sing-along

Hi Everyone. I know there is another thread out there talking about Diners Club no longer participating in Aeroplan, however, everytime I do a search in FT I get a blank screen. I've tried for the past 20 minutes and decided to post a new thread before I catch my flight back to EWR (I'm in T-C in EWR).

It appears Diners Club Canada (and Int'l) will essentially become a MasterCard towards the end of the year. I'm hearing this second hand from a business colleague of mine in the US.

Some of the points:

1. Annual Fee of CA$99
2. Travel Insurance and Car Insurance will continue
3. Participation in Diners Reward Program will continue
4. It may be a Co-Branded card initially
5. No Longer grace of 1 billing period for payments. All payments will be due within a couple of weeks after the billing date. Short/No payment will be subject to interest
   

This is being undertaken to increase the number of merchants Diners Club card holders can access.

Apparently this will be announced in November.

If all these points are implemented...then it will be bye-bye to Diners. I use Diners because of my CA$10k/monthly expenses and I enjoy the grace period of one billing period. I'll switch all my business expenses to my Royal Bank AA Visa as I don't need a $99 Master Card.

Enjoy your week Everyone....I'm enroute to FLL tomorrow morning.
Cheers

cattle

I don't have time to dig out my DC file right now but I believe it might have been a telephone agent who said that they are going to waive the first year fee for existing cardholders. IF that is the case I will keep it one year for the car rental insurance, if not not I am gone as my company does not eimburse us for personal cards and they can pay the insurance for rentals. Hopefully they see the light about paying any cc fees to save on insurance but if not I am not subsidizing it for them.

As for the no grace on billing periods. This is why I am going to apply for the SPG Master Card on Monday. Why on earth would I keep this card for $99/year. These guys have to be on crack. I never pay my bill during the first billing cycle either and this is why I was contemplating keeping this card even if it lost AE affiliation. No good reason to keep this card now

parnel

I think the situation is as follows:

1.DC is affiliating with MC for acceptance only but will continue the brand name as is.

2. Payment practices are not being changed..an extra billing cycle will still be considered the grace period.

3. The points gained with the new card can be transferred to a nmber of airlines and used for toasters as well. AC will possibly be one the airlines you will be able to transfer points to but they will be accumulated by DC in a DC account.

Doc Fraud

Parnel

Any ideas on what will happen to the points already accumulated in a Diners Club Card? I have several hundred thousand points that I was leaving in DC as a hedge against AC and AP disappearing. Also will the conversion be the same 1-1 as it is now or will it change??

Thanks in advance

DF

parnel

1 to 1 within DC but possibly not so when transferring to an airline...one I remember is AA 12,500DC points for 10K AA points.

tcook052

Don't forget that for the time being at least, DC cardholders are able to benefit from double dipping as they collect both AC AP miles and DC points. How long this will last.....?

parnel

That is not true...only those cards that are currently not maple leaf club or aeroplan directed cards get the double points. They have an agreement not to give points to others during their contract period which ends on Dec.31/04

tcook052

Sorry, but I'm a regular DC cardholder and and benefitting from both DC Rewards points and AP miles, though likely only until the end of the year. I'm not the only one:

BlondeBomber


Join Date: May 1998
Location: Canada
Programs: --AC SE, CA Gold, LH FTL, HH Dmd, SPG Plt, PC Plt; also AA AF AS DL HU MX UA; Goldpoints
Posts: 8,969 Collect both AP miles and Club Rewards!!!!!!!!!!!

Just got my letter from Diners and it says for the time being that I will be double dipping, earning both AP miles and Club Rewards points!!!!!!!!!!

This is great, no need to make a choice. I am glad I didn't sign up for Club Rewards when they first announced the changes back in the winter. This way I get to have my cake AND eat it too

Wonder how long this will last, until year end? Doesn't say in the letter.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showt...s+club+rewards

cattle

They were very clear that we will have the same as any other card starting January 1 and will lose the 60 day window we currenlty have with DC now.

parnel

My maple leaf card does not get double miles and they say its due to their contract with AC but offered me a 5K bonus to switch.
Cattle, I will double check in the am but I was specifically told that if I kept the top end card all payment terms would remain the same as the current ML card.

ABW

Parnel: as a former MLC member (expired July 04) I can confirm the new Diners does not offer a grace period. I had been a MLC member since 96 and my new Diners indicates 'Member Since 04'. New Diners is a credit card, credit limit is indicated on each statement like any other credit card.

I am very disappointed with my new Diners Silver card.

Shareholder

Well CitiBank which took over Diners Club years ago, and does issue MasterCards throughout NAmerica, and here in Canada when it took over Canada Trust's MasterCard portfolio after that trust company merged with the TD Bank. My MLL Diners card renewed last month and the annual fee was $395, but I received a prorated credit of $281.25 which carries the card through to the end of the AC affiliation at the end of this year. The card, however, has a validity date through to 2007, so I expect there will be a new card in the new year, but no annual fee attached to it through the balance of the annual period in 2005 [i.e. end of August/September] as implied in other posts here.

jimmac

I am having trouble following all the disagreements among board members on this change. Maybe I can describe my situation and ask for advice from those in the know. I have two DC cards, a corporate one for business expenses and a personal MLC card.

The corporate card gets $60-70k on it annually. I have been transferring those on a 1 for 1 basis to AP but I understand that ends at the end of December. I don't need more AP points so my plan from now on is to transfer DC points at 1.25 to 1 to my AA account which has next to nothing in it and then transfer from AA to HH at 2 to 1. So if I transfer 50k in DC points by this method I will end up with 80,000 HH points. This may not be a perfect model on a financial measurement basis but it seems to work for me as I don't need additional AP points but hotel points will be useful in the future. Any comments on this strategy?

My personal card gets very little use but I have kept it because it is MLC and I got it originally when an AC manager had to recommend you for this exclusive access. I thought it might be useful for lounge access after I retire and no longer have SE status which gets me the lounge. I think the annual fee for this is expensive. I dropped my wife's spousal card this year because we only had it for the odd occasion when she travels without me. I took the SE package that included the spousal lounge access card and I think she has used it once. Given how little I use this card as a credit card, now may be the time to save the money and dump it. Any comments on the wisdom, financial or otherwise, of this strategy?

superdawg

Here is a picture of the new Diners Club Card, no difference except the MC logo on it

http://www.cardweb.com/cfi/

flytor

I received a letter from DC today with some highlights:

* A newly redesigned Diners Club Card with the MasterCard Brand Mark and Hologram will be sent out in November 2004

* Get 5000 bonus Club Rewards points when paid annual fee in January 2005

* Waived annual membership fee during the calendar year of 2004

* Annual membership fee of $99 starting January 2005

* Current Aeropan Mile accumulation through DC card will be stopped after November 2004