Looking for a credit card with traveling & lifestyle benefits? If yes, you’ve come to the right place. The HDFC Bank Regalia credit card comes with various travel and luxury rewards. With annual charges of Rs 2,500, this card welcomes you with 2,500 bonus Reward Points. The card has several advantages across different categories such as lifestyle, travel, and dining. It is one of the most popular Credit cards by HDFC with all such benefits.
To keep their promise of luxury & travel benefits, the HDFC Regalia Card provides you with free Airport Lounge Access within India as well as outside. You earn 4 Reward Points every time you spend Rs. 150 using the card and these points can be redeemed against an array of categories with a value of up to Re. 0.5 per point. Also, the card charges a very low foreign currency markup which makes it a best choice for the international transactions. The card comes with great dining benefits, 24X7 Concierge services and much more.
The most familiar credit card of metro households has been devalued
It’s a Rs. 2500 card that HDFC generally issues lifetime free but is it worth it?
If you have an account with HDFC Bank, the very first credit card you might end up having is a Regalia.
Here’s what HDFC Regalia offers:
👉 4 reward points on every Rs. 150
👉 10,000 reward points on annual spends of Rs. 5 Lakhs
👉 15,000 reward points on annual spends of Rs. 8 Lakhs
👉 Up to 5x accelerated reward points via SmartBuy & Gyftr
👉 12 domestic lounge access annually till November 30, 2023
👉 6 overseas lounge visits annually via Priority Pass
Now the reward rate of Regalia is average and it’s justified as the card is mostly issued lifetime free.
And moreover everyone has valued Regalia for its lounge benefits. It was literally the best card for domestic & overseas airport lounges for many people.
But that’s where the card is about to get devalued December 1, 2023 onwards
The domestic lounge access has not only been reduced to 2 visits per quarter but a quarterly milestone has also been introduced in order to qualify for these visits.
Regalia holders from December 1 onwards will have to spend Rs. 1 lakh on a quarterly basis to avail 2 lounge access vouchers.
Now many would consider this as a devaluation because the spend requirement is not a small one.
Many other banks have kept it at nominal amounts such as Rs. 5000 a month.
The Regalia criteria however may sound harsh and unreasonable to a lot of people.
Now we know this change is coming soon where banks will start to devalue airport lounge access benefits as their carrying costs saw a significant rise.
And there were hardly any returns that were being generated from such customers as they never used the card.
But moving forward banks will now follow the path where they will only provide lifestyle benefits only if the customer is actively spending on their card.
Now this philosophy makes sense not just from the business side but also creating a fair distinction between super premium, premium and entry level cardholders.
Apparently it just wasn’t the new age startups that required freebies to cultivate habits but it was quite similar for the credit card industry as well.
Credit Cards in India are still a push product for most people. It will be interesting to see how this shapes out.
HDFC Regalia Credit Card Features and Benefits
The HDFC Bank Regalia Credit Card is among the topmost offerings by the HDFC Bank and hence comes with several exclusive benefits across different categories, including travel, reward programs, movie & dining, and many more. To understand all its features in detail, keep reading the information given below:
Welcome Benefits
You get a welcome bonus of 2,500 Reward Points after successful realization of the joining fee for the HDFC Bank Regalia Credit Card.
Milestone Benefits
- Assured 10,000 Reward Points on spending over Rs. 5 lakhs in the anniversary year under the card’s milestone spend benefits.
- An additional bonus of 5,000 Reward Points on spending over Rs. 8 lakhs in the anniversary year.
Domestic Lounge Access
You get complimentary access to the domestic airport lounges (airport lounges within India) 12 times every year (3 times every quarter) with this card. Also, exceeding the complimentary lounge access quota will be allowed at the discretion of lounge and will also be chargeable by the lounge.
International Lounge Access
- You get complimentary Priority Pass membership with 6 complimentary lounge visits outside India. All the visits post the complimentary visits will be chargeable at US $27 per person per visit.
- As soon as you complete a minimum of 4 retail transactions using your premium Regalia credit card, you can apply for the priority pass membership for yourself and add-on members.
Dining Benefits
Enjoy great dining benefits with the Good Food Trail program. Get up to 20% off on partner restaurants via Swiggy Dineout only when the payment is made through the Swiggy application.
Fuel Surcharge Waiver
Other than all the reward points and lounge access benefits, the Regalia HDFC card also provides various other advantages such as a fuel surcharge waiver. 1% fuel surcharge is waived at all fuel stations in India on all transactions between Rs. 400 and Rs. 5,000 done with the HDFC Regalia Card, capped at a maximum benefit of Rs. 500 per month.
Joining and Renewal Fee Waiver
The annual fee for HDFC Regalia Card can be waived off if you spend Rs. 3 lakhs or more in the previous year.
Zero Liability Protection
Regalia HDFC Card comes with zero liability protection against a lost/stolen card according to which, you are not responsible for any fraudulent transactions made on a lost card if you report the loss of the card to the bank in a timely manner.
HDFC Regalia Card Reward Points
- On every retail spend of Rs. 150 spent, you get 4 Reward Points. You will not earn any reward points on Fuel, EasyEMI, wallet loading transactions.
- Earn accelerated RPs on travel and shopping spends on the SmartBuy platform (10x RPs for hotel/bus ticket bookings, 5x points on shopping from Amazon, on flight booking through Cleartrip and EasemyTrip, Redbus and on Apple Imagine and 3x points on shopping from Flipkart and Rail Tickets).
- Maximum accelerated reward points you can earn with Regalia are capped at 4,000 points per month.
- Insurance transactions are subject to capping of 2000 per day and grocery spends are capped at 2000 RPs per month.
- Reward points are not accrued on rental, property management, and government spends.
- The reward points expire after 2 years from the date of accumulation.
- If the transaction is converted to EMI, the reward points earned on that transaction would get reversed.
- If the card isn’t used for 1 year, all the reward points earned would get nullified.
HDFC Regalia Reward Points Redemption
The reward points can be redeemed on the Smartbuy portal or through Netbanking –
- 1 RP = Rs 0.5 for redemption against flights and hotel bookings,
- 1 RP = Rs 0.35 for redemption against products and vouchers,
- 1 RP = Rs 0.20 for cash backs, and Air miles conversion at a value of
- 1RP = 0.5 air mile for airmiles conversion
Reward points redemption for hotel/flight bookings via Smartbuy is capped at 50000 RPs per month.
Reward points redemption against card statement balance is capped at 50000 RPs per month.
For select vouchers and products, you can redeem reward points for up to 70% value and the remaining amount must be paid using your credit card.
The HDFC Bank charges a reward redemption fee of Rs. 99 on every redemption request.
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