HDFC Bank, India’s largest credit card portfolio, has started 2021 with a bang. They have rolled out upgrades to various cardmembers at a large scale earlier this week, sending out upgrade offers to the HDFC Bank Infinia and HDFC Bank Diners Club Black cards, that too, lifetime free. These HDFC Credit Card Upgrade pre-approved offers should already be in your net banking account if you were targetted for these.
Here are some of the upgrades I’ve been hearing about over the past few days:
- Regalia to Diners Club Black
- Diners Club ClubMiles to Diners Club Privilege
- Moneyback to Infinia
- Regalia First to Infinia
Essentially, this is an attempt to move people from the mid-tier products such as Regalia to higher products, in an effort perhaps to get them to spend more as spending picks up.
HDFC Credit Card Upgrade: How to check if you received the Upgrade offer?
The easiest way to check is to log into net banking and head into the Credit Cards section.
Many people have also received pre-approved limit extensions. There are concerns about these being First Year Free cards over Lifetime Free Credit Cards. A call to HDFC Bank Customer Care should give you the confirmation you might need.
Should you accept the offer to upgrade your card?
Yes, definitely. Infinia and Diners Club points are far better in value than Regalia and some of the other variants that are being offered the upgrade. Secondly, on these two credit cards, at least for now, you can earn up to 15K (Infinia) and 7.5K (DCB) bonus points per month for using Smartbuy. The Smartbuy portal is not just for earning cashback on travel, which is how it started. You can earn bonus points for buying vouchers for your purchases amongst other use cases as well.
I’ve talked to people who fear Infinia would be downgraded and a new card might be in the works on top of these cards. I’d say, those fears are unfounded. Right now, HDFC Bank is unable to issue any new credit cards, and the RBI order continues to be enforced. Secondly, the bank launching a new credit card is not an event the customer controls. Third, points devaluations at this point won’t be in the interest of HDFC Bank, which is already facing various PR challenges due to their downtime. Fourth, these are the top-end cards. Over the years, we have seen proof that HDFC Bank protects its top-end cardholders from devaluations compared to those holding the other cards.
Bottomline
This is perhaps the best opportunity for those holding any credit card in the HDFC Bank ecosystem to upgrade to some of the best cards in the ecosystem. Many mid-tier cardmembers are now being pitched the super-premium credit cards and allowed to get them for free. If you haven’t received an offer, might not hurt to call and ask for one.
Have you received an offer from HDFC Bank to upgrade your card to an Infinia/Diners Club Black credit card for free? Do share your experiences with HDFC Credit Card upgrade here.
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What are the various categories of Transaction Limits on a freshly procured Regalia Credit Card to make it Lifetime Free?
Kindly elaborate
i got card upgrade fromregalya to 6e indigo card? is it worth to go for it?
I received an offer to upgrade from Regalia first to Regalia. Its shown yearly charges zero. It means life time free card. (My regalia first card also was LTF) I accepted the offer but I have some questions to HDFC bank
1. What happens to my old card once I start using the new one?
2. Is there any change in my credit rating?
3. The billing cycle will remain same or not?
4. Should I need to cancel the old card after getting the new one?
5. How can I track the status of my card up-gradation using HDFC bank web site?
These are the questions coming up to my mind now.
Thanks
Old card automatically gets deactivated on first usage of new card.
Billing cycle will remain same.
No change in credit ratings.
No need to cancel automatically deactivated.
It will reflect in NetBanking in 2 to 3 working days , card will recieved in 10 working days, hdfc will share tracking details once dispatched.
I am offered an upgrade from diners club miles to diners millennia life time free. Should I upgrade?
I got a email today to upgrade to Regalia card but when i logged into the HDFC portal to upgrade the card it says first year free and then from second year onwards fees will be waived only if you spend 3LPA or else you will be charged 2500 + ST.
So it’s not a lifetime free card for sure.
Contact your RM and he will help you to convert into lifetime free card
I have been offered to upgrade my regalia first to Millennia. Is it worth upgrading?
Is this upgrade from Regalia / Regalia First to Infinia for Imperia customers only or is it for Preferred also ?
Very informative Article Ajay.
Relationship manager upgraded my Regalia First card to Infinia a week back and confirmed it is lifetime free. Waiting for it to be delivered…hope to use it for accelerated reward points that could fetch 30% and utilize it for travel booking.
UPDATE!
Thank you for choosing to upgrade on lifetime free HDFC Bank INFINIA Credit Card. Due to unusually high demand, we’ll be dispatching your Card in 3 weeks & keep you updated. Meanwhile you can continue using your existing card
Thanks for the update
The credit limit enhancement and upgrade offer on credit card is now also shown as a banner in the ‘Offers’ section of netbanking along with Rs. 500 lifestyle voucher. Upon redirecting to different page (after clicking the banner), the page clearly shows that the upgraded card is Lifetime Free.
In my case, I am being shown an upgrade from Diners Club Miles to Diners Club Privilege with fees clearly stated (in the redirected page) as LTF / Lifetime Free.
Did you received upgraded card. Today i have applied for upgrade. After apply to upgrade my existing available credit limit is showing 0.
How much time will take to upgrade.
How is the Lifestyle voucher for 500INR received?
DO you have screen shot of it where mention the LTF, i need. can you mail me at deepak@idmc.com
Hi, I have received to upgrade my CC of Diners clubmiles to Diners Millennia card.. but I have not found any Diners Millennia card.. is Diners clubmiles better or Diners Millennia card??
Dinners millennia card is better then clubmiles
It’s only first year free not for life time. Don’t make fool others. Bank can’t offer LTF card like infinia, diners black and regalia.
Dear Vivek with a fake email address, I’ve held a LTF Diners club card for over 5 years now. Cheers.
UPDATE!
Thank you for choosing to upgrade on lifetime free HDFC Bank INFINIA Credit Card. Due to unusually high demand, we’ll be dispatching your Card in 3 weeks & keep you updated. Meanwhile you can continue using your existing card
I got a call from relationship manager asking for free upgrade to Infinia card from Regalia card, went thru IVR instructions and submitted the request. Thanks to HDFC Bank for offering to upgrade to lifetime free Infinia card.
I saw a similar article 2 days ago and immediately checked NetBanking. Over a few credit limit updates, my limit has been raised to over 1 million. I checked option for credit card upgrade and there was option to upgrade my Regalia to Infinia. Seected and submitted. Waiting for card to be dispatched and then to start enjoying the benefits, especially the unlimited lounge access international as well as domestic and the other rewards program benefits.
Sir,still i m waiting upgrade card regalia to infinia credit card ,no offfer recieved from hdfc bank ,
I am interested for HDFC BANK LIFE TIME FREE CREDIT CARDS.
Ajay, with the super premium credit card customer pool being expanded so significantly, do you expect a devaluation soon? Or maybe a higher category of card to be launched?
@Neil, me speculating is no good. When it happens, we will all know.
I have recieved message to upgrade my hdfc freedom card to indian oil credit card. Should i have upgrade ? And how i will know my credit card os lifetome free
Mujhe bhi 02th Jan. 2021 ko both of offer at a time hi mil gye limit increase & Card Upgrade & My New Regalia Card Also life time free I’m waiting for Infinia Credit card
Sir,still i m waiting upgrade card regalia to infinia credit card ,no offfer recieved from hdfc bank ,
I got this upgrade this time and accepted the moment I saw this offer in Netbanking. I was in pursuit to get this card for last few months. I was holding Regalia card for past 1 year 3 months and since I have been upgraded to regalia I got many limit enhancement offers. After few rounds of these enhancements on Sept 2020 my limit finally crossed 8 lakh mark.
From then I was checking Netbanking on a daily basis for upgrade offers but no luck. I know HDFC Cards values Relationship with bank and this is one of the Main criteria to get this card when income reqts doesn’t meet. From then I have done whatever I could do to improve relationship like increasing NRV, bringing family into HDFC, linking them to my Prime Relationship, Getting relationship upgraded to Preferred, taking add-on cards for family and last but not least spending lot of money during their festive sale. Getting these jobs done with my RM and HNW Banking team was not an easy Job which cost linking my family accounts and upgrade to Preferred alone 3 months. That’s a long story but finally I got it done by end of December.
And 2021 begin with the Surprise. I was going through my routine check. Saw a limit enhancement offer which crossed my limit over a Million and then the greatest upgrade of the Year. Since this is the moment I was waiting for there was no second thought. Eventhough I saw LTF option never waited to confirm it or any other T&c. Clicked confirm and next moment card was transferred.
Now sitting back and waiting for my card to be delivered. Proud owner of HDFC Infinia .
I got call from my RM for Lifetime free Upgrade from Regalia to Infinia Credit Card as am using Regalia since last 9 years and am also an Imperia Customer. I went ahead to apply for the card upgrade via Netbanking and it throwed error saying service is temporary unavailable. On checking I was told the offer has expired. Very bad customer service experience as in 1st place there was no communication from Bank either through SMS or email about such upgarde and that too for a specific timeframe if any. I was purely informed about this based on my relationship with my RM. Again a failure on IT infrastructure due to which RBI has banned on issues of new credit card.
I am 1000% agree with you. I have CL of 11Lkh on my regalia card and when I checked net banking it gave me same error all the time. No message or email from bank side. This bank is just becoming shit in terms of their overall services.
Can I upgrade times card to any of the mentioned free upgrade card.
Hi, i have been reached by my hdfc personal banker yesterday later day and gave me option for lifetime free unconditional infinia visa credit card. I have been with hdfc for like 12 years and has imperia banking profile.
i accepted the offer and she said that offer is valid only for 2 days then tomorrow will update the details..but next day onwards none of the personnel did not pick up call
This very bad experience I have little of pity they are cheated me a lot
Later onwrds again reached to CCthey are simply says offer is expired to dont have any more offer
Its faultuuu offer
Sree…ni…vasss
I got upgrade from regalia first to millenia. Should I go with it ? Or its downgrade
Regalia first is better than Millenia. So dont change.
Reason for: Millenia cashback offers applicable only for purchase amount is 2000 or 5000 above.
Every time we cannot meet the value.
Yesterday in netbanking I saw that my Regalia card is upgraded to Diners Club Black and today I received call from my branch informing me of the upgrade of the card.
Diners cards are not accepted at many merchant outlets
Any POS which accepts RuPay will work with DCB. Its another matter that because of the high charges, most merchants like jewellers decline to take DCB. I have been using DCB for last few years without any issue.
Mene aaj hi upgred karvaya hai
Thanks HDFC benk
The LTF comes with a catch of spending minimum targets, else you get hit with the fees, watch out!
Got my Regalia upgraded to Infinia. As usual HDFC cust service sucks, the customer care goes on the IVR , finally got through my RM who directed me to the credit card RM in d branch and got me upgraded through netbanking by entering a code. Double checked with him, its LTF and no conditions on minimum transaction or any such rule.
Is it true. R u sure about this entering a code to upgrade.
Hi, i have been reached by my hdfc personal banker yesterday and gave me option for lifetime free unconditional infinia visa credit card. I have been with hdfc for like 10 years and has imperia banking profile.
i accepted the offer and he said that offer is valid only for yesterday, the day he called lol.
He told through netbanking if i avail this, 2nd year onwards charges would be there but on phone-banking it was LTF CC.
Nice Deal ehh !!
But today it is bot even showing.
What about those who have infinia cards?how do they convert to lifetime free?
@Deccansher, you can always ask, but I suspect this offer is not for you.
True till yesterday it was there. Today when i went to apply it was not there… Very sad.
Bow would have to wait for next campaign. Please comment whenever next time this offer comes up
I agree, got a call from personal banker on monday and then they said monday night this offer expired. One of the worst bank when it comes to their IT systems and customer service
I received call for Regalia to Diners Club Black and its free for life time but my old cr card is block .. But I m not received new one
Only 1st year free showing there
The offer was showing in net banking until yesterday and it disappeared today. HDFC upgrade campaign practices are so annoying, they don’t even give a day or two to think for the customer and make a better decision. It is like now or never, one has to accept whatever they offer or wait until their next clueless and pointless upgrade campaign runs which is very difficult to predict.
I was a MoneyBack user and I have received offer to upgrade to Regalia First.
I also hold Moneyback credit card and has been offered Regalia First or Millennia credit card by HDFC bank.
This facility is temporarily unavailable
I hold a LTF (lifetime free) clubmiles card, I am offered diners privilege upgrade with the screen reading annual membership fee as “0” . Does it mean LTF or first year free?
Same here
I think club miles is better than privilege. It offers airlines (Vistara);conversion at 1:1 vs. BCP at 2:1
I think I will stick with club miles just because of 2x rewards on miles conversion.
To reach diners black one has to have a privilege card? Is it a necessary step?
Upgrade is LTF. I have confirmed with CC. In any case paying annual fee for Infinia doesn’t hurt as we get equivalent bonus points if fee is paid.
Thanks for this information
Facing issues for upgrading my Credit card via NetBanking.
Have got an upgrade from Diners premium to Diners Privilege card through NetBanking though I was expecting a Black or infinia as an upgrade since I’ve been a customer since 2011,
Have been requesting them for an year now and now I get an option for an upgrade ..
It’s a free upgrade only for one year next onwards 10k annual fees
Bro, they say Life Time Free
Only one year free hai, iske baad 10000 charging hai annual, add 8 lac se above transactions krte ho tab 10000 charge nhi lagega
It’s lifetime free with some conditions.
1. You need to make atleast 1 transaction in every 3 months otherwise you will be charged renewal fees from the next year.
2. You need to make atleast 1 transaction in every 6 months otherwise your card will be deactivated.
There is no conditions for lifetime free card presently*
The conditions Vikas mentioned are correct. HDFC will revoke lifetime free status if there is no transaction for 3 months and will cancel card if there is no transaction for 6 months.
There is no 2nd year fee.it’s a lifetime free