Should I upgrade from DCB LTF to Infinia paid?

[ruthwik]

Currently I have Hdfc Diners Black Life time free card and that is my main card for my spends. I have an upgrade offer on the hdfc website for DCM metal with FYF and after following up with my RM got a upgrade form for Infinia but it is paid.

I have multitude other cards like Axis Ace, airtel,aura, Amex MRCC, Indusind Legend etc but none are premium/super premium cards. I only use other cards if Diners is not accepted. I have an Annual spend of close to 10-12 lakhs every year.

Should I proceed with upgrade to Infinia given that I don't travel much and rarely use amazon gift Vouchers through gyftr. Should rather continue with DCB and get a better card from other banks, do suggest them as well.

 

[Firewing224]

Currently I have Hdfc Diners Black Life time free card and that is my main card for my spends. I have an upgrade offer on the hdfc website for DCM metal with FYF and after following up with my RM got a upgrade form for Infinia but it is paid.

I have multitude other cards like Axis Ace, airtel,aura, Amex MRCC, Indusind Legend etc but none are premium/super premium cards. I only use other cards if Diners is not accepted. I have an Annual spend of close to 10-12 lakhs every year.

Should I proceed with upgrade to Infinia given that I don't travel much and rarely use amazon gift Vouchers through gyftr. Should rather continue with DCB and get a better card from other banks, do suggest them as well.

DCB plastic? Are you hitting daily smartbuy caps of 2.5k rp?

 

[ruthwik]

Yes plastic, no I don't hit the targets and doesn't forsee in the near future as well.

 

[sourpai]

You should upgrade to Infinia if
1. Hitting smartbuy quota consistently on DCB and want higher quota per month
2. Acceptance issues, especially in foreign countries. Acceptance in India is usually not an issue
3. You travel more and can use points for smartbuy travel redemptions (flights and hotels)
4. Snob factor of owning Infinia / or want highest HDFC card anyhow

Otherwise for total annual spend of 10-12L, Infinia is not needed. I would suggest instead go for SBI Cashback / HDFC Swiggy to get 5% cashback for all online spends

 

[Firewing224]

I really don't get this point : why would people opt for SBI cashback when they spend 10-12L for 5% cashback on online purchases when I can get 16% value back on almost anything.

 

[sourpai]

I really don't get this point : why would people opt for SBI cashback when they spend 10-12L for 5% cashback on online purchases when I can get 16% value back on almost anything.

Should I proceed with upgrade to Infinia given that I don't travel much and rarely use amazon gift Vouchers through gyftr. Should rather continue with DCB and get a better card from other banks, do suggest them as well.

Thats why !!....

 

[faltooAdmi]

I am also not upgrading my ltf DCB to paid Infinia.

 

[Firewing224]

T

Thats why !!....

Yes plastic, no I don't hit the targets and doesn't forsee in the near future as well.

Then the bigger question is, where are you spending 10-12L? Helps in understanding missed opportunity.

A big chunk of my expense is eating out. I can buy swiggy vouchers and pay bill via dineout for 16% return.

I can buy Amazon pay vouchers and pay utility bills for 14% off.

I can even get 14% off on groceries through BB / any site that uses Amazon pay wallet as option.

So , what are your spends like?

 

[msk1437]

You should upgrade to Infinia if
1. Hitting smartbuy quota consistently on DCB and want higher quota per month
2. Acceptance issues, especially in foreign countries. Acceptance in India is usually not an issue
3. You travel more and can use points for smartbuy travel redemptions (flights and hotels)
4. Snob factor of owning Infinia / or want highest HDFC card anyhow

Otherwise for total annual spend of 10-12L, Infinia is not needed. I would suggest instead go for SBI Cashback / HDFC Swiggy to get 5% cashback for all online spends

You missed a very important point of 5X RP on GVs for Infinia vs 3X for DCB

 

[sourpai]

You missed a very important point of 5X RP on GVs for Infinia vs 3X for DCB

He is saying that he does not use GVs .... We need to help him as per his spending patterns and not force fit anything. If OP clarifies that his spends are on brands available on smartbuy then answer will change. But I am assuming thats not the case since is he not even buying Amazon pay from Smartbuy

Also there is a tradeoff between LTF vs paid and 5x vs 3x. Paid infinia makes sense if you are consistently hitting smartbuy cap per month, which I mentioned in my original post

 

[msk1437]

He is saying that he does not use GVs .... We need to help him as per his spending patterns and not force fit anything. If OP clarifies that his spends are on brands available on smartbuy then answer will change. But I am assuming thats not the case since is he not even buying Amazon pay from Smartbuy

Also there is a tradeoff between LTF vs paid and 5x vs 3x. Paid infinia makes sense if you are consistently hitting smartbuy cap per month, which I mentioned in my original post

I missed OP's mention of not using GVs.. mb

 

[Firewing224]

He's spending 10L / yr but not hitting 2.5k max RP even once is missed opportunity I feel.

 

[ruthwik]

T


Then the bigger question is, where are you spending 10-12L? Helps in understanding missed opportunity.

A big chunk of my expense is eating out. I can buy swiggy vouchers and pay bill via dineout for 16% return.

I can buy Amazon pay vouchers and pay utility bills for 14% off.

I can even get 14% off on groceries through BB / any site that uses Amazon pay wallet as option.

So , what are your spends like?

That is good way to put, I always struggle to find/understand my expense buckets and monitor them. How do you do it and most importantly control it.

 

[ruthwik]

He's spending 10L / yr but not hitting 2.5k max RP even once is missed opportunity I feel.

I haven't leveraged smartbuy unless to book flights which is just 4-5times in a year.For which brands you guys use smartbuy?

 

[msk1437]

I haven't leveraged smaetbuy unless to book flights which is just 4-5times in a year.For which brands you guys use smartbuy?

Swiggy Zomato AmazonPay Amazon Lifestyle Shoppersstop Croma RelianceDigital

 

[CVR]

I haven't leveraged smaetbuy unless to book flights which is just 4-5times in a year.For which brands you guys use smartbuy?

You can use smartbuy gyftr for any brand you can think of. Even bettter now a days is to buy amazon pay or shopping vouchers on Infinia and use those to buy brand vouchers on amazon website. And amazon has 5-10% discount generally on many brands. So you get upfront discount plus 5x points.

Also if you are spending 10 lakh per year your Infinia anyways becomes free as fee will get waived off. Even if fees is charged they give points (only gst lost). I had same option last year and i upgraded from dcf ltf to infinia. With smart use of gyftr, smartbuy for hotels, pharmeasy i have likely hugely benefited from this shift. Also it opens doors for further upgrades on hdfc cards whenever they launch anything more premium.. i will suggest take the upgrade..

 

[ruthwik]

Thank you everyone, looks like I'm not using the smartbuy to the best extent possible and I have upgraded to Infinia and will hope to maximize the benefits. (Received the card today)

Thank you everyone for the advice.

 

[Hemang]

I really don't get this point : why would people opt for SBI cashback when they spend 10-12L for 5% cashback on online purchases when I can get 16% value back on almost anything.

Bhai I have a query. 16% return tbhi hoga when I buy apple, tanishq products or book tickets on smartbuy.
What if someone does not need these things in return.
Secondly, return should also be calculated in terms like when redeemed in voucher form. Because for a person who is not travelling won't get 16% returns. But the same person can get accelerated points if he wants to pay for insurance upto 1 lac in a month using Amazon pay balance which he could load using smartbuy.

 

[airbubble]

Swiggy Zomato AmazonPay Amazon Lifestyle Shoppersstop Croma RelianceDigital

I have a question here. Let's say I want to pay a restaurant bill of 6k using dine out. I have 2 options -

pay the bill using swiggy money after buying swiggy gift vouchers from smartbuy for 5k (6k - 1k RP)

or

Combine offers from swiggy (15% off upto 1k using Infinia) and HDFC (3.33% reward points on normal spend) - combining these 2, I am able to save 1069.

The second option looks better if the total bill can be clubbed with each other, doesn't it?

 

[msk1437]

I have a question here. Let's say I want to pay a restaurant bill of 6k using dine out. I have 2 options -

pay the bill using swiggy money after buying swiggy gift vouchers from smartbuy for 5k (6k - 1k RP)

or

Combine offers from swiggy (15% off upto 1k using Infinia) and HDFC (3.33% reward points on normal spend) - combining these 2, I am able to save 1069.

The second option looks better if the total bill can be clubbed with each other, doesn't it?

Yea you'd be better off using dineout offer till the 1k limit is breached