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.

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.

Today, HDFC Bank has confirmed that SmartBuy will continue through April 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 much-complained Luxehues, and CaratLane goes too. Here are the partners, who are all the old partners:

• Uber
• Redbus
• BookMyShow
• BigBasket
• Swiggy
• LifeStyle
• Dominos
• TataCliq

This list would be valid through April 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 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

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.

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?