The festive season has just set in, and the promotions are beginning to roll out to get your wallet share. HDFC Bank is the first off the bat this time. They recently launched a promotion, which they are not advertising much so far, offering 5X points for offline spends, and 10X points in many a cases too.
HDFC Bank 5X Reward Points Through September 2019
HDFC Bank has launched a new promotion where they are offering the following points:
- Get 5X Reward Points on Apparel, Electronics, Jewellery, Grocery, Supermarket and Departmental Spends with regular HDFC Bank Credit Card transactions respectively.
- Get 10X Reward Points on Apparel, Electronics, Grocery, Supermarket and Departmental Spends with EASYEMI on HDFC Bank Credit Cards respectively.
The promotion is very very simple. You spend on your card account, and if the store/terminal is coded as Apparel, Electronics, Jewellery, Grocery, Supermarket and Departmental Store, you will get 5 Times the usual Reward Points! This promotion is valid on all instore Purchases Only, and there is a cap on the number of points you will earn, at 5,000 bonus points.
If you make an EasyEMI out of it, for all categories apart from Jewellery, there is a 10X points offer as well, capped at 10,000 bonus reward points per card.
The bonus points will be posted to the customer account 90 days after the promotion period ends. Corporate Cards, Commercial Cards, Dealer Cards, Distributor Cards, Value Plus Cards are excluded from the promotion. The promotion is valid for purchases made between August 15 and September 30, 2019. Check it out here.
HDFC Diners & Infinia Cardholders should be able to milk this for a 16% rebate.
Bottomline
I like this promotion. It is simple and hits on a simple point. People go shopping for the festive season. They buy clothes or electronics (or Jewellery?) during the festive season. So, you get a massive reward for buying from any merchant across India.
What do you think of the new HDFC Bank Credit Cards promotion for HDFC Bank 5X Reward Points?
(HT: Pravin Kudav)
Terms and conditions says “Categorization is basis Visa & Master Franchisee categorization” …any one aware this offer is valid on Diners as well or only mastercard and visa?
I do not think it is not valid on Diners because I hold a Diners Card and got an email notifying me of this offer. It simply means that the eligible merchants will be categorised as per MCC(Merchant Category Code) used by Visa and MasterCard which is universal.
Hii…talked to HDFC customer care and CC executive told that this offer is limited to those who had received the offer on registered e-mail/ registered mobile no. via sms….is it true??…
If you had called the normal customer care, they are very unaware of what’s actually going on. If this was told by the Diners/Infinia helpline, then it would be true. But I could not find any TnC mentioning such restriction and if offers have such restrictions it normally is mentioned in the TnC.
https://offers.smartbuy.hdfcbank.com/offer_details/13141
“This offer is valid on Instore retail spends and on purchases made through HDFC Bank Retail and Business Credit Cards which have Reward Points.”
So the conclusion is you are eligible for the offer.
How do you track whether points are properly being added or not?
You can maintain an excel sheet. That’s what I do. Quite recently, for Amazon Smartbuy 10x, I have seen multiple attempts from HDFC wherein they do not post the points post 90 days. Upon several correspondence, they keep denying that a transaction was done via smartbuy.
Strange, but it’s true.
How can we check if merchants like Natures Basket qualify under both promotions – 10x & festive offer?
16%? Wouldn’t it be 33%?
I have Diners Premium and thought this is 13% discount effectively with easy emi. Am I missing something?
I am assuming easy emi might be interest free but if not, guess 5x might be better option.
@Priyansh How will 5X be 33%?
HI AJ,
Is there any way where we can find out the Merchant Coding after do i a transaction.
Basically, i have to do a few purchases but not sure the vendor’s categorization.
If at all i can do one transaction and then can find out the category before I do the other transactions?
Hey Ankit,
You may refer to the following pdf by Citibank which contains MCC Code. This has correct information to the best of my knowledge.
https://www.citibank.com/tts/solutions/commercial-cards/assets/docs/govt/Merchant-Category-Codes.pdf
Thanks,
G
Thanks Gaurav.
This list is exhaustive. 🙂
However, one more small help.
Where will i find the MCC on the charge slip ?
Thanks
That you can ask the vendor himself. They do not mention the MCC on the charge slip, unfortunately. I normally ask the owner if he has registered his shop correctly under proper MCC. More often than not, the MCCs are correctly mapped as each POS machine is issued after due verification of business and proprietorship papers.