Any Ideas When Diners Club might take New Applications Again?
#32
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I'm guessing never at this point. However, one also has to wonder why they're continuing to administer a slowly shrinking set of accounts when they could sell them off or even cancel the Consumer cards entirely.
#33
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I imagine the Diners Canada and USA Corporate card portfolio is profitable, and that BMO's contract with Diners International would not allow them to sell the Professional and Consumer accounts while retaining the Corporate segment.
However, contracts can be renegotiated, and my concern is that in North America the logical buyer would be Diners International itself, the accounts might be migrated from MasterCard to Discover network, and Club Rewards could be replaced by Discover's cashback program.
However, contracts can be renegotiated, and my concern is that in North America the logical buyer would be Diners International itself, the accounts might be migrated from MasterCard to Discover network, and Club Rewards could be replaced by Discover's cashback program.
#34
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I feel like this is unlikely. Otherwise, the current DC cards would have been forced to change networks quite a while ago.
#35
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#37
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That said, I think $95/year for a no-FTF backup card for those cases where the CSR doesn't work isn't a bad tradeoff. $300, though, would be a lot harder to justify--especially if you happen to have one of the old Professional cards that charge FTF (and I'd learn towards cancelling in those cases).
#38
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- Chip & PIN with no contingencies.
- Contactless payment feature.
- No foreign transaction fees on MasterCard network, which offers the best USD exchange rates for many currencies.
- Airport lounge access included for $95 fee
- Transfer partners not offered by American Express, Capital One, Chase or Citi: Alaska Airlines, Iceland Air, SAS, South African Airways.
- Ability to earn Delta Skymiles at merchants who do not accept American Express.
- Better transfer ratio to Choice Hotels than American Express Membership Rewards.
- Better transfer ratio to IHG than Chase Ultimate Rewards.
- Transfer bonuses.
- Rewards points post with transactions, rather than once per month.
#39
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UNFCU's Elite (if you can get past their strict underwriting) has a much lower AF and includes Priority Pass. Not to mention that CSR includes two guests for the effective $150 AF, unlike Diners Club.
EDIT: plus, the former is PIN preferring as well. Which itself is included on no-AF cards such as the ones from Andrews FCU and SDFCU.
EDIT: plus, the former is PIN preferring as well. Which itself is included on no-AF cards such as the ones from Andrews FCU and SDFCU.
#40
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Examples:
- Chip & PIN with no contingencies.
- Contactless payment feature.
- No foreign transaction fees on MasterCard network, which offers the best USD exchange rates for many currencies.
- Airport lounge access included for $95 fee
- Transfer partners not offered by American Express, Capital One, Chase or Citi: Alaska Airlines, Iceland Air, SAS, South African Airways.
- Ability to earn Delta Skymiles at merchants who do not accept American Express.
- Better transfer ratio to Choice Hotels than American Express Membership Rewards.
- Better transfer ratio to IHG than Chase Ultimate Rewards.
- Transfer bonuses.
- Rewards points post with transactions, rather than once per month.
#42
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There's this page that I found with a quick search. FWIW, they declined my application a few years ago and counteroffered with their no-AF Azure card despite having an income >$100K and a FICO score >800.
#43
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However, the Barclay AA Aviator cards have chip & pin, so you can get one of those (or perhaps another Barclay card that does), and solve the chip & PIN limitation that way. Diners Club has chip & PIN as the priority, while Barclay has it down the list, but either one will work the same in kiosks in Europe that require chip & PIN.
FWIW, it's my AA Aviator card I use in Europe nowadays when something requires chip & PIN, since the Professional version of the Diners Club USA card (which I got back when Citi was issuing them) still has 3% forex, only the Consumer cards which BMO issued for a short while a few years ago had 0% forex. So it's not even clear to me whether any new DC card that BMO might issue in the future, if they did, would have 0% forex. For all we know, they might only consider issuing Professional or Business versions of the DC card in the future, not Consumer versions.
#44
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I depends where exactly abroad and dong what. I've had unattended parking lots in Austria that only took chip & PIN, unattended gas stations in rural Norway that only took chip & PIN, subway kiosks in Lisbon that only took chip & PIN, and that's not counting France where there's more chip & pin requirement than anywhere else (but again only in certain circumstances).
However, the Barclay AA Aviator cards have chip & pin, so you can get one of those (or perhaps another Barclay card that does), and solve the chip & PIN limitation that way. Diners Club has chip & PIN as the priority, while Barclay has it down the list, but either one will work the same in kiosks in Europe that require chip & PIN.
FWIW, it's my AA Aviator card I use in Europe nowadays when something requires chip & PIN, since the Professional version of the Diners Club USA card (which I got back when Citi was issuing them) still has 3% forex, only the Consumer cards which BMO issued for a short while a few years ago had 0% forex. So it's not even clear to me whether any new DC card that BMO might issue in the future, if they did, would have 0% forex. For all we know, they might only consider issuing Professional or Business versions of the DC card in the future, not Consumer versions.
However, the Barclay AA Aviator cards have chip & pin, so you can get one of those (or perhaps another Barclay card that does), and solve the chip & PIN limitation that way. Diners Club has chip & PIN as the priority, while Barclay has it down the list, but either one will work the same in kiosks in Europe that require chip & PIN.
FWIW, it's my AA Aviator card I use in Europe nowadays when something requires chip & PIN, since the Professional version of the Diners Club USA card (which I got back when Citi was issuing them) still has 3% forex, only the Consumer cards which BMO issued for a short while a few years ago had 0% forex. So it's not even clear to me whether any new DC card that BMO might issue in the future, if they did, would have 0% forex. For all we know, they might only consider issuing Professional or Business versions of the DC card in the future, not Consumer versions.
That said, you are correct in that something like one of the cards issued by Barclay's is more than enough to work around issues with unattended terminals. There are also no-AF options from them and other issuers with this feature, which makes paying an AF at all just for this a hard sell. However, combined with the other features, I can see myself keeping DC* at the $95 level for international travel/rental cars (and canceling/downgrading all other travel cards) if I were to get out of the miles/points game.
* DC Premier since there's no FTF. If it had a FTF, it'd be a different story.
#45
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I literally have to call in every transaction for this card, otherwise they all get declined. I only use it for the lounge access.