Diners Club Black Metal Edition

Joining ₹10,000 · Annual ₹10,000 · Spend ₹8,00,000 in 12 months to get the next renewal fee waived. No published spend-or-relationship retention test of the kind HDFC imposed on Infinia from Apr 2026.

Fee break-even: ≈₹3,00,300/yr through this card at its base rate. Below that, the fee eats the rewards.

Earns Reward Points · assumed 1 ₹/point. Priced at 1 RP = ₹1, the SmartBuy flights/hotels rate. Diners Club Black Metal is exempt from both the ₹99 reward-redemption fee and the ₹50 cashback-redemption fee, so ₹1/RP is net. Constraints: at most 70% of a flight/hotel booking can be paid in points. Flight and hotel redemptions are capped at 75,000 RP per calendar month (half of Infinia's 1,50,000). Fall-backs are materially worse. Roughly ₹0.50 per RP on the products/voucher catalogue and ₹0.30 per RP as statement cashback (capped 50,000 RP/calendar month), i.e. 1.67% or 1.0% effective instead of 3.33%. Airmile transfers run 1:1 with partners such as Singapore KrisFlyer, Marriott Bonvoy and Etihad Guest, but 2 RP = 1 mile for Turkish Miles&Smiles, Accor and Avianca LifeMiles. RP are valid 3 years from accrual and are nullified if the card is unused for 365 days.

Verified 10 Aug 2026

Forex markup2%

Golf6 complimentary golf games per calendar quarter (24 per year) at participating courses in India and abroad, booked through the card's golf programme and subject to course availability.

Concierge24x7 dedicated concierge on the same premium service line as Infinia (separate from HDFC's general card call centre), covering travel, dining, hotel and event bookings.

EMI₹99 to ₹699 plus GST at a merchant, up to ₹849 plus GST converting a statement balance processing fee · A converted purchase stops earning rewards · HDFC's fee follows the merchant and the scheme rather than your card, so the same tenure can cost ₹99 at one shop and ₹699 at another. It is not refunded if you cancel or pre close. Cancelling inside 7 days is free, after that pre closing costs 3% of the principal left plus GST. · SmartEMI / Dial-an-EMI conversions reverse the reward points, and EMI principal and interest do not count toward the welcome or quarterly milestones

Fuel surchargeNone. HDFC's Aug 2026 MITC lists 'Fuel Surcharge waiver Not Applicable' for the Diners Black Metal Edition.

Domestic loungeUnlimited, for primary and add-on cardholders, by swiping the card at the lounge terminal (₹2 validation debit, reversed). Part of a 1,300+ lounge network across India and worldwide. Confirmed still unconditional in HDFC's Aug 2026 MITC. Diners Black Metal was not swept into the 2026 quarterly-spend gating applied to Regalia Gold, Regalia, BizPower and Diners Privilege.

International loungeUnlimited, for primary and add-on cardholders. No Priority Pass is issued. Access is granted by presenting the Diners Club card itself at the lounge, which is why the benefit is unlimited rather than a visit count. Any visits beyond a complimentary limit, and lounge card-validation charges, are billed at prevailing rates.

Milestones

◆ Spend ₹4,00,000 per quarter → 10,000 bonus Reward Points Worth ₹10,000

Return by category

Category	Return	Notes
Online spend	3.33%	Base rate
Amazon	3.33%	Base rate
Flipkart	3.33%	Base rate
Subscriptions & OTT	3.33%	Base rate
Offline spend	3.33%	Base rate
UPI spending	0%	Diners Club cards cannot be linked to UPI. Only RuPay credit cards can. HDFC issues no RuPay variant and no RuPay companion of the Diners Club Black Metal Edition, so UPI spending on this card is impossible, not merely unrewarded.
Dining	6.67%	1,000 RP per day (≈₹15,000 of qualifying restaurant spend per day) · 2X = 10 RP per ₹150, but only on Saturday and Sunday, only at standalone restaurants (MCC 5812/5813/5814), minimum ₹150 per transaction. Hotel restaurants, food delivery, wallet-funded payments and EMI transactions do not qualify. The first 5 RP post on the settlement date, the additional 5 RP within about 2 days. Weekday dining earns the 3.33% base.
Swiggy	6.67%	Uses its dining rate
Zomato	6.67%	Uses its dining rate
Groceries	3.33%	2,000 RP per calendar month (≈₹60,000 of grocery spend). Nil beyond that · Base rate, hard-capped. Quick-commerce coded as grocery inherits this cap.
Quick commerce	3.33%	Uses its groceries rate
Swiggy Instamart	3.33%	Base rate
Blinkit	3.33%	Base rate
BigBasket	3.33%	Uses its groceries rate
Movies & shows	3.33%	Base rate
BookMyShow	3.33%	Base rate
PVR INOX	3.33%	Base rate
Fuel	0%	No reward points on fuel, and unlike the non-metal Diners Club Black this Metal Edition has no fuel surcharge waiver either. 1% fee also applies on fuel transactions above ₹15,000
Travel (general)	3.33%	Base rate
Flights	16.67%	Shares the same 10,000 accelerated-RP per calendar month SmartBuy cap. About ₹75,000 of flight spend per month at 5X · 5X (25 RP per ₹150) only via the HDFC SmartBuy portal. Airline sites and other OTAs earn the base rate. Flights and hotels draw on one shared monthly cap.
Hotels	33.33%	Shares the 10,000 accelerated-RP per calendar month SmartBuy cap. About ₹33,000 of hotel spend per month at 10X. Beyond that the base 3.33% applies · 10X (50 RP per ₹150) only when booked through the HDFC SmartBuy portal. Direct hotel bookings and other OTAs earn the base rate. The monthly accelerated cap here is 10,000 RP vs Infinia's 15,000.
MakeMyTrip	3.33%	Base rate
IRCTC rail	3.33%	Base rate
International	1.33%	3.33% reward − 2% forex markup
Utilities & bills	3.33%	2,000 RP per calendar month (≈₹60,000). Telecom carries its own separate 2,000 RP per calendar month cap · Base rate, capped. HDFC additionally charges 1% (capped ₹4,999/month) once utility spend passes ₹50,000 in a calendar month.
Rent	0%	No reward points on rent or property-management spends. Plus 1% fee on every rent transaction
Education fees	3.33%	Base rate
Insurance premiums	3.33%	5,000 RP per calendar month (≈₹1,50,000 of premium). Nil beyond that · Half of Infinia's 10,000 RP monthly insurance cap. Changed from 5,000 RP per DAY to 5,000 RP per MONTH on 1 Jul 2025. A very large cut. Insurance premiums are exempt from HDFC's 1% category fees.
Government & tax	0%	No reward points on government/tax payments
Wallet loads	0%	E-wallet loading earns no points and does not count toward welcome or quarterly milestone spends. 1% fee on wallet loads above ₹10,000/calendar month (PayZapp exempt)
Anything else	3.33%	Base rate
Jewellery	3.33%	Base rate

Rates are the card's own published rates, before any spend profile. Add this card inMy cards to rank it against the rest of your wallet.

Also worth knowing

ACCEPTANCE IS THE REAL CONSTRAINT: Diners Club runs on the Discover Global Network and in India is effectively limited to HDFC-acquired POS terminals. Premium hotels, airlines, large restaurants, upmarket retail and the big e-commerce sites (Amazon, Flipkart) take it, but small offline merchants, many local stores and plenty of smaller Indian e-commerce checkouts do not. Acceptance is also thinner than Visa/Mastercard outside India. Practically, this card needs a Visa/Mastercard or RuPay backup for everyday spending. Which is what caps how much of its 3.33% you can actually earn.
Realistic eligibility: invite-only / relationship-driven in practice. The criteria most consistently reported are around ₹1.75 lakh net monthly income for salaried applicants (age 21-60) or ₹21-30 lakh annual ITR for self-employed (age 21-65). HDFC does not treat it as an open-application product and frequently routes it as an upgrade from Diners Club Privilege or Regalia Gold.
Welcome benefit (official T&C dated 1 Jun 2026): complimentary ANNUAL memberships of Club Marriott, Amazon Prime and Swiggy One on net retail spend of ₹1,50,000 within 90 days of card issuance (or of the last upgrade/downgrade). Unlocked within 48 hours of hitting the target and downloadable from the SmartBuy Diners milestone page for up to 90 days after the welcome period ends. Times Prime and MakeMyTrip BLACK, which the older non-metal Diners Club Black bundled, are NOT part of the Metal Edition. The bundle is three memberships, not five. Swiggy One here is the annual membership, not the 3-month version some listings still quote.
Quarterly milestone detail: the 10,000 RP for ₹4,00,000 of spend is per calendar quarter (Jan-Mar, Apr-Jun, Jul-Sep, Oct-Dec), posted within 7 working days of hitting the threshold, and clawed back if the underlying transactions are refunded or reversed. EMI principal/interest and wallet loads do not count toward it. Worth ₹10,000 at the SmartBuy travel rate, i.e. An extra 2.5% on that ₹4 lakh. And ₹16 lakh of annual spend to collect all four also comfortably clears the ₹8 lakh fee waiver.
Insurance: air accident death cover up to ₹2 crore (Infinia's is ₹3 crore), emergency overseas hospitalisation up to ₹50 lakh, credit liability cover ₹9 lakh.
SmartBuy brand vouchers (GyFTR / Woohoo) earn 5X = 25 RP per ₹150, but from 1 Jul 2026 the accelerated portion is capped at 3,000 RP per calendar month. Down from 10,000. Roughly ₹22,500 of voucher buying per month at 16.67% before dropping to base. The 3,000 sits inside the unchanged 10,000 overall monthly accelerated cap.
Dining programme: Good Food Trail / Swiggy Dineout discounts at partner restaurants (HDFC's own page quotes up to 25% off. The bundled Swiggy One membership separately advertises up to 40% off on Dineout plus two ₹150 coupons a month on bills above ₹1,500). Treat the headline percentages as merchant-dependent, not guaranteed.
Redemption ceilings to plan around: flights and hotels 75,000 RP per calendar month. Statement cashback 50,000 RP per calendar month at ₹0.30/RP. Maximum 70% of a travel booking payable in points. Unlike mid-tier HDFC cards, this card is exempt from the 70% ceiling on products and vouchers, so catalogue redemptions can be paid entirely in points.
HDFC bank-wide 1% transaction fees (, thresholds measured per CALENDAR MONTH, each capped at ₹4,999): rent, 1% on every rent transaction. Wallet loads excluding PayZapp. Above ₹10,000/month. Fuel. On any fuel transaction above ₹15,000 (the ₹30,000 threshold is for BUSINESS cards, not premium consumer cards). Utilities. On total utility spend above ₹50,000/month. Education. Only via third-party apps such as CRED, Cheq, MobiKwik or NoBroker, with direct school/college payments and international education exempt. Online skill-based gaming. Above ₹10,000/month. Insurance premiums are exempt from this fee set.
Dynamic/static currency conversion markup rose to 1.75% from 15 May 2026 on INR-billed transactions at international locations or with India-located but overseas-registered merchants. Separate from and additional to the 2% foreign-currency markup. Optional Global Value Program (₹199 + GST/year) returns 1% on international spends.
No reward-redemption fee and no cashback-redemption fee. The ₹99 per redemption request and ₹50 per cashback redemption both exclude Diners Black Metal Edition. Minimum ₹500 of points value per cashback redemption.
Other charges: 1% + GST railway ticket purchase fee. Over-limit 2.5%, minimum ₹550. Payment return 2%, minimum ₹450 (the ₹4,999 cap on this applies only to Infinia). Metal card re-issue on loss/theft/damage ₹3,500. Add-on cards lifetime free. Interest-free period up to 50 days.
Reward point housekeeping: RP valid 3 years from accrual. All accrued RP nullified if the card is unused for 365 days. After closure RP survive 30 days and can be used only for products/vouchers, never cashback.

Other exclusions

SmartEMI / Dial-an-EMI conversions reverse the reward points, and EMI principal and interest do not count toward the welcome or quarterly milestones
Online skill-based gaming earns no points, and attracts a 1% fee above ₹10,000/calendar month
Cash advances earn no reward points and cost 2.5% or ₹500, whichever is higher (Infinia is exempt from this fee, this card is not)

Sources

Every figure above comes from the issuer's own pages and documents. Last verified 10 Aug 2026.