IDFC Credit Cards Review – 2023 (updated)
IDFC First Bank launched credit cards a few years back. The major USPs of these credit cards are LTF, even the most premium version; the reward rate of 0.75%-2%, reward points that does not expire and you can access decent number of lounge . Still, these cards worth a place in your wallet
IDFC Credit Cards
Snapshot
IDFC credit cards are available in 4 variants:
IDFC Wealth – Premium version. USP is international lounge and spa access and 2 movie tickets of up to 500 every month. You can only get this card if you have another credit card with 5L+ limit.
IDFC Select – Gives domestic lounge access and 2 movie tickets of up to 250 every month. You can get this card if you have 1.5L+ limit on another card.
IDFC Classic – Entry level.
IDFC Millennia – Basic. It has Amazing design but really not that great in terms of benefits.
Thoughts on IDFC Credit Cards
Positives of IDFC Credit Cards
Decent reward rate for LTF cards and points don’t expire
IDFC credit cards Rewards a 3x (0.75%) on offline spending and a 6x (1.5%) on online spending. Further depending on the card variant, you can get 10x (2.5%) on spends above a certain threshold (20k-30k) every month. Thus on a blended basis, you are somewhere between a 1.5-2% reward rate. This is good for an LTF card. Moreover, the right part is reward points don’t expire.
Do note that all IDFC credit cards have the same reward structure of 0.75% on offline spending and 1.5% on online spending. 0.75% for offline spending is very low, 1.5% for online spending is good. Nonetheless, this is lower than what many other cards offer such as SBI Cashback giving 5%, Axis ace giving 2%, and SBI Simply click giving 1.25-2.5%. However, do note that on IDFC credit cards insurance and fuel spending don’t earn any reward points.
Rent payment gives you a 0.75% reward rate
Most of the credit cards don’t give reward points on rent payments, however, IDFC credit cards gives 0.75% reward rate on rent payments. However, the catch here is that rent payments are not counted in monthly milestone for a 10x reward rate. Thus you will have to spend another 20-30k outside of rent payments to get 10x reward points.
10x Rewards points on spends above a threshold and on your birthday
IDFC credit cards have this feature on spending over 20k in a month will earn you 10x (2.5%) reward points. This threshold for an IDFC Wealth card is 30k in a month. Therefore, for a strange reason, the higher variant card effectively has a lower reward rate. Further,you should note that fuel, insurance and rent payments are not included for threshold calculations.
In addition, IDFC also gives 10x rewards on birthday spending i.e. a 2.5% reward rate. However, I could not find the T&Cs related with it .
The interest rate varies from 9%-42%
IDFC Bank is marketing this as the USP of the card. The concept is good and someone has a good credit record and credit history must have a lower interest rate. However, I have my reservations on actually how many customers will actually get a 9% interest rate. IDFC has offered me an 18% interest rate on the revolving balance. Nonetheless, this is nearly half of what my other credit cards charge. However, by god’s grace, I don’t carry any amount on my credit card .
Interest-free cash withdrawals
Another unique feature IDFC credit cards offer is that interest-free cash withdrawals. I.e. The User can withdraw cash up to the cash limit on the card and interest will be applicable only post the due date. This is a very good feature on the card, however, one has to keep in mind that cash withdrawal charges of 295 (250+ GST) will be applicable. Thus, for 20,000 cash withdrawals, one should pay 295 as interest charges for 45 days, which is around an 11% interest rate. For someone with a higher cash withdrawal , the interest rate is lower.
Lounge and airport spa access
IDFC Select and Wealth variants offers you free lounge access. The select variant offers you 4 domestic lounge access per quarter while the Wealth variant offers 4 domestic/international lounge and spa access per quarter. Again 4 lounge access per quarter on an LTF card is very good and not many cards will offer it. However, you should keep in mind to access the lounge; you will have to spend at least 5k in the previous month. so you can’t keep this card only for lounge access, you will have to spend on it. However, you will not have to spend to access railway lounges.
Movies offer
IDFC credit cards offer 1-on-1 free movie tickets or discounts on movie tickets depending on the card variant. Wealth card offers 1-on-1 on movie tickets up to INR500 on Paytm mobile app (valid twice per month). Similarly, IDFC Select offers 1-on-1 up to 250, twice a month. Millennia and Classic offer a 25% discount of up to 100 once every month.
Negatives of IDFC Credit Cards
Your reward rate is never 2.5%
You will get 10x points (2.5%) only when you will spend above 20k (for Select, Classic and Millennia variants) and 30k for the Wealth variant. However, your reward rate will never be 2.5% since the spending done to reach the threshold level has a lower reward rate. Furthermore, since the rent, insurance and fuel spends are not included , touching the threshold spending will be very difficult for many. It is a serious drawback when it is compared with other cards, for e.g. even Amex also doesn’t provide reward points for insurance spending but counts those towards milestone spending. This is not possible untill the IDFC credit card is your primary credit card. Maybe this is the whole idea of giving 10x reward points only above 20k spends that IDFC Bank wants this card to be your primary card.
Monthly spend target for lounge access
IDFC First has made change in the free lounge access offering. You will have to spend a minimum of 5000 in the previous month to be eligible for lounge next month. That is you spend 5000 in May and then can get lounge access in june . You can consume your entire quarterly quota in june itself, with no issues. However, if your spending in june is less than 5000 then you won’t get lounge access in july. I am sure that the bank has realised that many people took the Select and Wealth variants only for lounge access and never did any spending on them.
Railway lounge access is a non-starter
All 4 IDFC credit cards offer 4 free railway lounge access every quarter. However, the lounge list is very short with just 5 locations. These are Delhi, Jaipur, Agra, Ahmedabad and Kolkata. Mumbai is not included. Therefore, unless, one travels to these locations frequently, this feature will remain just a feature of most cardholders.
Most premium Wealth variant has the lowest reward rate
Surprisingly, the most premium variant IDFC Wealth has the lowest reward rate within IDFC credit cards. This is simply because the 10x threshold is at 30k versus 20-25k for other cards. While one may argue that the Wealth card offers spa access and better offers on movies. However, it is very strange that your best card gives a lower reward rate than your most basic card.
IDFC credit cards comparasion with SBI Cashback card?
Given my long rant on the positives and the negatives of IDFC credit cards, the question comes as to how does it compares with say SBI Cashback card? Well the result is , the reward rate of IDFC credit cards is significantly lower than the SBI Cashback card. Thus sort of again I come back to my view that a trio of SBI CARD, AXIS ACE and AMEX CARD would give 5% cash back on nearly all spends. Moreover, you will get lounge access on Axis Ace .
Summary
IDFC credit cards overall are a decent package. They come with 0 fees, a decent reward rate, reward points that don’t expire and you get airport/railway lounge access. However, are they can have in your wallet? I would say NO. since the cards are LTF you may think to apply for one. However, be sure as to why are you applying. Is it the lounge/spa access? Remember that you need to spend 5000 this month to access the lounge the next month.
