HDFC Bank has been leading the market with respect to training behaviour with credit card promotions for a long time. Since 2017, they trained their guns on enhancing the use of credit cards for international spends, but only for the Diners Club Cards. This promotion is either waiting to be extended or has been withdrawn for the moment. But then, there is the HDFC Bank Forex Card Reload offer.

Other participants in the space are also jostling for international spends on credit cards at the moment. Axis Bank, Citibank, and Kotak Mahindra Bank rolled out promotions on forex mark-up waivers or cash back for its customers.

Now, there is a circuitous way for HDFC Bank customers to continue to earn 10X Reward points, which equals a 33% reward rate in some cases, for their foreign exchange spends. Last year, we wrote about it.

HDFC Bank has now extended this 10X promotion on reloading the Forex Cards, through March 2019 for the moment. (Update: Extended through April 2019)

To better understand this promotion, let’s look at reward earnings from a few cards, and how they can be maximized during this promotion. Remember, the earning is capped at 5,000 Reward Points per month per card, so anything beyond that only gets 1X Rewards.

• Diners Black Card: The DCB earns you 5 RP/INR 150 spent during normal spends. With this promotion, you can earn a total of 50 RP/INR 150. With each Reward Point worth INR 1, you receive an overall reward of 33%.
• HDFC Bank Regalia: The Regalia earns you 4 RP/ INR 150, and with this promotion, you can earn a total of 40 RP/ INR 150. With each Reward Point worth INR 0.5, you receive an overall reward of 13%.
• Diners Club Rewards: The Diners Club Rewards earns you 3 RP/ INR 150 spent, and with this promotion, you can earn a total of 30 RP/ INR 150. With each Reward Point worth INR 0.3, you receive an overall reward of 6%.

Here are some essential T&C for this promotion:

• The offer is valid till March 31, 2019. (Update: Extended through April 2019)
• The offer is applicable only if Forex Card is loaded  through the SmartForex Portal
• Customer will be eligible to earn a maximum of 5,000 reward points per customer per month for the Credit card offer
• Credit card offer is valid only on credit cards with Rewards points feature (Not valid on Jet Cards, Value plus and other cards which don’t have reward points).
• The Reward points will be posted within 90 days from the month of transaction.

The promotion shows up on the page when you are trying to load the card as well.

Bottomline

If you are an HDFC Bank customer and heading abroad soon, it will be a great opportunity for you to earn some extra reward points on the money that you are anyway spending. All you need to do is to get the HDFC Bank Forex card in your arsenal.

What do you think about the HDFC Bank Forex Card Reload Offer via the Credit Card? Have you used the promotion last year?