We have written extensively about the HDFC Bank Diners Club 10x program. 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 late last year, but still, I look at it as a 33% cashback card.
HDFC Bank 10X Rewards
The list of 10X partners frequently gets updated, but no major shakeups, until now that is. 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 April, May, June & 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. In the last reveal, they knocked off the travel category.
Now, they’ve changed the game all over again. There was a new list of partners revealed yesterday, and the notable exception was Amazon for the shopping category. Here are the partners, who are all the old partners with the exception of Lifestyle:
This list would be valid through March 2018. Also, no more bonus points for EMI transactions.
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 of INR 22.5 [15% cashback]. As of August 15, this value dropped to INR 9 [6% cashback]
- Premium: 4 points/INR 150 + 36 points/INR 150 bonus [Total 40 points/INR 150]. Monetary Value of INR 30 [20% cashback]. As of August 15, this value dropped to 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]
- There is, however, a new lower cap installed on the number of points you can earn per statement cycle this year.
- Rewardz: 2,000 points (was 2,500 points until April 2017)
- Premium: 5,000 points (was 10,000 points until April 2017)
- Black: 25,000 points (was 50,000 points until April 2017)
I’d just step in here to say that the program is indeed delivering results for the Bank, which is where they are now on the path to cutting benefits. I’d like to believe this will go on forever, but it won’t.The bank has already cut away the 2x benefits, and also the value of points. Maybe another six months or so…so make the most out of it while it lasts or does not become a pittance of its earlier self!
Of course, you can use SmartBuy for another 25000 HDFC Bank points and 10000 on international spends per month as well.
And before anyone asks, these are not applicable for the HDFC Bank JetPrivilege co-branded Diners card.
What do you think of these changes to the HDFC Bank Diners Club 10X program?
lifestyle also dropped. Zomato added as of July 1 2018.
They have made some silent changes in the last 2-3 days –
a) They have added Tatacliq as a partner.
b) They have clarified the TnC for Caratlane – it includes online & offline and excludes gold coins and gift cards.
I had written to HDFC and they confirmed Amazon is a 10x points through smart buy. They have sent a written letter to me confimring the same as they were not replying to my email for 10 days and then priroity desk helped me. The content of the letter is
” We wish to inform you that 10x reward points are applicable if you visit Amazon through compare and shop inside smart buy. We request you to ensure that , you select the product on smart buy and complete your purchase online with online payment to be eligible for 10x reward points”
I understand that under new 10x reward programme applicable from 1st Nov 2017, we get 10x reward points through smartbuy on flipkart, yatra and cleartrip.
However, today when i tried to shopping on smartbuy it was giving an option to purchase through amazon along with 10X reward points on entering registered mobile phone and credit card number.
please confirm if 10x offer on smartbuy is applicable on Amazon shopping or not. I have attached screenshot. (please refer same shopping item category 12778 in website link of the screenshot which confirms that it is the item on Amazon with 10x point options).
From smartbuy offer details:
”
Offer is valid on Transactions completed on Smartbuy under categories Flights, Hotels, Bus, Recharge, Shopping via Flipkart and Bill payments. It is not valid on offers given by individual merchants under offers section.
”
Unless they update it to include Amazon, I dont think you are getting 10x on smartbuy/amazon stuff.
I think you are right, they have specifically mention Flipkart here
sorry cant attach screen shot…but tried buying One Plus 5. It redirects to amazon stating that enter mobile and last 4 digits of credit card for 10x points. Link given below
https://offers.smartbuy.hdfcbank.com/shoppingdetails_subcategory/e:12376
This just about halves the value of this card for me. When it finally becomes dirt, I don’t know what to switch it to. Perhaps JP Diners again…
I am a bit unclear of the SmartBuy terms where it categorically states:
* Jet privilege cards, Corporate Cards, Commercial Cards, Dealer Cards, Distributor Cards, Value Plus Cards are excluded from the promotion.
* Diners Club Card customers cannot club the 10X benefit with any of the existing programs with the Diners
(https://offers.smartbuy.hdfcbank.com/offer_details/409)
Can one shed a light if I can use SmartBuy + Diners (Non-Jet Variant) for making purchases on Amazon or likes?
Ajay,
1. Lifestyle was an existing partner. Caratlane is the new partner that wasn’t there earlier.
2. I was going over the terms, and looks like smart buy 25k points are in addition to 10x partner points. Correct?
@JG I rewrote the list to mention old and new partners in one list. yes. smartbuy is over and above the regular 10x
And that means we can use Flipkart at least via the smart buy site. Not too bad then? Right?
@JG yes!
Nice update, regret typo earlier
Hi, mice update.
One correction though. You missed Lifestyle from the list of 10X partners.
@Rahul Shrivastav, you missed a bit of the text where Lifestyle was mentioned, however, I’ve modified the text to reflect everything in one list.