IDFC FIRST Millennia vs HDFC Millennia 2026: Which to Pick?

HDFC Millennia is the better card for anyone whose spending is mostly online shopping and groceries; it returns roughly five times the value of IDFC FIRST Millennia at typical spend levels. IDFC FIRST Millennia wins only on cost and forex: it is lifetime free and charges no foreign currency markup, which makes it a decent backup or travel card rather than a main rewards card.

Both cards share a name and a target audience (young, salaried, app-first spenders), but they are built very differently. Here is how they compare on the numbers.

Side-by-side comparison

Feature	IDFC FIRST Millennia	HDFC Millennia
Joining fee	₹0	₹1,000
Annual fee	₹0	₹1,000
Fee waiver spend	Not needed (lifetime free)	₹1,00,000 a year
Base reward rate	0.375%	1%
Online shopping	0.375% (base)	5%, capped at ₹1,000/month
Groceries	0.375% (base)	2.5%, capped at ₹500/month
Dining	1.25%	1% (base)
Travel	1.25%	1% (base)
Utilities	0.125%	1%, capped at ₹200/month
Reward type	Points, 25 paise each	CashPoints, ₹1 each
Forex markup	0%	3.5%
Domestic airport lounge	None (railway lounge, 4/quarter on ₹20,000 monthly spend)	1 voucher/quarter after ₹1,00,000 quarterly spend
International lounge	None	None
Minimum monthly income	₹25,000	₹35,000

Figures reflect BestCard's latest card data. Issuers change terms often, so check the bank's site before you apply.

Rewards maths: two realistic spend levels

The headline "10X points" on IDFC FIRST Millennia sounds big, but each point is worth 25 paise, so 10X on dining and travel works out to 1.25%. HDFC Millennia pays in CashPoints worth ₹1 each, and its 5% online rate covers the big e-commerce and food apps (Amazon, Flipkart, Myntra, Swiggy, Zomato, BookMyShow and others on its list).

₹20,000 a month

Say you spend ₹8,000 online, ₹4,000 on groceries, ₹3,000 on dining, ₹2,000 on utilities and ₹3,000 on everything else.

HDFC Millennia

• Online: 5% of ₹8,000 = ₹400 (well under the ₹1,000 cap)
• Groceries: 2.5% of ₹4,000 = ₹100
• Dining: 1% of ₹3,000 = ₹30
• Utilities: 1% of ₹2,000 = ₹20
• Other: 1% of ₹3,000 = ₹30
• Total: ₹580 a month, or ₹6,960 a year

Annual spend is ₹2.4 lakh, so the ₹1,000 fee is waived.

IDFC FIRST Millennia

• Online: 0.375% of ₹8,000 = ₹30
• Groceries: 0.375% of ₹4,000 = ₹15
• Dining: 1.25% of ₹3,000 = ₹37.50
• Utilities: 0.125% of ₹2,000 = ₹2.50
• Other: 0.375% of ₹3,000 = ₹11.25
• Total: about ₹96 a month, or roughly ₹1,155 a year

₹50,000 a month

Now ₹20,000 online, ₹8,000 groceries, ₹6,000 dining, ₹5,000 travel, ₹5,000 utilities and ₹6,000 other.

HDFC Millennia: online ₹1,000 (exactly at the cap) + groceries ₹200 + dining ₹60 + travel ₹50 + utilities ₹50 + other ₹60 = ₹1,420 a month (₹17,040 a year).

IDFC FIRST Millennia: online ₹75 + groceries ₹30 + dining ₹75 + travel ₹62.50 + utilities ₹6.25 + other ₹22.50 = about ₹271 a month (₹3,255 a year).

At this level HDFC's online cap starts to bite. Anything above ₹20,000 a month of online spend earns only the base rate, which is worth knowing if you shop heavily during sales. Our explainer on reward caps shows how to plan around that.

Fees and waivers

IDFC FIRST Millennia is genuinely lifetime free: no joining fee, no annual fee, no spend target to remember. That matters if you're unsure how much you'll use the card. It also starts with a low interest rate (0.71% a month per BestCard's data), though you shouldn't be carrying a balance on either card.

HDFC Millennia costs ₹1,000 plus GST each year, but the ₹1 lakh waiver works out to about ₹8,350 a month, so almost anyone using it as a primary card will clear it. HDFC also credits 1,000 CashPoints (worth ₹1,000) on joining, which offsets the first-year fee. If you want a deeper look at when paying a fee makes sense, read lifetime free vs paid cards.

IDFC's welcome benefit is a voucher worth up to ₹500 on eligible spends within 30 days, plus 5% cashback (up to ₹1,000) on your first EMI transaction in that window.

Lounge access and travel

Neither card is a travel card. HDFC Millennia gives one domestic airport lounge voucher per calendar quarter, but only after ₹1 lakh of spend in that quarter, and it is offered as an alternative to a ₹1,000 gift voucher, so you pick one or the other.

IDFC FIRST Millennia offers railway lounge access, 4 visits a quarter, unlocked by spending ₹20,000 in the current calendar month. That's useful if you take trains often; there's no airport lounge benefit.

Where IDFC clearly wins is forex. On ₹1 lakh of foreign spend, HDFC's 3.5% markup costs ₹3,500, plus 18% GST on that markup (₹630), so ₹4,130 in total. IDFC charges nothing. The catch: IDFC says international spends stop earning reward points from 26 October 2026. Since its points are so low anyway, the markup saving is what counts. For more options, see our list of zero forex markup cards.

Other benefits

• IDFC FIRST Millennia: up to 20% dining discount across 1,500+ partner restaurants, 25% off movie tickets (up to ₹100) once a month via the District app, fuel surcharge waiver up to ₹200 a month, ₹2 lakh personal accident cover. Points carry a two-year validity, and redemption attracts a small flat fee.
• HDFC Millennia: fuel surcharge waiver capped at ₹250 per statement cycle, CashPoints redeemable 1:1 against your statement or for partner vouchers.

Who should pick which

Pick HDFC Millennia if you spend ₹10,000 or more a month on Amazon, Flipkart, Swiggy, Zomato and similar apps, buy groceries regularly, and can clear ₹1 lakh a year. It is the stronger everyday rewards card by a wide margin. Our HDFC Millennia review covers the merchant list and exclusions.

Pick IDFC FIRST Millennia if you want a no-fee card you'll never have to think about, travel abroad occasionally and want to avoid forex markup, or you're early in your career and don't meet HDFC's ₹35,000 income bar. Our IDFC FIRST Millennia review goes through its redemption options in detail.

Hold both if you want HDFC Millennia for domestic online spend and IDFC FIRST Millennia purely for foreign transactions. Since the IDFC card costs nothing, it works well as a second card.

Verdict

HDFC Millennia wins this comparison for nearly every domestic spending pattern. At ₹20,000 a month it returns about ₹6,960 a year against roughly ₹1,155 from IDFC FIRST Millennia, and the gap widens as online spend grows (until HDFC's ₹1,000 monthly cap). IDFC FIRST Millennia is a sensible lifetime-free companion card for forex savings and dining discounts, not a replacement.

Want to see how either card fits your actual spending? Run them through the BestCard comparison tool, or let the card matcher shortlist cards based on your monthly budget.