Concert credit cards: applied today, discarded tomorrow

When singer and actor Diljit Dosanjh announced the India leg of his tour on 4 September, his fans across the country immediately started scrambling for tickets. Along with the tickets came another important bit of information: HDFC Pixel Play credit card holders would get exclusive access to book the tickets ahead of others. Pixel cardholders would also receive an additional 10% off the concert ticket price.

This led to a mad dash for the HDFC Pixel card. To many applicants’ surprise, they were issued the Pixel card in less than a minute.

Ami Palan, a 32-year-old, already had an HDFC Regalia Gold card. It took her a total of two minutes to download HDFC Bank Ltd’s PayZ app, apply for the Pixel card, and get it issued. The spending limit for the Pixel credit card was bifurcated from the existing limit for her Regalia card.

Samyak Jain similarly was issued a Pixel card in less than a minute after applying for it. He had a HDFC Tata Neu card, and had to set his own credit limits for the two cards. Jain, a 27-year-old product manager at Cashify, was sceptical of how quick the process was.

“I placed an order on Amazon, made sure it was paid for, and then cancelled it to ensure that the card is functional,” Jain said.

Both Palan and Jain’s digital cards were ready to use within minutes, while the actual credit card came a few days later.

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Scalper’s heaven

A third person, who didn’t want to be identified, ended up profiting from the Pixel card as they bought multiple tickets to the concert and sold them at high prices. “I must have made two, three times the cost of what I spent.”

This person, who works at a multinational company, was issued the HDFC Pixel card earlier this year shortly after its release. But when the Diljit Dosanjh concert details were announced, they ended up buying around 15 tickets across multiple locations. This person then sold the tickets to others by advertising them on X and Reddit.

“For each ticket, I must have gotten around 25 enquiries,” this person said.

Such people are generally called scalpers, and use bots to buy concert tickets soon as booking opens to sell at higher prices. Such practices are common for international acts such as Taylor Swift, and more recently, for Coldplay in India.

“On a total expenditure of around ₹30,000, I made around ₹75,000,” the scalper estimated.Mintcould not verify these numbers as this person didn’t want to show their statements.

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HDFC Pixel’s features

The HDFC Pixel credit card can be categorised as India’s first bespoke card: a user can pick and choose the purchases they want specific cashbacks on. One can opt for a 5% cashback in any two of the following categories:

- Dining Entertainment: BookMyShow and Zomato

- Travel: MakeMyTrip and Uber

- Grocery: BlinkIt and Reliance Smart Bazaar

- Electronics: Croma and Reliance Digital

- Fashion: Nykaa and Myntra

Additionally, a user can claim a 3% cashback on either Amazon or Flipkart purchases. All other purchases get a cashback of 1%.

Palan, who works as the head of marketing at human resources tech company MetaMorph, said she had planned on closing the HDFC Pixel card after booking the Diljit Dosanjh concert tickets. However, of late, she has been using the card for a variety of purchases due to the cashbacks: 5% on Zomato, BookMyShow, Uber, and MakeMyTrip.

“I travel a lot, so between these cashbacks, it’s quite beneficial for me,” Palan said. She has also opted for 3% cashback on purchases on Amazon.

Jain, who describes himself as a savvy credit card user, has 8-10 credit cards at the moment and has optimised to get cashbacks on every single expenditure—including on UPI.

Jain too got his HDFC Pixel card only for the concert, and plans on shutting it soon to avoid paying the ₹500 annual fee. Palan hasn’t decided yet.

HDFC Bank did not reply to Mint's queries about how many Pixel cards were issued due to the Diljit Dosanjh concert.

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The HDFC Pixel is not the first card to promise front-of-the-line access to its users. Ajay Awtaney, founder of credit cards website LiveFromALounge.com, said this trend came to India in 2019 thanks to a U2 concert in Mumbai. American Express holders could gain access to a special lounge, and redeem their points to buy the tickets.

More recently, HSBC and Kotak Mahindra Bank users have had early access to book concert tickets. “Between 2023 and now, HSBC has promoted the Shakti Tour and will promote the Bryan Adams Tour and the Zomato Feeding India Concert, headlined by Dua Lipa. Kotak Bank White Credit Card promoted Trevor Noah’s acts in India and the Ed Sheeran India Tour,” said Awtaney.

Awtaney added that Kotak Mahindra has scaled back on this strategy as the Reserve Bank of India has restricted it from issuing new credit cards. A representative from Kotak Mahindra Bank later reached out clarifying that they had sponsored an event named ‘Peppa Pig’s Adventure’, which is described as a “live stage-show”, along with the aforementioned events.

Awtaney said he isn’t surprised that users are cancelling their cards after booking concert tickets. The card-and-concert strategy was aimed at a young audience, one that doesn’t think twice about obtaining or cancelling a card in quick succession.

“The concert pre-sales saw far more demand than supply of tickets,” said Awtaney. “Hence those who signed up for (the HDFC Pixel card) to get access to the pre-sale are now cancelling their cards.”

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The story was edited to add in a response by Kotak Mahindra Bank.