HDFC Bank has told us, in no uncertain words, about their intentions to capture the market again and restore the balance in the universe. Amongst the many products they have relaunched recently, they skipped the (re)launch of the HDFC Bank Infinia Metal Edition, which is more a question of when, but not if now.

However, HDFC Bank has also been working on a longer product pipeline. You can expect a whole long list of new products to hit the market, and some of them might have more value for the HNI/UHNI segment than what HDFC Bank offers currently.

Enter HDFC Bank Galaxia?

Now, I don’t know where the HDFC Bank creative brain trust is housed, but it seems they are ready to supersede Regalia and Infinia by a mile. Word on the (credit card) street is that HDFC Bank, amongst the many credit cards it is planning to launch over time, includes a card in the high-end segment called HDFC Bank Galaxia.

While not much is known at the moment, some data points are emerging for now:

• HDFC Bank intends to offer this credit card at an annual fee of INR 20,000 plus GST
• Fee waiver for the card fee waiver will be on a yearly spend of INR 20 Lakhs

Someone on the interwebs is also suggesting that HDFC Bank will be giving away 7 points/INR 150 spent, which is more than the 5 points/INR 150 spent they grant at the moment. What is unknown is also the value of each point (INR 1 per point for now for Infinia and Diners Club Black).

Spanner in the works!

Sometimes, card issuers may issue a high-end card on a low-end plate of a network. For instance, IndusInd Bank decided to issue the new Vistara co-brand credit card on Visa Signature, and not Visa Infinite. For one, HDFC Bank’s accidentally leaked Most Important Terms and Conditions, which were subsequently withdrawn, indicate that this card will be called HDFC Bank Galaxia (Metal Titanium). Now, Titanium is one of the lower end variants issued by MasterCard and was the in thing long ago.

Unless, of course, HDFC Bank intends to issue the card on Titanium metal plates, in which case it would be dope, similar to the Luxury Card issued in the US.

But the key hindrance here is that MasterCard is currently under embargo from issuing new cards in India by the RBI. So, even if this product is planned, unless it will be issued on the Visa network, it is off the market for now.

Not just that, HDFC Bank writes up and launches MITC many a time which never see the light of the day. For instance, the Emirates Diners Club Black co-brand card has made an appearance in the MITC document, but its fate is unknown for now.

Bottomline

HDFC Bank (might) launch a new credit card in the future, which will trump its current lineup of cards and be called Galaxia. If the Titanium reference is about it being on the MasterCard platform, then this card has to wait for the time being.

What do you think of this new potential addition to the HDFC Bank Credit Card portfolio?

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