HDFC Bank Diners Club – Major Updates announced
Introduction
HDFC Bank has made some major changes to the Diners Club Reward Program. Diners club is already the best credit card reward program in India which offered an incredible 33% reward rate on spends with 10x partners and Smartbuy Over the last 12 months HDFC Bank has been constantly tweaking the reward program but the current set of changes are actually positive. Lets have a look
Diners Black
The Diners Black card is the crown jewel of this program offering an incredible 33% reward rate. The new set of benefits are additional on top of 10x partners and Smartbuy which is a welcome change. There are 3 major additions to the program outlined below
Benefit #1 – Complimentary Annual Memberships
- Club Marriott – INR 12,500 + taxes
- Forbes Digital Subscription – INR 2,100
- Zomato Gold – INR 1,500
- Amazon Prime – INR 999
- MakeMyTrip Double Black – INR 1,500
- Times Prime – INR 999
For existing credit cards there are 2 options.
Option #1 – Upgrade to new HDFC Bank Diners Club Card with payment of Joining/Renewal fee of INR 5000 + taxes
Option #2 – Achieve a spend milestone of INR 8 lacs at the time of card anniversary
Option #2 above is a bit consuming as its not clear if benefits can be availed immediately upon reaching the threshold or only on the card anniversary. Will update as soon as we have clarity on this. In the worst case, the benefits can be accrued by all users in a staggered manner as and when their card anniversary dates fall due. It might make a lot of sense to find out your card anniversary dates and check your current spend threshold. This is a bit similar to the INR 4 lacs spend threshold on the Amex Platinum Travel Credit Card but their app shows up the anniversary date along with the Spend threshold which is super helpful. Let’s hope HDFC does something similar to make our lives easier.
The Annual memberships are well worth the upgrade using Option 1 itself (Assuming you dont qualify for the spend milestone). The benefits are approximately INR 21,000 at face value (Most of these memberships can be availed at a 50% discount with some offer or the other always available) with the Club Marriott Membership being the most valuable. Club Marriott is a membership program for over 300 Marriott Hotels in Asia Pacific. It comes with the following perks
- 20% off on F&B
- 20% off room rates (Some hotels have a 10% off only)
- 5 Certificates offering 30% off room rates for max stay of 2 nights on select properties in India
Benefit #2 – Monthly Milestone Benefit
On spending INR 80,000 in a month you can choose any 2 from
- Ola Select worth INR 500
- Bookmyshow vouchers worth INR 500
- TataCliQ vouchers worth INR 500
Benefit #3 – Addition of Wellness Benefits Section
This is probably the least impressive addition but you can now earn discounts across leading Spa’s, Salon’s, Gym’s etc. The best offer I could find was a 40% discount on Gold’s Gym Membership fees.
Diners Privilege
HDFC Bank has added a privilege card to its lineup. It sits between Diners Club and Club Miles and earns the same base rate of 2.66% as the Club Miles card (4 RP for INR 150 spend). Also, the website is currently silent on whether this card will earn 10x rewards and Smartbuy points as the table does not list this but i guess this is simply a pending update on their site. The card offers the following benefits
- Zomato Gold – INR 1,500
- Amazon Prime – INR 999
- MakemyTrip Double Black – INR 1,500
- Times Prime – INR 999
- BigBasket Star – Price Varies but around INR 1,000
Monthly Milestone Benefits
On spending INR 40,000 in a month you can choose any 2 from
- Ola Select worth INR 500
- Bookmyshow vouchers worth INR 500
- TataCliQ vouchers worth INR 500
The Good part about the card is that it offers 12 complimentary lounge visits (Domestic + International) for both Primary and Add on card holders like the Diners Black. The Club Miles card does not share this benefit. On the other hand the reward rate for transferring points to Air Miles is poor at 1 RP = 0.5 Airline Miles across British Airways / Singapore Airlines / Club Vistara. Club Miles retains its reward ratio of 1 RP = 1 Airline Mile. Reward points earned on this card are valid for 2 years unlike Diners Black which has a validity of 3 years.
The fees on this card is INR 2,500 + taxes and you need to spend INR 3 lacs to get fees waived off for the next year.
The Good
Any additional perks/benefits on top of the existing 10x partners and Smartbuy are always welcome. Nothing better than improving your reward rates and ability to double dip. On a standalone basis annual benefits of INR 20k on spends of INR 8 lacs is a reward rate of 2.5% and monthly milestone benefit of INR 1k on spends of INR 80k is a reward rate of 1.25% (Ignoring the ability of double dipping here viz. spending 80k per month takes you to INR 9.6 lacs which is like earning 3.75% cash back). If you factor in double dipping and the base reward rate of 3.33% you reach a 7% threshold ignoring 10x partners and Smartbuy which is anyway hard to beat. One can always argue about the perceived value of these benefits and there can be no end to that discussion.
The simple point we are trying to make is it is great to see HDFC trying to please its customers after the recent disappointments of devaluation of 10x partners and the withdrawal of PayZapp. They are industry leaders here and let’s hope they continue to dominate and please us customers.
The Bad and Potentially Ugly
The first fear that comes to my mind is that the addition of these benefits makes us feel really good. Good enough that it feels like a perk handed by HDFC to soften the eventual blow. It could be the impending end of the Diners 10x partners and/or SmartBuy. HDFC has been known to make sudden changes without any prior announcement (That will help a lot if you are listening HDFC).
Off late they’ve been marketing this card left, right and centre ignoring even salary caps for students who belong to top teir colleges in India. It seems like they want to increase their user base multi fold in India and that can only be a bad thing. It seems like the duck that lays the golden eggs may not really last long now.
In all fairness this is a constant fear and HDFC has been running this program for quite some time now. Good things can come to an end and we just hope that we don’t see that too soon. Some of the devaluations in the past have been due to people misusing the diners reward program and after the caps, the potential for that has reduced greatly. Let’s hope this is not the beginning of the end.
Overall Impressions
These are great additional benefits. Club Marriott was earlier an exclusive perk for Infinia and has now been added to Diners Club Black members as well. The addition of a new category seems to be a targeted plan to broad base their users. We are more than happy but just want to keep our fingers crossed that these benefits are additional and not potential replacements. What do you think?
You May Also Like
HDFC Bank Festive Treats – Upto 58% Cashback!!
Credit Card Review – HDFC Bank Diners ClubMiles
