HDFC Bank 10X Points for Travel& Shopping including Diners Club

We have written extensively about the HDFC Bank 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.

The list of 10X partners frequently gets updated, but no major shakeups, until now that is. The focus is 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 AprilMay , 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.

However, there was a go-around to still get 10X points on the travel category in spite of the fact that the bank does not have any travel partners in the current 10X program. We wrote about how HDFC Bank was offering a 10X on ALL personal credit cards when using SmartBuy through the month of August 2017. Good news, the promotion just got extended. Here is the link for the new promotion.

New T&C for SmartBuy promotion

New T&C for SmartBuy promotion

That means, you could earn 10X points for the following activities with HDFC SmartBuy here on:

  • Flight Booking
  • Hotel Booking
  • Bus Tickets
  • Mobile & DTH
  • Electricity Bills
  • Gas Pay
  • Charity
  • Shopping via Flipkart

For Debit Card holders, you get a 5% cashback, but I’ll take the points anyday!

The current 10X offer runs through December 2017, which is great news since the new travel & shopping season is right here upon us! Your cash backs and points would post within 90 days!

(HT: Balajee Venkataraman)

About Ajay

Ajay Awtaney is the Founder and Editor of Live From A Lounge (LFAL), a pioneering digital platform renowned for publishing news and views about aviation, hotels, passenger experience, loyalty programs, travel trends and frequent travel tips for the Global Indian. He is considered the Indian authority on business travel, luxury travel, frequent flyer miles, loyalty credit cards and travel for Indians around the globe. Ajay is a frequent contributor and commentator on the media as well, including ET Now, BBC, CNBC TV18, NDTV, Conde Nast Traveller and many other outlets.

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Comments

  1. We now have a good opportunity on Diners Black cards to earn 10k points on international spends per statement cycle and also take advantage of Global value program to get cash back of 1% on international spends with a cap of 1000 rupees per statement making the Diners card best in terms of foreign transactions. Here is the link
    https://www.hdfcbankdinersclub.com/privilege

  2. Hi AJ, I spoke to an agent from Smartbuy and he confirmed that, Diners cards are not eligible for the 10X promotions for the transaction done on Smartbuy portal.

    • Hi Gaurav,

      My experience is otherwise. I spoke to customer care of HDFC and he clearly mentioned that Diners cards are eligible for 10X promotion.

      Now if he gave wrong information then their bank is in soup, since, I made the purchase depending on the information provided.

      • Hi Prashant, it is weird. Ideally they should be on same page, but, possible difference in the info could be because, I spoke to a smartbuy agent. Their contact details are on the smartbuy website.

  3. Hi Ajay,

    Do we still have to book at Smartbuy as a Guest..? This used to be the system earlier..

    Also, if I need to book my tickets for my work, I am supposed to enter my Corporate GST details. Is there any way of doing the same here? This query is applicable to Flight and Hotel bookings

    • @Anuj, yes. to be on the safer side just book Smartbuy as a guest. As for GST, I don’t think they are ready with that yet. What could be tried is to go to the Yatra/Cleartrip portals later and try putting GST No. against the transactions there.

  4. Hi Ajay
    Makemytrip is also running a HDFC 5x promotion for which Diners card qualifies. But I don’t know how it is different from the SmartBuy offer as earlier for the same code the Black card used to give 10x not 5x.

    Lets see when the points post to the account.

    Thanks
    Sanket

  5. HI AJ,

    Just wanted to check, if you have received the 10x points for any transaction done here?

    I had done a few tickets and flipkart purchases, but i dont think i have received the extra points. Its already been 2 cycles.

    • @Ankit, I have to admit I’ve been lazy with the points tracking. I see points come in but haven’t tracked down on a transaction by transaction basis.

    • Hi Ankit
      Spoke recently with a reasonably knowledgeable customer care agent.
      I told him why doesnt HDDC share a monthly breakup of points for atleast its diners black customers, if not all… That keeping track of points being credited in next cycle, after 60 days and after 90 days is very onerous.
      He said they have received many such requests and are exploring the possibility of sharing a breakup…

      Cheers!
      S&S

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