HDFC Diners Club Black Credit Card: The Complete Review [2021]

HDFC Diners Black is a super premium credit card and one of the most sought in India. It offers the best rewards on your spends. You get minimum 3.3% returns on your spends, which can be accelerated to 33% on select partners with their 10X program. There’s no other card (except HDFC Infinia, same return rate but comes with higher capping) in the world that offers similar returns.

Eligibility

As per their official website:

• For salaried employees, net monthly income to be more than Rs. 1.75 lakhs

• For self-employed, ITR to be more than Rs. 21 lakhs

I got upgraded from Regalia First

I was holding Regalia First credit card. One fine morning I logged in to my net-banking account and noticed that HDFC has given me option to upgrade to Diners Club Black. At first, I couldn’t believe that!

If there was one card that I always dreamt of having, this is the one. I had a plan to apply for the card but may be after a year or so. But it was surprised to see that HDFC has already given me the option for free upgrade to a super premium card like this. So, finally I own it.

If you’re an existing customer with more than 5L credit limit, talk to HDFC for an upgrade to Diners Club Black.

Pro-Tips

Fees

• Joining fee: Rs. 10,000 + GST (waived-off if you have good relationship with HDFC)

• Renewal fee: Rs. 10,000 + GST (waived-off on spending 5L in previous year)

However I got it for free

Yes! I had converted my Regalia First to a Life Time Free card so it had NIL annual fee. As I got free upgrade option, so when I applied for that the annual fee remained same (NIL). Cherry on the cake!

Features & Benefits

Let’s talk about some amazing benefits that come with the card.

Complimentary Annual Memberships

Welcome Benefits

Complimentary annual memberships from the above partners can be availed upon spending Rs. 1.5 lakhs within the first 90 days or upon joining fees realization.

I’ve received it for meeting the spend criteria. For me, it’s a blessing from a card with zero annual fee.

Annual Benefits

Complimentary annual memberships can be availed upon achieving annual spend milestone of Rs 8 Lakhs at the time of Card Anniversary.

Monthly Milestone Benefits

Card holders can select any 2 benefits amongst Ola Select or cure.fit Live 1 month membership or BookMyShow or TataCLiQ vouchers worth Rs. 500 every month on spends of Rs. 80,000.

This Rs. 1,000 monthly milestone benefits converts to 1.25% additional return on Rs. 80,000 spends. This is where Diners Club wins over Infinia.

Rewards & Redemption

Base Rewards

5 Reward Points for every Rs. 150/- retail spends (except wallet recharge and fuel).

This gives flat 3.3% returns on all of my spends as I can redeem:

• 1 Rewards Point = Re. 1 for booking flights and hotels.

There are other options to redeem the points:

• 1 Reward Point = 1 Air mile across InterMiles, Singapore Airlines (KrisFlyer Miles), Club Vistara.

• 1 reward point ~ Rs. 0.40 in HDFC redemption catalogue.

• 1 reward point ~ Rs. 0.30 when redeemed for cash.

Bonus Rewards

This is the best part of the game. As discussed above, you get 3.3% base Reward Points on all of your spends. And there are many ways how you can accelerate that by earning bonus Rewards Points.

SmartBuy

The “magic” happens here.

10x Offer

This platform gives you access to partners (Amazon, Flipkart, Instant Vouchers, Train Tickets, Hotels & Flights) where you can get 10x Rewards Points. That means, you can earn 9 times additional bonus Rewards Points along with your base Rewards Points. This makes 33% saving on your spend.

The 10x offers are temporary but HDFC is extending it every month. Recently, several new 10x partners are added which indicates that HDFC might continue providing such offers.

There are 5x and 3x partners as well were you get those offers 365 days.

That’s not the end, HDFC runs some crazy deals

Just calculate how much extra you can save with such deals!

Max Limit on Bonus Rewards

There is no limit on the base Rewards Points that you earn. But there are caps on the bonus Rewards that you can earn in a calendar month:

• 7,500 bonus Reward Points on SmartBuy.

• 25,000 bonus Rewards Points on partner brands.

This is where HDFC Infinia wins as it has 15,000 bonus Rewards limit on SmartBuy. But still it’s an awesome opportunity for me to grab 7,500 x 12 = 90,000 bonus Rewards Points in a year.

With that, I can buy Amazon vouchers like this:

Weekend Dining

2X rewards on weekend dining which gives 6.6% Rewards rate. There is also a cap of 1,000 Rewards Points per day on weekend dining.

Rewards Lifecycle

The bad part is these bonus Rewards Points might take 3 months after the end of your transaction month to reflect in your account. And these are valid for 3 years from the date of accumulation.

Unlimited Free Airport Lounge Access

You get unlimited access in leading 1,000+ airport lounges in India and worldwide. Sit back and enjoy free services like comfortable seating, food and soft beverages, Hi-speed Wi-Fi, televisions, newspapers & magazines, charging stations and more.

Generally, lounge access is offered to primary card holder. But one of the biggest advantage is this card extends the access to both primary as well as add-on card holders. I fly with my family a few times a year. So, we pretty enjoy these free services while travelling.

Golf Program

This card gives 6 complimentary golf games at over 15 golf courses in India and over 100 golf courses world over per quarter. You get 100% Green fee waiver.

Concierge

Exclusive 24/7 Concierge Services for following requests:

• Golf Course Referral and Reservation Assistance.

• Dining Referral and Reservation Assistance.

• Flower and Gift Delivery Assistance.

• Car Rental and Limousine Referral and Assistance.

• Hotel Referral and Reservation Assistance.

• Business Services.

• Courier Service Assistance.

Wellness Benefits

Enjoy exclusive discounts at select partners:

• Spa/ Salon: Tattva Spa, Enrich Salons & Academy, VLCC, O2 Spa, Four Fountains De- Stress Spa.

• Spa Resort: RedEarth Kabini, Tree of Life, Shreyas Retreat Bangalore, Neemrana Fort Palace Rajastan, Tijara Fort Palace Rajastan, NaturOville Vedic Retreat Rishikesh.

• Fitness: Anytime Fitness, Kris Gethin.

• Nutrition: Healthie.

Travel Protection

• Air accidental death coverage: Rs. 2 Crore.

• Emergency overseas hospitalisation: Rs. 50 Lacs.

• Credit Liability Cover of up to Rs. 9 Lacs.

• Travel Insurance Cover of up to INR 55,000 on baggage delay (Capped to 10$ per hour restricted to 8 hours).

Premium Customer Support

They have dedicated customer support where you can reach faster and speak with a real human being (unlike spending long time in IVR). Team is knowledgeable and ready to help you whenever you need.

Other Benefits

• Low Foreign Currency Markup fee of 1.99%.

• Attractive discount at partner restaurants using Good Food Trail dining program.

Drawbacks

There are few downsides of this card.

• Diners Club has acceptance issues in India. It’s network is expanding day by day but it’s still not like Visa/Mastercard.

• Rewards Points expires after 3 yrs. (not like Citibank where Rewards Points never expire).

Bottom Line

Despite it’s acceptance issue, this card is dream of every Indian card lovers. It’s all because of it’s unmatched 10x Rewards rate which gives you 33% returns on your spends. There is no other credit card which can give Rewards rate anywhere near to this.

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Do you hold HDFC Diners Club Black? Please share your thoughts in the comments below.