We have written extensively about the HDFC Diners 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 in 2016, but still, I look at it as a 33% cashback card, with all the cashback going towards travel.

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. You can now access this category through SmartBuy which is for everyone who is an HDFC Bank Credit Card Holder.

Yesterday, HDFC Bank has confirmed that SmartBuy will continue through June 2018. This is in line with their prior line of thinking, where they just extend the promotion through April, and then work on new partnerships in April.

There is nothing new in the new list of partners just revealed, except they are one down on the Dominos, after removing the much-complained Luxehues last month. CaratLane left too. Here are the partners, including Treebo which just got added:

• Uber
• Redbus
• BookMyShow
• BigBasket
• Swiggy
• LifeStyle
• TataCliq
• Treebo Hotels

This list would be valid through June 2018. For Treebo, only online transactions will get 10X points, not pay at hotel. Also, no 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 is INR 9 [6% cashback]
• Premium: 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]
• 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
  • Premium: 5,000 points
  • Black: 25,000 points

The 10x points 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?