HDFC adds capping to 2X Reward Points for Dining on Infinia & Diners Cards

By | June 16, 2020
HDFC 2x rewards on dining

As you might know, HDFC Infinia has one cool benefit for those who love dining, which is 2X reward points benefit on Dining spends at stand alone restaurants. I used this benefit quite often when I initially got the card, as getting 6.6% return on Dining spends is quite attractive.

But then I hardly used them after those first few months of honeymoon with Infinia 😀

Now I still use the benefit when I travel but not as much as before, thanks to mouth watering offers by Zomato & Swiggy that replaced my weekly visits to stand-alone restaurants.

New Daily Cap

So this benefit on various cards which used to give you unlimited rewards is now getting capped at per day level w.e.f. 1st July 2020. Here are the capping on 1X bonus rewards for various cards:

This means you can still spend ~Rs.30,000 a day and get the rewards as usual.

Remember, only Infinia has this 2X dining benefit everyday of the week, while Diners black & privilege has them only on weekends.

  • Source: Updated T&C is here for Infinia reward points program & for others in respective pages, verified.

Does the capping matter?

It depends.

For most of the regular cardholders the new change doesn’t make any difference as the daily dining spends hardly cross Rs.5K-10K range.

But you never know the life of super premium card holders. I still remember speaking to some UHNI few months back and I was suggesting him about this 2x dining benefit and other advantages of Infinia.

I was like “You may not save much through dining benefit, but still it will add up to overall points”.

And he was like “No no.. I spent 7 Lakhs on dining last month in Singapore as I threw party for my colleagues”.

I haven’t even imagined such real-life use cases to the tune of few lakhs on dining. So for those, this might be a bad news.

Final Thoughts

Nothing to panic as of now, HDFC Infinia remains one of the greatest card of all times, including the testing times of Covid-19 pandemic.

And its not only 2X dining benefit that got capped, even moneyback card too has some new cap which goes like: FROM 15 JUL’20, MAX EARNING UNDER MONEYBACK’S 2X RP FEATURE FOR ONLINE SPENDS WILL BE 500 REWARD POINTS PER STMT CYCLE

So it seems HDFC has touched the accelerated rewards benefit across all cards.

Did this affect your dining usage on Infinia or other cards? Feel free to let us know in the comments below.

Author: Siddharth

Helping Indians to choose right credit cards, pick right offers and enjoy luxury vacations for less. Day & night exploring the spiritual reality of our human existence.

25 thoughts on “HDFC adds capping to 2X Reward Points for Dining on Infinia & Diners Cards

      1. Vikas

        Brother, jo ek dinning mein 8 lac spend kar raha hai, he doesn’t bother about points or cards.
        For him it’s just like alternative to cash.
        Any bank or any card.
        He can use card of nagrik sahkari mandli vo operative bank also till he doesn’t face any issue.
        Let me middle class 😂

        Reply
  1. aka

    I was wondering if payment through Dineout app or Zomato app also earns 2x points….i am not able to figure this out !

    Reply
      1. Om

        Received 2x points for Zomato order.

        5 bonus Reward Points credited to your HDFC Bank Credit Card ending xxxx on 01/MAY/2021 for 100% Reward Points on Dining.

        Probably they have added zomato due to lockdown

        Reply
  2. Shiv Kumar Singh

    Yeah it does matter in terms of International dining, the bill with 2 or more colleagues, the bill easily clocks between 80-1 Lakh as the trend I have experienced in the European Restaurants across Italy and Switzerland.

    Reply
  3. Manish Fageria

    Hi Sid,
    HDFC has closed it’s entry level premium card “Regalia First” now they are offering Mellennia Card. To promote Millennia HDFC just closed it’s Regalia First.

    Reply
    1. Siddharth Post author

      I doubt. But yes Millennia might be pushed aggressively.

      Reply
      1. Manish

        No its confirmed. I applied this card and in the verification Call HDFC told me that Regalia First has been discounted and according to their latest pdf Regalia First is not in there list. I can share the PDF.

        Reply
          1. Manish

            Hi Santosh,
            here is the link: drive.google.com/file/d/1sRP1NUHGImG7HjDrmcPrCNKd5ez8UN2P/view

            I again received the call from verification team then they told me that Regalia First has been discontinued.

  4. Barath

    Hi Sid
    Thanks for your analysis on cards. I need a sugegstion .. I have DCB with 15l limit. I need to renew it . As i could see they devalued cash coversion and increased annual fee. Should i go for cancellation of card? Will it affect CIBIL? Whats you suggestion?

    Reply
    1. Amann

      Seems you have not hit annual spends of 5 lacs… if you have then you will not be charged for annual fees. You can check this in Netbanking- redeem points- spend promo details.

      If not achieved 5 lacs, then see your spends pattern and assess if you can make returns on the card. These returns need to exceed the fees. That too after deducting the rewards rate on your next best card.

      PS. If you can afford it, DCB is great card with many great features. But if its not right for you, ask for a downgrade to free regalia for the time being by telling customer care that diners has acceptence issues at POS. Limits like 15 lacs are not being given in covid times.

      Reply
    2. Ankur

      If hdfc is your oldest card provider don’t close. Also your limit is good if possible move to free/ low fee hdfc card so you have credit line with hdfc and your cibil is not affects.

      Reply
  5. Vishnu Sreenath

    I hold a Diners club Miles card. I can see an upgrade available for my card to “DINERS MILLENNIA CARD INTL”.
    I couldn’t find any such card in the HDFC website. What is this card… Anyone have any idea?

    Reply
  6. Apoorva Tiwari

    In all honesty, who’s even dining outside after Covid?
    Only ordering in couple of times a week now.
    I got my Infinia just as the pandemic struck 🤦‍♂️
    I’m sometimes wondering if I should have just gotten the Ola card instead!

    Reply
    1. MT

      Restaurants will open sooner or later, you can still go out and pick up your food from the restaurant and swipe your card , you still get 2x for that if restaurant is eligible for 2x

      Reply
      1. Apoorva Tiwari

        Hmmm… It’s still some time away. I’ll honestly not step out just for 2X reward. They need to extend these to some of the online dining platforms like Swiggy etc. I end up using my HSBC card for a 20% off (once a week) on Swiggy.

        Reply
  7. Arnab

    You can write a post on points redemption as cash for regalia and infinia card.

    This comes a new feature, and the redemption rate is better than gift card.

    Reply
    1. MT

      bro , gift cards are available at 50% of reward rate on smartbuy and 15% of reward rate if accessed via net banking , cash redemption is 30% of reward rate via net banking

      Reply
  8. Ankit

    How do I upgrade my Diners Black to Infinia? Is there any email ID or phone number I should reach out to?

    Also,
    1) I can redeem DCB points for Amazon gift vouchers or Croma gift vouchers @ half rate (1 DCB point = 50p of voucher) on rewards catalog. In quarantine this makes sense as we dont know when we will take flights next. Does similar portal at same half rate with Amazon or Croma options exist for Infinia?

    2) What is the annual fee waiver limit for Infinia? I know DCB is 5L

    3) DCB offers annual benefits on annual spend >8L and monthly benefits on monthly spend >80k. Is the same applicable for Infinia?

    Reply

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