HDFC Bank Regalia Credit Card vs American Express Platinum Travel Credit Card

HDFC Bank Regalia Credit Card and American Express Platinum Travel Credit Card are travel credit cards that provide credit cardholders with significant travel and lifestyle benefits. HDFC Bank comes with an exclusive credit card that provides cardholders with amazing benefits who love to enjoy luxuries in their lifestyle and while traveling. Since we have said that it is a travel credit card, you get complimentary access to domestic as well as international airport lounges. Another benefit is that this credit card charges a low foreign currency mark-up fee which makes this card quite popular among international travelers. Apart from this, you will also earn reward points while you spend using your credit card and you will get bonus reward points in the form of a welcome benefit.

The American Express Platinum Travel Credit Card, as the name suggests, is a travel credit card and is very popular among people because of the AirMile benefits that this card offers. With this credit card, you get attractive welcome and milestone benefits in the form of generous Membership Reward Points which can be redeemed against plenty of options such as for booking air tickets, hotels, shopping, e-vouchers, etc. Being a travel credit card, this card offers you complimentary access to the domestic airport lounges and you are also entitled to complimentary Priority Pass Membership.

With this card, you also get some other benefits such as discounts on dining bills and surcharge benefits on fuel transactions. Both the credit cards are travel credit cards and provide amazing benefits across travel and lifestyle categories. By the end of this article, we will make sure that you are aware of the rewards and benefits that these two credit cards provide across all categories so that it becomes easier for the prospective applicant to choose between the two. Keep reading the article to know more about these cards in detail:

HDFC Bank Regalia Credit Card

HDFC Bank Regalia Credit Card is one of the most popular travel and lifestyle credit card in the Indian credit card market space. With this credit card, you can earn 4 Reward Points for every Rs. 150 spent using your credit card. Being a travel credit card, this credit card offers you a wide variety of travel benefits such as international and domestic lounge access, complimentary travel insurance, etc. HDFC Bank Regalia Credit Card comes with a membership fee of Rs. 2,500 per annum and apart from earning Reward Points, also offers plenty of add-on benefits like a lower foreign currency markup fee, insurance benefits, fuel surcharge waiver, and many others. Following are the details of the features of the HDFC Bank Regalia Credit Card are-

• In the form of a welcome benefit, the cardholders will get 2,500 Reward Points once they have successfully paid the joining fee of the HDFC Bank Regalia Credit Card.
• The cardholders will also get these reward points if they get the membership renewed for this credit card. But they will not get these reward points if the renewal fee of this credit card is waived off.
• The cardholder will get 4 Reward Points for every Rs. 150 spent on all transactions except fuel, EasyEMI, and Wallet Transactions.
• The reward points earned on insurance transcations are capped at 2,000 in a day.
• In the form of travel benefits, the cardholders will get 12 complimentary visits in a year to the domestic airport lounges. These visits are capped at a maximum of 3 visits per quarter.
• The cardholders will get complimentary Priority Pass Membership and 6 complimentary international lounge visits in a year.
• You will get an exclusive dine-out passport membership when an amount of Rs. 75,000 or more is spent using the credit card. With this, you will get a 25% discount on your dining bills at 2,000+ premium restaurants.
• You will get a fuel surcharge waiver of 1% on all fuel transactions between Rs. 400 and Rs. 5,000 at all fuel stations across India. The surcharge waiver amount is capped at a maximum of Rs. 500 per statement cycle.
• You will be rewarded with 10,000 bonus Reward Points as milestone benefits on achieving spends of Rs. 5 Lakhs or more in an anniversary year.
• Additional 5,000 Reward Points will be credited to your account if you spend an amount of Rs. 8 Lakhs or more in an anniversary year.
• With this credit card, you will be charged a low foreign-currency mark-up fee of 2% which will help you save a lot on your international transactions.
• The renewal fee of HDFC Bank Regalia Credit Card can be waived off if you spend Rs. 3 Lakh or more using your credit card in an anniversary year.
• The Reward Points earned on HDFC Regalia Credit Card can be redeemed for flight/hotel bookings, purchases of products/vouchers from the bank’s catalog, cashback (adjustment against the card’s statement balance) or can also be transferred as AirMiles to partner airlines’ frequent flyers program. The rate of redemption is as per the table below-

Monetary Value of Reward Points
Product Catalog	Product Catalog	Product Catalog	Product Catalog
1 Reward Point = Rs. 0.35	1 Reward Point = Rs. 0.35	1 Reward Point = Rs. 0.35	1 Reward Point = Rs. 0.35

 

American Express Platinum Travel Credit Card

One of the premium credit cards by American Express, this credit card offers exclusive deals and rewards across various categories. Firstly, cardholders are rewarded with huge Membership Reward Points in the form of welcome benefits and they will continue to earn reward points on the basis of the amount that they spend using your credit card in the form of milestone benefits. Additionally, you will also get complimentary Priority Pass Membership and access to domestic airport lounges. You have to pay a joining fee of Rs. 3,500 to enjoy the benefits of AmEx platinum travel card. Following are the details of the features and benefits that come along with this credit card –

• As a welcome benefit, the American Express Platinum Travel Credit Cardholders will get 10,000 American Express Membership Rewards Points. These will be granted to cardholders only if they are able to spend an amount of Rs. 5,000 using their credit card within the first 2 months of the card issuance date.
• On every Rs. 100 spent with the American Express Platinum Travel Credit Card, the cardholders can earn 2 Reward Points. (Except on fuel, insurance, utility, and EMI Transactions)
• The cardholders can enjoy the delicacies of the world while dining at the selected premium restaurants and enjoying a discount of up to 20% while paying their dining bills using the American Express Platinum Travel Credit Card.
• At frequent intervals, this credit card also offers discounts while ordering food at the food delivery applications such as Swiggy, and Qmin.
• Being a travel credit card, with this credit card, you get 8 complimentary visits to the domestic airport lounges. This is limited to 2 visits in a quarter.
• You also get a complimentary Priority Pass Membership with US$ 99 waived off but you have to pay a usage fee of US$ 32 for every international visit under the Priority Pass Membership.
• If the cardholder is able to spend a number of Rs. 4 Lakhs in a year using his credit card, he is entitled to get 25,000 Membership Reward Points worth Rs. 12,500 which can be redeemed against Taj Stay Vouchers and you will also get an additional Taj Stay voucher worth Rs. 10,000.
• On spending of Rs. 1.9 Lakhs using a credit card in a year, you will get 15,000 Membership Reward Points worth Rs. 7,500 which can again be redeemed against Taj Stay Vouchers.
• In the case of fuel transactions at the HPCL Fuel stations, the credit cardholders need not pay any surcharge on the fuel transactions up to Rs. 5,000. But if the fuel transactions are above Rs. 5,000, you will have to pay a surcharge of 1%.
• The Membership Rewards Points can be redeemed on popular e-commerce websites (like Flipkart), by purchasing e-vouchers from Amex’s online shopping portal, INSTA purchases at offline stores, and also to make credit card bill payments under the Cash + Points scheme.
• Amex’s Membership Rewards Points can also be transferred to other air miles and hotel loyalty programs like Asia Miles, British Airways Executive Club, Club Vistara, Emirates, Skywards, Etihad Guest, Finnair Plus, InterMiles, Qatar Privilege Club, Singapore KrisFlyer, Virgin Points, Marriott Bonovoy and Hilton Honors.
• To enjoy the exclusive travel benefits, the cardholders have to pay a joining fee of Rs. 3,500 and a renewal fee of Rs. 5,000 for the American Express Platinum Travel Credit Card.

Quick Comparison

Now that we have discussed the features of both the cards individually, let us now have a quick comparison between The HDFC Bank Regalia Credit Card and The American Express Platinum Travel Credit Card-

Basis	HDFC Bank Regalia Credit Card	American Express Platinum Travel Credit Card
Reward Rate	4 RP for every Rs. 150 spent on all transactions except fuel, EasyEMI and wallet transactions	2 Membership Reward Points for every Rs. 100 spent on all transactions except fuel, utility, insurance, and EMI transactions.
Reward Redemption	Can be redeemed on the Smartbuy portal 1 RP = Rs. 0.5 for redemption against flight and hotel bookings1RP = Rs. 0.35 for redemption against products and vouchers1 RP = Rs. 0.20 for cashback1 RP = 0.5 Air Mile for redemption against Air Miles.	Can be redeemed on popular e-commerce websites, for purchasing e-vouchers from Amex’s online shopping portal, can be transferred to AirMiles and hotel loyalty programs, etc.
Fuel Surcharge Waiver	1% waiver on transactions between Rs. 400 to Rs. 5,000.The waiver amount is capped at Rs. 500 per statement cycle.	No surcharge on transactions up to Rs. 5,000 at HPCL fuel stations.You have to pay 1% surcharge on fuel transactions exceeding Rs. 5,000
Welcome Benefits	2,500 Reward Points on successful payment of joining fees	10,000 American Express Membership Reward Points.
Dining Benefits	Dine-out Passport Membership5% additional discount with 0 convenience fee on 200+ partnered restaurants	20% off on dining bills across the partnered restaurants.
Milestone Benefits	10,000 RP on achieving spends of Rs. 5 Lakhs in an anniversary yearAdditional 5,000 RP on achieving spends of Rs. 8 Lakhs in an anniversary year	15,000 Membership Reward Points on spending of Rs. 1.9 Lakhs in an anniversary year.25,000 Membership Reward Points on spending of Rs. 4 Lakhs in an anniversary year.
Domestic Lounge Access	12 complimentary visits in a year, limited to 3 per quarter	8 complimentary domestic lounge access per year.
International Lounge Access	6 complimentary visits in a year	NA
Joining Fee	Rs. 2,500 + Taxes	Rs. 3,500 + Taxes
Renewal Fees	Rs.2,500 + Taxes(Can be waived off on spending Rs. 3 Lakhs or more in the previous year)	Rs. 5,000 + Taxes
Eligibility	Issued to salaried individuals between the age of 21 years and 60 years and having a minimum income of Rs. 100,000 or more per month.Issued to self-employed individuals between the age of 21 years and 65 years and having a minimum income of Rs. 12 Lakhs per annum as per ITR	Issued to salaried and self-employed individuals between the age of 18 to 65 years.They should have an annual income of Rs. 6 Lakhs as per ITR.They should have a decent credit score.

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Bottom Line

The HDFC Bank Regalia Credit Card and the American Express Platinum Travel Credit Card are both premium travel and lifestyle credit cards. Both the credit cards provide some exclusive benefits that one could ask for from a premium travel credit card. With the HDFC Bank Regalia Credit Card, you not only get reward points but some amazing travel benefits such as complimentary access to the domestic and international airport lounges along with complimentary Priority Pass Membership, travel insurance, and a low foreign markup fee of 2% which helps the card members to save generously on the international transactions using their credit card. On the other hand, the American Express Platinum Credit Card also provides you with decent travel benefits which include complimentary access to domestic airport lounges, and a complimentary Priority Pass Membership.

With the credit card, the Membership Reward Points can be transferred to Airmiles and can also be redeemed against hotel loyalty programs. But the only thing is that the joining and renewal fee of this credit card is quite high when compared to the joining and renewal fee of the HDFC Bank Regalia Credit Card. Also, there is no spend-based waiver feature with the American Express Platinum Travel Credit Card. The cardholders should thoroughly go through the features and benefits of the individual credit card and then decide which travel credit card he wants to opt for.

We have tried our best to explain both the credit cards in detail but if still there exists any doubt, please feel free to ask us in the comment section below!