HDFC Diners Black Credit Card Review
After Axis Magnus and HDFC Infinia card ,HDFC Diners Black credit card are the popular cards . There Are various parameters where HDFC Diners Black card is better than HDFC Infinia . Below is a detailed review of the HDFC Diners Black.
HDFC Diners Black Credit Card
Fees
- Joining/Annual fee of 10,000 + taxes. IT is Waived off on spending 5 lakhs.
Reward and Benefits
- Base Reward Rate:3.3% reward rate (5 reward points on 150 spent. Value of 1RP=INR 1). No reward points for fuel, wallet load and EMI (EasyEMI and SmartEMI) spends. From January 2023 onwards, no reward points on rent payments too.
- Accelerated Reward Rate: 2x-10x RPs on HDFC SmartBuy, i.e. 6.6%-33.3% reward rate. However, SmartBuy reward points accrual has monthly and daily caps, which may limit the reward rate.
- 2x RPs on weekend dining. 2x reward points on dining on weekends. Not applicable to Swiggy/Zomato spending. There is a cap of 1000 reward points per day.
- Milestones:
- Monthly milestone: 2×500 i.e INR1000 vouchers from Tata Cliq, Ola etc on monthly spends of 80k or more.
- Annual milestone: Annual membership of Amazon Prime, MMT Black, Club Marriott, Forbes and Times Prime.
- Lounge Access: Unlimited domestic and international lounge access for primary and add-on cardholders.
Eligibility criteria of HDFC Diners Black
IT is very easy to get this Card . But as mentioned in the Bank website , you need a 1.75lk monthly salary; most people who have this card have much lower monthly salaries. But if you have an HDFC Bank credit card with a credit limit of 5lk+, especially Regalia, you can simply write to customer care for the upgrade.
Positives of HDFC Diners Black
3.3% reward rate
The base reward rate of 3.3% is among the best in the industry. Only HDFC Infinia and StanC Ultimate have this kind of reward rate.
Unlimited lounge access
Unlimited Lounge access at domestic and international is provided by this card . Unlimited lounge access is available to all add-on cardholders too. Further, the icing on the cake is you don’t need a separate Priority Pass card for lounge access. Your credit card is enough.
Smartbuy benefits
Similar to HDFC Infinia, the HDFC Diners Black credit card also gives 2-10x accelerated reward points on purchases made on the SmartBuy portal. Hotel booking gives a 33.3% reward rate, while flight booking thru the portal gives you a 16.5% reward rate.
Gift vouchers bought on SmartBuy give you a ~10% reward rate (3x reward points). These brand vouchers in turn can be used for many daily purchases. You can buy gift vouchers from Amazon, Flipkart, Croma, Vijay Sales, Tata Cliq, Reliance Smart, BigBasket, Blinkit, Swiggy, Zomato, Ola and many more. Even train ticket booking on IRCTC will give a nearly 10% reward rate.
Milestone benefits
The milestone benefits of HDFC Diners Black are simple . You will get vouchers of Rs 1000 on spending 80k on a calender month . Thus, if you spend 80k every month for 12 months you will get vouchers worth 12,000. Moreover, your annual fee will be waived as annual spending will be more than 5lk.
Similarly, on annual spends of 8lk, you get memberships from Amazon Prime, MMT Black, Club Marriott, Forbes and Times Prime. From these, Amazon Prime, MMT Black and Forbes are genuinely useful.
2x on weekend dining
HDFC Diners Black offers 2x reward points on all dining spends every weekend. There is a cap of 1000 reward points per day. The issue is, this does not apply to Swiggy/Zomato.
Only 2% forex markup
HDFC Diners Black has a low forex markup of 2%. While you may argue, there are credit and debit cards that offer 0% forex markup. However, considering that HDFC Diners Black has a reward rate of 3.3% even adjusting for a 2.36% (2% +GST) forex markup, you get nearly a 1% reward rate on foreign spending. That’s not all, if you enrol for HDFC’s global value program you can get a ~1.95% reward rate. The 1% is in form of cashback as a feature of the Global Value Program.
Negatives of HDFC Diners Black
Smartbuy program has a lower multiplier than Infinia
The accelerated reward points on the Smartbuy portal for HDFC Diners Black are lower than that one gets on HDFC Infinia. Further, Infinia has higher monthly caps.
Redemption limitation and continuous devaluations
Ever since the HDFC Bank has come out card issuance ban, there have been continuous devaluations for Diners and Infinia. The most recent one puts a cap on monthly redemptions starting Jan-2023. Now only 75k points can be redeemed for flights and hotel bookings in a calendar month. This combined with the requirement to pay 30% amount in cash, caps monthly booking at 1.07lk. Moreover, they also started charging convenience fees for flight tickets.
Further, rent and government payments will no longer accrue reward points. In addition, for rent payments 1% fee will be applicable from the second transaction onwards.
That’s not all. There is a capping on grocery transactions too. Reward points are capped at 2000 per month. i.e. ~67000 spends per month.
Acceptance remains an issue
While Dinersclub’s acceptance has improved dramatically over the last few years, it remains a sore point. Especially when you travel outside of the 4 metros.
Compare with Axis Magnus and HDFC Infinia
Nowadays every card needs to be compared to Axis Magnus So here is the dynamic excel calculator that compares HDFC Diners Black with Axis Magnus and HDFC Infinia.
As with HDFC Infinia, HDFC Diners Black scores over Axis Magnus at nearly every spend level if one looks at the monetary value of reward points. However, for airmiles conversion Axis Magnus beats Diners Black by a mile.
Moreover, in monetary value terms, there are scenarios where HDFC Diners Black even beats HDFC Infinia
However, given that Infinia has higher accelerated RPs and higher monthly caps on Smartbuy; when used smartly Infinia’s reward rate will be higher than Diners Black. Further, for airmiles conversion, Infinia scores over Diners Black
Conclusion
HDFC Diners Black is very good that offers a 3.3% reward rate, accelerated reward points on SmartBuy, unlimited lounge access, and ~2% reward rate on forex spends. If you are someone who doesn’t want to get into airmiles and hotel loyalty then you should seriously consider HDFC Diners Black.
I have Diners Black credit card and despite the fact that I also have a Axis Magnus card, I am not closing my Diners yet.
