19M Student | ₹40K in Savings | HDFC DigiSave (₹5K MAB) | How Much to Maintain for Pre-Approved Credit Card?

[Sagnik]

I’m a 19M student with no fixed income, working on building my CIBIL score. I recently opened an HDFC DigiSave account (₹5K MAB) and declared ₹1L annual income (self-employed professional) during onboarding.

I have two FD-based secured credit cards (ZET & SuperCard, ₹4.5K limit each), and I use them responsibly (low utilization (10%), full payments).

My Setup:​

• I have ₹40K in savings as churning capital.
• Planning to split it: ₹20K in HDFC, ₹20K in SBI (to avoid HDFC UPI failures).
• Actively using HDFC for UPI, bills, etc.

Questions:​

1. What balance should I maintain in HDFC to trigger pre-approved credit card offers asap?
2. Does account activity (UPI, bill pay) help, or is it all about balance?
3. Will opening an FD with part of the ₹40K help or hurt my chances? (e.g. 10k as balance and 30k as fd)
4. Should I upgrade to a higher MAB account (₹10K Regular Savings Account) for a better profile?
5. Is splitting the ₹40K across SBI/HDFC slowing my progress with HDFC?

Looking for advice from anyone who built their credit young or unlocked HDFC pre-approvals. Appreciate your help!

 

[raj..]

I’m a 19M student with no fixed income, working on building my CIBIL score. I recently opened an HDFC DigiSave account (₹5K MAB) and declared ₹1L annual income (self-employed professional) during onboarding.

I have two FD-based secured credit cards (ZET & SuperCard, ₹4.5K limit each), and I use them responsibly (low utilization (10%), full payments).

My Setup:​

• I have ₹40K in savings as churning capital.
• Planning to split it: ₹20K in HDFC, ₹20K in SBI (to avoid HDFC UPI failures).
• Actively using HDFC for UPI, bills, etc.

Questions:​

1. What balance should I maintain in HDFC to trigger pre-approved credit card offers asap?
2. Does account activity (UPI, bill pay) help, or is it all about balance?
3. Will opening an FD with part of the ₹40K help or hurt my chances? (e.g. 10k as balance and 30k as fd)
4. Should I upgrade to a higher MAB account (₹10K Regular Savings Account) for a better profile?
5. Is splitting the ₹40K across SBI/HDFC slowing my progress with HDFC?

Looking for advice from anyone who built their credit young or unlocked HDFC pre-approvals. Appreciate your help!

Don't split the amount in 2 banks, chances will be lowered in that case. SBI don't give p-a offer fast so keep the full amount which you can on the HDFC ac.

Yes do upi spends and mainly bill payments and pos transactions. This may increase the chances.

No need to the upgrade the ac type.

Yes fd can faster the process of getting p-a offer. But in that case your ac balance will be 10k which can lower the chances, so if you can make 30k fd and also keep 25k + amount in ac it will be great.

I got p-a offer from icici bank by doing this, now I'm doing same with hdfc bank lets see what i get from hdfc.

 

[krishna1718]

I’m a 19M student with no fixed income, working on building my CIBIL score. I recently opened an HDFC DigiSave account (₹5K MAB) and declared ₹1L annual income (self-employed professional) during onboarding.

I have two FD-based secured credit cards (ZET & SuperCard, ₹4.5K limit each), and I use them responsibly (low utilization (10%), full payments).

My Setup:​

• I have ₹40K in savings as churning capital.
• Planning to split it: ₹20K in HDFC, ₹20K in SBI (to avoid HDFC UPI failures).
• Actively using HDFC for UPI, bills, etc.

Questions:​

1. What balance should I maintain in HDFC to trigger pre-approved credit card offers asap?
2. Does account activity (UPI, bill pay) help, or is it all about balance?
3. Will opening an FD with part of the ₹40K help or hurt my chances? (e.g. 10k as balance and 30k as fd)
4. Should I upgrade to a higher MAB account (₹10K Regular Savings Account) for a better profile?
5. Is splitting the ₹40K across SBI/HDFC slowing my progress with HDFC?

Looking for advice from anyone who built their credit young or unlocked HDFC pre-approvals. Appreciate your help!

Maintain 5K MAB with rest 35K make FD and get fd based Tata Neu plus rupay variant it's best card for you as you are student once you use tata neu plus for 6 to 7 months on this card basis you can apply pixel play lifetime free or Swiggy hdfc creditcard and if you ok you can also check IDFC First Earn FD based card you can get 1% on every category spend where other cards lacking