Card Comparison: SBI Prime Credit Card Vs HDFC Diners Club Privilege Credit Card

Talking about the welcome benefits, both the credit cards rewards the cardholders with exciting offers that also justifies high annual fee of Rs. 2,999 and Rs. 2,500 respectively. With SBI Prime Credit Card, you can avail welcome benefits worth Rs. 3,000 with vouchers from top brands such as Bata/Hush Puppies, Pantaloons, Shoppers Stop, Yatra.com, Aditya Birla. On the other hand, with HDFC Diners Club Privilege Credit Card, you can avail yourself welcome benefits in the form of annual subscription plans of Amazon Prime (worth Rs. 1,499), Dineout Passport (worth Rs. 999), MMT BLACK (invite only), Times Prime (Rs. 1,119). However, you will only get it if you spend Rs. 75,000 within the first 90 days or upon paying the joining fee.

Clearly, HDFC Diners Club Privilege is a winner here as it offers benefits worth Rs. 3,617 which is more than the card’s annual fee of Rs. 3,000.

Both of these credit card offers milestone benefits. Below are the required details regarding the milestone benefits offered by these cards:

Both the credit cards offer decent reward points that can be redeemed against hotel stays, flight tickets, e-vouchers, accessories, and much more. Take a look at the table below to understand which credit card lets you earn more reward points.

*Reward points on Birthday spends (one day before, on, and one day after) are capped at 2,000 reward

HDFC Diners Club Privilege Credit Card offers satisfactory reward points that can be redeemed against multiple categories such as air miles, flights, hotels, bookings, etc. However, there are a few restrictions for earning reward points with this card such as you can avail 10X rewards points only when you make transactions via SmartBuy and the amount spent is also not specified by the bank. Moreover, the categories for earning reward points are also limited to dining on weekends and retail spends.

Not only this, the card does not offer any bonus reward points just like SBI Prime Credit Card offers in the form of birthday benefit. However, the one of the good things about earning points with this card is that you can redeem 70% of the flight tickets by redeeming points.

Hence, in my opinion, you should go for SBI Card Prime, if you want to earn rewards points on day-to-day expenses and in case if you are frequent traveller and want to avail benefit on your travel expenses by redeeming the accumulated reward points, you should go for HDFC Diners Club Privilege Credit Card.

Consider Reading: Best Rewards Credit Card in India

With SBI Prime Credit Card, you can offer complimentary Trident Privilege Red Tier Membership, Club Vistara Membership and international as well as domestic lounge visits for primary cardholders, complimentary air accident liability cover of Rs.50 lakh. Whereas, with HDFC Diners Club Privilege Credit Card, you can avail benefits such as air accident insurance cover worth Rs.1 crore, emergency overseas hospitalisation of Rs.25 lakh, travel insurance cover of up to Rs. 50,000 on baggage delay, credit liability cover of up to Rs.9 lakh, and much more. Not only this, both the credit cards offer similar travel benefits in the form of complimentary lounge access:

Hence, in terms of travel benefits, SBI Prime Credit Card offers better travel benefits with its complimentary memberships which makes your travel a rewarding experience.

Suggested Read: Best Travel Credit Cards in India

Below-mentioned are a few more parameters to help you make an informed decision about which card to choose based on your spending capacity and meets your financial needs and requirements the most:

You should opt for SBI Prime Credit Card 

• You would be willing to pay an annual fee as high as Rs. 2,999+ Taxes
• You want to earn 20 reward points by spending Rs. 100 on your birthday
• You would like to avail complimentary Trident Privilege Red Tier Membership, Club Vistara Membership
• You would be able to spend Rs.5 lakh annually to enjoy an e-gift voucher worth Rs. 7,000 from Yatra.com/Pantaloons
• You are fine with the reward value of 4 rewards = Rs.1

Also Read: Best SBI Credit Cards in India

You should Opt for HDFC Diners Club Privilege if:

• You would be able to achieve a monthly spend of Rs. 40,000 like a clockwork and would like to get vouchers from BookMyShow, Ola and Tata CLIQ
• You are fine with the low air mile conversion rate (1 Reward Point = 0.5 AirMile)
• You want to avail complimentary annual memberships of Amazon Prime, Dineout Passport, MMT BLACK, Times Prime
• You want to enjoy 6 complimentary golf games per quarter across the world’s best courses
• You would be able to spend Rs.5 lakh annually to avail of the complimentary memberships

Also Read: Best HDFC Credit Cards in India

As seen from the detailed comparison above, both the credit cards offer decent features and benefits in the form of milestone benefits, reward points, exciting welcome offers, complimentary airport lounge access, access to golf games, annual fee waiver, fuel surcharge waiver, and much more. However, in my opinion HDFC Diners Club Privilege Credit Card has little edge over SBI Prime Credit Card as it offers comparatively lower annual fee, monthly milestone benefits and better annual membership advantage. Moreover, access to complimentary golf games twice per quarter will also entice Golf lovers is also a plus point which push this card towards a higher rank.

So, what do you think about these two credit cards? Which one would you like to apply for? Let us know in the comments section below.