HDFC business credit cards

HDFC Biz First costs Rs. 500 before GST — the same as three other HDFC cards — and publishes a 55-day interest-free period, the longest HDFC offers and five days more than the Indian standard of 50.

On personal spending five days is nothing. On supplier payments it is the entire product. A proprietor paying Rs. 3,00,000 a month to suppliers on the card, timed just after the statement date, is holding nearly two months of working capital at no cost — and that float is worth far more than any reward rate on a Rs. 500 card.

Everything else about the card is ordinary: a 750 credit score, up to 3.75% a month, a 3.5% foreign currency markup. The 55 days is the reason to hold it.

The published figure is the maximum, available only on a purchase made at the start of a billing cycle. A payment made on the last day of the cycle gets only the grace period — typically 15 to 20 days.

So the single highest-value habit on a business card is to schedule supplier payments to just after your statement date. On a 55-day card that is the difference between 55 days of free credit and 18. Find your statement date on any statement, and ask HDFC to move it if it sits awkwardly against your receivables — most issuers allow that once or twice a year.

See credit cards with the longest interest-free period for the full picture across issuers.

The documentation is the harder part, not the income. HDFC replaces the payslip with:

1. Two years of ITR with the computation of income — the computation sheet, not just the acknowledgement. The computation is what shows the figure HDFC underwrites.
2. Six to twelve months of business bank statements.
3. Business proof — GST registration, Shop and Establishment licence, Udyam certificate or a partnership deed.
4. Audited profit and loss and balance sheet, if your turnover crosses the audit threshold.
5. Office address proof, which HDFC may ask for separately from your home address.

Full list across issuers: documents required for a credit card.

This is the trap, and it has nothing to do with the business doing badly: HDFC underwrites your taxable income, not your turnover.

After depreciation, business expenses and every legitimate deduction, a proprietor turning over Rs. 40 lakh can show Rs. 3,50,000 of taxable income — and to the credit model that is a Rs. 29,000-a-month applicant.

Three consequences worth planning around:

• The year you apply matters. HDFC reads the latest two ITRs and commonly takes the lower or the average, so one aggressive year affects applications for two.
• Bank statements are read alongside the ITR. Consistent credits into a current account support it; cash-heavy inflows do not.
• Filing late is worse than filing low. A missing or belated ITR for the most recent year closes most applications outright.

See best credit cards for self-employed applicants, where 28 cards publish a self-employed requirement.

Be clear about what you are buying. A business card is worth it for three reasons:

1. Separating business spend from personal spend, which makes GST input claims and the year-end accounts straightforward rather than archaeological.
2. The float, which on Biz First is 55 days.
3. A limit underwritten on the business rather than only on you.

It is not worth it for returns. A mainstream cashback card usually pays more per rupee. If your reason is bookkeeping and cash flow, take the business card; if your reason is rewards, compare on best cashback credit cards instead.

For a founder in the first two years, a freelancer between contracts, or anyone whose taxable income is legitimately low, there is a route that does not involve being assessed at all.

Five cards in our catalogue are issued against a fixed deposit rather than against income — no ITR, no bank statements, no business proof. The deposit is the underwriting, the limit is roughly 80% to 90% of it, and the account reports to all four bureaus under your PAN, which is what later qualifies you for the card you actually wanted.

None of the five is HDFC. See credit cards without income proof.

Three things are the same as on any HDFC card, and all three cost money:

• The foreign currency markup is 3.5% — so paying an overseas supplier or a foreign-currency software bill on Biz First costs 4.13% with GST, Rs. 4,130 on every Rs. 1,00,000. For a business importing or paying for foreign SaaS, that is the largest avoidable cost on this page.
• Cash advances have no interest-free period and cost 2.5% to 3% plus interest from day one.
• Personal liability. A proprietor’s business card is still underwritten on your own credit file, and a default reports against you personally.

The fee, the 55-day interest-free period, the 750 credit score requirement, the finance charge and the 3.5% markup are read from HDFC Biz First’s own published terms and are shown on its card page here. The document list and the taxable-income point are general Indian underwriting practice rather than figures HDFC publishes, and are described as practice. HDFC issues business cards beyond the one in our catalogue; this page covers only cards whose terms we have read and published in full.