We have a new credit card launch from HDFC Bank but it is not the rumoured super-premium Infinia Reserve. HDFC Bank launched Regalia in 2011. 12 years later, we have a new Regalia variant – the HDFC Bank Regalia Gold credit card. In many ways, this is the successor for the Regalia with better rewards and features. The HDFC Regalia Gold credit card comes with a joining fee of Rs 2500+GST and retains the standard rewards of Regalia. The additions over Regalia include better milestone benefits and airport lounge access without any spend conditions.
Eligibility
- Salaried: Rs 1 Lakh net monthly income
- Self-Employed: Rs 12 Lakhs per annum
As always, you can apply with C2C applications to get around these salary requirements. HDFC Bank also relaxes these criteria by quite a bit if one already has a savings account with them.
You can also upgrade to Regalia Gold based on the limit of your existing HDFC Bank credit card. If your existing HDFC Bank credit card has a credit limit of more than Rs 3 lakhs, you can request an upgrade to Regalia. The income requirements are fully relaxed in this case.
Fees
| Joining Fee | Rs 2500+GST or FYF |
| Welcome Benefit | Rs 2500 GV if fee is paid |
| Welcome Memberships | Complimentary Club Vistara Silver Tier and MMT Black Elite Membership |
| Annual Fee | Rs 2500+GST or LTF |
| Renewal Benefit | None |
| Annual Fee Waiver | On Rs 4 Lakh annual spends |
We need to spend Rs 1 Lakh within 90 days of getting the card to be eligible for the welcome benefits. HDFC Bank can surely do with offering better welcome benefits that can be useful for more customers. Club Vistara Silver is at most a value add and cannot be used by most customers considering Vistara flies to very limited cities. MMT Black Elite is another membership that does not provide any value. It would have been better if they had given Amazon Prime and Swiggy One annual membership in lieu of the welcome benefit.
Rewards
| Type of Spend | Rewards | Return |
|---|---|---|
| Retail Spends | 4 RP/Rs 150 | 1.3% |
| Accelerated Spends (Marks & Spencer, Myntra, Reliance Digital and Nykaa) | 20 RP/Rs 150 | 6.7% |
The base reward rate is the same as what we get on Regalia. The accelerated spends at 20 RP per Rs 150 are a new addition over the Regalia. It is like getting the 10X Diners partners back but at a 5X reward rate. 🙂
As with other credit cards in the market, there are categories where HDFC Bank Regalia Gold does not get any rewards. These are:
- Easy EMI
- Wallets
- Rent, Property Management, Packers and Movers etc.
- Government Transactions
Cap on Rewards
Some of the categories also have a cap on the maximum points we can get. These are listed below.
| Type of Spend | Cap |
|---|---|
| Accelerated Spend Partners | 5000 RP for 4X bonus points |
| Grocery | 2000 RP per calendar month |
| Insurance | 2000 RP per day |
Milestone Benefits
This is where the Regalia Gold is much better than the Regalia. It gets better milestone benefits for the same spend that we would have otherwise done on Regalia. So, if use Regalia as your primary credit card it makes even more sense to upgrade to Regalia Gold.
| Spend Target | Benefit |
|---|---|
| Rs 1.5 Lakh spend per calendar quarter | Rs 1500 Brand Gift Vouchers |
| Rs 5 Lakh spend in anniversary year | Rs 5000 Flight Gift Voucher |
| Rs 7.5 Lakh spend in anniversary year | Rs 5000 Flight Gift Voucher |
- The options for the brand gift vouchers are Marriott, Myntra, Marks and Spencer or Reliance Digital.
- The ‘flight voucher’ seems to be a coupon code that can be used on SmartBuy when booking flights. So, only voucher can be applied during booking and both cannot be clubbed. It would have been nice if both could be clubbed to get maximum benefit.
Assuming you can spend Rs 7.5 Lakh in a membership year and also achieve the Rs 1.5 Lakh spend per calendar quarter, this is a total benefit of Rs 16000. That makes it an extra return of 2.1% over the base reward rate. We can redeem these milestone benefits on the SmartBuy portal.
SmartBuy Rewards
The normal/milestone rewards on Regalia Gold might seem less for a card in this segment. This is where SmartBuy is useful. For shopping on the below merchants through SmartBuy, we get accelerated rewards which increase the overall reward rate. The SmartBuy cap for HDFC Bank Regalia Gold credit card is 4000 RP per calendar month and 2000 RP per day. These caps are only for the bonus points. The base reward points are uncapped.
| Shopping Category | Rewards | Value at 1RP = 50 paise |
|---|---|---|
| IGP.com | 10X | 13.3% |
| Flights | 5X | 6.6% |
| Hotels | 10X | 13.3% |
| IRCTC | 3X | 3.9% |
| Redbus | 5X | 6.6% |
| Instant Voucher | 5X | 6.6% |
| Apple Tresor | 5X | 6.6% |
| Flipkart | 3X | 3.9% |
Complimentary Airport Lounge Access
HDFC Bank recently announced revised airport lounge access conditions on its Regalia, Millennia and Diners Club Privilege credit cards. On these variants, we now get airport lounge access only if we spend Rs 1 Lakh in a calendar quarter. Regalia Gold does not have any such conditions on airport lounge access. So, consider upgrading to Regalia Gold if you need airport lounge access without any spend conditions.
- Domestic Airport Lounge Access: 12 complimentary visits per calendar year to airport lounges in India with Visa. Check this list of airport lounges eligible for access with HDFC Regalia Gold credit card.
- International Airport Lounge Access: 6 complimentary visits per calendar year to airport lounges outside India with Priority Pass
Both domestic and international airport lounge access is also available to add-on card members. The number of visits is shared across primary and add-on cards. Add-on card members get their own priority pass.
Other Benefits and Charges
- Fuel Surcharge Waiver: Not Available
- Forex Markup: 2%+GST ~2.4%
- Interest Charges: 3.6% per month
HDFC Bank Regalia Gold Credit Card Rewards Redemption
HDFC Bank Regalia Gold credit card provides multiple options for redeeming the reward points. The rewards can be redeemed on the Smartbuy redemption portal.
HDFC provides the option of redeeming products from its catalog, booking flights/hotels, gift vouchers, or even cash. What differs is the value offered for your rewards for these redemption options. If booking a flight or hotel, each reward point has a value of 50p. However, if we go for products, gift vouchers, or cash the value of each reward point drops to 20p. So, if you travel the best option is to book flights on Smartbuy using reward points or transfer them to one of the Airmiles partners.
| Redemption Option | Value of 1 RP |
|---|---|
| Smartbuy (Flights/Hotels) | 50 paise |
| Airmiles – Intermiles, Singapore Airlines (Krisflyer), Club Vistara | 0.5 Airmiles |
| Rewards Catalogue (Including Vouchers) | Up to 65 paise |
| Cashback | 20 paise |
HDFC Bank Regalia Gold Credit Card Transfer Partners
Regalia Gold also gets access to the same transfer partners as Infinia and Diners Club Black but with reduced ratios. Considering we cannot accumulate reward points at a faster rate on the Regalia Gold, this feature may not be that useful.
| Transfer Partner | Transfer Ratio RP:Miles |
|---|---|
| Air Canada – AeroPlan | 3:1 |
| Air Asia – airasia rewards | 2:1 |
| ALL – Accor Live Limitless | 2:1 |
| Avianca LifeMiles | 2:1 |
| British Airways Executive Club | 3:1 |
| Etihad Guest | 3:1 |
| Finnair Plus | 2:1 |
| Flying Blue | 2:1 |
| Hainan Airlines – Fortune Wings Club | 2:1 |
| IHG One Rewards | 2:1 |
| Vietnam Airlines – Lotusmiles Program | 2:1 |
| Turkish Airlines – Miles&Smiles | 2:1 |
| United MileagePlus | 2:1 |
| Wyndham Rewards | 2:1 |
| Singapore Airlines – KrisFlyer | 2:1 |
| Vistara Airlines – Club Vistara | 2:1 |
| InterMiles | 2:1 |
Final Thoughts
The benefits offered by the HDFC Bank Regalia Gold credit card put the card above Regalia and Diners Club Privilege in HDFC Bank’s credit card line up. So, the order of upgrade to Infinia would now become Regalia –> Regalia Gold –> Infinia. Considering Regalia has been heavily devalued, the Regalia Gold restores some of its ‘shine’.
Regalia Gold is best used for travel redemptions. If you are not into travel and are looking for better cashback redemption cards, then the Cashback, Millennia or Ace credit cards are better choices.
Should you upgrade from Regalia/Diners Club Privilege to Regalia Gold?
If you hold an LTF Regalia or Diners Club Privilege, you will get the option to upgrade to a paid Regalia Gold at some point. In these cases, do evaluate your spends before you upgrade.
If Regalia/Diners Club Privilege is your primary credit card, then upgrading to Regalia Gold makes sense. You will get better milestone benefits and airport lounge access without any spend conditions.
Frequently Asked Questions
HDFC Bank Regalia Gold Credit Card
16 thoughts on “HDFC Bank Regalia Gold Credit Card Review”
Is it possible to have regalia gold and biz black/dcb at the same time? Do u have to give up regalia gold to get biz nlack/dcb
No, you can get Biz Black as a floater card along with Regalia Gold.
Your answer should be no here.
Because HDFC regalia comes with exactly same benefits with no annual and joining fee (lifetime free card).
But new regalia gold comes with hefty annual fee with less card features and advantages.
Best cards are available in market compared to new regalia gold card.
Regalia Gold has better milestone benefits even though the base reward rate is the same. Plus no spend conditions for airport lounge access. So, if you are going to spend on Regalia then may as well upgrade to Regalia Gold if you can take advantage of milestone benefits.
Is rent payment considered for quarterly and annual milestone benefits?
At the moment, there is no T&C on this.
I had a question regarding educational fees payment on this card. My son’s educational fees is paid via SBI collect which charges more than 1-1.5% if paid via credit cards. Does Regalia Gold or any other credit cards in the market still provide any cashback or rewards on these fees? If not ,will use Netbanking option only
Yes, educational services still get rewards on Regalia Gold.
Is there a Rupay variant of this card?
No
I already have a HDFC regalia credit card with a limit of 780000/. If I apply for gold card, would I pay annual fee?
You may need to pay. I enquired. They said it’s not possible currently to offer LTF card.
i would want to upgrade my Regalia LTF card to Regalia Gold LTF. need to check if possible
I already have an HDFC Bank Regalia credit card and I have a credit limit of 508000. I want request for an upgrade to Regalia Gold
I already have an HDFC Bank Regalia credit card and I have a credit limit of 500000. I want to know which one regalia or regalia gold is beneficial for me.
Regalia Gold is better. Apply through your RM, it will be upgraded to Regalia Gold