HDFC Bank Diners 10x Partners & Smartbuy Update
Introduction
HDFC Bank has renewed both the 10x Partners and 10x Smartbuy reward program for another month. Both the 10x programs offer an incredible 33% reward rate on eligible spends and this is the best credit card in terms of cash back in India right now. While it is great to see the offer being extended, it is again only for a month compared to the 3 months we used to see earlier. Lets have a look at the details
Smartbuy
HDFC has been beefing up its Smartbuy offering in recent months and has constantly been adding various ways for us to earn those valuable points. It makes sense as Smartbuy offers are available to all card holders of HDFC Bank and has much wider reach compared to the Diners Black card. OYO is a new addition directly in the smartbuy logo but I still dont see it anywhere on the smartbuy page.
All other recent additions like IRCTC, Gift Cards via Gyftr continue to be available. The limits are still retained at a peak of 15,000 reward points for Diners Black and 25,000 reward points for Infinia card holders.
10x Partners
The 10x partners which are exclusive to the Diners Family of cards has been seeing a steady devaluation over the years. Swiggy, Bookmyshow & Nature’s Basket have been dropped and we are left with only 4 partners viz. OLA, Myntra, Firstcry & Zoomcar. It is increasingly becoming more and more difficult to max out the 25,000 reward point limit on Diners Black given the steady reduction in partners. At some point, it may really start becoming worthwhile to swap the Diners Black card for the Infinia credit card which has a higher limit of 25,000 on Smartbuy partners. I wish HDFC would allow a single person to hold both cards but they’ve been quite clear on not allowing more than one premium card to holders now. I do hold two cards but they’ve been very persistent about not even allowing an upgrade from my old Jet to Infinia.
The way things are moving, it seems the 10x partners will increasingly play a smaller role and this promotion has anyway given enough eyeballs in India. Everyone around me has a Diners Black card these days and i guess HDFC and Diners have achieved their objective of significantly increasing the penetration of this product. HDFC has definitely tried to move into more value add features with a new category of welcome benefits (Club Marriott / Amazon Prime / Zomato Gold / Times Prime / MMT Double Black etc.) which are great but still not comparable to the incredible 33% reward rate.
Conclusion
HDFC Bank has renewed the incredible 10x reward program again for a month. While Smartbuy has been going from strength to strength, the 10x partner program continues to devalue. Let’s hope both the programs continue to remain in the current form and let’s pray that the value of our points does not devalue anytime soon. That is the biggest risk out here to loyal card holders who are sitting on massive point hauls. Earn and spend to avoid getting burnt. What do you think ?
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