Is The Swiggy HDFC Credit Card Worth It?

If you order on Swiggy regularly, it’s hard to miss the Swiggy HDFC Credit Card promotions. But is the card worth getting? Here’s a quick & dirty review to consider in case you’ve been considering applying for the card.

First – What Kind Of Card Is It?

The Swiggy HDFC Bank Credit Card is a paid credit card but not a premium one. There aren’t any extensive lifestyle benefits that come with the card. You will have to pay Rs. 500/- in annual fees. However, this fee is waived if you spend more than Rs. 2,00,000/- on the card.

What’s Good?

Generous Cash Backs:

To be honest the card is pretty generous in its benefits, given the fees. You get 10% cashback on all your Swiggy transactions (which includes deliveries, Insta Mart, Dine Out and Genie). You also get 5% cashback on your Online Shopping spends and 1% cashback on other transactions. There are exclusions to other transactions, like rent, insurance payments, utility bills etc. But swiping your card at a grocery store or a retail POS, for example, would qualify.

There are limits, of course.

Swiggy cashback is restricted to Rs. 1500/- a month (so there’s no point in spending over Rs. 15K). The cashback from online shopping spends is also restricted to Rs. 1500/- and the 1% cashback is restricted to Rs. 500/-.

Even then, it’s very generous, given the card fees. You can make up the fees in Swiggy spends alone.

What’s Not Good?

The cashback isn’t cash. It’s Swiggy Money. So it’s not like you can use the cashback for anything else other than back into Swiggy. While Instamart is good for groceries etc., you’re more or less stunted in how you can use the cashback.

Swiggy advertises that you can get up to Rs. 4,20,000/- a year in cashback if you optimise your spends. But in order to earn this Rs. 4,20,000/- a year, you need to spend Rs. 11,40,000/- (15K a month on swiggy, 30K a month on online shopping and 50K on other eligible spends). If you’re spending close to a lakh a month on your credit cards, you should be looking at premium credit cards, not this one.

No Lifetime Swiggy One Membership. I find it odd that they’re only giving 3 months of complimentary Swiggy One membership with this card. It’s a cobranded credit card and the absence of the membership feels jarring.

Who’s It For?

This is a great card for anyone who is just starting out with credit cards and wants to try using a paid credit card and see how cashback works. I’d also recommend this for folks who are starting out with their careers, living alone and tend to use Swiggy for both eating out as well as groceries. The savings are quite decent.

Are you considering this card? Let me know in the comments. For more info on credit cards, do check out the credit card section on the blog.