IDFC FIRST Select vs HDFC Regalia Gold 2026: Free Card or Milestones?

IDFC FIRST Select and HDFC Regalia Gold target the same upper-middle earner, but they make money for you in different ways. Select is lifetime free, has a 0% forex markup and pays accelerated rewards on dining and travel. Regalia Gold costs ₹2,500 a year and earns a steadier 1.25% base, but its real value is in milestone vouchers worth up to ₹16,000 a year and 6 Priority Pass visits abroad. Below about ₹5 lakh of annual spend, Select is the better deal. Above it, Regalia Gold wins clearly.

Side-by-side comparison

Feature	IDFC FIRST Select	HDFC Regalia Gold
Network	Visa	Visa
Joining fee	₹0	₹2,500
Annual fee	₹0 (lifetime free)	₹2,500
Fee waiver spend	Not needed	₹4,00,000/year
Base reward rate	About 0.5%	About 1.25% (5 points per ₹200)
Dining	4%	1.25% (base)
Travel	4%	2.5%
Point value	25 paise	50 paise on SmartBuy flights/hotels, up to 65 paise on Gold catalogue
Milestone benefits	None listed	₹5,000 flight vouchers at ₹5L and ₹7.5L; ₹1,500 voucher per quarter with ₹1.5L spend
Forex markup	0% (no points on international spends from 26 Oct 2026)	2%
Domestic lounge	1/quarter + 4 railway/quarter, on ₹20,000 previous-month spend	3/quarter, on ₹60,000 previous-quarter spend
International lounge	None listed	6/year via Priority Pass
Insurance	₹1 crore air accident, ₹5 lakh personal accident	Air accident cover per HDFC's terms
Min monthly income	₹1,00,000	₹1,50,000

These figures come from BestCard's latest card data. IDFC FIRST and HDFC both changed these cards' terms in 2026, so check their current pages before applying.

How the rewards actually work

IDFC FIRST Select

IDFC FIRST Select earns about 0.5% on general spends in BestCard's valuation, and 4% on dining and travel. Insurance, utility, railway and FASTag spends earn at a much lower rate than regular purchases, and from 26 October 2026 international spends earn no points at all. That is the trade-off for its 0% forex markup. Interest rates on the card can also come down over time with good repayment behaviour.

HDFC Regalia Gold

HDFC Regalia Gold earns 5 Reward Points per ₹200 since 15 May 2026. At 50 paise a point on SmartBuy flights and hotels, that's 1.25%. Redeem on the exclusive Gold catalogue at 65 paise and it rises to about 1.6%. Travel earns 2.5% in our data, and Myntra, Nykaa, Reliance Digital and Marks & Spencer earn 5X, capped at 5,000 bonus points a month. On top of this sit the milestones: ₹5,000 of flight vouchers at ₹5 lakh of annual spend and again at ₹7.5 lakh, plus a ₹1,500 Myntra or Nykaa voucher for every quarter with ₹1.5 lakh of spend.

Worked example 1: ₹40,000 a month

Split: ₹6,000 dining, ₹6,000 travel, ₹6,000 groceries, ₹8,000 online shopping, ₹14,000 other.

IDFC FIRST Select

• Dining: 4% × ₹6,000 = ₹240
• Travel: 4% × ₹6,000 = ₹240
• Everything else: 0.5% × ₹28,000 = ₹140
• Total: ₹620 a month, ₹7,440 a year, no fee

HDFC Regalia Gold

• Travel: 2.5% × ₹6,000 = ₹150
• Everything else: 1.25% × ₹34,000 = ₹425
• Total: ₹575 a month, ₹6,900 a year

Annual spend is ₹4.8 lakh, so Regalia Gold's fee is waived, but it falls just short of the ₹5 lakh milestone and quarterly spend of ₹1.2 lakh misses the ₹1.5 lakh voucher. Select comes out about ₹540 ahead. Spend an extra ₹20,000 in the year on Regalia Gold and the first ₹5,000 flight voucher flips the result.

Worked example 2: ₹70,000 a month

Split: ₹10,000 dining, ₹15,000 travel, ₹8,000 groceries, ₹12,000 online shopping, ₹25,000 other.

IDFC FIRST Select

• Dining: 4% × ₹10,000 = ₹400
• Travel: 4% × ₹15,000 = ₹600
• Everything else: 0.5% × ₹45,000 = ₹225
• Total: ₹1,225 a month, ₹14,700 a year

HDFC Regalia Gold

• Travel: 2.5% × ₹15,000 = ₹375
• Everything else: 1.25% × ₹55,000 = ₹687.50
• Points: ₹1,062.50 a month, ₹12,750 a year
• Annual spend ₹8.4 lakh: both flight vouchers, ₹10,000
• Quarterly spend ₹2.1 lakh: 4 × ₹1,500 = ₹6,000
• Total: about ₹28,750 a year

Here Regalia Gold earns nearly twice as much, entirely because of its milestones.

Lounge access and travel

Regalia Gold has the stronger lounge package: 3 domestic visits a quarter, gated on ₹60,000 of spend in the previous quarter, and 6 international visits a year through Priority Pass. New cardholders get no domestic visits in their first quarter. Select offers 1 domestic airport visit and 4 railway lounge visits a quarter, each needing ₹20,000 of spend in the previous month. See our railway lounge access guide for how those work.

Abroad, Select's 0% markup still wins even without points. On ₹1 lakh of international spend, Select costs nothing extra, while Regalia Gold charges about ₹2,000 in markup and returns about ₹1,250 in points, a net ₹750 cost. Read best zero forex markup credit cards for alternatives.

Redemption

Select points are worth about 25 paise in BestCard's valuation, so the card's value comes mostly from its 4% categories and zero fees. Regalia Gold rewards more effort: SmartBuy flights and hotels at 50 paise (up to 70% of a booking, max 50,000 points a month), the Gold catalogue at 65 paise, air miles at up to 0.5 miles per point, and statement credit at only up to 20 paise. Avoid statement credit on Regalia Gold. Our guide on the real value of reward points explains the maths.

Fees and waivers

Select is lifetime free, so there is nothing to manage. Regalia Gold charges ₹2,500, waived at ₹4 lakh of annual spend. Spend less than that and the fee eats a large share of its rewards. It also bundles Swiggy One and MakeMyTrip Black Gold memberships if you spend ₹1 lakh in the first 90 days, and Boarding Edge perks such as spa visits or airport transfers each quarter. Income bars are ₹1 lakh a month for Select and ₹1.5 lakh for Regalia Gold.

Who should pick which

Choose IDFC FIRST Select if:

• You spend under ₹4 to 5 lakh a year
• You eat out and travel a lot, where it pays 4%
• You spend abroad and want a 0% markup
• You want a card you never pay for

Choose HDFC Regalia Gold if:

• You spend ₹5 lakh or more a year, ideally ₹7.5 lakh
• You want international lounge visits through Priority Pass
• You will redeem through SmartBuy or the Gold catalogue

Verdict

IDFC FIRST Select is the better value for moderate spenders: no fee, 4% on dining and travel, and a 0% forex markup. HDFC Regalia Gold is the better card once your annual spend crosses ₹5 lakh, where its flight and quarterly vouchers more than double its point earnings. Many people hold Select as a free travel and forex card alongside a milestone card like Regalia Gold.

Read our IDFC FIRST Select review and HDFC Regalia Gold review, or see how Regalia Gold fares against IDFC's premium card in IDFC FIRST Wealth vs HDFC Regalia Gold. You can also compare both cards on BestCard's compare tool.