Diners Club Club Rewards - Diners Club service - when it goes wrong

I have a question about how Diners reacts to fraudulent charges to their cards.

I am a potential refugee from American Express who, quite rightly, have effectively sacked me as a customer. Amex no longer has a product that is attractive to someone with my modest means (spend is only about £1,000 pcm) and so I am moving my modest business away from them and I am sure they are happy to see me go. I have had a Diners Card issued in the UK for some ten years but have used it only ocassionally (mostly in restaurants). I am currently planning to switch my spend from Amex to Diners (where I can - rest of spend will go to Visa). I only have one concern: one of the features I liked about Amex was that, in my experience, they were very good at sorting out card charges that I did not initiate, even when the card was not lost. In this context good meant that I called Amex, told them that I did not initiate that charge and they took the charge off the account and investigated the matter themselves, keeping me updated. This only happened maybe four times in 15 years but it gave me confidence in them.

Can I expect the same service from Diners or are they more like credit card issues who make you work to prove that you did not initiate a charge?

I don't know whether the Diners service in this respect is a global one or a local one (ie whether they have global protocols or whether individual issuers have their own protocols).

Any advice, thoughts are most welcome.

My US Diner's Club/MC has always been very good at removing disputed charges. I wouldn't worry.

I consider DC in the U.S. to be...at best...a poor second to AMEX.

Ever since Mastercard has basically taken them over, they are pretty much useless in international travel. The one dispute I made took many months to resolve, even though I gave them every bit of documentation they asked for in order to rule in my favor. The card was compromized twice, causing me to file two fraud reports. They denied my use of the card overseas on a few occasions (prior to the above incidents), and indicated they would not allow free use without first contacting them and filling them in on my itinerary. When I did so, they still denied charges. Customer service is HORRIBLE by the way, which is probably how all the above continued to be nagging problems.

In contrast, AMEX has been entirely worry free. Customer service has been flawless.

I am sorry, but I cannot recommend DC at all. If you begin to have similar problems, you might want to consider an alternative, such as a credit card tied to a particular airline, etc.

Ever since Mastercard has basically taken them over, they are pretty much useless in international travel. You seem to have an axe to grind with DC, but as I just posted in the other thread you made this claim on, it is a ridiculous exaggeration.

I consider DC in the U.S. to be...at best...a poor second to AMEX.

Ever since Mastercard has basically taken them over, they are pretty much useless in international travel. [...]

If you begin to have similar problems, you might want to consider an alternative, such as a credit card tied to a particular airline, etc.
You seem to not understand who does what!

Mastercard has not taken Diners Club over. Citi had Diners long before it switched it to the MasterCard merchant network, and Citi still has it (though it appear they're trying to sell it).

Meanwhile, a credit card ties to AA is also going to be administered by Citi, so I'm sure why you expect that to be better. If you have beef about declines and such, it seems to me it's with Citi, not with the affinity name on the front of the card.

Meanwhile, not all Amex cards are Amex cards! What I mean is, there are Amex cards administered by Amex, and then there are Amex cards administered by Citi (the Citi AA Amex, for example). Once again, a Citi AA Amex is going to accept/decline based on Citi's decision, not Amex's!

It's the bank issuing the card that is responsible for authorizing or declining a use, not the merchant network (unless the merchant network can't contact the bank or identify the card, that is). You seem to be placing all the blame on the MC, whereas it seems to me that if there is any blame, it's with Citi.

Having said all that, if you read enough of the Amex forum, you'll find that there are plenty of people who've had customer service problems aplenty with Amex, and are looking anything else! Seems the grass is always greener..

I don't know what countries you had these "international use" problems in, maybe it's country specific? I've used my DC in Europe, Japan, and Hong Kong (without notifying them that I was traveling, tho in all cases the airline ticket reservations were also charged to DC) with never a problem. On the other hand, I've had problems with Chase declining my card not only in Norway, but also when I traveled to the opposite coast here within the US, just because I got gas twice in the same day!!!

I suggest if you travel internationally with insufficient backup cards (so that when one is declined, hopefully the next one works), you'll eventually have problems no matter who issues the single card you have in your wallet.

And, frankly, I findi it a little silly to be saying Amex is so wonderful interntaionlly, when you can't use it half the places in over half of the world. Yes, you can probably use it at chain hotels, large touristy restaurants, major airliens, and such, and if that's all you ever use, you're lucky. But whenever I travel in most of Europe, it's very few places I look to pay with a card that they accept Amex. So you'll have to find something non-Amex to work internationally if you don't restrict yourself a lot on where you stay/eat/etc.

[QUOTE=sdsearch;11861791]You seem to not understand who does what!
QUOTE]

Actually, I do know what I am talking about. Where to begin?

Well... My AMEX card has been accepted in over a dozen countries, at all merchants, with no problems whatsoever. Maybe a Starwood AMEX card is better than the average AMEX card, but I really don't care. It WORKS everywhere I use it. The DC card does not. I posted on another thread what my experiences were, so I am not going to repeat myself.

As for the Mastercard problem, this conclusion was based on a radical change in behavior once MC got involved with DC, the fact that MC handles administration of the card (according to those I talk to on the phone), and the fact that they changed their "loss prevention" procedures to those of MC. All of this is according to MC staff I have talked to on the phone. I should not believe any of them? Maybe you should do a little fact checking yourself if you don't care to believe me?

As for an ax to grind, that too is a pejorative comment, from the same rude poster. I could counter by wondering why you are so aggressive with anyone who has anything to say about the DC card? Why do you think you hold the moral high ground in this conversation, considering your insistence on trying to shout me down?

My opinion is that the DC card is TERRIBLE, based on the simple functionality of being useless for international travel. That is my opinion, based on my own experiences, and I am entitled to it. If you want to respond with insults, then I don't see any purpose to discuss this further with you.

Post deleted because I meant to post in another DC discussion.