Diners Club Club Rewards - Time to give up on DC?

Hi
I know it is yet another to DC or not to DC thread but any help is appreciated. (given that you cannot get the card back in the near future)

i have has DC club for over a couple of years and it is that time again to decide if i want to have it! Here is my situation. I have used dinersclub points transfer to amtrak a lot for intra east coast trips. oneway trip for 3K points cannot be beat (+ fee free transfers). That said i have been driving a lot now a days.

THe main complication is because i have recently gotten the Ameriprise WEMC. So most of the lounges covered by DC should be also in PP. My international travel has been more or less to India via duabai/doha etc & locally out of NY. Currently i have

Merill+ ~back up
Schwab 2%~ almost all spend
DC ~ was primary/have not used since schwab
Ameriprise WEMC ~new kid in the wallet

Do you think i should try the retentions dept and get the annual fee waived or simply give up? (esp cosidering citi's and DC's position)
PS: I annually spend about 30K on cards.

I cannot see paying $95 if you redeem for Amtrak points because you can use the Chase Amtrak Guest Rewards Mastercard with no annual fee. However, if Citi would waive the fee I would rather have the flexibility of Diners.

In which airline programs do you accumulate miles?

I cannot see paying $95 if you redeem for Amtrak points because you can use the Chase Amtrak Guest Rewards Mastercard with no annual fee. However, if Citi would waive the fee I would rather have the flexibility of Diners.

In which airline programs do you accumulate miles?

THanks for a quick reply!

Yeah it was more for flexibility that i used to use diners (& the hope for bonuses!). I used to be in boston and flew UA/US a lot. I have mainly accumulated miles in Delta (mostly because of major CC partners amex,spg, diners) and also UA (because mid east air partners). That said i would easily redeemed the most miles 60K+ in amtrak itself, now that i am in stamford,CT

After juggling a lot of cards earlier, over the past 2 years i have settled into Dinners.. and now schwab... as my primary card. And i dont want to get back to nightmare of having more than 2 cards... More over pretty basic spend of 30K does not warrant having so many cards anyway

Hypothetically, if Schwab changed their card from VISA to Amex network, -or- reduced the rebate to 1.5% -or- added an annual fee ~$95 would Schwab still be your primary card? If not, where would Diners rank?

I guess 1.5 is the tipping point. You are right if schwab were to reduce the cash back to that value I probably will stick to dc. I don't think the ameriprise rewards are better than schwabs or diners and also I am currently scewed by the volatility. Will the program exist 2 days from now? Diner by the virtue of transfers & schwabs cash now have that appeal.

I guess 1.5 is the tipping point. You are right if schwab were to reduce the cash back to that value I probably will stick to dc.

I have my Plan B card(s) in place because the best deal seldom lasts, it's the nature of markets. However, I don't think I would pay $95 to keep Diners as a backup with $30,000 annual spend. I would try for an annual fee waiver rather than cancelling.

My opinion is that 2.0% cash is unsustainable. American Express reduced Plum Card rebate from 2.0% to 1.5%. Fidelity, competing directly with Schwab, offers 2% on its Amex network card, but 1.5% on VISA for the first $15,000 annual spend, then 2%. Unless this card drives significant incremental investment revenue to Schwab I don't see why they would continue at that rate, particularly because they have to share some of the transaction fees with FIA.

budugu,

1. If you do cancel, make sure it's your final decision! Diners hasn't been accepting apps for new (or reopened) cards for quite a while now, and there's no telling if/when they'll start again.

2. In my experience, you can only get retention offers after your annual fee shows up on a statement, and only after 365 days from the previous time you got a retention bonus.

3. The retention offer may include an annual fee waiver, or it may only include points. But you can pay an annual fee with points in any case (wehther you get a retention bonus or not). At any rate, you want to know how many points it takes to pay for your annual fee and think about whether that's worth it before you call, so that if you only get point offers you can evaluate how they would compare to a "direct" annual fee waiver or rebate.

One typical offer many (but not all) of us get often (but not always) is 10k over 5 months (2k/month) bonus points with a minimum one purchase per month (no minimum amount).

Thanks all for the replies. It has been a little turbulent time in the economy and it did rock my boat a bit. Getting axed and getting rehired back by the same company was a surreal exp. Will try calling dc and will report how it goes.

...will report how it goes.

Curious what you decided, because it appears FIA has stopped taking internet applications for the 2% cash card, which could be the first step to a product downgrade.