HDFC Regalia Credit Card Vs ICICI Rubyx Credit Card- Which one should you pick?

HDFC Regalia and ICICI Rubyx Credit Cards are two of the most popular credit cards in the lifestyle segment. Both the cards have a Reward Points structure; while HDFC Regalia Credit Card earns you HDFC Reward Points and offers a reward rate of up to 1.33%, ICICI Rubyx Credit Card, on the other hand, earns you Reward Points and offers a maximum reward rate of up to 1%. The membership fee of HDFC Regalia Credit Card is Rs. 2,500 (plus GST) per annum, while that for the ICICI Rubyx Credit Card is Rs. 2,000 (plus GST) per annum (first year’s membership fee is Rs. 3,000).

Apart from the Reward Points benefit, both HDFC Regalia and ICICI Rubyx Credit Cards offer a plethora of value-added benefits like complimentary airport lounge access, dining discounts, complimentary insurance covers, etc. Since the cards are very much similar in terms of annual fee, reward rate and also additional benefits, it makes sense to compare the two cards with each other in various aspects. Before we do a pointwise comparison between the two cards, it is a good idea to first go through some of the key features of the cards one by one.

HDFC Regalia Credit Card

HDFC Regalia Credit Card is one of the most popular, if not the most popular, lifestyle credit cards in the Indian credit card market space. The card earns you 4 Reward Points for every Rs. 150 spent with a maximum reward rate of 1.33% (since max redemption value of 1 Reward Point = Rs. 0.50 for redemption against flight/hotel bookings).

HDFC 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 complimentary airport lounge access, Priority Pass membership, a lower forex mark-up fee and many others. Some of the key features of the HDFC Bank Regalia Credit Card are-

• A welcome/renewal benefit of 2,500 Reward Points on joining the card membership and every year the membership is renewed subject to realization of the joining/renewal fee. Welcome/renewal benefit is not applicable if the joining/renewal fee is waived off.
• You earn 4 Reward Points per Rs. 150 spent with HDFC Regalia Credit Card.
• You are also entitled to a milestone benefit of 10,000 Bonus Reward Points on an annual expenditure of a minimum of Rs. 5 lacs and additional 5,000 Reward Points on an annual expenditure of Rs. 8 lacs.
• 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 CashPoints
Product Catalog	Flights/Hotels on Smartbuy	Cashback	Airmiles
Rs. 0.35	Rs. 0.50	Rs. 0.20	0.50 AirMiles

 

• You get 12 complimentary domestic airport lounge access with Visa/MasterCard lounge access program and 6 complimentary international airport lounge access with complimentary Priority Pass membership.
• You also get complimentary membership of the Dineout Passport on the expenditure of a minimum of Rs. 75,000 in a calendar quarter which entitles you to benefits like a minimum 25% discount at over 2,000 premium restaurants, 1+1 buffet at 200+ partner restaurants, etc. Click here for more information on the Dineout Passport program on HDFC Regalia Credit Card.
• HDFC Regalia Credit Card also entitles you to a complimentary comprehensive insurance cover including an air accident cover (applicable only in case of loss of life) worth Rs. 1 crore, emergency overseas hospitalization cover worth Rs. 15 lacs and a lost card liability cover worth Rs. 9 lacs.
• You also get a complimentary 24×7 concierge service with the card for assistance regarding flight/hotel bookings, table reservations at restaurants, gift deliveries, etc. with HDFC Regalia Credit Card.
• You are charged a comparatively lower mark-up fee of 2% on transactions made in a foreign currency with your HDFC Regalia Credit Card.
• The annual renewal fee of the card is waived off on a minimum expenditure of Rs. 3 lacs in the preceding year.
• To be eligible for the HDFC Regalia Credit Card salaried and self-employed applicants must satisfy the following age and minimum income criteria-

	Salaried Applicants	Self-Employed Applicants
Income	Minimum Rs. 70,000 per month	Minimum Rs. 8,40,000 per annum
Age	21 to 60 years	21 to 65 years

ICICI Rubyx Credit Card

The Rubyx Credit Card by ICICI is another very good credit card in the lifestyle category in the Indian credit card market space. Like most other ICICI Credit Cards, the Rubyx Credit Card also rewards you with Reward Points on spends made with the card. You earn 4 Reward Points per Rs. 100 on international spends and 2 Reward Points per Rs. 100 on domestic spends with the card. The card comes with a membership fee of Rs. 2,000 (plus GST) per annum, however, an initial joining fee of Rs. 3,000 is charged as the first year’s membership fee.

Earlier, ICICI used to issue the Rubyx Credit Card on MasterCard and American Express payment networks, however, now that both MasterCard and AmEx are not allowed to onboard new customers in India, ICICI is currently issuing the Rubyx Credit Card on the Visa payment network only.

Just like HDFC Regalia Credit Card, apart from the regular Reward Points benefits (as Reward Points), ICICI Rubyx Card also offers a number of add-on benefits and privileges like complimentary airport/railways lounge access, insurance cover, etc. Some of the salient features of ICICI Bank Rubyx Credit Card are as under-

• You get shopping and travel vouchers worth Rs. 5,000 as a welcome gift on joining the card membership.
• You also earn 3,000 Reward Points for the first Rs. 3 lacs spent with the card in an anniversary year and 1,500 Reward Points for every 1 lac spent thereafter as milestone benefits. A maximum of 15,000 Reward Points can be earned on the card in a year.
• ICICI Rubyx Credit Card earns 4 Reward Points per Rs. 100 on international spends and 2 Reward Points per Rs. 100 on domestic spends (except spends on fuel, utility and insurance categories). You earn 1 Reward Point per Rs. 100 on insurance and utility spends, however, no Reward Point is earned on fuel spends.
• Reward Points can be redeemed not only for purchasing products and vouchers from the Reward catalog but can also be adjusted as cashback against the card’s statement balance.
• You get 2 complimentary lounge access at domestic airports across India on spending a minimum of Rs. 5,000 in a calendar quarter. You are also entitled to 2 complimentary railway lounge access every quarter.
• You get a discount of 25% on movie ticket purchases (on a  purchase of 2 movie tickets) via BookMyShow and INOX.
• Rubyx Credit Card also entitles you to up to 2 complimentary golf games every month- 1 golf game for every Rs. 50,000 spent in the previous month.
• You also get discounts on dining bills at partner restaurants with ICICI Bank’s Culinary Treats Program.
• You also get a comprehensive insurance cover with the ICICI Bank Rubyx Credit Card including a personal air accident cover (applicable only in case of loss of life) worth Rs. 1 crore, credit shield cover worth Rs. 50,000, baggage insurance cover worth up to Rs. 25,000, cover against loss of checked-in baggage (worth up to USD 1,200) and against loss of travel documents (worth up to USD 500), and many other travel-related insurance benefits.
• Just like HDFC Regalia Credit Card, you get a 24×7 concierge service for assistance regarding flight/hotel bookings, table bookings at restaurants, gift deliveries, etc. with the ICICI Rubyx Credit Card as well.

Quick Comparision

Now that, you have gone through the key features of both the credit card, we will now compare the two cards pointwise in a tabular form-

	HDFC Regalia Credit Card	ICICI Rubyx Credit Card
Reward Rate	4 Reward Points per Rs. 150 spent	4 Reward Points per Rs. 100 on international spends. 2 Reward Points per Rs. 100 on domestic spends (except fuel, utilities and insurance). 1 Reward Point per Rs. 100 on utility and insurance spends.
Reward Redemption	1 RP = Rs 0.5 for redemption against flights and hotel bookings, 1 RP = Rs 0.35 for redemption against products and vouchers, 1 RP = Rs 0.20 for cash backs, and Air miles conversion at a value of 1RP = 0.5 air mile.	Reward Points can be redeemed for purchasing products/vouchers from the Reward ’s catalog of products/vouchers. 1 Reward Point = Rs. 0.25.
Welcome/Renewal Benefits	2,500 Reward Points on joining, subject to realization of the membership fee	Shopping and travel vouchers worth Rs. 5,000 as a welcome benefit, subject to realization of the card membership fee.
Milestone Benefits	10,000 Reward Points on spending over Rs. 5 lakhs in the anniversary year Additional bonus of 5,000 Reward Points on spending over Rs. 8 lakhs in the anniversary year.	3,000 Reward Points on a minimum annual expenditure of Rs. 3 lacs. 1,500 Reward Points on every Rs. 1 lac spent thereafter. A maximum of 15,000 Reward Points can be earned in a year as milestone benefit.
Additional Benefits	12 complimentary domestic lounge access per annum (max 3 per quarter) Complimentary Priority Pass membership with 6 complimentary international lounge access (Diners Club variant only)	2 complimentary domestic lounge access per quarter on a minimum quarterly expenditure of Rs. 5,000. 2 complimentary railway lounge access per quarter.
Membership Fee	Rs. 2,500, waived off on annual spends of Rs. 3,00,000.	Rs. 2,000 per year (Rs. 3,000 for the first year).
Eligibility	Minimum income of Rs.70,000 per month (salaried applicants) or Rs. 8,40,000 per annum (self-employed applicants) Age between 21 to 60 years (for salaried applicants) or 21 to 65 years (for self-employed applicants)	Minimum income of Rs.50,000 per month (salaried applicants) or Rs. 5.5 lakhs per annum (self-employed applicants) Age between 21 to 61 years (for salaried applicants) or 21 to 65 years (for self-employed applicants)

Conclusion

As you can see, both HDFC Regalia and ICICI Rubyx Credit Cards offer a decent reward rate and a plethora of value-added benefits like complimentary domestic and international airport and railway lounge access (international lounge access only with the Regalia Credit Card and railway lounge access only with the Rubyx Credit Card), complimentary comprehensive cover, dining and movie discounts and many more. One noticeable difference between the cards is in terms of the complimentary lounge access that you get with the cards. While HDFC Regalia Credit Card also offers you complimentary international airport lounge access, you can avail the access to lounges at select railway stations across the country with the ICICI Rubyx Credit Card. The annual fee of the Regalia Credit Card second year onwards is also Rs. 500 more than that for the ICICI Rubyx Credit Card.

Also Check: HDFC Regalia Credit Card Vs HDFC Millennia Credit Card