Diners Club

JamTE

I've just been having a look at the Diners Cub website, they don't seem to offer much for your £50 a year membership fee or am I missing something?

Does anybody on here still use one of these in a personal capacity or is it more of a corporate charge card?

steve2005

Access to the new Regus lounge in T5 when it opens in the summer.
Travel Insurance, although rather poor level of cover all round
Airline/Hotel programs, but again extremely poor rewards

Yeah, that's pretty much it.

Unless you have a specific reason for wanting a Diners card, you're probably best looking at alternatives.

reclusive46

steve2005 wrote: »

Access to the new Regus lounge in T5 when it opens in the summer.
Travel Insurance, although rather poor level of cover all round
Airline/Hotel programs, but again extremely poor rewards

Yeah, that's pretty much it.

Unless you have a specific reason for wanting a Diners card, you're probably best looking at alternatives.

Also due to a partnership with Discover/Diners and China UnionPay it is also the only international card widely accepted in China (Although it does have a 2.99% exchange fee).

InsideInsurance

JamTE wrote: »

I've just been having a look at the Diners Cub website, they don't seem to offer much for your £50 a year membership fee or am I missing something?

Does anybody on here still use one of these in a personal capacity or is it more of a corporate charge card?

Its not very big in the UK at all and this potentially limits it and why it may be more similar to the US products where standing charges are the norm for cards

If you look at AmEx platinum/ centurion etc in some other countries their list of benefits/ rewards are tiny in comparison to the US or the UK and yet they carry very similar charges.

Of cause, if you happen to be in the US with your centurion card you;ll normally get the same "special treatment" as a US card holder would despite it not being an official perk as at a glance all but the chinese one look the same. You can make an arguement of it being worth while if you spend enough time travelling.


The only people I know with diners club cards are Americans who dont know any better but many ditch them after being here a few years.

There can be advantages if you spend a lot of time in China though as pointed out. The reason you can spot Chinese Amex cards is because AmEx isnt licensed there so they actually use the UnionPay network and so have its logo on the front:

reclusive46

InsideInsurance wrote: »

The only people I know with diners club cards are Americans who dont know any better but many ditch them after being here a few years.

To make things even more confusing, American and Canadian Diners Clubs actually run on the MasterCard network.

InsideInsurance

reclusive46 wrote: »

To make things even more confusing, American and Canadian Diners Clubs actually run on the MasterCard network.

Just reading the wikipedia page it says the UK/IE franchise was sold by Citi back in 2012, surprised the new owners have done so little with it unless its a nice fat cash cow.

reclusive46

InsideInsurance wrote: »

Just reading the wikipedia page it says the UK/IE franchise was sold by Citi back in 2012, surprised the new owners have done so little with it unless its a nice fat cash cow.

The cards are still swipe and sign as well.

InsideInsurance

reclusive46 wrote: »

The cards are still swipe and sign as well.

Not surprised really, our american colleagues all almost exclusively have chipless cards. Causes havoc when they're here and go to use the self service tills in the local supermarket at lunch.

It tells them to insert their card, so they do :T

reclusive46

InsideInsurance wrote: »

Not surprised really, our american colleagues all almost exclusively have chipless cards. Causes havoc when they're here and go to use the self service tills in the local supermarket at lunch.

It tells them to insert their card, so they do :T

lol I often get paid in dollars so use my Chase Sapphire credit card (No foreign transaction fees). That doesn't have a chip either (Although when it expires It should come with chip and signature on the new one). Self service terminals are always unpredictable. Some of them won't ask for anything (I.e. it'll go through without any verification method), some will print out a receipt and ask for someone to come over and ask me to sign and in my local Asda the chip and pin machine has a stylus with a writable screen that you can sign on (Exactly the same terminals as Walmart use in the US actually).

Manned terminals are usually fine these days though, I used to have a lot of problems with people not wanting to take a swipe card (although they usually did in the end). I haven't had that in years though.

EarthBoy

I understand that Diners Club are re-launching the brand in the UK this year, or at least making efforts to promote it.

reclusive46

EarthBoy wrote: »

I understand that Diners Club are re-launching the brand in the UK this year, or at least making efforts to promote it.

I've heard that Discover is looking for franchises in the UK for its Discover brand, I wonder if they will the same company that operates Diners Club UK.