which is 4.13% and give 1.5% return as cashback.

For HDFC Global Value is effective till 1L monthly spends with 1000 cashback, and considering 15-20L spend, you'll not be having maximum gain.

The best bet is AMEX if you're moving there. Before suggesting as the ultimate one, I want to know if you already do have AMEX or not? If yes, are you holding it more than 3 months?

If both the answers are "yes" and if you're moving there permanently or going have a permanent address at least, you can get another AMEX card of UK itself without having any credit history there.

 

[M2222]

Be ready for loosing the infinia credit card. They will cancel your card in few months if you use your card too much for long time in abroad because their algorithm will find it that you are misusing it.
Happened with few peoples I know. That's why I don't use my Indian credit cards here in France.
I am a non Indian resident.

 

[SoN!c]

SC Ultimate charges 3.5% + GST which is 4.13% and give 1% return as cashback.

A minor correction to this, am quoting from the CC T&C: "All overseas transactions are levied with a 3.5% transaction fee. Cardholder is eligible for a cashback of 1.5% of the transaction fee amount on the overseas transactions. The cashback amount effectively reduces the forex mark up charged to 2%."

For HDFC Global Value is effective till 1L monthly spends with 1000 cashback, and considering 15-20L spend, you'll not be having maximum gain.

If the spends are this high, why not split them between SC Ultimate and Infinia? Perhaps using infinia upto 1L per month and SC Ultimate above that may work out to be the sweet spot.

The best bet is AMEX if you're moving there. Before suggesting as the ultimate one, I want to know if you already do have AMEX or not? If yes, are you holding it more than 3 months?

If both the answers are "yes" and if you're moving there permanently or going have a permanent address at least, you can get another AMEX card of UK itself without having any credit history there.

The reward rate for Amex may be different in the UK than in India

 

[hariselio]

Be ready for loosing the infinia credit card. They will cancel your card in few months if you use your card too much for long time in abroad because their algorithm will find it that you are misusing it.
Happened with few peoples I know. That's why I don't use my Indian credit cards here in France.
I am a non Indian resident.

This is what citi bank told me as well. To avoid this situation i used to do indian eBay transaction once in a while by sitting in abroad.

 

[Subhankar]

A minor correction to this, am quoting from the CC T&C: "All overseas transactions are levied with a 3.5% transaction fee. Cardholder is eligible for a cashback of 1.5% of the transaction fee amount on the overseas transactions. The cashback amount effectively reduces the forex mark up charged to 2%."

If the spends are this high, why not split them between SC Ultimate and Infinia? Perhaps using infinia upto 1L per month and SC Ultimate above that may work out to be the sweet spot.

The reward rate for Amex may be different in the UK than in India

Yes Sonic, you're right, It's 1.5%. That was a typo

 

[Subhankar]

A minor correction to this, am quoting from the CC T&C: "All overseas transactions are levied with a 3.5% transaction fee. Cardholder is eligible for a cashback of 1.5% of the transaction fee amount on the overseas transactions. The cashback amount effectively reduces the forex mark up charged to 2%."

If the spends are this high, why not split them between SC Ultimate and Infinia? Perhaps using infinia upto 1L per month and SC Ultimate above that may work out to be the sweet spot.

The reward rate for Amex may be different in the UK than in India

The MR points conversion is better in UK than India. It'd be anytime better to use the native currency card than an Indian credit card

 

[Mogambo]

A minor correction to this, am quoting from the CC T&C: "All overseas transactions are levied with a 3.5% transaction fee. Cardholder is eligible for a cashback of 1.5% of the transaction fee amount on the overseas transactions. The cashback amount effectively reduces the forex mark up charged to 2%."

If the spends are this high, why not split them between SC Ultimate and Infinia? Perhaps using infinia upto 1L per month and SC Ultimate above that may work out to be the sweet spot.

The reward rate for Amex may be different in the UK than in India

I don't understand why folks here are keen on paying forex charges. Use credit cards like RBL world safari or debit card like Niyo global which have 0% forex charges. I use cc if they pay me to use not the other way.

 

[aakash]

Used FI money in Singapore. Worked 90% of places with 0% markup charges and 0 card charges

 

[Subhankar]

I don't understand why folks here are keen on paying forex charges. Use credit cards like RBL world safari or debit card like Niyo global which have 0% forex charges. I use cc if they pay me to use not the other way.

Because the return will be higher. World safari won’t reward you. Niyo global has limitations.
I’ve written an article on it. Hope that helps

 

[lostwords]

Niyo global has limitations

Could you explain more on that?

 

[rjsudeep]

Be ready for loosing the infinia credit card. They will cancel your card in few months if you use your card too much for long time in abroad because their algorithm will find it that you are misusing it.
Happened with few peoples I know. That's why I don't use my Indian credit cards here in France.
I am a non Indian resident.

How should it matter for them though, as long as you pay on time?

 

[rjsudeep]

Used FI money in Singapore. Worked 90% of places with 0% markup charges and 0 card charges

Fi Money as in the normal Fi Debit card?

 

[nitrogenSingh]

Because the return will be higher. World safari won’t reward you. Niyo global has limitations.
I’ve written an article on it. Hope that helps

Can you please share the article link?

 

[rjsudeep]

Can you please share the article link?

I think this is the one:

Best Credit Cards for International Transactions

Though India is way beyond in the Credit card game and variants but we can notice a great community is being build revolving it and the growth is great in terms of new credit card consumers in past 5-6 years. From insanely popular cashback cards to the cards for nerds, the airmiles cards, we can...

www.technofino.in

 

[aakash]

Fi Money as in the normal Fi Debit card?

Yes you need to load balance before use. But 100% free of any charge

 

[rjsudeep]

Yes you need to load balance before use. But 100% free of any charge

Yup, I have the card, it's a debit account. I thought maybe you were referring to some other product from Fi.