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Reason why every one must avoid HDFC credit card as first credit card (or) owning as a single card?

arunb248

TF Buzz
Hi Everyone, I am writing this post because I suffered and My Cibil score has not improved much for years. I will explain the clear scenario why I am writing this post. My intention is not to blame HDFC, every bank has its own rule but the negative impact we should bear. My intention is no one should suffer like me.



So let's go to the actual part. Long back 5 years ago I applied for the HDFC card, the first credit card for me. Once I got the card, spending was good and I used to get so many vouchers from HDFC and so on due to good spends. Never checked my Cibil also as I was paying the card due amount on time. Everything was going smooth until lockdown and I only owned one card which is HDFC until that time. Once the countrywide lockdown was lifted I thought of purchasing a new Car as it's not safe to travel in Public transport. Applied car loan via Maruthi showroom and got call from SBI as the showroom got tie-up. The SBI executive said my Cibil score is 702 😲so If I want a loan then I should suppose agree for 8.25% interest rate to approve the car loan(I have no other option I said ok). First shock due to less cibil score. I was literally confused that why it happened. Immediately I applied the one year free option to download the Credit reports of all credit bureaus(CIBIL, CRIF, Equifax and Experian). In all the reports I observed that my payments were updated on time with no due but in Experian report I noticed one thing which is the "Credit Utilization" percentage which is 80% 🫣. At that time my credit limit on my HDFC card was 1.5 lakhs and my monthly spends was around 40k+ but my utilization showing is 80%(it should be 33%+). I noticed that HDFC didn't update the credit limit to any of the credit bureaus(not only mine HDFC never updates credit limit of any one's HDFC card limit to credit bureaus). I sent a request mail to HDFC to update my credit limit to credit bureaus. But I got stupid answers rather than doing something from customer care executives. Finally I got one reply from a customer care executive with a proper answer which is HDFC never shares credit limit they will only update the highest credit utilized no matter how much credit limit you got on HDFC card. So to get clarity on this part I will tell you how I suffered and why my credit utilization showed 80%.

Coming to My case my credit limit was at the time 1.5 lakhs but In all my bill cycles my highest spend on my card was only 50k. So all the credit bureaus, what they did is they considered the highest credit which is 50k as my credit limit is not updated by HDFC. So technically as per credit bureaus my credit limit is the highest credit on my card(Not to blame as they don't have any other data other than this). Now if I spend an average 40k+ per bill cycle you can imagine what happens every month the utilization will be sky high like 80%. So immediately I applied for another bank credit card with my payslips and luckily got a good credit limit as I personally requested the bank manager and explained the scenario. So this is the scenario which I have gone through. I don't want anyone to suffer like me. If you have only one HDFC card then apply another card immediately and keep your utilization low to boost your cibil score. My suggestion: avoid HDFC as the first card to apply and don't keep a single HDFC card only for you. Hope you got an idea why I am saying this after going through this post.

Few Members in our group argued with me that it's a myth and if the credit limit is not updated then cibil won't consider that card blah blah.

My question to those people is, if a person got only one card that is HDFC then how the credit score will be calculated? Answer to this please :p

If anyone suffers like me feel free to share here in the comments.
 
Hi Everyone, I am writing this post because I suffered and My Cibil score has not improved much for years. I will explain the clear scenario why I am writing this post. My intention is not to blame HDFC, every bank has its own rule but the negative impact we should bear. My intention is no one should suffer like me.



So let's go to the actual part. Long back 5 years ago I applied for the HDFC card, the first credit card for me. Once I got the card, spending was good and I used to get so many vouchers from HDFC and so on due to good spends. Never checked my Cibil also as I was paying the card due amount on time. Everything was going smooth until lockdown and I only owned one card which is HDFC until that time. Once the countrywide lockdown was lifted I thought of purchasing a new Car as it's not safe to travel in Public transport. Applied car loan via Maruthi showroom and got call from SBI as the showroom got tie-up. The SBI executive said my Cibil score is 702 😲so If I want a loan then I should suppose agree for 8.25% interest rate to approve the car loan(I have no other option I said ok). First shock due to less cibil score. I was literally confused that why it happened. Immediately I applied the one year free option to download the Credit reports of all credit bureaus(CIBIL, CRIF, Equifax and Experian). In all the reports I observed that my payments were updated on time with no due but in Experian report I noticed one thing which is the "Credit Utilization" percentage which is 80% 🫣. At that time my credit limit on my HDFC card was 1.5 lakhs and my monthly spends was around 40k+ but my utilization showing is 80%(it should be 33%+). I noticed that HDFC didn't update the credit limit to any of the credit bureaus(not only mine HDFC never updates credit limit of any one's HDFC card limit to credit bureaus). I sent a request mail to HDFC to update my credit limit to credit bureaus. But I got stupid answers rather than doing something from customer care executives. Finally I got one reply from a customer care executive with a proper answer which is HDFC never shares credit limit they will only update the highest credit utilized no matter how much credit limit you got on HDFC card. So to get clarity on this part I will tell you how I suffered and why my credit utilization showed 80%.

Coming to My case my credit limit was at the time 1.5 lakhs but In all my bill cycles my highest spend on my card was only 50k. So all the credit bureaus, what they did is they considered the highest credit which is 50k as my credit limit is not updated by HDFC. So technically as per credit bureaus my credit limit is the highest credit on my card(Not to blame as they don't have any other data other than this). Now if I spend an average 40k+ per bill cycle you can imagine what happens every month the utilization will be sky high like 80%. So immediately I applied for another bank credit card with my payslips and luckily got a good credit limit as I personally requested the bank manager and explained the scenario. So this is the scenario which I have gone through. I don't want anyone to suffer like me. If you have only one HDFC card then apply another card immediately and keep your utilization low to boost your cibil score. My suggestion: avoid HDFC as the first card to apply and don't keep a single HDFC card only for you. Hope you got an idea why I am saying this after going through this post.

Few Members in our group argued with me that it's a myth and if the credit limit is not updated then cibil won't consider that card blah blah.

My question to those people is, if a person got only one card that is HDFC then how the credit score will be calculated? Answer to this please :p

If anyone suffers like me feel free to share here in the comments.
Thanks for sharing this. I will recommend my friends who are entering this game with HDFC as their first card about this. Either max out to report highest Credit Utilization or get more cards.

---
Edit: Saw the comments and the follow up thread, seems HDFC fixed their mistake. Good for them. Hehehe
 
Nowadays, the hdfc reports credit limit to bureau, I guess now we do t have to worry
Yes, I asked for CIBIL report and I see HDFC and ICICI both are reporting credit limit correctly. Also I see another entry 'High Credit' in the report which potentially talks about max spending done on that card.
 
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