HDFC Bank has been stimulating its existing credit card member base to spend more a lot of late. Just in December 2020, HDFC Bank had a 5X offer on various categories, including Insurance payments, and followed it up with an HDFC Cards Education Payment offer for everyone. Now, they are promoting offline shopping of everyday use, via the new HDFC Credit Cards Shopping Offer.

HDFC Credit Cards Shopping Offer: 2X Rewards Points through September 2021

To encourage people to use the HDFC Bank Credit Cards offline, a new 2X Reward Points offer offers bonus HDFC Bank reward points for paying at Departmental stores, Pharmacies and Groceries on personal and business Credit Cards between June 15, 2021, and September 30, 2021.

One earns 2x rewards points on  Grocery, Department Store or Medical (Pharma) segments, subject to a maximum of 1000 Reward Points per calendar month and a minimum spends of INR 2000 per transaction. We covered this in an earlier promotion update.

HDFC Bank has added more categories for the same promotion, from August 12, 2021, onwards, making it even more attractive:

• Bill payments (Telecom and Utility)
• Insurance
• Wallet – Online spends
• Apparel – Instore spends

A minimum individual transaction amount of INR 2000 and above is required on Apparel, Insurance, Bill Payments and Wallet segments to get 2X Reward Points, subject to a maximum of 1000 Reward Points per offer period.

The promotion is not targeted and hence does not need any enrollment. The offer applies to all HDFC Bank Retail & Business Cards only, Corporate and Commercial cards are Excluded.

Essentially, on Infinia, you get 67 points on an INR 2,000 payment, plus another 67 points towards 2X. The promotion tops off at INR 30,000 spend during the month. For Infinia, this leads to a return of 6.7% on your shopping spends. Other cards will similarly have their calculations. The Bonus Reward Points will get credited to Cardmember’s account within 90 days after the calendar month-end.

The classification of a retail transaction (Point of sale/Online) under Grocery/Departmental Store will be defined by Visa/MasterCard or any other franchisee as applicable. The same will be used for the bonus reward points posting.

Transactions done only on these MCCs would be covered for Medical (Pharma) category: 5122 (drugs, proprietary drugs, druggists sundries), 5912 (Pharmacies or drug stores), 5975 (Hearing Aids), 5976 (Orthopedic goods), 8043 (Opticians), 8071 (Dental Laboratories or Medical Laboratories), 742 (Vet Services), 5047 (Medical, Dental, Hospital Equipment), 8011 (Doctors or Physicians), 8021 (Dentists or Orthodontists), 8031 (Osteopaths), 8042 (Ophthalmologists), 8049, 8099. Transactions to pay hospital bills, ambulance etc., would not be part of the Medical (pharma) category.

For the new updated categories, per HDFC Bank T&C:

• Transactions done only on these MCCs would be covered for Apparel Category: 1380,5611, 5621, 5631, 5641, 5651, 5655, 5661, 5681, 5691, 5698, 5699, 7296
• Transactions done only on these MCCs would be covered for Utility, Wallet, Telecom and Insurance Categories: 4900, 6540, 4812, 4814, 1235, 1411, 5960, 6300, 6381, 4899.
• This offer is not applicable on Billpay( Standing Instructions) transactions.
• Telecom & Cable include payment for telecommunication services, cable and other pay television services like Airtel, Tata Sky, Netflix, Amazon Prime, etc.
• Wallet transactions include loading e-wallets like PayTM, PayZapp,  Mobikwik, etc.
• Utilities include payments made towards electric, gas, water, sanitary bills
• Insurance includes payment towards insurance premiums.

Bottomline

It is fantastic when you can earn miles for stuff you are already going to have to buy, such as paying for groceries, or in these times, for pharma spend. But when you get 2X points to do that, it is all the more reason to do so. If you are planning a shopping trip this weekend, you might want to consider making your spending in June – September 2021 itself if you intend to use this offer.

Which HDFC Bank Credit Card are you going to use this month to pay for your shopping?

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