HDFC Bank and Tata have recently launched co-branded credit cards HDFC Tata Neu credit cards. HDFC Tata Neu credit card comes in 2 variants “Plus” & “Infinity” and is available on the Visa & the Rupay platform.
With the launch of these co-branded cards, HDFC Bank now allows you to own 2 HDFC Bank credit cards at the same. That is you can very well own an HDFC Regalia along with a Tata Neu card or say HDFC Infinia along with this card. Just that credit limit is shared between the cards. This is a big thing from HDFC Bank and I believe many customers of HDFC Bank wanted this for a very long time. Better late than never. 😃
Should you apply for any of these credit cards? How do these cards compare with other credit cards? Read on to find out.
HDFC Tata Neu Credit Cards
HDFC Tata Neu Infinity Credit Card
Fees and Eligibility
- Joining/Annual fee of 1499+ taxes. Waived off on annual spending of 300,000.
- Monthly salary requirement – 100,000 per month. Self-Employed – ITR of 12lk/annum
Reward and Benefits
- Base Reward Rate: 1.5% in form of Neu Coins on all spends except fuel, wallet load, and smart EMI.
- Accelerated Reward Rate: 5% in form of Neu coins on Tata Neu and partner Tata brands.
- Rent payment reward capped at 1000 Neu coins per month, i.e. max spend of ~66,000 per month.
- Neu points have a validity of 1 year.
- Lounge Access:
- Domestic: 8 domestic lounge access. Max 2/ quarter.
- International: 4 per year. Max 1/quarter.
HDFC Tata Neu Plus Credit Card
Fees and Eligibility
- Joining/Annual fee of 499+ taxes. Waived off on annual spending of 100,000.
- Monthly salary requirement – 25k per month. Self-employed: ITR of 6lk/annum
Reward and Benefits
- Base Reward Rate: 1% in form of Neu Coins on all spends except fuel, wallet load, and smart EMI.
- Accelerated Reward Rate: 1% in form of Neu coins on Tata Neu and partner Tata brands.
- Rent payment reward capped at 500 Neu coins per month, i.e. max spend of ~50,000 per month.
- Neu points have a validity of 1 year.
- Lounge Access:
- Domestic: 4 domestic lounge access. Max 1/ quarter.
- International: None.
Thoughts on HDFC Tata Neu Credit Cards
Positives:
Double dip on Tata Neu app: HDFC Tata Neu credit cards allow double dip on the Tata Neu app. The Tata Neu app offers 5% cashback in form of Neu coins on nearly all purchases done thru the app. Thus you can earn a 7% (5% app feature + 2% card feature) on the HDFC Tata Neu Plus credit card and a whopping 10% (5% app feature + 5% card feature) on the HDFC Tata Neu Infinity credit card. These will be over and above the offers running on brands in Tata Neu. Thus, if you happen to use the Tata Neu app very frequently then these credit cards are a no-brainer.
5% on utility bill payment: The accelerated rewards i.e. 2% on Plus card and 5% on Infinity card are also applicable on payments done thru Tata Pay. Thus, my assumption here is if you pay your utility bills using HDFC Tata Neu credit cards on the Tata Neu app, you will get 2-5% off. Anyone using this card please confirm.
This feature sort of takes away some sheen from the current favourite SBI Cashback card (Apply Now), as the SBI Cashback card only offers 1% on utility payments. Unless you do payments using Amazon vouchers.
Rupay variant: HDFC Tata Neu credit cards are also available on the Rupay platform. The good thing is that the reward rate and features of this card are the same for Visa and Rupay variants. In addition, don’t forget that Rupay credit cards now work on UPI too. Further, HDFC Bank’s Rupay credit cards will be on-boarded soon on the UPI platform. Thus, another reason to apply for the Rupay variant of this card.
You can now have 2 cards from HDFC Bank: HDFC Bank for a very long time followed the 1-customer-1-credit-card policy. However, with the launch of this credit card, the bank now allows you to have 2 HDFC credit cards. Thus you need not close your existing HDFC card, in case you want to apply for this one.
Negatives:
Popular Tata brands missing: HDFC Tata Neu credit card has a list of decent partner Tata brands. Such as 1Mg, BigBasket, Croma, Air Asia, Tata Cliq, IHCL, Westside, Qmin, Tata Play and Cult. However, what is surprising is that many other popular Tata brands are missing. These include Air India, Vistara (~20% aviation market share in India), and Titan brands such as Titan, Fasttrack, Eyeplus and Tanishq. Further, Tata’s insurance ventures Tata AIA Life and Tata AIG General are also missing. What it means is that spending on these excluded brands will only fetch base reward points on these credit cards. Let’s hope that these brands will be included in future. However, as of now, we all have to live with this disappointment.
Point Calculations are not in the customer’s favour: Reward point calculations though appear to be simple but it is not. Two issues here. Firstly, the reward points are rounded down to the nearest integer. Secondly, accelerated reward points are calculated separately from the base reward points.
Illustration: Say you spend 250 on a partner Tata brand using the Infinity credit card. This spend will be eligible for a 5% reward rate. You would think you will get 5%*250 = 12.5 reward points, rounded down to 12 points. Nopes.
You will get 11 points. A 4.4% reward rate and not 5%. The way the calculation works is base reward points of 1.5%250 = 3.75 points. Rounded down to 3. Accelerated reward points of 3.5%250 = 8.75, rounded down to 8. A total of 11 points. Well, this is not a big turnoff as such, but sort of leaves a bad taste.
Neu coins are valid only for 1 year: Tata Neu coins are only valid for 1 year and can be used only in the Tata Neu app or paying thru the Neu app. Thus, you need to be in a constant earn-and-burn mode. You really can’t hoard them for a couple of years and then redeem them in one go.😒
Fair usage policy: While is not a negative per se and in fact a good thing. As this improves the product’s longevity and prevents product features from abuse. Nevertheless, this is something the users have to keep in mind when using their credit cards. There are monthly and annual spending caps on all partner Tata brands for both Plus and Infinity credit cards (Plus: link; Infinity: link).
Comparison with SBI Cashback credit card
It’s quite logical that HDFC Tata Neu credit cards get compared to everyone’s current favourite the SBI Cashback credit card(Apply Now). Below is the dynamic calculator to do just that.
The HDFC Tata Neu Infinity credit card is slightly ahead of the SBI Cashback credit card on sample spends. That’s only because I have assumed utilities will give 5% on payment thru Tata Pay. If that assumption doesn’t hold then the reward rate on Tata Neu Infinity declines from 2.1% to 1.6% against 1.9% on the SBI Cashback card. By the way, on the sample spends, the best rewarding credit card is Amex MRCC with a 2.7% reward rate. 😃
You can input your monthly spending in the calculator to check which card gives you the highest reward rate.
Conclusion
Tata HDFC Neu credit cards are no brainer for someone who does regular spending in the Tata ecosystem. For eg: BigBasket, 1mg, Croma, Cliq, Westside etc. If you are one of those then go for the Tata Neu Infinity credit card without thinking twice. However, if you are someone who likes simple cash back, and is a bargain hunter with low brand affinity then the SBI Cashback credit card suits you the most. The combination of SBI Cashback(Apply Now) + Amex MRCC(Apply Now) (assuming you hit the monthly milestone target of 2k points) or SBI Cashback + Axis Ace will be more rewarding than Tata HDFC Neu credit cards.
Do let me know thoughts and experience about HDFC Tata Neu credit cards? Have you applied for it? Are you getting accelerated rewards on bill payment with this card?
Disclaimer
In the interest of full disclosure, Credit Cardz may earn a referral bonus for anyone that’s approved through some of the links in this post. However, opinions and views expressed here are of the author's alone and not those of the bank, credit card issuer, or anyone else and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any of these entities.
Saurabh
Excellent analysis and calculator, effort is appreciated
CreditCardz
thanks mate
Chekka Venkata Bala siva SankaraRao
Sir, I am business person. But i don’t have itr. Can i take this card
CreditCardz
Without ITR how will you prove that you earn xyz amount yearly?
In short answer is NO, if you cannot prove your income
Parth
Didn’t they add Titan and Tanishq to their partner brand list recently?
Suresh
If we have 2 cards,Like credit limit shared, will the min expense limit also shared/combined to avoid renewal fee?
CreditCardz
No. Those things remain card specific.
Credit limit is shared only to ensure that bank is not taking more risk per customer
Deepak Kumar
Aya ni ji
ROUTRAY
Another amazing review with dynamic calculator. This dynamic calculator thing is going to help many readers. This is called genuine credit card review 😎…
CreditCardz
thanks for your appreciation. 🙂
Atul
My application is,declined citing reason having Regalia card alredy.
Deepak Kumar
No reshive
Nirmit
We are eligible for neu points and 2% on tata aig and tata AIA as per there welcome letter
CreditCardz
Wow.
Possible to share the snapshot of the welcome letter?
Siddharth Mehta
Your article needs a correction. HDFC never had one card per person policy. I’ve been holding regalia and diners black for last 5 years now .
Thanks for the information on these cards though .
CreditCardz
There has always been exceptions. Even today few existing cardholders are being Denied tata neu card reason being they already hold other hdfc card
k.pasupathy
I’m interested
Deepak Kumar
Aya ni ji Mera cardit card
Amrish
Do you get the rupay select benefits like health check etc. with infinity on rupay platform. I read somewhere that you don’t.
Deepak Kumar
Aya ni ji
S
On reward point calculation, they don’t round down they just round it. So, for 3.75 I got 4 and for 8.75, I got 9 – a total of 13 making it in fact 5.2% (assuming a base of 250)
CreditCardz
Wow thats great. The example they gave in the documents, have rounded down. But maybe since the points accrued were <0.5.
Can you please confirm with few more transactions that its just rounding-off. Will update the post accordingly.
S
Yes, it’s confirmed. Have tried quite a few transactions. Basically, you get 1.5% rounded (meaning 0.01 to 0.49 go to 0 and 0.50 to 0.99 go to 1) on all the eligible transactions. The values of all Tata transactions among these transactions are added up and 3.5% extra is given on the total value of these Tata transactions. This 3.5% is also rounded (meaning 0.01 to 0.49 go to 0 and 0.50 to 0.99 go to 1). Feel free to make amends to the article basis this.
Also, if you have the card, feel free to independently test and validate it.
Naveen Johnson
Hi, how’s your overall experience? Is it better than hdfc freedom card.
Charan S
Thanks ‘S’ for the detailed explanation. I have been using the Infinity variant for couple of months now and can vouch for your NeuCoins calculation logic mentioned here.
Kudos to CreditCardz for the rewards calculator and overall analysis.
NPS
Yup. It is just rounding it to the closest integer. For 5.7 rewards, I got 6 NeuCoins. So effectively, getting more than 5% on my Infinity Card for many transactions. 🙂
Amit Kumar
Hi, I am also getting the rounding of the neu coins.
CreditCardz
Hey Amit,
So is it like 1.6neu coins being rounded up to 2?
Amit
Yes
Amit
Do you guys get both 1.5% and 3.5% reward points together or they are credited on different dates. I was told by support that additional 3.5% points will be credited within 30 days
CreditCardz
Different dates.
Thats what the TnCs say.
Akash singh
Do we get 5% for utility bill payment? Did anyone try?
Amit
Yes we get 5% back when paid via tata neu app
Vibhav Bilgoji
Do we get 5% on both cards?
Joyce
“HDFC Bank’s Rupay credit cards will be on-boarded soon on the UPI platform” — Harsh, about this point. Though HDFC bank is listed under the list of RuPay credit card providers, we’re not able to add it to the BHIM app on iOS. Not sure about the Android. Also, thought technically this card is applicable for the RuPay Select benefits, we cannot chose or find or add it under the RuPay select signup. HDFC doesnt show up there. Some good benefits being missed out there for this card.
NARESH
Unfortunately my tata neu card application was rejected even though I got sms from them on being eligible for LTF card. I have mailed them. No response. However when I called them, the person told you may not be eligible even though you got sms.
Sounds weird to me.
Any thoughts on how to go about it?
Jineesh Jose
NO ONE BUY THIS CARD, THIS CARD HAS NO SECURITY ANYTIME, ANYONE CAN EASILY TAKE MONEY FROM THIS CARD WITHOUT KNOWING THE CARD HOLDER.
Chandrakant
WIll i get 5% cashback on Insurence Payments on tata neu infinity? Have anyone tried?
CreditCardz
Only if payment is made thru tata neu app