Diners Club Club Rewards - Thinking of closing my DC....

I've been a happy loyal DC customer for the last 12 years. In a silly way, I don't know why really -- I've never once been to any of their lounges, I don't use their points for miles (I don't accrue enough for anything), I always redeem for amazon gift cards -- basically, I'm paying $95 a year for a basic 1 point per dollar benefit. I've always been willing to tolerate the fee because of the customer service, but now I'm questioning that. This is my plea to the community: am I missing something? For someone who almost never rents a car and who doesnt utilize the lounges or travel enough for miles, is DC a good card? I know that once I close I cant really go back, so I'm (slightly) hesitant.

Here's the straw that broke the proverbial back: My card was expiring on 11/10. Sometime during the last week of September I got a new card in the mail, which I presumed was just the replacement card. I was traveling that week and left the replacement at home not really much thinking about it. I paid for some fedex shipments on my account, bought my wife a spa treatment, booked a rental car and planned a dinner for that weekend with new friends at a high end restaurant. My wife called me later that week to tell me the card I'd provided the salon had been denied and she had been stopped on her way out and asked to provide another card (yech). I didn't think anything of it at the time except that perhaps it had been flagged as a fraud transaction. Later that week I go to dinner with our new friends, bill shows up and boom.... denied. Besides being embarrassing and irritating I couldn't figure it WHY?! I still had a whole month before my card expired!

Turns out, my account had been part of some potentially compromised list of accounts from some merchant data breach. Rather than call me and inform me, DC just mailed me a new card, gave me a week to activate the new card and then began summarily denying all of my transactions. Cue an unplanned afternoon of updating accounts, calling recurring transaction merchants (whom had now had their charges denied), calling fedex to give them my new number, etc etc ..... The agent I spoke to couldn't tell me anything or offer anything other than a shrug (no real explanation, no complimentary credit monitoring, nothing)

So, you tell me, is there any reason to stay? I've never been much of a credit card gamer, so without the above-the-rest customer service, I don't know what DC has going for it.

It seems like I get a new credit card every other month due to one or another being 'compromised' in this or that ... I never go anywhere with just one card (even on the occasions I leave my wallet behind and take just cash, drivers license, and credit card, I always take at least two cards), I don't recall any credit card issuer going out of their way to point out that the new card is a replacement due to 'potential fraud' (and I have little doubt that all the companies are erring way too far on the side of caution on this in most cases) and not just expiration, so I'm not sure why it's a big deal Diners Club/Citi did not, but if that's all it takes for you, that's your call.

I should have mentioned that the only reason I considered it reasonable is that when something similar happened to me on the DC about five years ago they actually called me and informed me. That was the kind of service I had come to expect. Also, and perhaps this is just me being difficult but if they can find the time to call me to confirm a charge -- e.g. while im in AMS to check that the hotel charge is not fraud -- it doesn't seem so unreasonable to call me to inform me the card was flagged for fraud for some other reason and the account is about to go inactive.

That said, my thread is largely answered here: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/diners-club-club-rewards/1024810-why-diners-club-cards.html

...I always redeem for amazon gift cards -- basically, I'm paying $95 a year for a basic 1 point per dollar benefit. I

I would not pay an annual fee for any card that generate $0.01 per dollar rewards. You would likely do better with the Chase Amazon.com VISA Signature which carries no annual fee, earns double points for dining, pharmacy, gasoline and office supplies, triple points at Amazon.

You will read frequent dismissive comments of Flyertalk about Chase customer service, but seldom any specifics. In my experience Chase customer service provided by email (I never call) is every bit as good as any other issuer. They read what you write and reply to the question you ask, rather than to a question for which they have a boilerplate reply.