HDFC 10X Points (33% cashback) on Diners Cards through June 2019

We have written extensively about the HDFC 10x points. HDFC Bank Diners Club 10X Rewards were my favourite kind of reward currency primarily due to some offbeat transfer partners they provided in India. The list went away in 2016, but still, I look at it as a 33% cashback card, with all the cashback going towards travel.

HDFC 10X Points

HDFC Diners 10X Rewards

The list of 10X partners frequently gets updated. The focus has been on travel & e-commerce. They initially put out a year-long list of partners, but then recalled it, and started to extend the date of the promotion by the months. Here are the announcements for AprilMayJune & July 2016. Then, it got extended through March 2017 but applied caps on reward earning per month, and a one-month extension through April 2017. In May, they put a new list valid through July 2017. Subsequently, they added all categories of SmartBuy on the list as of July 2017. They knocked off the travel category in late 2017. You can now access this category through SmartBuy which is for everyone who is an HDFC Bank Credit Card Holder.

HDFC Bank Diners Club 10X on Smartbuy

On April 1, HDFC Bank has confirmed that SmartBuy would continue through April 2019. This is in line with their previous line of thinking, where they extended the promotion through December 2018.

That means you could earn 10X points for the following activities with HDFC SmartBuy here on:

  • Flight Booking
  • Hotel Booking
  • Shopping via Flipkart & Amazon
  • Comparison shopping via the SmartBuy website.

The maximum number of reward points you can earn per cycle is 25,000 Reward Points, and the promotion applies to EMI transactions on flights/hotels/Flipkart. These are over and above the reward points towards the usual 10X cycle every month.

HDFC Bank Diners Club 10X on Partner brands

For the 10X rewards via partner brands, there is the swap of Zomato with Swiggy that is new in the list of partners just revealed, and :

This list would be valid from April 8 to June 30, 2019. For Treebo, only online transactions will get 10X points, not pay at hotel. Uber transactions done abroad would also count for 10X Rewards. The T&C are perhaps towards the people gaming the system. Purchase of gold and Gift Vouchers on TataCLiQ is not eligible for 10X offer. Also, now, only package bookings are eligible for 10X on SOTC and flight or hotel bookings alone aren’t eligible.

Just as a recap, you earn the following points on your cards with the various variants on the merchants mentioned above:

  • Rewardz: 3 points/INR 150 + 27 points/INR 150 bonus [Total 30 points/INR 150]. Monetary Value is INR 9 [6% cashback]
  • Premium/Club Miles: 4 points/INR 150 + 36 points/INR 150 bonus [Total 40 points/INR 150]. Monetary Value is INR 20 [13% cashback]
  • Black: 5 points/INR 150 + 45 points/INR 150 bonus [Total 50 points/INR 150]. Monetary Value of INR 50 [33% cashback]
  • Here is the cap installed on the number of points you can earn per statement cycle this year for using partner brands.
    • Rewardz:  2,000 points
    • Premium/Club Miles: 5,000 points
    • Black: 25,000 points
  • Everyone can earn up to 25,000 Reward points for using the Smartbuy portal.

The 10x points are not applicable to the HDFC Bank JetPrivilege co-branded Diners card. The 10X on reload of forex card with your HDFC Credit Card has also been updated through April 2019

What do you think of these changes to the HDFC Bank Diners Club 10X program?

About Ajay

Ajay Awtaney is the Founder and Editor of Live From A Lounge (LFAL), a pioneering digital platform renowned for publishing news and views about aviation, hotels, passenger experience, loyalty programs, travel trends and frequent travel tips for the Global Indian. He is considered the Indian authority on business travel, luxury travel, frequent flyer miles, loyalty credit cards and travel for Indians around the globe. Ajay is a frequent contributor and commentator on the media as well, including ET Now, BBC, CNBC TV18, NDTV, Conde Nast Traveller and many other outlets.

More articles by Ajay »

Comments

  1. Just wanted to confirm if smartbuy 10x is over and above. What I mean is can I get 10x on partner brands + 10x on smartbuy (25000 + 5000), a total of 30000 points?

  2. Hi – I bought a Iphone XR in weekl#1 of May on Flipkart via SMART buy using my HDFC Diners Black card. The statement for May has been generated and received today by me. I want to buy another Iphone XR in the upcoming flipkart sale tomorrow – would I be eligible for 10x or would I have exhausted my 25k 10x cap ?

    • After making the payment did you directly got the reward points in your account. Or do you need to wait for some days?

      • Hey Vikram, since you are using the card I thought I’ll ask you (or @Ajay if you are reading this would love to get your view on this).

        I just got my Diners Black has a beginner’s question:

        1. Is the max points per billing cycle is 25000 combined for SmartBuy and Partner offers or they are separate offers?

        2. When I searching for an iPhone on “SmartBuy portal” in compare section I found an offer from Gadget 360 which is CONSIDERABLY lower than Flipkart and Amazon. Now keeping the service/promptness/quality of this website aside will I still get 10X rewards points if I purchase from there? I went to the Gadgets 360 page via the normal way I go to Amazon or Flipkart after entering my phone and last 4 digits of credit card.

        3. Also, how to confirm whether, after purchase (and also ensure when purchasing), that my purchase was/is actually eligible for 10X rewards points and wasn’t really a normal transaction. Because if I figure it out after my bill arrives it might be too late.

        4. In general how do I know the rewards points state of my purchases at any given point?

        • 1. Is the max points per billing cycle is 25000 combined for SmartBuy and Partner offers or they are separate offers?

          Ans: Separate, now 15K points for SB and 25K for PB.
          SB limit of 15K pts per calendar month(1-30/31st)
          PB limit of 25K pts per Card billing cycle
          PB offer is on hold from 1st july, so wait till its activated.

          2. When I searching for an iPhone on “SmartBuy portal” in compare section I found an offer from Gadget 360 which is CONSIDERABLY lower than Flipkart and Amazon. Now keeping the service/promptness/quality of this website aside will I still get 10X rewards points if I purchase from there? I went to the Gadgets 360 page via the normal way I go to Amazon or Flipkart after entering my phone and last 4 digits of credit card.

          Ans: Yes, but no personal experience. I always buy from smartbuy partners mentioned on
          https://www.hdfcbankdinersclub.com/privilege

          3. Also, how to confirm whether, after purchase (and also ensure when purchasing), that my purchase was/is actually eligible for 10X rewards points and wasn’t really a normal transaction. Because if I figure it out after my bill arrives it might be too late.

          Ans: No such confirmation possible. But sometimes(for me very rarely) you get SMS informing 10x of purchase
          Keep cart empty and go through smartbuy and purchase immediately – you will never miss that way.
          Big purchases – better buy one item per order to be sure of 10x

          4. In general how do I know the rewards points state of my purchases at any given point?

          Ans: Keep an excel sheet and reconcile but not possible to know exact status. You can take customer care help once in a while if there is a big difference of points. 1X points are added in 2-3 days after purchase. You can check them in netbanking.

  3. On Swiggy and Bookmyshow, do I get the reward points on simply doing transactions on their app/website, or is there any certain way ? And do we earn reward points only on international Uber transactions or all Uber transactions ?

    • @Shashank, you get reward points on doing transactions on Swiggy/BookmyShow/Uber, but the minimum amount has to be INR 150.

  4. Just saw 10X offer (for Diners) on select hotels on MMT. Not sure whether this is in excess of the existing limit of 25000.

    I’m sure you’ll cover it in detail. Just wanted to give you an early heads up.

  5. Hi Ajay,

    Just wanted to check this. Do we get 10x rewards points on tata cliq even if we go there from affiliate website say like coupondunia?

      • Ajay,

        Since Tata Cliq is part of Diners 10x promotion, you can simply open the website and make transaction. Its not like Smartbuy, where you need to visit the website using the special link like Flipkart & Amazon.

        So, few months back, I made the transaction on Tata Cliq using the Gopasia affiliate link. I earned both Gopaisa affiliate money and 10x Diners points.

        So for Diners 10x you can visit via affiliate links to maximize your returns.

        • Is that (how much reward points you got if at all you got anything) reflected right after transaction shows up in on HDFC website when you login or check or at the end when bill is generated?

  6. While redbus seems to have been removed, if you go on the app and check the offers section it shows that 10x offer is valid till April 30th 2019. I wonder if that’s an error if its for real. I think I’ll go on trust and use it assuming that since they’ve put it up in offers they’ll come good on it. Thoughts?
    You can see it on https://m.redbus.in/offers

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *