Diners Club acceptance in India - 2025 update

by riya.choudhury · 5 Dec 2025, 12:24 pm · 1741 views · 20 replies

5 Dec 2025, 12:24 pm

It's been about 18 months since I got my HDFC Diners Club Black card, and I wanted to share a comprehensive update on Diners Club acceptance in India as of January 2025.

TL;DR: Acceptance has improved significantly but still not at Visa/Mastercard levels. I estimate 70-75% acceptance online, 60-65% offline in metro cities.

Online Acceptance (My Experience)

Works reliably:

Swiggy, Zomato (both 100% success rate)
Amazon India (98% - occasional glitches)
Flipkart (works now after the Discover partnership)
BookMyShow, PVR
Myntra, Ajio
Uber, Ola
MakeMyTrip, Goibibo
Most hotel booking sites

Doesn't work or unreliable:

Some smaller e-commerce sites
A few government payment portals (still Visa/MC only)
Paytm wallet loads (rejected)
Some international subscriptions (Netflix India works, but Netflix international billing doesn't)

Offline Acceptance (POS terminals)

Metro cities (Bangalore experience):

Large chain stores: 90% acceptance (Reliance, Big Bazaar, More, Star Bazaar)
Restaurants: 80% (all major chains, most mid-size restaurants)
Petrol pumps: 50-60% (hit or miss - HP and BPCL usually work, Indian Oil is 50/50)
Small shops/kirana: 20% (most don't even know what Diners is)

Tier 2/3 cities:
Acceptance drops to about 40% overall. I traveled to Mysore and Coorg last month - had to use my Visa backup card 40% of the time.

Why the improvement?

RuPay pathway: Since Diners started using RuPay's domestic network, acceptance improved dramatically
Discover partnership: Global Discover acceptance now applies
Better merchant education: HDFC has been pushing terminal updates

International Acceptance

This is where Diners shines! 95%+ acceptance in the US, Europe, Southeast Asia. The lounge access and acceptance internationally is fantastic.

My verdict: Always carry a Visa or Mastercard backup. But Diners is now viable as a primary card in metro India, which wasn't the case even 2 years ago. The 10X rewards on SmartBuy (when the portal works ) make the occasional acceptance issue worth dealing with.

Anyone else notice different acceptance patterns in their cities?

19 Comments

pooja.desai · 7 Dec 2025, 07:01 pm

Accepted at most large chains now in Delhi NCR. The situation has definitely improved from 2-3 years ago when it was basically unusable.

meera.bhat · 7 Dec 2025, 10:12 pm

Small shops and street vendors still reject it. I was at a small restaurant in Pune - the guy literally asked 'What is this card? Never seen it before'

meera.bhat · 26 Dec 2025, 08:29 am

Bangalore Airport observation: All merchants accept Diners. But the moment you exit the airport, acceptance drops drastically. Classic India!

kavya.krishnan · 8 Dec 2025, 02:16 pm

Swiggy and Zomato acceptance is honestly the game changer. These are my highest spend categories and Diners works flawlessly.

harsh.agarwal · 8 Dec 2025, 04:55 pm

Fuel pumps are exactly 50/50 as you said. I've started asking before filling 'Diners chalega kya?' to avoid awkwardness at payment time.

deepika.menon · 11 Dec 2025, 07:03 am

Always carry backup Visa/MC - learned this the hard way when my Diners was rejected at a hospital emergency billing counter. Not a situation where you want payment hassles.

kavya.krishnan · 12 Dec 2025, 10:46 pm

Acceptance has improved roughly 30% in the last year based on my tracking. I maintain a spreadsheet (yes, I'm that person ). Went from 58% to 76% online, 42% to 61% offline in Hyderabad.

neha.gupta · 15 Dec 2025, 03:06 pm

Mumbai specific: Offline acceptance is better here than most cities. I'd say 75% acceptance at POS terminals, even in smaller establishments in Bandra and Andheri.

tanmay.deshpande · 17 Dec 2025, 12:45 pm

Kolkata experience: Still struggling here. Maybe 50% acceptance. Had to use UPI as backup most times.

rajesh.nambiar · 27 Dec 2025, 02:36 am

I've started using 'Discover' terminology instead of 'Diners' at POS terminals. Seems to get better recognition with younger cashiers who've heard of Discover network.

meera.bhat · 18 Dec 2025, 07:37 am

RuPay pathway was the real MVP. Before that, Diners was basically unusable in India except for premium merchants.

arjun.mehta · 21 Dec 2025, 12:38 am

Amazon acceptance is weird - it works 98% of the time but occasionally throws random errors. I've noticed it happens more during sale days.

karthik.sundaram · 27 Dec 2025, 06:42 am

The irony: HDFC pushes Diners as premium cards (Diners Privilege, Black) but acceptance is still inferior to their entry-level Regalia (Visa). Value proposition depends on tolerance for rejection.

amit.verma · 21 Dec 2025, 09:08 am

For fuel pumps: BPCL has the highest Diners acceptance in my experience. Indian Oil is lottery. HP is 50/50.

rahul.joshi · 22 Dec 2025, 10:03 am

The merchant category matters too. Premium/luxury goods stores have near 100% acceptance (they cater to premium card holders). Local stores: forget it.

karthik.sundaram · 23 Dec 2025, 01:33 pm

International acceptance is truly superb. Used my Diners Black across 8 countries last year - only 2 rejections total. In India, I face 2 rejections per week!

divya.pillai · 29 Dec 2025, 12:05 am

Pro tip: UPI as backup is better than carrying multiple cards. Instant, 100% acceptance, and you don't need to explain what Diners Club is to confused merchants.

harsh.agarwal · 31 Dec 2025, 01:32 pm

Government portals are the WORST. Income tax payment? Visa/MC only. Passport fee? Visa/MC only. It's 2025 and govt infrastructure is stuck in 2010.

tanmay.deshpande · 1 Jan 2026, 03:54 pm

I requested HDFC for a Visa variant after too many Diners rejections. They offered me Regalia Gold. Now I use Diners for online/premium merchants and Regalia for everything else.

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