Infinia Infina vs Diners Black Metal Reward

[Indrajeet100]

Everyone is chasing Infinia, I just wondered how better it is from Diners Black Metal. Here is my working. Please correct if wrong-
1. Less than Rs.8lacs annual spend, it doesn't need much calculation as Diners Metal will attract annual fees without any reward whereas Infinia effectively only GST is paid as one gets 12500 points on renewal fees.
2. 8lacs spend with Diners meeting milestone in 2 quarters and 20k per month on vouchers- Diners 62k (24k on 3x vouchers+18k on remaining spend+20k milestone vs Infinia 58k( 40k on 5x vouchers+ 18k on remaining spend)
3. If spend on 5x vouchers is 30k per month, it is equal 66666 points

So basic equation is if meeting Diners milestone in atleast 2 quarters and 5x vouchers spend is less than 30k per month, Diners gives better return than Infinia. Difference get more in favor of Diners if milestones are met in more quarters or Infinia 5x voucher spend gets lower.
So in many conditions Diners Metal can be more rewarding than Infinia.
Yes of course there is major issue of acceptability of Diners so will need to have atleast one major card alongwith Diners.
Feedback if I have got any numbers wrong here.

 

[aniketkr.sharma]

Everyone is chasing Infinia, I just wondered how better it is from Diners Black Metal. Here is my working. Please correct if wrong-
1. Less than Rs.8lacs annual spend, it doesn't need much calculation as Diners Metal will attract annual fees without any reward whereas Infinia effectively only GST is paid as one gets 12500 points on renewal fees.
2. 8lacs spend with Diners meeting milestone in 2 quarters and 20k per month on vouchers- Diners 62k (24k on 3x vouchers+18k on remaining spend+20k milestone vs Infinia 58k( 40k on 5x vouchers+ 18k on remaining spend)
3. If spend on 5x vouchers is 30k per month, it is equal 66666 points

So basic equation is if meeting Diners milestone in atleast 2 quarters and 5x vouchers spend is less than 30k per month, Diners gives better return than Infinia. Difference get more in favor of Diners if milestones are met in more quarters or Infinia 5x voucher spend gets lower.
So in many conditions Diners Metal can be more rewarding than Infinia.
Yes of course there is major issue of acceptability of Diners so will need to have atleast one major card alongwith Diners.
Feedback if I have got any numbers wrong here.

You are right but there are also shopkeepers asking for charges when they see diners/amex and don't even bother if they see visa/masters/rupay. (This is what I faced when used millennia diners).

Except in every terms i too saw diners club black is an awesome card to have in pocket.

 

[sravanbrahma]

I have dcb plastic ltf and converted to infinia recently. Only reasons, higher threshold of smart buy(for international trips) , golf lessons unlimited. Hassle free mind set to reach milestones quarterly etc. that's too much to manage..

 

[aniketkr.sharma]

I have dcb plastic ltf and converted to infinia recently. Only reasons, higher threshold of smart buy(for international trips) , golf lessons unlimited. Hassle free mind set to reach milestones quarterly etc. that's too much to manage..

Yes only if you have less than 50k-1 L /month of spending and no high spending planned

 

[sravanbrahma]

Yes only if you have less than 50k-1 L /month of spending and no high spending planned

Only high spending will be for couple of months for international trip or jewellery purchase or one month for insurances.

Others will be only 20-50k per month for me.

 

[aniketkr.sharma]

Only high spending will be for couple of months for international trip or jewellery purchase or one month for insurances.

Others will be only 20-50k per month for me.

Yeah it's for almost everyone and if you have big family then it's easy to achieve milestones.

 

[Indrajeet100]

Yes agree acceptability is big issue. But I have majority of spend online that doesn't matter. I have large school fees spend every quarter where only HDFC cards give some decent rewards and can hit quarterly spend maybe couple of times without stretching. Yes this milestones tracking thing can get painful after initial a year or so as I have seen with Amex MRCC and Travel- after a year I just feel like closing these.

 

[drsel]

Everyone is chasing Infinia, I just wondered how better it is from Diners Black Metal. Here is my working. Please correct if wrong-
1. Less than Rs.8lacs annual spend, it doesn't need much calculation as Diners Metal will attract annual fees without any reward whereas Infinia effectively only GST is paid as one gets 12500 points on renewal fees.
2. 8lacs spend with Diners meeting milestone in 2 quarters and 20k per month on vouchers- Diners 62k (24k on 3x vouchers+18k on remaining spend+20k milestone vs Infinia 58k( 40k on 5x vouchers+ 18k on remaining spend)
3. If spend on 5x vouchers is 30k per month, it is equal 66666 points

So basic equation is if meeting Diners milestone in atleast 2 quarters and 5x vouchers spend is less than 30k per month, Diners gives better return than Infinia. Difference get more in favor of Diners if milestones are met in more quarters or Infinia 5x voucher spend gets lower.
So in many conditions Diners Metal can be more rewarding than Infinia.
Yes of course there is major issue of acceptability of Diners so will need to have atleast one major card alongwith Diners.
Feedback if I have got any numbers wrong here.

All said and done, If you had the option of DCB or Infinia which one would you choose & why ?
because you cannot have two core cards

 

[theXfactor]

Everyone is chasing Infinia, I just wondered how better it is from Diners Black Metal. Here is my working. Please correct if wrong-
1. Less than Rs.8lacs annual spend, it doesn't need much calculation as Diners Metal will attract annual fees without any reward whereas Infinia effectively only GST is paid as one gets 12500 points on renewal fees.
2. 8lacs spend with Diners meeting milestone in 2 quarters and 20k per month on vouchers- Diners 62k (24k on 3x vouchers+18k on remaining spend+20k milestone vs Infinia 58k( 40k on 5x vouchers+ 18k on remaining spend)
3. If spend on 5x vouchers is 30k per month, it is equal 66666 points

So basic equation is if meeting Diners milestone in atleast 2 quarters and 5x vouchers spend is less than 30k per month, Diners gives better return than Infinia. Difference get more in favor of Diners if milestones are met in more quarters or Infinia 5x voucher spend gets lower.
So in many conditions Diners Metal can be more rewarding than Infinia.
Yes of course there is major issue of acceptability of Diners so will need to have atleast one major card alongwith Diners.
Feedback if I have got any numbers wrong here.

It all depends on how you use it. 5x on smartbuy vouchers is a big deal which gives you double that of DCB. If you keep aside 1x (regular rewards), it's 4x on Infinia against 2x on DCB. With additional fee on Amazon vouchers, DCB is not worth buying these vouchers with.
I feel, a normal person like me can pretty much manage almost all regular expenses with vouchers - right from grocery to fuel, maintenance to shopping and so on.

Your point#2 is a random calc. In reality things are different. In order to spend 8L in 2 Qtrs, you must spend 1.33L/Month on an average. I'd assume, flight & hotel bookings on SmartBuy will be involved to meet this kind of expenses. Anything more than 75K on SmartBuy spending on DCB won't get you accelerated points while for Infinia it's 1.14L as the cap is higher. Moreover, in case of vouchers, DCB needs to spend 67% more than that of Infinia to get similar rewards. For eg. with Infinia you need to spend 18K against DCB where you spend 30K on vouchers for 3K points. And in reality all these add up.

 

[MANAV28]

Infinia is ahead on smart buy purchase. Rest, both are more or less same.

 

[Indrajeet100]

All said and done, If you had the option of DCB or Infinia which one would you choose & why ?
because you cannot have two core cards

You are right but now having got DCB was wondering should I bother chasing Infinia or not? Because one of problem of maximizing returns on credit cards is I am flooded with vouchers. Don't need more than 10-20k in a month at best. And second problem is all premium cards give best returns if redeemed for flights/ hotels- again I have oversupply. E.g. Amex 1lacs point which I don't know when I will use. IDFC Wealth debit 1lacs points not redeeming as don't want any more vouchers. ICICI Emerald Metal/ DCB/ Atlas all work best with travel redemption -which is maybe 3 times a year for me.

 

[vadixit]

In general this might be OK but for me, I try to complete milestone with paying income tax. There is no rewards in either and Diners Black Metal have milestone for the same and it comes a bit easier to complete milestone. This provides me reward which Infinia would not.
So I guess you will have to check the kind of expenses and then see the advantage of Infinia.

It all depends on how you use it. 5x on smartbuy vouchers is a big deal which gives you double that of DCB. If you keep aside 1x (regular rewards), it's 4x on Infinia against 2x on DCB. With additional fee on Amazon vouchers, DCB is not worth buying these vouchers with.
I feel, a normal person like me can pretty much manage almost all regular expenses with vouchers - right from grocery to fuel, maintenance to shopping and so on.

Your point#2 is a random calc. In reality things are different. In order to spend 8L in 2 Qtrs, you must spend 1.33L/Month on an average. I'd assume, flight & hotel bookings on SmartBuy will be involved to meet this kind of expenses. Anything more than 75K on SmartBuy spending on DCB won't get you accelerated points while for Infinia it's 1.14L as the cap is higher. Moreover, in case of vouchers, DCB needs to spend 67% more than that of Infinia to get similar rewards. For eg. with Infinia you need to spend 18K against DCB where you spend 30K on vouchers for 3K points. And in reality all these add up.

 

[sourpai]

You are right but now having got DCB was wondering should I bother chasing Infinia or not? Because one of problem of maximizing returns on credit cards is I am flooded with vouchers. Don't need more than 10-20k in a month at best. And second problem is all premium cards give best returns if redeemed for flights/ hotels- again I have oversupply. E.g. Amex 1lacs point which I don't know when I will use. IDFC Wealth debit 1lacs points not redeeming as don't want any more vouchers. ICICI Emerald Metal/ DCB/ Atlas all work best with travel redemption -which is maybe 3 times a year for me.

There is no need to chase Infinia. It is good only for three situations:
1. If someone is using smartbuy vouchers a lot per month and needs 16.6% on Infinia instead of 10% on DCB
2. 10k smartbuy limit of DCB is not enough and 15k is better on Infinia
3. Acceptance issues, especially outside India

If above is not a concern, continue using DCB instead. Most of the people chase Infinia as they need ~20K apay voucher, and 20K+ other voucher combinations such as swiggy, zomato, FK, AGV etc per month

Also, if you are facing issue with oversupply of points, then consider using cashback card such as SBI cashback for online transactions

 

[theXfactor]

You are right but now having got DCB was wondering should I bother chasing Infinia or not? Because one of problem of maximizing returns on credit cards is I am flooded with vouchers. Don't need more than 10-20k in a month at best. And second problem is all premium cards give best returns if redeemed for flights/ hotels- again I have oversupply. E.g. Amex 1lacs point which I don't know when I will use. IDFC Wealth debit 1lacs points not redeeming as don't want any more vouchers. ICICI Emerald Metal/ DCB/ Atlas all work best with travel redemption -which is maybe 3 times a year for me.

Short answer is - you don't need to chase Infinia. You already have what you need.

 

[vikashpolo1]

I have dcb plastic ltf and converted to infinia recently. Only reasons, higher threshold of smart buy(for international trips) , golf lessons unlimited. Hassle free mind set to reach milestones quarterly etc. that's too much to manage..

I'm also having DCB plastic LTF..can we convert it to Infinia LTF? If any suggestions pls tell

 

[BVCBVC is verified member.]

Is Diner's Smartbuy and Infinia Smartbuy will have difference in Apple Product Pricing? I have recently observed a huge difference in Pricing.





Look the variation, Infinia Smartbuy portal shows 1,29,900 whereas Diners Smartbuy shows 2,59,800 points for same phone, same color and same variant.

 

[ashwinikumar900]

Everyone is chasing Infinia, I just wondered how better it is from Diners Black Metal. Here is my working. Please correct if wrong-
1. Less than Rs.8lacs annual spend, it doesn't need much calculation as Diners Metal will attract annual fees without any reward whereas Infinia effectively only GST is paid as one gets 12500 points on renewal fees.
2. 8lacs spend with Diners meeting milestone in 2 quarters and 20k per month on vouchers- Diners 62k (24k on 3x vouchers+18k on remaining spend+20k milestone vs Infinia 58k( 40k on 5x vouchers+ 18k on remaining spend)
3. If spend on 5x vouchers is 30k per month, it is equal 66666 points

So basic equation is if meeting Diners milestone in atleast 2 quarters and 5x vouchers spend is less than 30k per month, Diners gives better return than Infinia. Difference get more in favor of Diners if milestones are met in more quarters or Infinia 5x voucher spend gets lower.
So in many conditions Diners Metal can be more rewarding than Infinia.
Yes of course there is major issue of acceptability of Diners so will need to have atleast one major card alongwith Diners.
Feedback if I have got any numbers wrong here.

Just because of milestones benefits I am not upgrading to Infinia, I know there are some more perks in Infinia but in my case since I am able to cash all the 4 quarter milestones benefits, DCB Metal is more rewarding. Let me know if I am wrong or missing something.

 

[sravanbrahma]

Just because of milestones benefits I am not upgrading to Infinia, I know there are some more perks in Infinia but in my case since I am able to cash all the 4 quarter milestones benefits, DCB Metal is more rewarding. Let me know if I am wrong or missing something.

Smart buy is the only thing you are underestimating. Every month if you max out 15000 points, it beats diners by huge margin.

If you have non smart buy spends and not much usage international spends, straight away go for diners. It's a no brainer.

 

[Indrajeet100]

Is Diner's Smartbuy and Infinia Smartbuy will have difference in Apple Product Pricing? I have recently observed a huge difference in Pricing.

View attachment 81146

View attachment 81147

Look the variation, Infinia Smartbuy portal shows 1,29,900 whereas Diners Smartbuy shows 2,59,800 points for same phone, same color and same variant.

That is because Infinia can redeem points for 1:1 for one apple product in a year and Tanishq 50k per quarter 1:1. For Diner Metal product redemption is 1:0.5

 

[sravanbrahma]

L

I'm also having DCB plastic LTF..can we convert it to Infinia LTF? If any suggestions pls tell

I went to paid version only. Still it's worth it according to me better than diners ltf in my case. Anyway most probably my spends should offset the annual fee, even if it's not it's only 2300 extra going out of my pocket.