HDFC Infinia excludes rent and govt spends, caps redemptions
From January 1, 2023, HDFC Infinia stopped earning Reward Points on rent, property-management and government-service transactions, and capped SmartBuy flight/hotel redemptions at 150,000 points a month with a separate 50,000-point cap on Tanishq vouchers. The base 5-points-per-₹150 earn rate survived.
The first crack in Infinia’s armor. From January 1, 2023, HDFC stopped awarding Reward Points on rent, property-management and government-service transactions — categories that previously earned like everything else. Zero points, full stop.
The burn side got fenced in too. SmartBuy flight and hotel redemptions — the engine room of Infinia’s value — are now capped at 150,000 points a month, with a separate 50,000-point monthly cap on Tanishq vouchers. Heavy redeemers who used to clear big balances in one go now have to queue their own points.
The one mercy: the base earn rate of 5 points per ₹150 held. For now. But the direction is unmistakable — category exclusions and redemption caps on a card that used to have neither, a full 18 months before the bigger cuts that followed in 2024.
Our take: Infinia is still Infinia, but January 1, 2023 is the date the “uncapped” era officially ended. Nerfs at the top of the market never stop at one.