Compare HDFC credit cards

That is the reason this comparison is hard. HDFC Pixel, HDFC MoneyBack Plus, IRCTC HDFC Bank and HDFC Biz First all cost Rs. 500 before GST. The fee tells you nothing, so three other numbers have to.

The full fee ladder, with GST:

• Rs. 299 (Rs. 353) — HDFC Shoppers Stop
• Rs. 499 (Rs. 589) — PhonePe HDFC Bank Uno
• Rs. 500 (Rs. 590) — Pixel, MoneyBack Plus, IRCTC, Biz First
• Rs. 1,000 (Rs. 1,180) — Swiggy BLCK
• Rs. 4,500 (Rs. 5,310) — Shoppers Stop Black

None is lifetime free.

Compare on this before anything else, because it removes most of the list for most readers:

• No published score requirement — HDFC Shoppers Stop. The easiest HDFC card to be approved for in practice.
• 700 — PhonePe HDFC Bank Uno. The lowest bar HDFC states.
• 750 — Pixel, MoneyBack Plus, IRCTC, Biz First, Swiggy BLCK, Shoppers Stop Black.

And on income, only two publish a figure: Swiggy BLCK at Rs. 1,00,000 a month and Shoppers Stop Black at Rs. 1,50,000. Six require an income without naming it. Full detail: HDFC credit card eligibility.

Of the four cards at the same fee, this is the clearest difference:

• HDFC Biz First — 55 days. The longest HDFC publishes, and on supplier payments the extra fortnight is the whole reason to hold it.
• IRCTC HDFC Bank — 50 days.
• Pixel and MoneyBack Plus — not published.

Among the others: PhonePe Uno, Swiggy BLCK and HDFC Shoppers Stop all publish 50 days; Shoppers Stop Black publishes nothing. See credit cards with the longest interest-free period.

• 3.5% a month (42% a year) — Swiggy BLCK. The cheapest HDFC rate.
• 3.6% (43.2%) — Shoppers Stop Black.
• Up to 3.75% (45%) — Pixel, MoneyBack Plus, IRCTC, Biz First, HDFC Shoppers Stop.
• Not published — PhonePe Uno, which points at HDFC’s MITC.

On Rs. 50,000 revolved for a year the spread across HDFC’s whole range is about Rs. 2,300 — real, but far smaller than the Rs. 25,500 that revolving costs at all. Do not choose on this unless you expect to carry a balance, and if you do, read HDFC credit card interest rates first.

The foreign currency markup. Six HDFC cards publish one and every single one charges 3.5% — the Indian default. Two publish nothing. No HDFC card beats it.

So if a meaningful share of your spending is abroad or billed in a foreign currency, this comparison has no winner: with GST that is Rs. 4,130 on every Rs. 1,00,000, on any HDFC card you pick. Five cards in our catalogue charge 0% and none is HDFC. See best credit cards for international travel.

1. Train travel, three or four times a year or more — IRCTC HDFC Bank. Note it closes at age 60, the only HDFC card that does.
2. Swiggy ordering, heavily — Swiggy BLCK, if you clear Rs. 1,00,000 a month of income. Below roughly Rs. 4,000 a month of ordering, a general card returns more net of the Rs. 1,180 fee.
3. Shoppers Stop shopping — HDFC Shoppers Stop at Rs. 299, or Shoppers Stop Black at Rs. 4,500 only if you clear Rs. 1,50,000 a month and genuinely shop there.
4. Self-employed or running a business — Biz First, for the 55 days.
5. UPI scan-and-pay — PhonePe Uno, unusual for a mainstream bank card.
6. None of the above — MoneyBack Plus, the general-purpose default.

A list is not a decision. Two tools do the arithmetic on your own numbers:

• The credit card recommender ranks the catalogue on net value — rewards earned minus what the card costs you — from what you spend in a month.
• The eligibility checker scores every card against the income, score and age rules its issuer publishes, and names the rule you fail, with no hard enquiry.

And if you already hold an HDFC card and are wondering whether to switch, the switch calculator compares the two net of both fees. Adding a card usually beats replacing one, because closing your oldest card shortens your credit history.

Fee, credit score requirement, published income, interest-free period, finance charge and foreign currency markup are each read from the individual card’s published terms and shown per card on its page here. Where HDFC publishes nothing — two cards on the markup, three on the interest-free period, one on the finance charge, six on income — this page says "not published" rather than filling the gap, because on a comparison page an invented figure is worse than a shorter row.