Moving beyond essentials, lifestyle-related expenses use up a considerable amount from our budget. Targeting the need to get good value-back on such spends, several credit card providers offer cards which allow the user to maximise their savings on spending categories like online shopping, dining, entertainment, food delivery, travel, and many more. BoB Tiara and HDFC Diners Club Privilege are two such examples which not only come with a higher reward rate on such spends, but also offer complimentary memberships and discounts for some of the leading brands and platforms.
Given below is a comparison of the fees, features and benefits of these credit cards to help you know which one of these would be the right choice for you to save well based on your lifestyle needs.
Joining and Renewal Charges
BoB Tiara comes at a joining and annual fee of Rs. 2,499 while its HDFC counterpart charges a fee of Rs. 1,000 every year. Both cards come with certain fee waiver conditions which are as follows –
| Waiver/Reversal | BoB Tiara (Fee: Rs. 2,499) | HDFC DC Privilege (Fee: Rs. 1,000) |
| Joining Fee | On spending Rs. 25,000 within 60 days of card issuance | – |
| Annual Fee | On spending Rs. 2.5 lakh in a year | On spending Rs. 3 lakh in a year |
Rewards Program
Both BoB Credit Card and HDFC Credit Card offer higher value-back on select lifestyle-related categories. The detailed reward benefits are discussed below –
Accelerated Reward Rate
| BoB Tiara | HDFC Diners Club Privilege |
| 5X: 15 RPs per Rs. 100 spent on dining, travel and international spends (capped at 5,000 RPs per month, beyond which base rate is applicable) | Up to 10X: Up to 40 RPs per Rs. 150 spent on flight and hotel bookings on SmartBuy 5X: 20 RPs per Rs. 150 spent on Swiggy and Zomato (4X out of 5X RPs are capped at 2,500 RPs per month, while remaining 1X RPs is uncapped) |
Base Reward Rate
BoB Tiara: 3 RPs per Rs. 100 spent on other categories, including UPI (RPs on UPI are capped at 2,000 RPs per month)
HDFC Diners Club Privilege: 4 RPs per Rs. 150 spent on other retail purchases
Reward Redemption
BoB Tiara: 1 Reward Point = Rs. 0.25 for cashback
HDFC Diners Club Privilege:
- 1 RP = Up to Rs. 0.50 on SmartBuy for flights/hotel bookings and Privilege Dining Catalogue
- 1 RP = Up to Rs 0.35 for reward redemption catalogue
- 1 RP = Rs. 0.20 as cashback
Though both cards offer unlimited base rewards, the disparity in their reward rate is quite noticeable due to the difference in the reward redemption values of these cards. Tiara focuses on dining, travel and international spends with accelerated value-back of 3.75%, while DC Privilege offers an accelerated value-back of 6.66% on Swiggy and Zomato. Diners Club Privilege further extends its higher rewards rate to SmartBuy travel spends with up to 13.33% savings. Similar differences can be seen in the base reward rate where the former offers 0.75% back and the latter 1.33%. However, this advantage of higher value-back can only be maintained if the cardholders redeems the rewards against travel bookings and dining payments on SmartBuy. When it comes to redemption as cashback, this field becomes a bit more levelled.
Complimentary Memberships
Both the cards offer memberships to popular platforms related to diverse lifestyle categories like dining, entertainment, online shopping and fitness.
BoB Tiara Credit Card:
- Annual memberships of Amazon Prime/Jio Hotstar & Gaana Plus
- 6 months Fitpass Pro membership worth Rs. 15,000
- 3 months Swiggy One membership, once per year
HDFC Diners Club Privilege Credit Card: Annual memberships to Swiggy One and Times Prime on spending Rs. 75,000 within 90 days of card issuance
BoB Tiara takes a lead when it comes to complimentary memberships by covering OTT entertainment, music, fitness and dining categories across popular platforms. Meanwhile, HDFC Diners Club Privilege only offers such memberships in the form of spend-based joining benefits.
Discount Benefits
Both credit cards live up to their lifestyle-focused image and offer discounts on popular platforms.
Bank of Baroda Tiara Credit Card:
- Complimentary women’s health package, including Pap Smear, blood tests, mammography, etc.
- In every quarter:
- Rs. 500 off each on Nykaa, Flipkart and Myntra
- Rs. 250 off each on BookMyShow and BigBasket
- Rs. 1,500 off at Lakme Salon
HDFC Diners Club Privilege Credit Card:
- Buy 1 get 1 free weekend ticket of up to Rs. 250 on BookMyShow, twice per month
- Up to 20% off on dining at partner restaurants through Swiggy Dineout
Here, BoB Tiara comes with benefits centered towards a wider array of categories, including women’s health, online shopping, beauty and wellness, groceries and entertainment. On the other hand, HDFC Diners Club Privilege mostly focuses on dining and entertainment categories.
Other Features and Benefits
- Forex Mark-up Fee: BoB Tiara offers a lower forex mark-up of 2% on international transactions, as compared to the 3.5% offered by HDFC Diners Club Privilege.
- Complimentary Airport Lounge Access: If you are a frequent domestic traveller then BoB Tiara offers ample comfort with unlimited domestic lounge visits, if you spend at least Rs. 40,000 in a quarter. On the other hand, HDFC DC Privilege offers both domestic and international lounge visits, but the number is limited to just 2 visits per quarter, subject to Rs. 15,000 spends in the previous quarter.
- Milestone Bonus: Only HDFC credit card variant offers milestone benefits in the form of gift voucher worth Rs. 1,500 of Marriott Experience/ Decathlon/ Barbeque Nation/ O2 spa/ Lakme Salon on Rs. 1.5 lakh quarterly spends.
How to Choose Between BoB Tiara and HDFC Diners Club Privilege?
While both credit cards focus on rewarding varied lifestyle spends, both have slightly different approaches.
Opt for BoB Tiara Credit Card If:
- You want a card with lower forex mark-up and accelerated rewards on international purchases
- You frequently spend on dining and travel and wish to get a higher value-back on them
- You want a RuPay credit card with rewards on UPI transactions
- You can avail unlimited domestic lounge access by meeting the spending condition
- You want a card with benefits related to fitness and women’s health
- You wish to save on entertainment spends through complimentary OTT memberships and movie discounts
Opt for HDFC Diners Club Privilege Credit Card If:
- You want a card with complimentary international airport lounge access
- Food delivery spends make up a major portion of your monthly spends
- You want a card with higher reward rate and reward redemption value
- You can maximise your rewards value-back by redeeming the accrued points against travel and dining spends on SmartBuy
- You are a high spender who can satisfy the spending condition for fee waiver and milestone benefit
