Retailio HDFC Bank Business
KeepA chemist's card: 5% on the bills, capped at ₹250, and a third of a percent elsewhere.
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
Priced on the everyday mix — 30% groceries · 10% utilities · 20% travel · 6% fuel · 34% everything else — with this card's published category rules applied. Plus milestones, minus the fee. No accelerator credit — and a business card's accelerator is usually the point. This card is not on the board, which ranks personal cards only; it is ranked against other business cards on /best/business, where the tax, GST and vendor-payment rungs ARE credited and its ₹ 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 →
Breaks even only by erasing its fee at ₹5,000 a month
At ₹5,000 a month — ₹60,000 a year — on the everyday mix this card returns ₹200 gross (earn ₹200) against a fee of ₹0 — the ₹499 is waived, the spend having cleared ₹50,000 a year = ₹200 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.
2 notes on the card itself: how it is issued · why it ranks #757
Why #757 A pharmacy-retailer co-brand for chemists buying stock on Retailio, and the 5% on utility, telecom, government and tax at ₹250 a month is the whole of it. Sourcing stopped on 1 October 2023 — HDFC dates this one, which it rarely does.
HDFC publishes the ladder in the card's own FAQ: 0.25 AirMiles on conversion, up to ₹0.25 on the product catalogue, ₹0.20 on SmartBuy and ₹0.20 as statement cashback. Its worked illustration elsewhere on the page quotes the rupee exits as "1 Reward Point = ₹0.2", which is the same table read at its cash rungs. Accrual is capped at 25,000 Reward Points in a statement cycle by HDFC's fair-usage table, and a closed card's balance survives 30 days for products and vouchers only.
The take
Retailio is a co-brand for the pharmacy-retail marketplace of the same name, sold to chemists buying stock rather than to consumers, and HDFC serves it from its consumer /credit-cards/ path rather than the business shelf — which is a filing quirk, not a hint about who it is for. The economics are the standard small-merchant shape. Five per cent on business essentials — utility, telecom, government and tax — capped at ₹250 a calendar month, and HDFC's own illustration makes the ceiling unmistakable: ₹4,000 of such spend returns ₹200, ₹10,000 returns ₹250 and not ₹500. Four Reward Points per ₹150 on e-commerce, two per ₹150 on POS, at a point worth ₹0.25 through AirMiles and ₹0.20 in rupees, so a third of a percent on ordinary business spend. Lost-card liability cover runs to ₹3,00,000. The fee is ₹499, charged 90 days after issuance only if the card was never activated with a minimum ₹500 spend, and waived at ₹50,000 of spend in the previous year. What sets this row apart from the rest of HDFC's withdrawn shelf is that the bank dated the withdrawal: "Sourcing of this Credit Card has been stopped from October 01.10.2023." Existing holders keep it.
Your renewal — keep, downgrade or cancel
This card reaches break-even by ERASING its fee, not by out-earning it: the waiver is the decision.
Keep, downgrade or cancel
₹499/yr at stake · 5 spend bands
The charge ₹499/yr
The waiver ₹50,000 of spend in the year before renewal — about ₹4,167 a month — and the renewal fee is not charged.
Break-even ₹5,000 a month — ₹60,000 a year — is where this card's value crosses its fee, and it gets there by erasing the fee at the waiver rather than out-earning it.
At your spend
₹1,000 a year, net of the fee, at ₹3,00,000 of annual spend — this clears the waiver, so no fee is charged
₹2,000 a year, net of the fee, at ₹6,00,000 of annual spend — this clears the waiver, so no fee is charged
₹4,000 a year, net of the fee, at ₹12,00,000 of annual spend — this clears the waiver, so no fee is charged
₹12,000 a year, net of the fee, at ₹36,00,000 of annual spend — this clears the waiver, so no fee is charged
₹20,000 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
- 5% cashback on utility, telecom, government and tax payments, capped at ₹250 a month
- 4 Reward Points per ₹150 on e-commerce spends and 2 per ₹150 on POS
- ₹3,00,000 of lost-card liability cover
- ₹499 renewal fee waived at ₹50,000 of spend in the previous year
- The joining fee is charged only 90 days after issuance, and only if the card was never activated with a ₹500 spend
Watch out
- Withdrawn — HDFC dates it precisely: "Sourcing of this Credit Card has been stopped from October 01.10.2023"
- The 5% caps at ₹250 a month — HDFC's own example shows ₹10,000 of eligible spend returning ₹250, not ₹500
- A point is ₹0.25 at best and ₹0.20 in rupees, so the reward legs are 0.33% and 0.67%
- Rent and education payments earn nothing at all
- Accrual is capped at 25,000 Reward Points in a statement cycle
- No lounge access, no transfer partner, no airline or hotel programme
- HDFC publishes no separate fees-and-charges page for this card — the figure comes from the portfolio-wide Key Fact Statement
What these points actually fly
HDFC Reward Points move to Avianca LifeMiles , Air France-KLM Flying Blue , Etihad Guest , United MileagePlus , Air India Maharaja Points , AirAsia Rewards , SpiceJet SpiceClub , Accor Live Limitless (ALL) , Marriott Bonvoy , Club ITC , IHG One Rewards , Radisson Rewards and Wyndham Rewards — and those price every award dynamically. There is no published chart to quote, so we quote nothing: an estimate is not a seat.
what the cards that DO reach a chart can fly — 2,196 corridors priced →
What earns, what doesn't
5 sourced rules · 2 pay zero
THE SAME 5% AS FLIPKART WHOLESALE AND PINE LABS, AT THE SAME ₹250 CEILING — HDFC sells one business-essentials leg across its marketplace co-brands and prices it identically. The product page states it as "5% cashback on business essentials like utility, telecom, Govt and Tax (capped at ₹250)" and then works the cap twice, which is what settles the period and the sharing: "Scenario 1: Suppose the merchant spends ₹4,000 on business essentials 5% of ₹.4,000 = ₹200. Cashback given to merchant = ₹200" and "Scenario 2: Suppose the merchant spends ₹10,000 on business essentials 5% of ₹10,000 = ₹500. Cashback given to merchant = ₹250 (Capping at ₹250)". Sourcing stopped 1 October 2023; existing holders keep the card, which is why the rule is written rather than dropped.
- Rent & property management · excluded Rent earns nothing — HDFC excludes it across its business range, in the one line the card's own record gives both exclusions ("Earn nothing — HDFC excludes both across its business range")
- Utilities (electricity/water/gas) · accelerated 5% on utility bills, capped at ₹250 a calendar month and SHARED with telecom, government and tax on the same ceiling — HDFC's own worked example puts ₹10,000 of business essentials at ₹250 and not ₹500. The share is not published, so no split of that ceiling belongs to utilities alone
- Government / tax · accelerated 5% on government and tax payments, capped at ₹250 a calendar month and SHARED with utility and telecom on the same ceiling — HDFC's own worked example puts ₹10,000 of business essentials at ₹250 and not ₹500. The share is not published, so no split of that ceiling belongs to government alone
- Education · excluded Education earns nothing — HDFC excludes it across its business range, alongside rent, in the same line of the card's own record
Does your spend count toward the fee waiver?
not published — and we say which
₹50,000 a year is the bar that waives the ₹499 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 Retailio HDFC Bank Business earns and does not earn, but has not published which spend categories count toward the fee waiver — the ₹50,000 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.
Lounge access
0 of 793 tracked doors
No lounge access. This card opens exactly 0 of 793 tracked lounge doors — board with the crowd, or find a card that doesn't →
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.
You cannot, and HDFC says when that stopped: "Sourcing of this Credit Card has been stopped from October 01.10.2023. Existing customers of this card will continue to enjoy the benefits." The card was distributed through the Retailio marketplace to pharmacy retailers. Its joining fee was activation-gated — billed 90 days after issuance only if the customer had not activated or used the card with a minimum ₹500 spend.
HDFC Bank publishes no income or age cutoffs for this card. Blank means blank — we don't invent numbers to fill a grid.
no MITC row researched for this card yet · filter the board by what you can get →
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 — 2 of them, each with the day we read it
- official Retailio HDFC Bank product page — the dated sourcing-stopped notice, the two Reward Point legs, the 5% business-essentials cap worked as an example, and the redemption ladder
- official HDFC Bank Key Fact Statement cum MITC, Version 4.6 dated August-2026 — Retailio at ₹499 against a ₹50,000 annual waiver, plus the 25,000-point statement-cycle accrual ceiling