One of my favourite reward programs in India is the HDFC Bank 10X program they operate for their Diners Club card franchise. This was an uncapped earning potential till a while back, but now as of the latest round, I can only earn 10x points up to a maximum of 25,000 points. Each point is equal to 1 INR or 1 mile on Jet Airways, Singapore Airlines or Air India on the Black version, so while I don’t like the loss of Marriott Rewards, Hyatt Gold Passport and American Airlines amongst others, I sort of sucked it up.
Now, two major changes are coming to the rewards program as of August 15, 2017 and have been notified a month in advance.
INR Value per point going down
One of them is the reduction in the INR value of the Rewardz and the Premium program points. So far, HDFC Rewards & Premium = INR 0.75 per point.
Now, coming as of 15 August 2017, this value will change and be lower for both the variants,
- HDFC Bank Diners Club Premium = INR 0.50
- HDFC Bank Diners Club Rewardz = INR 0.30
The value of HDFC Bank Diners Club Black reward points continue to stay at INR 1 for the time being.
Here is the screenshot on the HDFC Bank Diners Club microsite:
Changes to HDFC Bank Diners Club Points
2x program being withdrawn
The country cousin to the 10x program was the 2x program, where on dining and shopping via the HDFC Bank Diners Club website you would get 2x reward points on the Diners Club cards. Why not, after all. Dining on Diners Club. Sounds about right.
This provision would also go away as of August 15, 2017.
HDFC Bank Diners Club 2x Program going away
Bottomline
For the HDFC Bank Diners Club Black card holders, not much changes at this moment, except your ability to earn double rewards on Dining and booking via the Diners Club website. But for the others, the value of their points will drop 33% or more.
So, it is in your best interest to redeem those points before August 15, 2017. You could use them on hdfcbankdinersclub.in to book flights, hotels, movies, pay your DTH or phone bills, or book some activities. If you can’t book your plans a month in advance, you won’t have a right to crib later about these changes 🙂
What are your views about the changes on the HDFC Bank Diners Club credit cards?
(H/T: Jasnoor Gill)
Point amount reduced from 0.75 to 0.30, totally disappointed because of HDFC, 0.45 loss for 1 reward point,
And earlier more option was there like Mobile Recharge, DTH recharde, Broandband Bill pay etc., but now, they removed, totally disappointed.
is it even legal?
Example : if I have 10000 points which few days back had value of 7500 and now its value has reduced to 3000. For me its merely a loss of 4500 but I think bank has earned huge profit out of it.
I don’t think they even want to maintain their customer base, if they would have they would not have taken such a move.
Also, if they want to reduce value of reward points, then the right move should be that the points accumulated after 15th August should have value of 0.30/RP but those before should still be eligible for redemption at the rate of .75/RP.
Another thing : their site still reflects .75 in a beautiful table structure but somewhere below it in a very small font its written .30 effective from 15th August.
Cant we file a case in consumer court for this? I did not receive any mail or message regarding this change.
How can they do this without informing us? I think we all should fight with the bank for such a change.
I just got to know about this today, i have 11000 points with diners rewardz card, its useless now, i have not received any notification email regardings this otherwise i could have utilized it before 15th aug, i think its time to change Credit Card, HDFC sucks, totally dissapointed….
i know about this change today. this decision by HDFC is really disappointed me . i had 6000 points, and now the point value is reduced. i won’t choose my HDFC Diners Club credit card to future payment.
Very much disappointed from HDFC Team,being a reputed bank,this kind decisions and moves would push bank to lower side.Not happy with HDFC.
Seems diners club credit card is almost becoming worthless because of devaluation of points, limiting free lounge access, free movie tickets are withdrawn, 10X point accumulation is reduced, 10X partners do not have any travel companies
The revamped website of hdfc diners club has discontinued the free movie ticket offer. The option to book movie tickets has been removed. In addition, the option to book for entertainment activities in ones city has been removed too. As of today, one can only redeem (or book) points against hotels and airlines.
@vikram, everything you mentioned were time limited perks. I’m sure some of them will come back at some point of time. or at least I hope for that.
i just came to know about this change today only. this decision by hdfc is really shocking and making me angry. i had lots of points and now this is of very little use. i am going to discontinue my credit card and never use it again.
Can any one tell me at which outlets or ecommerce can i use redeemed voucher.
I have a lot of points with HDFC Rewards, but when i checked today, redemption into AirIndia has been removed, leaving me stuck with JetPriv and KrisFlyer,
Paper redemption on Airindia FR – was rejected mentioning error.
Online redemption – AirIndia is removed ?
Anyone facing similar problem ?
Faced a similar situation when I tried redeeming regalia points for Air India yesterday.
Appalled that HDFC drops partners without notice caring two hoots even for premium customers.
Sri
Hi AJ,
The 10X reward is continued till 31st October. I feel its reason enough to continue with Dinners Black for now.
Regards,
Nitesh
They are also withdrawing the option to redeem diners points on moves/recharge/DTH. So now only air tickets and hotel bookings are left for redeeming 1 point for ₹1
Source: http://www.hdfcbankdinersclub.com/international-credit-cards
Does anyone have any clarity on this?
Purchases where 10x points are given on Diners, the bonus points are credited in the subsequent bill. Does that mean that the bonus points will be credited after 15.8.2017?
We should Redeem our points for paying post paid bill, pay 10K or 5K basically forward pay so that u dont get bill for next few months.
How can such a big reputed bank take this decision retrospectively? It is totally illegal and unethical. They never used to have terms and conditions in their website regarding changes for point conversion in future. I read earlier comments on changing the cards rather than focusing on taking actions against this fraudulent practice.Guys please drop a mail to customer services.cards@hdfcbank.com
Apart from mail we should also do something legally.
Hello Ajay, in the changed situation, how would HDFC Infinia card compare by way of rewards, miles conversion etc.? Please advice.
Don’t you guys think it’s TOTALLY UNFAIR (maybe illegal also) to reduce the value of ALREADY earned points?? It’s like claiming something else and giving something else. e.g I tell you to go and shop for INR 1000 and I promise a Cashback of INR 100, but later on I tell you that you will receive only INR 70 Cashback. It’s simply not acceptable. We should take some action.
Finally i will cancle hdfc diners rewards credit card and go with standard chartered credit card.
Currently i am using hdfc diners rewards card, now based hdfc decision i have to change my card, can you please suggest good credit card in hdfc or some others bank..
Which is the best card u recommend ? I have diner black but looks like it will be time to move out of it soon.
Does that also change the ratio for airmiles conversion?
I have both diners premium and regalia… With these changes I feel I will close both credit cards and switch to Manhattan card
I’m also using the both Regalia (not Regalia First) & Diners Black. Maybe, this is a Policy matters but (still it’s little hazy about the introduction of Regalia First) few months ahead HDFC devalued Regalia features along with Reward Point value & for this I’ve faced a huge loss as I was holding some hefty numbers.
And Now it’s the turn of Diners Club C Card. One thing they should consider before taking any action that is “ACCEPTABILITY OF DINERS CLUB CREDIT CARD” as in most cases big merchants like IOL, Air India, LIC, IRCTC and several others doesn’t accept Diners Club C Card.In my opinion, this move is most discouraging and number of members will lost interest for use such Card.
Ajay, I think the devaluation deserves a separate article in itself. Along with withdrawing 2x rewards and changing the value of points earned for DC Premium and Rewardz, most significantly the lounge access has been rendered useless for these cards. No more complimentary domestic lounge access for DC Rewardz (used to be unlimited) and only 6 complimentary domestic/international lounge access for DC Premium per calender year (used to be unlimited earlier for domestic and 5 per year for international).
This is more significant considering that these changes are not applicable for DC Black. Basically, HDFC is forcing you to upgrade (if you have the requisite income) or cancel. I’m betting you would see a lot of the latter since many in the middle-income strata have taken additional DC cards just for the lounge access benefits.
Complimentary lounge access will be withdrawn, w.e.f 15th August 2017 on Diners Rewardz, and limited on premium..
Feeling stupid that I opted for Diners card now. May be its time to switch to AmEx.
Seems a little stupid from HDFC
I am going to discontinue my diners card and won’t use credit card anymore
It makes sense, AJ. HDFC is promoting Smartbuy no point in having two captive shoping sites.
Regards
They also removed lounge access completely from reward card and reduced to 6 domestic+int access on premium card.
Reward card is completely useless now with no lounge access and 0.3 reward conversion rate.
same devaluation on regalia as well. Just got approved for a diners black. but having second thoughts now
Infact it seems they are closing the Diners Website. As mentioned here- http://hdfcbankdinersclub.com/diners-club-black
This feature will be withdrawn w.e.f 15th August 2017
Redeem reward points for booking Air Tickets / Hotels across 150+ Airlines and Choice of hotels (Domestic & International) at http://www.hdfcbankdinersclub.com ( 1 Reward Point = Re. 1 )Redeem Reward Point for AirMiles across Jet Airways (JPMiles), Air India (Air India Miles) or Singapore Airlines (KrisFlyer Miles). 1 Reward Point = 1 AirMile.
It seems we won’t be able to redeem on https://www.hdfcbankdinersclub.in/
@Ankur you do have new information, but I don’t think the redemption is being killed. It is the 2x being earned for booking via HDFCDiners website that is being killed. The sentence has been placed ambiguously but I would read it as “Book Air Tickets / Hotels across 150+ Airlines and Choice of hotels (Domestic & International) at http://www.hdfcbankdinersclub.com and get 2X Reward Point.This feature will be withdrawn w.e.f 15th August 2017″ and ” Earn 10 Reward Points for every Rs. 150/- retails spends on http://www.hdfcbankdinersclub.com.This feature will be withdrawn w.e.f 15th August 2017″ The feature would continue to exist but the 2x would go away. That is my interpretation.
And yes, Golf is being limited as well from 15 August.
HDFC does this all the time. In a basic card earlier there was 140 points = 100 miles conversion. By the time i reached 14000 points the conversion formula went 1000 points = 100 miles. Such degrading of the card is really bad to see.