HDFC Regalia
DowngradeThe card Regalia Gold replaced — grandfathered, out-earned, and now cut to 1%.
a year at ₹40,000 a month, after the fee
Skip the arithmetic — the board, ranked → · nothing to sign up for
What it's worth to you, after the fee
Welcome: 2,500 reward points on fee realisation (repeats on renewal) — worth ~₹1,250 at Regalia's ₹0.50 redemption ceiling. Closed to new applications.
Priced on the everyday mix — 30% groceries · 10% utilities · 20% travel · 6% fuel · 34% everything else — with this card's published category rules applied: it earns nothing on fuel here, so that spend is dropped, not paid at the headline, and stops pacing milestones and the waiver. Plus milestones, minus the fee. No accelerator credit — the ranking model on /compare adds ~20% of spend at the card's best accelerator, so its ₹ for this card reads higher.
How these numbers are computed — and why the rankings show a bigger one →
Spend tiers, milestones and fee waivers included, at our house ₹/point. Portal and category multipliers can push higher — run your exact number →
Pays for itself at ₹12,000 a month
At ₹12,000 a month — ₹1,44,000 a year — on the everyday mix this card returns ₹2,600 gross (earn ₹1,400 + milestones ₹1,300) against its ₹2,500 fee = ₹100 net — the first rung at or above ₹0. The ladder runs in ₹1,000 steps to ₹1,00,000 a month and ₹10,000 steps to ₹5,00,000; figures are rounded to the hundred, and the accelerator is never credited.
3 notes on the card itself: how it is issued · the network variants · why it ranks #693
Why #693 Held at the board's tail even though the value model still scores it mid-table: it is closed to new applications — a card no reader can get doesn't outrank cards they can, and holders should product-swap to Regalia Gold anyway.
The ₹1.00 HDFC house value belongs to the Infinia stack, not this card. Legacy Regalia points cap out at ₹0.50 (SmartBuy flights/hotels), ₹0.35 catalogue, ₹0.15 cashback — and the sole surviving transfer route, KrisFlyer at 2:1, prices to the same ₹0.50. Our 1.0% rate already bakes that haircut in. Redemption is also capped at 70% of any SmartBuy travel booking, and at 50,000 RP per calendar month for flights/hotels and again for cashback (official RP T&C).
Best real exit: Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer at ₹0.55/pt (2:1 transfer).
The take
HDFC stopped selling the original Regalia after Regalia Gold launched in March 2023, and its product page now says so in the bank's own words — "Sourcing of this Credit Card has been stopped." This page exists for the holders still carrying one, and on 15 May 2026 it got worse for them: HDFC moved the accrual denominator from ₹150 to ₹200, so Regalia now earns 4 RP per ₹200. At the ₹0.50 ceiling this card can actually reach, that is a 1.0% card — a 25% cut, and the second cut it has absorbed without a fee reduction. The ₹2,500 fee still waives at ₹3L, 15,000 milestone points (₹7,500) still land by ₹8L, and 6 Priority Pass visits still ride along. But Regalia Gold charges the identical fee for 5 RP/₹200 at a ₹0.65 catalogue — a 63% better effective rate — plus richer vouchers, Boarding Edge, and the full 22-partner HDFC transfer grid where this card keeps only KrisFlyer at 2:1. Our "downgrade" verdict means product-swap, not cancel: call HDFC, move to Regalia Gold, keep the credit line and let the legacy plastic retire.
Your renewal — keep, downgrade or cancel
Here is the fee, the spend that clears it, and everything that has moved under this card since you last decided.
Keep, downgrade or cancel
₹2,500/yr at stake · 5 spend bands
The charge ₹2,500/yr
The waiver ₹3,00,000 of spend in the year before renewal — about ₹25,000 a month — and the renewal fee is not charged.
Break-even ₹12,000 a month — ₹1,44,000 a year — is where this card's value crosses its fee.
At your spend
₹1,600 a year, net of the fee, at ₹3,00,000 of annual spend
₹10,600 a year, net of the fee, at ₹6,00,000 of annual spend — this clears the waiver, so no fee is charged
₹18,800 a year, net of the fee, at ₹12,00,000 of annual spend — this clears the waiver, so no fee is charged
₹41,300 a year, net of the fee, at ₹36,00,000 of annual spend — this clears the waiver, so no fee is charged
₹63,900 a year, net of the fee, at ₹60,00,000 of annual spend — this clears the waiver, so no fee is charged
Everyday earn plus milestones, minus the fee — the same model as the value panel above, so the two cannot disagree. run your exact spend →
Your copy of this card
You hold this card.
Kept on this device, in your browser. It is never sent to us, never synced, and nothing else on the site reads it yet.
The downgrade
HDFC Bank publishes no document naming a card you can step down to, so we name none — an invented product change is a phone call you would waste. That leaves keep or cancel, and the numbers above are the whole of it.
What has changed under this card
- 23 Sep 2026 Axis EDGE brings Accor back, drops ITC, and adds Cathay, Miles & More and Hilton a program these points reach
- 15 Sep 2026 Wyndham splits its three flat free-night tiers into four a program these points reach
- 8 Sep 2026 Flying Blue splits award tickets into Light / Standard / Flex — a 25% rise for the same product a program these points reach
We price what is in force today — a change that has not happened yet is not in these numbers. the full archive for this card →
If you call to cancel
What the bank offers to keep you is the one fact this desk cannot compute. We are collecting those reports — dated, and only in aggregate — before publishing any: an offer one reader was made is not one you are owed. Called about this card? Tell us what they offered →
The desk publishes subscribable .ics feeds for the dates it knows — offer deadlines, devaluations, expiry audits. Your renewal date is not one of them: only your statement knows it.
What's good
- Fee waived at ₹3L — and 15,000 milestone points (₹7,500) by ₹8L annual spend
- 6 Priority Pass international visits/yr (after 4 transactions on the card)
- 2 domestic lounge vouchers/quarter, on ₹1L of prior-quarter spend
- Free product-swap to Regalia Gold preserves the card number's credit history
Watch out
- 15-May-2026: earn cut from 4 RP/₹150 to 4 RP/₹200 — a 25% haircut, to an effective 1.0%
- Closed to new applications — HDFC's own page: "Sourcing of this Credit Card has been stopped"
- Points cap at ₹0.50 — half the HDFC house value, on every redemption path
- Transfers reach only KrisFlyer, at a 2:1 toll — the other 21 HDFC partners are Infinia/DCB/Regalia Gold only
- Sits in HDFC's 3.75%/mo APR tier — the 1.99% premium rate belongs to Infinia/DCB/BizBlack
- Forex is 3.5%, not the 2% the old reviews quote — HDFC's KFS moved legacy Regalia to the 3.5% tier on 1-Aug-2024
- DCC markup on INR-billed foreign spends rose to 1.75% on 15-May-2026
What these points actually fly
You hold this — the numbers below are your own points.
These points feed 11 programmes that publish an award chart. Cheapest verified seat per cabin, priced in YOUR points with this card's own ratio already applied:
- Delhi → Singapore Economy 38,000 HDFC Reward Points via Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer at 2:1 the play
- Bengaluru → Singapore Business 90,000 HDFC Reward Points via Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer at 2:1
- Delhi → Dubai First 320,000 HDFC Reward Points via American Airlines AAdvantage at 8:1 (through Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer → Marriott Bonvoy) the play
What earns, what doesn't
11 sourced rules · 5 pay zero
- Fuel · excluded Zero RP; 1% surcharge waiver — Regalia sits in the ₹3L/annum waiver tier (official fees PDF)
- Rent & property management · excluded Zero RP since 1-Jan-2023 (bank-wide, official fees PDF)
- Wallet loads · excluded Zero RP on wallet loads (bank-wide)
- Utilities (electricity/water/gas) · capped 2,000 RP/month cap per the Sep-2024 bank-wide schedule (community), at 4 RP/₹200 post-15-May-2026 — about ₹1,00,000 of utility spend
Does your spend count toward the fee waiver?
not published — and we say which
₹3,00,000 a year is the bar that waives the ₹2,500 fee. A different question from the one above — earning points and counting toward a threshold are separate rules, and issuers write them separately.
Not published. HDFC Bank states what the HDFC Regalia earns and does not earn, but has not published which spend categories count toward the fee waiver and the milestones — the ₹3,00,000 bar. We won't guess it from the earn table or from a sibling card: Axis published three cards' rules on one day and all three lists differed. If you hold this card and have it in writing from the issuer, send us the document and we'll source it.
Where the miles go
1 program
Ratios read card points : partner miles — 2:1 means 2 points become 1 mile. Never the other way round.
every HDFC Bank route, side by side → · the HDFC Reward Points hub →
Lounge access
735 of 793 tracked doors
Gate: ₹1L quarterly spend for domestic visits (since late-2023)
Opens 735 of 793 tracked lounge doors across 294 airports , via Visa, Priority Pass India, Priority Pass Global — see the full map →
Can you get it?
the route in — no cutoffs published
The cutoffs and the actual route in — not the "apply now" button, the door that opens.
Closed to new applications — existing cardholders keep the card; there is no way in.
Closed to new applications. HDFC's surviving Regalia product page states it outright — "Sourcing of this Credit Card has been stopped. Existing customers of this card will continue to enjoy the benefits." There is no apply flow, and the consumer Regalia is absent from the bank's credit-card catalogue. Existing holders keep it (grandfathered); the only way to "get" one today is to already have it.
HDFC Bank publishes no income or age cutoffs for this card. Blank means blank — we don't invent numbers to fill a grid.
per the official HDFC Bank MITC — figures marked (community) aren't in the PDF; the issuer won't say · filter the board by what you can get →
The fine print
2 of 7 MITC rows published
What the MITC actually says — the rates, fees and cutoffs the brochure skips.
CLOSED TO NEW APPLICATIONS — the product page itself says so: "Sourcing of this Credit Card has been stopped. Existing customers of this card will continue to enjoy the benefits" (re-read 2026-07-26). Fee ₹2,500 (+GST), waived at ₹3L. Forex 3.5% + GST, stated verbatim on that page ("Foreign Currency Markup: 3.5% on all your foreign currency spends") and corroborated by the fees PDF, where the Regalia row is marked "##" against the footnote "FCC charges changing to 3.5% w.e.f 1st August 24" — the 2% figure the old reviews quote is dead. DCC/static-conversion markup 1.75% w.e.f. 15-May-2026 (official rp-regalia.pdf; the product page body still shows the pre-change 1%). Earn ceiling 50,000 RP/statement cycle and fuel-surcharge waiver in the ₹3L/annum tier per the official fees PDF v2.5 (Mar-2025), which still lists Regalia as a variant. Card re-issuance ₹199 (non-metal) w.e.f. 15-May-2026. PP domestic visits billed $27. Income/age criteria were never re-published post-withdrawal — left blank rather than guessed.
per the official HDFC Bank MITC · reviewed 10 Jul 2026
What's changed for this card
8 dated changes
Devaluations and buffs that touch this card directly, its issuer, or the points and programs it earns and transfers to. Every one is dated here; the tracker carries each one's before → after and the write-up.
- 23 Sept 2026Axis EDGE brings Accor back, drops ITC, and adds Cathay, Miles & More and HiltonAccor and Marriott off the grid since 2 April 2026; Club ITC live; no Cathay, Miles & More or Hilton → Accor live at the punished rates; ITC removed; Cathay, Hilton and Miles & More live; Marriott still gone
Axis's own Travel EDGE terms, re-read 25 September 2026, already show the grid that went live on 23 September. Accor ALL is back, and not at the old Atlas 1:2: EDGE Miles convert at 2:1 (Olympus 1:2) and EDGE Rewards at 5:1, with Magnus for Burgundy at 5:2 and only Burgundy Private still at 5:4. Club ITC is off the table. Three partners are new. Cathay Asia Miles sits on that same punished grid. Hilton Honors is the ordinary one: EDGE Miles 1:2, EDGE Rewards 5:2, Burgundy 5:4. Lufthansa Miles & More is the exception on Atlas, which converts 1:1 there while every other standard airline on that card is 1:2; the EDGE Rewards side of Miles & More is the ordinary 5:2. Marriott stays removed. Qatar Privilege Club was already back. Flying Blue, Air India and Qantas moved into Group A, which is the capped group. The Axis Rewards credit card's Amex network is advertised as joining-fee and annual-fee nil for a limited period; there is no separate Amex variant on this board, so that offer is not modelled as a fee change.
- 15 Sept 2026Wyndham splits its three flat free-night tiers into four
- 8 Sept 2026Flying Blue splits award tickets into Light / Standard / Flex — a 25% rise for the same product
- 1 Sept 2026SmartBuy moves Amazon Pay gift cards to 1X under Insta Deals
- 25 Aug 2026Vietnam Airlines Lotusmiles opens a broad SkyTeam status match — up to Elite Plus
- 21 Aug 2026Club ITC pays up to 50,000 bonus Green Points for spreading 10 nights across all five brands
- 20 Aug 2026IHG Hotels & Resorts becomes a Maharaja Club earning and conversion partner
- 18 Aug 2026Amex India re-rates Virgin Atlantic upward — 2:1 becomes 5:4, the first MR buff in years
Every HDFC Bank change we've dated → 37 events since 2001, 23 of them nerfs — worst year 2026.
Verified against HDFC Bank's own documents on · the net-annual-value engine, at our house ₹/point
Every document behind this page — 11 of them, each with the day we read it
- official HDFC Bank's Regalia product page — the banner reads "Sourcing of this Credit Card has been stopped. Existing customers of this card will continue to enjoy the benefits,"
- official HDFC Bank Key Fact Statement cum MITC, version 4.6 dated August 2026 — clause I(x) prices a Regalia point at 15 paise against the statement balance, with effect from 1 November 2025
- official "UPDATES ON YOUR CREDIT CARD REWARDS, FEES & CHARGES" — the change notice HDFC links from the Regalia page
- official Regalia Rewards Points Program T&C (official, linked from the product page) — the Annual Spends Benefit
- official Consolidated fees & charges PDF (v2.5, Mar-2025) — Regalia still listed as a live variant tier at ₹2,500 / ₹3L annual-spend waiver
- official HDFC Bank's Regalia fees & charges page — "Joining/renewal membership fee: ₹2,500 plus applicable taxes"; "Welcome benefit of 2500 reward points"
- community CardInsider review, badged "Discontinued" — ₹2,500 fee/₹3L waiver; still prints stale 4 RP/₹150, 2% forex and ₹0.20 cashback against HDFC's own docs
- community CardExpert review — 2 domestic lounge visits/quarter behind the ₹1L quarterly-spend gate (late-2023), 10,000 RP at ₹5L + 5,000 at ₹8L milestone split
- community pointsmath tier grid — only Infinia, Diners Club Black and Regalia Gold have "all 21 transfer partners available"
- community Independent second witness to the same tiering — the full transfer-partner roster belongs to "HDFC Infinia", "HDFC Diners Club Black / HDFC Diners Club Black Metal"
- community milesgoround SmartBuy table — Regalia shares the Regalia Gold/Diners Privilege bonus tier (4,000 bonus RP/mo cap)