I’ve been using my HDFC Gold Credit card since Jan 2005. Im now planning to close down this card.
*Why I started using this Card?
*1. It was free for life.
I was given a very good credit limit of 1 Lac+
There was a free insurance and accident cover.
55 days credit limit.
No surcharge on petrol bunks.
Statement by Email.
*What I liked about this Card?
*Hmmm....Im thinking long and hard. Can’t think of any!!
*What I didn’t like about (Or what made me to write this review)
*1. Monthly statements (by post or email) doesn’t reach the user regularly. I’ve called up the customer service several times for non receipt of the statements. Funniest part is that even if they realise that the email statement has not been sent, there’s no provision for the customer support executive to re-send the statement!!??!!
When I used the card for purchase of fuel, the surcharge was included. I could get it rolled back only after talking to the customer support. This was actually against their promise of 0% surcharge on all petrol bunks. They said, the customer should call up to request the cancellation of the surcharge !!!
I was offered an "My City" card, for an one time fee of Rs.199 (Im sorry, Im not very sure about the cost), which is said to earn the user huge reward points (5 ponts for every 100 rupees spent) for each transaction on Grocery stores, Apparels etc. But I never realised the benefit of it. For me all the transactions looked like, its getting me only normal reward point.
Ok, now the funniest part of all. I accumulated, 2500+ reward points on my card and decided to redeem. The card Im using is a Gold Card, and in HDFC’s site, the gold card comes under "Premium Cards" category. When I wanted to redeem my reward points, I was told that I belong to the "Classic Cards" category, because, I have less than 3000 reward points. Sound silly isn’t it?
You may wonder what difference it makes. For example if want to redeem my points against a gift voucher from "Lee", for Premium cards, its Rs500 worth of gift voucher for 775 reward points. In case of "Classic Cards", the same gift voucher will cost you 1050 reward points.
I dont think any other bank categorises like this. I mean if you are using a Gold card, you redeem it against the offers available for the Gold Card. [PLEASE READ MY UPDATED COMMENTS BELOW]
- The insurance and accident coverage are no longer available.
To sum up, its a very average card, with very average benefits. I was not happy about irregular receipt of statements, unwarranted calls from HDFC to promote so many products etc. Moreover, I was very shocked when I was levied surcharge on fuel purchase. The card was sold to me only by highlighting the point that there’s no fuel surcharge.
*UPDATED ON 03/06/2007
*Im forced to reduce the rating from 2 Star to just one, reason, When I read my current Credit Card Statement, to my surprise I found that the bank has charged Rs.84.27 as the fees for redeeming the reward points. Doesn’t that sound silly? I have never seen anything like this before on any of the credit cards. The customer support person also did not mention this when I spoke to her about redeeming my reward points.
*UPDATED ON 07/06/2007 :: BASED ON MR.JAYAKUMARS COMMENTS
*After reading Mr.Jay’s comment, I revisited the site and found that there’s a mention about the reward points and charges for redeeming it. So I apologize for overlooking and assuming that HDFC will treat the rewards program similar to ICICI or other banks. I still feel that handling charges for reedeming our own reward points is only a money making idea from HDFC. But all other points I mentioned in my review still holds good.