HDFC's entertainment PIXEL: ₹1,000 a year, four brand packs to choose from, no lounge.
Reward rate 0.3%–2.5% — everyday spend to its best bonus category, before the fee
PIXEL Times is HDFC's PayZapp-native PIXEL range with a Times Internet entertainment layer bolted on, and Rush is the dearer of its two variants.
HDFC's own terms, updated on 8 October 2026, now print it: ₹1,000 a year, waived at ₹1 lakh of annual spend, RuPay only, and closed to anyone who already holds an HDFC credit card. The partner's site sells it on subscriptions — Sony LIV and Spotify up front — and on choosing two of four merchant packs for accelerated points: Zepto and Swiggy, Cleartrip and Uber, Decathlon and Urban Company, or Amazon and Flipkart. The catch is the point. HDFC's product terms let a PIXEL Times Reward Point go exactly one place, the PayZapp wallet, at a quarter of a rupee. So the base is 0.25%, the two 10X packs pay 2.5% up to ₹500 a month, and SmartBuy travel pays 1.25% up to another ₹500. There is no lounge, no forex discount and no airline. The Cleartrip-and-Uber pack is the only thread a traveller can pull, and it is a thin one.
About 0.3% back on everyday spend, paid in HDFC PIXEL Times Reward Points worth ₹0.25 each. Up to 2.5% on its bonus categories. Rewards stop above ₹2,00,000 of spend a month.
A PIXEL Times Reward Point is worth ₹0.25 and goes exactly one place: the PayZapp wallet, from a 2,000-point balance, at most 50,000 points a calendar month. There is no statement credit, no catalogue, no SmartBuy travel redemption and no airline or hotel partner. Points lapse two years after they are earned.
| Spend | Back |
|---|---|
| Two chosen brand packs — pick two of Swiggy & Zepto, Cleartrip & Uber, Decathlon & Urban Company, Amazon & Flipkart | 2.5% |
| SmartBuy — Flights, Hotels, Bus, Rail, Instant Vouchers, IGP, Apple Imagine Tresor | 1.3% |
| UPI spends (RuPay card) | 0.3% |
| All other spends | 0.3% |
| Fuel, wallet loads, rent, government, EMI and voucher purchases | 0.0% |
At ₹0.25 a point.
Category rules: not published. We have not found where this card earns less.
₹1,000/yr, plus GST. Spend ₹1,00,000 in a year and the next renewal fee is waived.
At ₹9,000 a month (₹1,08,000 a year), on everyday spending this card returns ₹300 (rewards ₹300), and the ₹1,000 fee is waived because the spend clears ₹1,00,000 a year, so it comes out at ₹300 a year, the lowest spend where it comes out ahead. How we find the break-even
This card reaches break-even by ERASING its fee, not by out-earning it: the waiver is the decision.
The waiver: ₹1,00,000 of spend in the year before renewal (about ₹8,333 a month) and the renewal fee is not charged.
Break-even: ₹9,000 a month (₹1,08,000 a year) is where its value passes the fee, and it gets there by clearing the waiver rather than by earning more.
You hold this card.
Saved on this device only. Never sent to us.
Downgrade: HDFC Bank publishes no card you can step down to, so we name none. That leaves keep or cancel.
Called to cancel? Tell us what the bank offered · Calendars of upcoming changes
| Charge | What the bank says | Our read |
|---|---|---|
| Forex markup | 3.5% (the PIXEL Key Fact Statement's single foreign-currency cell, MITC v4.14, September-2026, read as covering all four PIXEL variants) | |
| Interest (APR) | 3.75%/mo (45%/yr) — the PIXEL KFS row "Pixel Go & Pixel Play / Pixel Times (Rush & Move Variants)" | High |
| Late payment fee | Nil ≤₹100; ₹100 (₹101–500); ₹500 (₹501–1,000); ₹600 (₹1,001–5,000); ₹750 (₹5,001–10,000); ₹900 (₹10,001–25,000); ₹1,100 (₹25,001–50,000); ₹1,300 (>₹50,000) | |
| Cash withdrawal fee | 2.5% or ₹500, whichever is higher | |
| Add-on card fee | not published | |
| Over-limit fee | not published | |
| Reward redemption fee | not published |
From HDFC Bank's most important terms and conditions, checked 10 Jul 2026.
Fee ₹1,000 + GST, one figure for joining and renewal; the renewal waives at ₹1,00,000 of annual spend and there is no joining-fee waiver ("NA"). RuPay only. Reward Points accrue only on whole multiples of ₹200, cap at 20,000 a calendar month on the base "2 Reward points for every Rs. 200" category, and are valued at ₹0.25 each in the negative-balance clause. Closed PIXEL cardholders can never re-apply; one PIXEL variant per customer; holders of other HDFC credit cards cannot apply. First appears in the MITC updated 08-Oct-2026.
₹1,00,000 a year is the bar that waives the ₹1,000 fee. Earning points and counting toward that bar are separate rules, and banks write them separately.
Not published. HDFC Bank has not said which kinds of spend count toward the fee waiver (the ₹1,00,000 bar). We won't guess it from the earn rules or a sister card. Have it in writing? Send us the document.
| Rule | What the bank says |
|---|---|
| How you get it | Apply direct |
| Income, salaried | Gross monthly income above ₹8,000 (partner microsite FAQ) |
| Income, self-employed | ITR income above ₹6 lakh a year (partner microsite FAQ) |
| Age | 21–60 salaried / 21–65 self-employed (partner microsite FAQ) |
From HDFC Bank's terms document.
Direct application — no invite list, no banking relationship required.
Salaried applicants 21–60 with gross monthly income above ₹8,000; self-employed 21–65 with ITR income above ₹6 lakh a year (partner microsite FAQ). Existing HDFC Bank credit-card holders cannot apply. Apply through "Get Started" on hdfcbank.timespixel.in; the card is serviced in the PayZapp app.
No lounge access: opens 0 of 792 lounges we track. Find a card that gets you in.
Welcome: 6 months of Sony LIV Premium, 4 months of Spotify Premium Standard, and 12.5% off at PUMA twice a quarter — per HDFC's PIXEL Times product terms.
Spend milestones: none published.
: HDFC lifts Biz Black's flight and hotel redemption cap to 75,000 points a month (about the HDFC Biz Black Metal)
: HDFC phases out the original Swiggy card — holders who don't choose land on Ornge (about the Swiggy HDFC Bank Credit Card)
: HDFC BizBlack swaps its welcome for Accor+ Explorer and stops waiving the joining fee (about the HDFC Biz Black Metal)
Before
Amazon Pay Gift Voucher sat in SmartBuy's accelerated tier — 'up to 5X Reward Points or 5% cashback'
After
'Insta Deals: 1 % Instant Discount + 1X Reward Points' — this brand is out of the accelerated tier
: The Harley-Davidson Diners Club drops out of HDFC's bank-wide MITC (about the HDFC Harley-Davidson Diners Club)
: HDFC caps Regalia Gold miles transfers at 50,000 points a month (about the HDFC Regalia Gold)
: HDFC switches on 22 transfer partners for BizPower (about the HDFC BizPower)
: Regalia Gold's cash-out rate quietly drops to ₹0.15 (about the HDFC Regalia Gold)
Every HDFC Bank change (40 since 2001, 26 of them cuts) · All changes across cards
Outgrown it? At ₹1 lakh a month the HDFC Bank step up is HDFC Diners Club Black Metal: ₹37,600 a year after its ₹10,000 fee, against ₹3,000 here.
Last checked . Every fact on this page comes from these 3 documents; the bank's own are marked official.
We price the card on an everyday mix of spending (30% groceries · 10% utilities · 20% travel · 6% fuel · 34% everything else), using this card's own rules for each kind of spend. Then we add milestone bonuses and take off the fee.
This figure does not count a card's bonus categories (they need you to shop a certain way); our rankings add each card's best bonus category on a realistic share of spend. Our comparisons use this same figure.
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