So here’s what happened:

In May 2025, I emailed requesting closure of my two credit cards (Kotak Myntra & Kotak Mojo Platinum).

Reason: the bank had reduced my credit limit from ₹1,00,000 to ₹10,000.

I clearly mentioned both card numbers in the email

I also sent 2 reminder emails

I received no response at all

Later, I got a message saying the Myntra card was permanently blocked, so I assumed the cards were closed. Around the same time, my Google account storage got full, so I may have missed further emails.

Fast forward to April 2026, during an audit of my accounts, I noticed a charge of ₹1,180 (annual fee / final settlement).

When I raised this with the bank, I was told that the card was never closed.

I emailed again → no response for 7 days

Then I escalated the complaint to the Banking Ombudsman

After that, the bank’s nodal officer called me and said:

“It’s your mistake. Closure requests are not accepted via email, you should have called.”

But I had already:

Submitted a written closure request

Sent follow-ups

Received no response from the bank

Now, I’ve received a message stating compensation of ₹3,21,000 from the bank.

Guys "Pay Smart" according to westside. You are not allowed to pay using your credit cards now without incurring a 49rs flat fee mentioned as a convenience fee.

Also before anyone jumps with saying passing MDR to a customer is ok, Mastercard and visa network explicitly mention in their contracts that MDR should not be passed on to customers.

MDR pass on to customers on UPI and debit cards are outright banned in india according to RBI but credit cards don't fall under that rule but also you have network contracts that make it illegal.

Before I talk about the card ,MyBm told me that there are only 2 cards that he has dispatched from office till now

what the card does

6.666 % back on domestic spends
3.333% on international spend and no forex
40% on hotels far superior and easier than Hsbc premier(have this card as well)
20% on flights meh
9% interest rate instead of 36% for most banks
0% atm charges ,
0%intrest charges for atm cash withdrawals(

Card fees:60k you get 50000 back in points.

There is litrally no photos ,no videos of unboxing of this card anywhere .

I can literally borrow money from this card for 8 months,or even get free intrest free cash for statement cycle from the ATM.

I had a limit of ₹4 Lakh on my smart earn card and i placed iPhone Duo order for a total of ₹292900 and 15 min later received mail from amex that limit has been reduced to ₹303000. Fahhhh

Have you noticed suddenly after the recent tax imposition on UPI merchant transactions, a majority of shops and businesses that were previously using merchant UPI accounts have switched to individual accounts, which makes paying through RuPay credit cards not possible!

The shops I used to visit daily and pay using my rewarding cc through UPI no longer supports, and im forced to pay directly from my bank account or use cash.

Sooner or later, the government is going to have to strictly instruct every kirana and local business to enable merchant payments(so that they can tax the transactions)

OFFER IS ONLY ON WEEKENDS

I have been waiting for almost 2 months to use this HDFC Millennia Debit Card offer and I finally managed to do it last Saturday

I thought I would share my experience because I am honestly pretty happy with how this turned out

The offer was 1500 instant discount on spends of 2499+

Visited the Souled Store and paying through the District app using an eligible HDFC Mastercard.

Before going I checked that my HDFC Millennia Debit Card BIN was eligible and also called the store to confirm that they accepted payment through District

Shoe MRP: 2599

Souled Store points: 25 - redeemed at checkout

Final bill: 2574

Then I paid through District using my HDFC Millennia Debit Card:

HDFC offer discount: 1500

District handling fee: 150

Amount actually paid: 1224

And the best part the Souled Store credited 259.90 points back to my account for the order.

So my effective cost:

1224 - 259.90 = 964.10

2599 shoe for effectively 964.10

Overall I am really happy with the deal

Big thanks to HDFC Bank for this offer

Whatsup guys,

So recently I opened an HSBC Premier account, majorly for the Premier card, the process was seamless and pretty simple. After the opening my RM and a senior official visited my home and got these great gifts as well.

For context, I hold the Axis Burgundy and HDFC Imperia Relationship already and diversified into HSBC, just wanted to share this good and warm welcome I received in HSBC, feels good to receive personalised welcome instead of a generic letter! 😁

Ciao

Went into my HSBC branch today to sort out some paperwork, fully expecting the usual sit-around-and-wait experience. Instead I got treated like I'd walked into a lounge.

They asked if I wanted refreshments while I waited. I said coffee — and what showed up was not the sad vending-machine cup I was bracing for. Proper cappuccino served in an actual china cup and saucer, with the HSBC logo stencilled right onto the foam. Came with a spoon, a side of dark chocolate, some Hazel Crisp cookies, and even a tiny flower vase on the tray. Little touches, but you can tell someone actually cares about how the place feels.

The banking side was smooth too, but honestly it's the hospitality that stuck with me. Credit where it's due — nicely done, HSBC. ☕

Just visited the Encalm Lounge at Delhi Airport and honestly, the experience was pretty disappointing.
The queue to get in hasn’t gotten any smaller, there were still a ton of people waiting. But the cherry on top was that once we finally got inside, we spent a good 10 minutes just looking for a place to sit. Every single chair was occupied.
We were standing around with our luggage, awkwardly looking at people who were seated, trying to figure out where we could squeeze in. It genuinely felt stupid.

Ultimately got a table on a sharing basis.

Two cards that I got recently are having this kind of a cutting. I'm just curious to know what it is meant for ?

I wanted to get some super premium cards for a very long time but couldn’t do it because they were paid but in last 6 months I’ve pulled the trigger on all of them

About me: I’m 26M working in tech in BLR with take home of around 5.5L/month

Expenses: generally 15k on cards but for next one year it’s gonna be more than 3L a month because of my upcoming wedding and a villa I bought here

How I got the card?

1. Infinia: closed RG and MB card and applied for this one using my salary slip. Got approved in a week
   
2. EPM: opened a 3 in 1 account and applied via salary slips. Didn’t move my salary account here
   
3. M4B(enroute): moved my emergency fund here and applied in a month. Got approved and getting deliver in 3 days
   
4. Premier: Moved my salary account here

Redemption:

Planning for a Maldives trip using my Amex stash
Japan using Atlas and M4B
NZ using M4B and infinia
Bali using EPM
Domestic flights on EPM

Fee:

1. Infinia - will spend 3L here in 90 days to get waiver
   
2. EPM - Already spend 10L on gold + vouchers
   
3. Atlas - exhausted 15L so free for next year
   
4. Premier - LTF
   
5. Amex - exhausted 7.5L on taxes. AMEX said that they can reopen my MRCC so will close this and open MRCC
   
6. Live+ : don’t mind paying for that. Easy value

Happy to answer anything you may have

I was in the middle of a late Teams meeting last night around 9:40 PM when my phone starts buzzing. Usually, I ignore any random number, but I noticed the caller ID started with 160. I paused my meeting and picked it up, best decision ever.

It was an automated ICICI fraud alert asking if I just spent $99.99 at Blizzard Entertainment. Obviously, I hadn't. It gave me the option to press a number on my keypad to block the card immediately, so I did.
Literally two minutes later, I got a notification that they tried to hit my card again for $149.99. Because I took that call and froze the card right then and there, the second charge blocked completely, and the bank is already refunding the first one.

If you see a 160 number calling you late at night, don't ignore it thinking it's spam. The fraud bots don't care what timezone you're in, and taking that call completely saved my account. Safe to say I'm keeping international transactions turned off in my iMobile app from now on.

Had an interesting unboxing experience today when the RM came home and asked me to open the Axis One credit card package only for it to feature an actual lockbox lol.

Have never seen anything of this sort before.

Ever since I got credit cards, I’ve been spending way more than I used to. Now I know you have to develop self control and all, I tried but failed every time, so I finally made the decision to close all my credit cards and buy stuff only through my savings. The banks offered me their average cards anyway, so there’s no special benefits on using them.

TL;DR (AI summary): HSBC is upgrading the Live+ Credit Card to the Visa Infinite platform from 26 July 2026, raising the monthly cashback cap and extending the 10% cashback category to shopping and utility bills (not just food/dining/groceries), while adding lounge access, premium lifestyle perks, and a new fuel cashback. Amazon/Flipkart/Myntra remain capped at 1.5% regardless of the new rules.

Detailed breakdown:

1. Enhanced Cashback

• Old: 10% cashback on food, dining, groceries — capped at ₹1,000/month
• New: 10% cashback on food, dining, groceries + shopping + utility spends — capped at ₹1,200/month
• Exception: Amazon, Flipkart, Myntra stay at flat 1.5% cashback, excluded from the 10% bucket entirely
• Timing: Spends from 26 July 2026 onward will reflect in the August 2026 statement

2. Travel Benefits

• 1 complimentary international airport lounge visit per year
• This specific perk only kicks in 1 September 2026 (later than the main 26 July rollout)

3. Lifestyle Privileges (via Visa Infinite)

• Airport Meet & Assist services
• Complimentary stay at ITC Hotels
• Benefits on Avis car rentals
• These are governed by Visa's own terms, not HSBC's — so redemption/eligibility rules come from Visa

4. Fuel Cashback

• ₹250 credited every quarter
• Only applies to contactless fuel spends
• Only if quarterly contactless fuel spend exceeds ₹10,000

Other notes

• Card is issued by The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited, India (Hong Kong SAR entity, limited liability)
• Email says "stay tuned for more details" — implying full T&Cs haven't been published yet
• It's a no-reply, unattended mailbox — can't respond directly to HSBC via this email

Sounds like things will get even more expensive. How are you going to deal with this one?

First of all I want to thank everyone in this sub for discussing and posting about their legal actions against banks and card issuers and registering their complaints with RBI. I couldn't have done it without you guys!

I used this subreddit and claude to build the case against Axis Bank for their failure to disclose rejection reason for my credit card application.

Here is the chronological order of events:

24 April 2026: Created new axis bank account

24 May 2026: Applied for Axis Bank Select Credit Card, offered as a Lifetime Free (LTF). Application rejected same day; reason given: "does not meet bank's policy norms" (no specific reason provided).

17 June 2026: First follow-up call to Axis Bank requesting specific rejection reason; representative promised a written response — no docket/complaint number issued; promise never fulfilled.

25 June 2026: Second follow-up call; still no reason provided; no docket number issued. Formal written complaint emailed to Axis Bank, citing RBI Master Directions, demanding specific written reason and call transcripts.

26 June 2026: Axis Bank responded in writing, explicitly refusing to disclose the specific reason, citing "internal guidelines and policies" (biggest mistake by axis, this is when I started gathering all the information in place to build the case using claude now that I had valid grounds for the complaint)

15 July 2026: Filed formal complaint with RBI Ombudsman via CMS portal (cms.rbi.org.in); compensation sought: ₹15,000 for expenses, harassment, and mental anguish.

Received acknowledgement from RBI Ombudsman confirming complaint registration on the same day.

16 July 2026: Sent a formal complaint letter stating deficiency of service to Axis Bank Principal Nodal Officer (PNO) mentioning specifically that disclosure of reject reason is compulsory as per RBI rules and I wanted the reject reason along with call transcripts of 17 June and 25 June calls.

24 July 2026: Axis Bank PNO responded: disclosed specific reason for the first time (assessed credit limit below ₹50,000 threshold for the Select Card), which I think was a bogus reason that they decided to tell me out of obligation to give a reason within exactly 30 days of RBI complaint (they sent this on day 29 lol) ; denied wrongdoing, claiming no deficiency in service; stated Bank's Internal Ombudsman had reviewed and approved this stance (checkmate moment by axis and their PNO when they decided to do this).

24 July 2026: Sent detailed rebuttal to Axis PNO, citing five specific regulatory violations: (1) failure to disclose specific reason at time of rejection, (2) suspicious timing of the eventual disclosure, (3) no docket numbers issued for phone complaints, (4) grievance not genuinely redressed within mandated timeline, (5) Bank's Internal Ombudsman review addressed the wrong question. This seemed to have sealed their fate as by this point the RBI Ombudsman must've got up to speed on the situation was actively reviewing the current conversation and must've caught on to what they were doing.

25 August 2026: RBI Ombudsman issued closure order: confirmed deficiency in service under Para C.11(1) of RBI (Commercial Banks – Credit Cards and Debit Cards: Issuance and Conduct) Directions, 2025 — Axis Bank's initial "policy norms" reason did not meet the specific-reason disclosure requirement, and the specific reason was conveyed only after the complaint was lodged. RBI issued an advisory directing Axis Bank to pay compensation of ₹10,000 for inconvenience and mental agony. Axis Bank confirmed compliance and committed to issuing a draft within 1-2 working days. Complaint closed under Clause 14(8)(a) of RB-IOS, 2026 as fully settled.

Currently awaiting for the settlement amount to be credited.

Pretty much the title. This is my first credit card, or do I say cards? 😎

I have been trying to get a credit card for 5 months now. I have a savings account in hdfc which I started using as my salary account. Then started the never-ending calls and WhatsApp Messages from random employees of hdfc. In the beginning I would apply through them, provide them payslips, did KYC (during which they randomly visited my home twice without any prior information), yet my applications would always get declined. There was absolutely no communication from the bank's end as well, just a mail saying that my credit card application got declined as they have received prior applications from me which they were still processing. Any normal person would contact the customer care of the bank, or rather visit the bank itself, but me being the lazy bum I am, I decided to just give up.

Then came a promotional mail from ICICI Bank - in which they were offering ICICI Sapphiro Credit Card to alumnis of Tier 1/Premium Institutions of India. Generally I delete these mails, but out of desperation I filled out the form. The next day I received a call from a sales representative. I completed the KYC, uploaded my degree and voila! My card got approved in 2 days and received it the next day!

Credit limit: 300000 INR (cumulative)

Also received the Priority Pass Membership Card which offers 2 complimentary lounge accesses at select airports.

Anyway, thanks for reading this till here. And if you're new to the corporate world and waiting for your first credit card, don't lose hope! And if nothing works, maybe try getting into an IIT 😉

PS. I'm an alumni of IIT Guwahati.

So about 45 days ago the HDFC RM reached out to me on his own, asking if I needed any services, new cards etc. I was holding 1 card with them (diners privilege) and using it in a low capacity since it didn’t suit my spending needs and style.
I told him the same that given my income (2L net/month), and salary account plus my LLP’s account with HDFC, I would appreciate if he could get me an upgrade. He suggested the regalia gold given this info and made me do the physical application for the upgrade and mail to Chennai.
It got rejected within a day. I was furious because I didn’t even want this in the first place. The RM came to me and made me do this cumbersome process, only to be rejected despite meeting all the criteria for the card and existing HDFC relationship. The RM still comes to me and tells me that he’s still trying since I do meet the criteria but 30 days in, nothing despite multiple follow ups.
I even gave him a warning first that I will be moving my HDFC accounts out given the inconvenience caused. And I’m sure any bank will be happy to take on a new customer for not just card, but for accounts.

Followed up on this promise and finally cancelled my card on the 31st. And I will absolutely be moving my accounts to another bank in the coming months.

Plus I got approved for the HSBC Travel One yesterday.

Long story short, don’t let your RM boss you around - there are plenty of banks out there.

Edit: My issue is not with the rejection of the upgrade. It’s the fact that the RM went out of his way to ask me for one, and then not even be helpful in finding the cause of the issue. I understand that banks have their own internal guidelines but lately it feels like they themselves aren’t clear on their approval rules.

PS - Pl scroll the pics to see, the issue raised to ADANI Internal Higher Ups.

People are selling Adani Airport Lounge QR codes for ₹100 on this very sub. This needs to stop.

Came across a post here where someone is openly selling lounge access QR codes for Adani airports at ₹100 a pop. Max 2 per person, shared on your name. Covers Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Lucknow, Jaipur, Guwahati, Trivandrum, Mangaluru, and Navi Mumbai.

This is straight up misuse of the system.

For those who don't see the issue, when people game lounge access like this, the lounges get overcrowded, quality drops, wait times go up, and eventually the genuine cardholder benefit gets nerfed or killed entirely. We've seen this happen before. I've already flagged this to people at Adani.

The fix is simple - match the traveller's name against the name on the lounge access entitlement. One check. Kills 99% of this misuse instantly.

Super Fix - ASK TO ENTER BOARDING PASS PNR, when the PAX is trying to generate QR. This way only for the person who's flying can get the QR generated.

If you spot similar posts or accounts doing this, report them. Don't let a few bad actors degrade something that genuinely benefits frequent travellers.

I'm posting this as a heads-up for all SBI Card users.

➡️✅ "Update (14th july 2026): The issue appears to have been fixed.

Please check today's latest CIBIL report, not yesterday's or an older cached report. The incorrect overdue entry and score drop should now be corrected for most affected users.

If your report hasn't been updated yet, please wait a few more hours and check again, as the correction may still be rolling out.

Thanks everyone for helping spread awareness!"🙏

If you have an SBI Credit Card, please check your CIBIL report immediately.

Over the last 24 hours, multiple users (including me) have seen 50–70 point drops in their CIBIL score despite:

No missed payments

No new loans or credit cards

No high credit utilization

No account closures

After checking the detailed report, it appears that SBI Card has incorrectly reported the July billing cycle's minimum due as "overdue" for many customers, even though payments were made on time or even the due date is after 2-3 weeks.

This incorrect reporting seems to have triggered a significant drop in CIBIL scores across multiple accounts.

If you're an SBI Card holder:

1. Check your CIBIL report (not just the score).

2. Verify whether your SBI Card account has been marked as overdue.

3. If it has, raise a complaint with SBI Card immediately and ask them to rectify the reporting with CIBIL.

UPDATE: I have now formally escalated this matter by email to SBI Card, with the Principal Nodal Officer (PNO), TransUnion CIBIL, CRPC (Centralised Receipt and Processing Centre) the RBI Integrated Ombudsman marked in CC. I have chosen not to wait for the normal grievance matrix because this appears to be a serious reporting issue affecting multiple customers.

For everyone's information, RBI's revised Credit Information Reporting Directions, effective from 1 July 2026, require banks and NBFCs to report customer credit data on four fixed reference dates every month (9th, 16th, 23rd, and the last day of the month) so that credit reports remain more accurate and up to date.

If the issue is indeed caused by SBI Card's reporting process, the reporting system should still respect the actual payment due date before marking any account as overdue. Reporting a customer as overdue before the due date, or despite payment already being made, would be a serious reporting error. If confirmed, this is unacceptable from a regulated financial institution. I will also be seeking appropriate compensation for the incorrect reporting and the resulting damage to my credit profile.

If you are facing the same issue, please raise a complaint immediately and share this post. The more affected customers come forward, the easier it will be for the concerned authorities to identify whether this is a systemic reporting issue rather than an isolated case.

I've already seen several similar posts from different users experiencing the exact same issue, so this doesn't appear to be an isolated case.

UPDATE**

I just received a call from the SBI Card Social Media Team.

They confirmed that they have read this Reddit post and acknowledged the issue raised here. They also informed me that my complaint, along with the details shared in this post, has been escalated to the Customer Service Head for immediate review.

At this stage, I am waiting for SBI Card's corrective action. Hopefully, they will rectify the incorrect reporting for all affected customers and update the records with CIBIL as soon as possible.

I will continue posting updates here as I receive them so everyone affected can stay informed.

If you are facing the same issue, please keep your CIBIL report, SBI Card statement. The more documented cases there are, the easier it will be to establish the extent of the issue.

Thank you to everyone who has shared their reports and helped bring attention to this. Hopefully, this leads to a quick resolution for all affected SBI Card holders.

Can other SBI Card holders confirm if they're facing the same problem? If yes, please mention:

Previous CIBIL score → Current score

Whether the report shows an overdue for the July bill

Whether you've already contacted SBI Card

The more data points we have, the easier it'll be to establish that this is a reporting issue rather than individual credit behavior.

Context - had booked a domestic return ticket earlier today through HDFC SmartBuy using a mix of points and card. A change in plan occurred shortly after and had to cancel the return leg. First time cancelling a flight ticket - quickly looked up any rules around cancellations within 24 hours and DGCA charter is very explicit - you get full refund barring convenience fee charged by the airline / aggregator if you meet two conditions -

1. Cancellation initiated with 24 hours
2. Travel date is more than 7 days away

DGCA sources for future reference if you need to quote.

Source 1 (section 3.e) / Source 2 (PDF page 8)

What to expect when you call for cancellation?

My experience -

• Tried cancelling through the website on phone - the cancellation charges reflected as blank
• Checked through laptop - showed I will get back INR 1,589 against a paid amount of 5,519 (71% loss)
• Finally called up Yatra support (they don't make it easy at all to get their customer care number) - the executive put me on hold for 10 mins to figure my cancellation charges and later told me the same charges as in the screenshot - I will only get INR 1,589.
• Magic words - all I had to say was - given my booking is less than 24 hours old, per DGCA I should get a full refund barring few charges, no? Immediately without a moment's break he responds 'yes, sir in that case since this is a "DGCA booking" (whatever that means) only INR 320 convenience charge won't be refunded. THEY RELY ON YOUR LACK OF KNOWLEDGE TO MAKE MONEY. I will now be getting a refund of INR 5,199 (instead of INR 1,589) by just saying this one magical line. I tried to grill him on why did he even give me the lower refund amount - gave me BS that beat around the bush. Knowledge is power, truly.
• Hence I thought to make this post in this group where people book a lot of flights using cc. Don't let the crooks at Yatra take you for a ride (pun intended).

Bonus - confirmed with HDFC Concierge - my points and card payment will be returned in the same format + got to know even the HDFC concierge can help with cancellation requests (the booking email mentioned contact OTA so didn't realise).

Wow, what a ride! Thanks a million for all your incredible responses and the constructive feedback throughout this polling series that made this a hit! You folks have been absolutely amazing, and our Reddit community is all the richer for it. You all rock!

Now, about that Best Overall Credit Card... We're not gonna let some fancy AI or ML algorithm decide this one. Why? Because the best credit card is like finding the perfect pair of jeans – it's all about what fits YOU best!

Do you chase cashback like a squirrel chasing nuts? Are you all about those travel points, ready to jet-set at a moment's notice? Maybe you're a rewards junkie, always on the hunt for the next big bonus. Or perhaps you're a spendthrift who needs a card that can keep up with your shopping sprees. Are you a high-flying business mogul or a steadfast salaried superhero?

Your spending habits, income, and what you value most are the real deciders here.

And finally, a very Happy Diwali to everyone! May your days be as bright as a thousand diyas and your pockets as full as a well-stocked mithai box. 🪔✨

NOTE - I have condensed all the results of 15 days of discussions here - https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1oTBDKDPgWqNatdUgR-QL1uyAWsIbCweQGCnKjfeMQ5k/edit?usp=sharing

These responses are by Large Language Model (after carefully going through all the comments and upvotes) for each day.

Here is the final DAY 15 discussions -

https://www.reddit.com/r/CreditCardsIndia/comments/1geroim/final_day_15_which_credit_card_is_your_overall/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

Cheers to a Great Series! 🥂 , Anuvrat

HDFC just sent an email to all Infinia cardholders, announcing that you need to maintain a minimum annual spend of Rs. 18 lakhs to continue holding the card!

This completely changes the game for Infinia.