HDFC Bank credit cards

HDFC Bank Infinia carries the highest effective reward rate of the four cards we rate, at 3.3%, and it also carries a ₹12,500 annual fee — ₹14,750 once GST is added. Our formula rates it 2.8 out of 5, below the Tata Neu Infinity at 3.2 and the Regalia Gold at 3.1, because a 0.5 point advantage in return does not pay for an eight-fold difference in fee.

The break-even arithmetic makes the point without any editorialising. Infinia needs about ₹4.47 lakh of annual spend on the card before the rewards cover the fee. Tata Neu Infinity needs about ₹63,000, and Millennia about ₹49,000. A card is not premium because it costs more; it is premium if you spend enough to make the cost back, and that threshold is a fact about you rather than about the card.

This is also where the fee waiver matters, and where our formula deliberately does not give full credit for one. A waiver at a spend threshold you will not reach is worth nothing, so the score halves the fee where a realistically achievable waiver exists rather than zeroing it.

Every rate in the table above is a blended, capped figure rather than the accelerated headline. An issuer advertising 5% on one merchant category with a ₹1,000 quarterly cap and 1% everywhere else is not offering a 5% card, and scoring it as one would rank the cards by the aggressiveness of their marketing.

The gap between the two numbers is where most credit card comparison in India goes wrong. The four cards here run 2.4% to 3.3% effective — a range of under a point — while their advertised headline rates differ far more dramatically. Once the caps are applied, the cards are much closer together than they look.

Forex markup is the other figure worth reading, because it is charged on every foreign-currency transaction and is invisible until the statement arrives. Three of these four cards charge 2.0% against a market standard of 3.5%; Millennia charges the full 3.5%. On ₹2 lakh of overseas spend that difference is ₹3,000.

These scores are built from fees, effective returns, lounge access, forex markup and eligibility thresholds. They do not measure how quickly a dispute is resolved, how good the app is, or how the issuer behaves when a transaction goes wrong — none of which we hold data on, and none of which we will imply from data we do not hold.

Nor do they price the reward currency itself. A point is only worth what you can redeem it for, and redemption values move without notice. Our effective return figures use a realistic blended redemption rather than the best-case transfer partner, which is the assumption most reward comparisons quietly make in the issuer’s favour.

And a card you cannot get is worth nothing, which is why accessibility carries 15% of the score. Infinia’s income and bureau requirements are the highest of the four here; Millennia’s are the lowest. That is part of why the cheap card and the expensive one land on the same overall figure.

Because each of these cards breaks even at a different level of spend and carries different strengths, the practical outcome for most people is not a single best card. A low-fee card that clears its break-even easily plus one card with a 2.0% forex markup for travel covers more ground than either alone.

What to avoid is holding a card whose fee you never earn back. On the numbers above, Infinia below roughly ₹4.47 lakh of annual card spend and Regalia Gold below ₹1.13 lakh are costing you money for the privilege — before considering whether the lounge access is worth anything to you in practice.

Fee waivers change this, and our formula deliberately gives only half credit for one. A waiver at a spend threshold you will not reach is worth nothing, and treating it as a zero fee is how a card that costs you money gets scored as if it were free.