HDFC Regalia First Credit Card

I'm using Regalia First Credit Card since 2016. Regalia First falls under HDFC Bank's Semi-Premium cards category just one step below the Original Regalia. However, I feel tough this card has been tagged Semi-Premium; the customer support for this card is not even Standard, I would say 'Sub-standard.' I used this card heavily to achieve the target-based spending mentioned below, but my sour experience with HDFC Bank made me use it only when the moon is blue. I'll come to it later.

Regalia First gives you good benefits that make the card worth it, it offers:

◾ Welcome Benefit & Renewal benefit of 1000 Reward Points

- The reward points are credited only after you have paid the annual/renewal fee. If you are holding RF as LTF, in that case, you are not deemed to receive the aforementioned RP

◾ Earn 4 Reward Points for every 150 spent on the card

- 1 RP = 0.30 INR when redeemed at https://hdfcbankregalia.myrewardz.com for free Air Tickets & Hotel Booking. You can also burn your points against gifts form rewards catalogue (never go for this option as you will end up losing your RP's value). Note that RPs are valid for 2 years from the date of accumulation.

◾ Complimentary Priority Pass Membership

- Access 1000+ Airport lounge around the world through Priority Pass Membership 3 times in a calendar year. Your Add-on card members can also avail this privilege jointly

◾ Domestic Airport Lounge Access

- Avail 8 complimentary lounge access per calendar year. The good thing is that lounge access is not restricted to quarterly visits like other card providers.

◾ Convenience fee waiver of 1% on all fuel transactions

- The waiver on convenience fee is applicable only for fuel transactions between Rs. 400 to Rs. 5000 (Maximum waiver of INR 500 per statement cycle).

◾ Complimentary Air Accident Insurance
- In case of death in an air accident, the registered nominee is eligible to receive 50 Lacs INR

◾ Milestone Benefits:

- Earn 7,500 RPs on annual spending of Rs. 6,00,000 or more in each anniversary year

- Earn 5,000 RPs on annual spending of Rs. 3,00,000 or more in each anniversary year

◾ Fee Structure:

- First-Year Membership Fee – Rs. 1000 + Applicable Taxes

- Renewal Membership Fee – Rs. 1000 + Applicable Taxes

(Mostly the bank offers it as Lifetime Free Card)

So, as mentioned at the beginning of this article, I rarely use this card now because HDFC Bank didn't honor its Milestone benefit. I was using my Regalia First Credit Card heavily so that I could get the milestone RPs. Even I had received a mail from HDFC stating that I had already spent Rs 255947 on my card and that spending Rs 44053 more would enable me to get 5000 RPs as milestone benefit of spending 3 Lacs on my card.

Well, I spent another than Rs 50000 more before the calendar year, but to date, I didn't receive the bonus RPs. Mails to customer support agents and the PNO turned unfruitful. They always came up with a lame excuse that the offer was valid only on 'Retail Expenses' and that I'm not eligible. Nobody from their team could explain to me this retail expense. We played a lot of email games, and then I realized that I cannot waste that much of my time's bandwidth banging my head with these people, so I stopped there. My Regalia First is still active and lying somewhere in my closet.