Diners Club Club Rewards - Is it possible to open a new DC account in the US?

Could anyone let me know whether it is possible to open a new Diners Club account in the US? I had a DC years ago, but let it lapse when I stopped travelling for a while. I've had enough of overpaying for car rental insurance and would like to sign up again.

The DC web site doesn't say anything about how to apply for a card, though their professional cards appear to be the new personal card. https://www.dinersclubus.com/dce_content/personalcards

Thanks for any info.

There was a whole thread about this late last year:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/diners-club-club-rewards/892232-no-more-personal-diners-club-cards.html

but the short version is this:

- Late last year Diners US suspended taking apps for the personal card until at least the end of the year.

- That other thread discussed that at length in late 2008, but no one came back after 2009 started to say whether anything had changed, until your message above in this thread. (Where you don't say whether the taking of apps has changed, of course, but do point out the name change to Professional, which no one before had mentioned.)

- That other thread did not have US in the title, and devolved into complaints about people assuming that Diners was the same everywhere!

Anyhow, the main thing to understand is that for quite a while, even when you could apply (prior to late 2008), you could only apply over the phone (1-800-2DINERS). Presumably if you can apply now, it's still over the phone. But we won't know until someone actually interested in applying tries that and reports back here.

Your point about the Professional renaming could be relevant, because it could be that Diners put a hold on new apps simply because they were changing the card to Professional, and ididn't want to take apps until that was completed. (Unforutnately, if so, that was never explained by them.) If that's the case, if the transition to Professional is now completed, maybe they're taking apps again?

PS. For what it's worth, my card was updated to a new expiration date last summer, and already says Professional on it. But I don't think the website said it until recently.

I'll look into it and report back if I make any positive progress.

Just spoke to a customer service person at Diners US. They are not currently accepting applications for new accounts, and don't know if/when they will resume opening accounts...

baobab, do you own a car yourself? If you do, your own insurance should extend this coverage to rental cars if you carry it (i.e., if you carry collision and comprehensive on your own vehicle), and if you don't have a car (or don't have insurance anyway), then the "secondary" coverage provided by many other credit cards becomes primary anyway since there is not another policy for it to be secondary to.

baobab, do you own a car yourself? If you do, your own insurance should extend this coverage to rental cars if you carry it (i.e., if you carry collision and comprehensive on your own vehicle), and if you don't have a car (or don't have insurance anyway), then the "secondary" coverage provided by many other credit cards becomes primary anyway since there is not another policy for it to be secondary to.
All good and fine within the US. However, you need a completely diferent, harder to get, policy for your auto insurance to cover you worlwide. (At my auto insurance company, they said I could only get it through an "umbrella" policy, which I in turn could only add if I had two different policies with them, such as auto and home or auto and rental.)

If you read the fine print, many other creidt cards have exclusions left an right that DC doesn't have, including for example Ireland.

Finally, even within the US, if your accident is purely collision, if you handle it through your own insurance company it geos on your record (and may raise your rates the next year), but if it's handled through DC the insurance company doesn't have a record of it and so it doesn't affect your insurance rates. This is only because you're using truly primary coliision insurance with DC.

All good and fine within the US. However, you need a completely diferent, harder to get, policy for your auto insurance to cover you worlwide. (At my auto insurance company, they said I could only get it through an "umbrella" policy, which I in turn could only add if I had two different policies with them, such as auto and home or auto and rental.)

If you read the fine print, many other creidt cards have exclusions left an right that DC doesn't have, including for example Ireland.

Finally, even within the US, if your accident is purely collision, if you handle it through your own insurance company it geos on your record (and may raise your rates the next year), but if it's handled through DC the insurance company doesn't have a record of it and so it doesn't affect your insurance rates. This is only because you're using truly primary coliision insurance with DC.Since DC is not an option as already discussed, I was offering other options. You make a good point on international, you need to check with your insurance company to see what is covered (e.g., I would assume some international countries may be covered, such as Canada).

My point on using your own coverage was that it's not worth paying the ridiculous rates the rental car companies charge, even if your rates will go up if you need to file a claim, unless you smash up a lot of cars.

BTW - I had some need to call DC recently...and the CSR openly admitted to me the reason no more US applications was because Citi was "shopping the product line", ie DC was a line of business up for sale.

No surprise to me and we all know Citi is in dire straits. Citibank has let this DC product languish for so many years....might be nice to get new ownership someday.

Why would they not accept applications for that reason? Would not, more card-holders, add to the price Citi would get?

My theory is that once C sells or has pending a sale of a credit card line, it APPEARS they will freeze most actions (moving the card's affinity, and now, it seems, even accepting new applications), as they go through due diligence w/ prospective buyers. Guess prospective buyers don't want "new customers" brought in by C once they lock in the business to be sold, and presumably these prospective buyers wish to apply their own credit screens. Just a hunch.

YMMV.

BTW - don't trip over my posting ID....I am not an insider or even former C employee far from it) - I selected the name "years" ago when I first joined flyertalk because I was enthralled w/ the Citibank/Aadvantage card...now, AFAIK, one cannot change their name without literally "resetting" their post count, et al. So, I am stuck with a name which surely does not reflect my attitude towards Citibank these days. Oh well.

As of today 5/20/09, per the rep on the phone, Diners Club is NOT accepting application for any of its cards, including corporate cards and personal cards. :eek:


This is a new change, since they were still taking corporate applications earlier this year.
:td:

The insurance really is great. I drove a rental car into a tree in Nicaragua (for good reason I assure you) and it took about 5 minutes on the phone and 2 photocopies and I received a check a couple weeks later.

BTW - I had some need to call DC recently...and the CSR openly admitted to me the reason no more US applications was because Citi was "shopping the product line", ie DC was a line of business up for sale.

No surprise to me and we all know Citi is in dire straits. Citibank has let this DC product languish for so many years....might be nice to get new ownership someday.
If the CSR said it, it must be true.:D

As of today 5/20/09, per the rep on the phone, Diners Club is NOT accepting application for any of its cards, including corporate cards and personal cards. :eek:


This is a new change, since they were still taking corporate applications earlier this year.
:td:
Ooops, too late, the ads have been bought! :)

So I got an AA boarding pass at a kiosk (in JFK) this past Tuesday, and on the back of it is the "now accepted on Mercury" ad for Diners Club, clearly aimed at people who don't have it yet. It refers you to dinersclubus.com. What wasted advertising, if Diners is not accepting a single application of any type!

sorry for responding on an older thread, but this seems to be the most relevant one given my searches.

Is there still no way to open a diners club account of any kind for someone with a US postal address? The primary use would be as a point conversion stopover if needed.

...still no way to open a diners club account of any kind for someone with a US postal address?

Diners Club is not issuing new personal cards in the USA. This isn't primarily about the location of the applicant's billing address. Diners Club International does not issue cards. Each market has a card issuing franchisee. The North American franchise was owned by Citibank who stopped accepting applications in anticipation of selling the franchise. It has been sold to Bank of Montreal, but Citi is still managing it on their behalf and there's still no indication that new personal accounts are available.

primary use would be as a point conversion stopover if needed.

Diners (USA) accepts incoming transfers only from AA, and there is a 50% loss in the process.

I am wondering when they are going to start issuing personal (aka Professional) cards. I have read that they were just going to consintrate on Business/Corporate Cards, but that was before BMO bought Diners.

I am wondering when they are going to start issuing personal (aka Professional) cards. I have read that they were just going to consintrate on Business/Corporate Cards, but that was before BMO bought Diners.

I suspect this will occur once Citi is no longer servicing the US accounts and BOM takes over. They are getting there, but not yet.

Is there anyway to open one in US?

Is there anyway to open one in US?

To the best of my knowledge the answer is still NO.

DC customer service ( in Canada at least ) is still being handled by Citi. And I can't see them issuing new cards until the DC brand in North America is fully managed by BMO ( or I suspect it would be Harris in the USA ? ).

As far as when this will happen, I am sure somebody knows. But it is not me.