HDFC Regalia Gold Credit Card Review

HDFC Regalia Gold credit card is the new card powered by HDFC Bank. Regalia credit cards have been in the market for over a decade . There have been many variants of this credit card, namely Regalia, Regalia First (discontinued) and now the Regalia Gold. So, how does the Regalia Gold credit card fare in comparison to the original Regalia and whether it’s worth applying, read to find out

HDFC Regalia Gold Credit Card

Fees and Eligibility:

• Annual fees INR2,500 + GST. Waived on annual spending of INR400,000.
• Salary of INR1 lakh/month or ITR of 12lakh/annum.

Benefits:

• Welcome-Benefit:
  • Club Vistara Silver Tier and MMT Black membership for a year on spending INR100,000 in the first 90 days.
• Milestone Benefits:
  • 5k vouchers every quarter on spending 1.5lk in a calendar quarter
  • 5k flight voucher on spending 5lk in a year. Another 5k flight voucher on spending 7.5lk in a year.

• Reward Points:
  • Standard Reward Rate: 4 reward points for every INR150 spent. 1 Reward point = 0.50 paisa (1.33% reward rate).
  • Accelerated Reward Rate: 5x reward rate (~6.7% reward rate) on specific brands i.e. M&S, Myntra, Nykaa and Reliance Digital. A monthly cap of 5k points.
  • No reward points on fuel transactions, wallet loads, rent payments and tax payments.
  • Fuel surcharge waiver
• Lounge Access:
  • Domestic: 12 complimentary domestic lounge access every year.
  • International: 6 international lounge access via PP.
  • International lounge access is also shared between primary and add-on cardholders. However, no restrictions apply to simultaneous accesses

Positives about Regalia Gold credit card

Base reward rate of 1.33% .

The base reward rate of Regalia Gold is the same as the old Regalia. That is the reward rate is 1.33%. The reason it’s positive is that given the times we are in, where every benefit is taken away the bank has kept it as is.

welcome benefits

As part of welcome benefits, HDFC Regalia Gold offers Club Vistara Silver Tier and MMT Black Membership. However, to avail of the welcome benefits you need to spend 1lk within 90 days of the card issuance.

Not sure how worthy MMT Black is, but Silver Tier on Vistara offers priority check-in thru the Premium Economy counter and a 5kg increased baggage allowance. Do note that nothing is mentioned for the second year. Thus safe to assume that Vistara Silver and MMT Black won’t be available in the second year.

Further, do not forget that you get 2500 gift vouchers as part of the welcome kit if you are paying the fee for the first year.

Quarterly milestone benefits

HDFC Regalia Gold offers 1500 vouchers for spending 1.5lk every calendar quarter. The calendar quarter is defined as Jan-Mar; Apr-Jun; Jul-Sep; Oct-Dec. Thus, it is ideal to apply for Regalia Gold at the start of a quarter, so that you can double dip for welcome benefits and quarterly benefits.

Negatives of Regalia Gold credit card

There is a capping on grocery purchase

HDFC Regalia Gold credit card will not give reward points for spending on fuel, wallet load, EasyEMI transactions, and rent & government payments i.e. tax payments.

While the above is all okay, what is baffling is HDFC Bank has put a cap on grocery purchases. You can earn only 2000 reward points in a month for grocery purchases.

Not clear flight voucher is for a specific airline or a website voucher

As such, a complimentary flight ticket is a good addition to milestone benefits. However, as mentioned earlier it’s not clear whether the 5k reward is in form of a travel website voucher or a specific airline voucher. I would prefer a travel website voucher, as it gives flexibility and more options.

Summary

Mixed feelings about the HDFC Regalia Gold credit card. On paper, the reward rate is higher than the HDFC Regalia. However, since most of the rewards are in form of brand vouchers, which are restrictive in nature, I am not sure if we can extract maximum value. My experience with vouchers is if not used they are wasted or I tend to give a discount to friends or family. Thus, the value of 16k brand vouchers may be lower than that.