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My HDFC credit card journey and the way forward

cardio_guy

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I am someone who spoiled many good chances of getting better cards early on. But HDFC has been overall good to me, and nothing went wrose.
When I started my credit card journey, I was not aware about core/cobranded problems of HDFC.
I have posted in different threads about these milestones but I thought a dedicated post will help to document everything in one place.
Here's a rough timeline of my journey with HDFC so far:
  • April 2023: Applied and got Tata Neu Plus FYF (Limit 86k)
  • July 2023: Closed Neu Plus permanently (Because I wanted Infinity)
  • November 2023: Applied and got Swiggy (Paid 500 JF + 500 AF, Limit: 1.25L)
  • September 2024: Credit limit of Swiggy card increased to 1.52L
  • October 2024: Applied and got Neu Infinity. (FYF, same limit, 1.52L)
  • November 2024: Got both Neu and Swiggy converted to LTF
  • December 2024: Opened HDFC salary account (Preferred variant)
  • January 2025 onwards: Salary started crediting in HDFC account (net monthly: 2L)
  • March 2025: Limits of Neu Infinity and Swiggy enhanced to 7.63L (used these cards extensively in the last 2 months)
  • May-end 2025: Waited for 2-3 months but no preapproved offers have come yet.
  • May 26-29. 2025: Applied for Freedom card via Paytm, got it approved & received the physical card. Same limit as other existing cards.
  • June 1 2025: Applied for Mariott Bonvoy card. got rejected. (will have to wait for cooling period to apply for a new card)
  • June 2 2025: Wrote mail to greivence redressal and PNO to upgrade Freedom card. Waiting for their response.
  • June 10, 2025: Mariott card approved. (VKYC, address verification etc completed last week)
  • June 11, 2025: Upgrade request rejected by PNO/GRO (Freedom to RG/DCB)
  • November 21, 2025: Credit limit on all cards increased to 7.93L
  • December 16, 2025: Upgraded from Freedom to Regalia Gold FYF.
As of now I am standing with 4 cards - HDFC Swiggy, Tata Neu Infinity, Mariott Bonvoy, and Freedom.
My future plan is to upgrade Freedom to a better core card - RG/DCB/Infinia and also to get the MB card.
I will also have to change/alter my spend patterns to align with the best case usage of these cards.
There is a long way to go in front of me. I will update my future journey here as and when it happens.
 
Last edited:
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nh124001 said:
i am suspecting silent devaluation coming soon..for RG, accor transfer ratio shall become 3:1, kya bob eterna RG ko replace karsakta hai!??
i am more interested in 5947 mcc and gift vouchers from amazon via eterna
Click to expand...
Bob Eterna is just a cashback card. As of now the reward points can be only converted to statement credit. No transfer partners or other options.
 
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cardio_guy said:
Bob Eterna is just a cashback card. As of now the reward points can be only converted to statement credit. No transfer partners or other options.
Click to expand...
my expenses are not that much high... usually only 8-10Lakh per annum and with this much spends in travel points only comfortable redemption is accor, krisflyer and other air miles ke liye i think double spends chaiyee. as of now accor ke liye atlas hai( and in near future hsbc)

my main goal is to get maximum benefit from my current spends, agar HDFC RG accor transfer devalue hota hai then... RG won't remain beneficial for me

my current trio is Sbi cashback + Atlas + RG
 
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nh124001 said:
my expenses are not that much high... usually only 8-10Lakh per annum and with this much spends in travel points only comfortable redemption is accor, krisflyer and other air miles ke liye i think double spends chaiyee. as of now accor ke liye atlas hai( and in near future hsbc)

my main goal is to get maximum benefit from my current spends, agar HDFC RG accor transfer devalue hota hai then... RG won't remain beneficial for me

my current trio is Sbi cashback + Atlas + RG
Click to expand...
This is a powerful combo. Yes Atlas is very rewarding as of now for Accor. It depends on how Axis continue with it next year.
 
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I got Regalia Gold in Visa network. For Visa network I see two benefits:
1. Timesprime free membership for 1 year.
2. Visa poshvine offers

But should I change it to mastercard? What mastercard variant does RG comes with?
Is it World Elite? And what are the benefits I can get? Any suggestions would be helpful. Thanks.

(I wished it for mastercard because that way I will have 1 card from each network - atlas visa, marriott diners, plat travel amex and RG master. It may sound silly, still)
 
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Dr.AMAN said:
How exactly did u manage to pull off this upgrade? What documents did u submit(if any). Ur usage pattern of Freedom caard?
Click to expand...
I just sent a mail to grevience redressal requesting for upgrade sometime in October. They rejected once saying to wait till December,
I requested again in December along with 3 months salary slips. They approved FYF upgrade.
 
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I didn't even get the card on hand, but last 4 digits are visible in the app and smartbuy. So I went ahead and registered in RG smartbuy portal,
There were 900 points that got transferred from Freedom card. The first thing I did is transfer these points to Accor - I got 450 Accor points.
It got immediately reflected in Accor account.
So far no charges were deducted for points transfer. Will update if it happens.
Also I understood that the 70 - 30 rule is only when you buy things or book tickets from smartbuy. For transferring points, we can transfer full 100% of the points to partners.
Still waiting for physical card + PIN generation etc.
 
Last edited:
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cardio_guy said:
I didn't even get the card on hand, but last 4 digits are visible in the app and smartbuy. So I went ahead and registered in RG smartbuy portal,
There were 900 points that got transferred from Freedom card. The first thing I did is transfer these points to Accor - I got 450 Accor points.
It got immediately reflected in Accor account.
So far no charges were deducted for points transfer. Will update if it happens.
Also I understood that the 70 - 30 rule is only when you buy things or book tickets from smartbuy. For transferring points, we can transfer full 100% of the points to partners.
Still waiting for physical card + PIN generation etc.
Click to expand...
It’s been an amazing journey! I’m currently on a similar path myself. Started my HDFC CC with Co-branded (Tata Neu Infinity, Swiggy) and after that got Freedom card from PayTm and now trying to get Regalia.
 
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Cardzmania said:
It’s been an amazing journey! I’m currently on a similar path myself. Started my HDFC CC with Co-branded (Tata Neu Infinity, Swiggy) and after that got Freedom card from PayTm and now trying to get Regalia.
Click to expand...
Congrats, it will defenitely work. This is the best working method as of now to get a core card after getting cobra cards from HDFC.
That also is actually not working now, paytm stopped issuing Freedom.
Just wait for 6 months after getting Freedom and write to greivence redressal. They will defenitely upgrade it.
 
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cardio_guy said:
I got Regalia Gold in Visa network. For Visa network I see two benefits:
1. Timesprime free membership for 1 year.
2. Visa poshvine offers

But should I change it to mastercard? What mastercard variant does RG comes with?
Is it World Elite? And what are the benefits I can get? Any suggestions would be helpful. Thanks.

(I wished it for mastercard because that way I will have 1 card from each network - atlas visa, marriott diners, plat travel amex and RG master. It may sound silly, still)
Click to expand...
I was able to redeem the spends based offer for visa international spends before I upgraded it for dcb megal. MasterCard does have more offers like Wyndham ka kuch came recently but I don't think it's world elite.
 
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cardio_guy said:
I didn't even get the card on hand, but last 4 digits are visible in the app and smartbuy. So I went ahead and registered in RG smartbuy portal,
There were 900 points that got transferred from Freedom card. The first thing I did is transfer these points to Accor - I got 450 Accor points.
It got immediately reflected in Accor account.
So far no charges were deducted for points transfer. Will update if it happens.
Also I understood that the 70 - 30 rule is only when you buy things or book tickets from smartbuy. For transferring points, we can transfer full 100% of the points to partners.
Still waiting for physical card + PIN generation etc.
Click to expand...

99+gst will get deducted in a day or two.
 
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cardio_guy said:
I got Regalia Gold in Visa network. For Visa network I see two benefits:
1. Timesprime free membership for 1 year.
2. Visa poshvine offers

But should I change it to mastercard? What mastercard variant does RG comes with?
Is it World Elite? And what are the benefits I can get? Any suggestions would be helpful. Thanks.

(I wished it for mastercard because that way I will have 1 card from each network - atlas visa, marriott diners, plat travel amex and RG master. It may sound silly, still)
Click to expand...
Hi @cardio_guy, As far as I can tell, the Visa Poshvine offers have mostly wrapped up on 31 Oct, with only the Amazon voucher for forex spends still active. Am I missing anything else?
 
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Vignesh. said:
Hi @cardio_guy, As far as I can tell, the Visa Poshvine offers have mostly wrapped up on 31 Oct, with only the Amazon voucher for forex spends still active. Am I missing anything else?
Click to expand...
I thought it comes every year time to time. Have seen it many times in the last 2 years.
Maybe for this year, it is over. It may come during 2026 October?
 
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