Infinia - Pointless ?

[u/itsbikerboy]

I have been a credit card user for the last 6+ years and I use the HDFC Infinia, HSBC travel one and Axis Atlas as my primary credit cards among others for specific spends.

Most of my monthly expenses were managed through vouchers (~50k-70k), because of which Infinia was my credit card for shopping bill, payments, and other retail requirements.
I would then go for Axis Atlas (accor earlier & now air india) for everything else while HSBC travel one (accor) remained a backup credit card, if in case any other credit card is devalued.

However, ever since HDFC has reduced benefits on vouchers to 3000 points/ month (22.5k spends), I’m just curious if there is any other benefit that you see with the Infinia credit card? Thats a max benefit of 36k points annually.

I do Travel, but my flight bookings are approximately once per quarter. I am not sure if I can get more value of HDFC.
Is it worth it?

(speech to text converted post, please ignore any errors)

[u/TomorrowAdvanced2749]

The Pharmeasy route earns me solid 1 to 3K points a month easily, and Myntra spends as well adds like 1K points to 4000 points during heavy shopping months.

Mainly, the card is supposed to be a travel card, the voucher game was gonna end sooner or later.

The card is definitely worth it, mainly if you look at Axis or ICICI, they lag behind a lot in terms of service and sorting out issues.

Axis is one of the most unreliable banks, ICICI a bit better but when it comes to issues with iShop, the support is non-existent, along with erratic accelerated points credit schedules.

HSBC is okay, but their cards are not an all-rounder unlike HDFCs due to a lack of accelerated earn opportunities other than travel.

If your main concern is the 18L spend criteria for Infinia, you may downgrade to DCBM, its a fantastic card as well.

You can check my HDFC Diners Club Black guide to know more.

[u/sportizens]

Among those 3, only infinia gives RPs on gold/jewelry purchase. So if you don't spend on that, let it go. They'll close it anyway if you don't touch 18L spends.

[u/Comprehensive_Heat37]

You’re absolutely right, even though many people on this subreddit don’t want to admit it. Its utility for voucher maxxers dropped significantly since the cap.

Diehard Infinia lovers will call out exceptions to the 3k point rules like Pharmeasy, but the vast majority of the voucher purchases that we used to make are now stuck. Unless you have some lmedical issue, I don’t think most people buy more than 3-4k worth of medicines every month!

I have switched over to EPM for most of my voucher spends. Their voucher catalog is smaller as Gyftr but at least its caps are much more bigger (18k vs 3k)

For the few brands like Swiggy that aren’t on EPM, I just use the HSBC Live+.

[u/snow_coffee → u/Comprehensive_Heat37]

If am going to buy Amazon pay vouchers, how much you think I can get back from epm ? Assuming 10k vouchers per month

Apart from Amazon pay, what are other vouchers you bet on in Epm

[u/TomorrowAdvanced2749 → u/snow_coffee]

Negative, as 4.13% fees and 3% base rewards.

[u/snow_coffee → u/TomorrowAdvanced2749]

If I up the amazon voucher spending to 20k it makes sense ?

[u/TomorrowAdvanced2749 → u/snow_coffee]

Brother.

Do you understand math?

4.13% is a processing fee on Apay, and base rewards is 3%..

In no world would it make any sense, at all.

[u/snow_coffee → u/TomorrowAdvanced2749]

Ooopz sorry, now I get you, then why do people here hype epm ? Do you suggest it for anything specific

[u/TomorrowAdvanced2749 → u/snow_coffee]

For general shopping vouchers, its decent. Especially after the smartbuy cap of 3k on bonus RPs, EPM is pretty good.

See, Amazon pay and all this is gonna end sooner or later.

It was never sustainable.

Only way to get accelerated RPs on Apay is now via Amex, but redemptions are a bit of a mental gymnastics and then also kinda hard to get as their applications are closed

[u/snow_coffee → u/TomorrowAdvanced2749]

True true

Pinning hopes on it for the insurance payment otherwise acceptance of apay offline is quite low

[u/Comprehensive_Heat37 → u/snow_coffee]

There are no Amazon pay vouchers on EPM, so you only get base rewards (3%). However, there are Amazon Shopping vouchers at 16% returns, Amazon Fresh vouchers at 18%.

So if you're actually doing your shopping on Amazon, EPM is king.

[u/snow_coffee → u/Comprehensive_Heat37]

After 4% fees that's like 12% ? Worth it if purchases going past 1L

[u/arnav2206]

It depends on what your spends would be in the upcoming year or so.

For travel you might consider the T1 now cause Accor is giving almost 2.2/point value but for utilities, gold etc Infinia still gives solid 3.3% as base points which none of the other 2 give.

Atlas could be a daily driver as 4% is solid but again if you look at it from Accor's lens then 2% on T1 would become 4.4 and that could potentially change the math.

[u/snow_coffee → u/arnav2206]

Atlas do you use for vouchers ? If yes which one do you find most rewarding

Best redemption from atlas will be to accor as far as I know, right ?

If you buying gold on myntra, using infinia does it make sense or u refering to offline purchase, I think one gets same rewards using regalia gold on myntra for gold

[u/arnav2206 → u/snow_coffee]

I use atlas only for offline spends and that too upto 7.5L now that accor is underwhelming.

Yes used to be Accor, now could be Aeroplan/SQ/Air India

Both offline and myntra gets you base rewards rates on Infinia.

[u/snow_coffee → u/arnav2206]

Do you suggest me an upgrade to infinia ? My main purpose is amazon vouchers which is now taken care by hsbc liv+

I have feeling it will be devalued in few months, can infinia help me make most if gold is primary purpose ? What else do you do with infinia if I may know

[u/goosnargh2023]

It's significantly cheaper to buy medicines outside Pharmeasy if you're OK with reasonable generics -- For example I just snagged 4 months of medicines from PlatinumRX at 70% off retail.

[u/Dry_Investigator7064 → u/goosnargh2023]

May be out of context. But keep on eye on the efficacy of generic medicines. One doctor prescribed generic medicines to my dad, which didn’t actually work effectively and sugar shot up. Since then, only using from good name brands.

[u/goosnargh2023 → u/Dry_Investigator7064]

This is true, and I always research on the pharma company's credentials (size, public listed status, quality reports etc) before ordering. Another good indication is competition -- heavily competitive medicines usually have good quality. Been using them for several years now.

[u/SaracasticByte]

Infinia was never meant to be a voucher benefits card. Somewhere Infinia lost the game with all the voucher earnings. They are fixing it now. 18L/yr spend, capped gyftr earnings.

It's still a solid card if you book hotels and airline tickets. Also it gives reward points on jewellery and gold. And insurance spends too. Unlike Axis, there is no group A/B mess and capping.

[u/BalanceSignificant55]

In the same boat, I have switched to HSBC Premier as my primary card. I max out the 3k every month and then use infinia only for Myntra and recently used it for gold purchases. For everything else it is HSBC Premier for me. For vouchers, I have EPM as the back up.