HDFC caps utility, telecom and cable rewards

From 1 September 2024, utility, telecom and cable spends on HDFC cards earn a combined maximum of 2,000 reward points a month. Not per category — combined. Previously these categories earned uncapped.

For a normal household paying its own electricity and phone bills, 2,000 points is headroom you will never touch. This cap isn’t aimed at you. It’s aimed at the optimiser routing six-figure recurring bills — their own, their family’s, sometimes their business’s — through an Infinia because uncapped utility earn on a 3.3% card was free money. That trade is now fenced at 2,000 points a month, full stop.

It follows the pattern of HDFC’s August move, when a 1% fee landed on rent, big utility payments and third-party education. First a fee to make the volume unprofitable, now a cap to make the points finite.

Our take: as devaluations go this is a minor one — rated exactly that on our tracker — but the direction matters. Bill-payment arbitrage on HDFC is dying one door at a time. Earn on real spend and put your energy into redemptions instead.