Diners Club UK closing personal cards
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Jul 2012
Location: Canada
Programs: BA Gold (OWE), Star Alliance Gold, Hilton Diamond
Posts: 2,194
Diners Club UK closing personal cards
Just in case anyone wasn't aware. Diners Club UK are closing all their personal charge cards (It seems to be they close it on your renewal date).
#3
Original Poster
Join Date: Jul 2012
Location: Canada
Programs: BA Gold (OWE), Star Alliance Gold, Hilton Diamond
Posts: 2,194
#5
Original Poster
Join Date: Jul 2012
Location: Canada
Programs: BA Gold (OWE), Star Alliance Gold, Hilton Diamond
Posts: 2,194
Not really an active user but I was grandfathered onto an old version of the card that had no annual fee and it was occasionally useful in places like China as you could use it where China UnionPay was accepted. Acceptance was ok. Pretty much every small business accepted it (as it's just bundled in with their terminal provider), it was larger retailers that were the problem.
Last edited by reclusive46; Mar 13, 2018 at 12:48 pm
#6
Join Date: Mar 2017
Location: Patra
Programs: Affinity euros, Yellows, Epistrofi
Posts: 16
WOW, i'm surprised that was accepted kind of "by default". A couple months ago I took a look and check if it's worth applying for it (for my uncle who lives in UK) but I didn't find any value. If there was free lounge access it may be worth the 50 pounds annual fee.
So are they going to keep business accounts open?
So are they going to keep business accounts open?
#7
Join Date: Jul 2018
Location: London
Programs: Miles & More
Posts: 8
I was given 2 months notice. They are concentrating on corporate cards and accounts apparently . Quite a few places take it, and even if you don't see the logo in a shop, it was worth trying your card in the machine. They should do more to promote the card and gain card holders. Airport lounge access for £15 was good value.
#9
Join Date: Jul 2018
Location: London
Programs: Miles & More
Posts: 8
It’s a shame. Trouble is they haven’t kept up with the way people use their cards. People expect to be able to pay for everything by card these days, no matter what the amount is. If I used my card more than 3 or 4 times in a day, it would be blocked for security reasons. With no 24 hour customer service, it doesn’t give you much faith. They said the personal charge card account wasn’t viable. Not surprising if you can’t use your card! Once they changed the rewards to shopping vouchers, I imagine people changed to different cards. If other countries are following suit, then this could obviously be the end for the card that was the forerunner of the payment card.
#10
Moderator
Join Date: Jun 2003
Location: Miami, Mpls & London
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Diners is a franchise system, and it sounds as if Diners Club International (aka Discover) appointed inexperienced franchisees in some countries. If they cannot interest any of the mainline banks in taking a franchise, they may do better to operate it themselves in some countries - if they can meet the regulatory requirements.
#12
Moderator
Join Date: Jun 2003
Location: Miami, Mpls & London
Programs: AA & Marriott Perpetual Platinum; DL & HH Gold
Posts: 48,954
Essentially the same in North America. When Citi sold Diners Club International they also started selling off the card issuing franchises. Bank of Montreal bought the Canada/USA franchise, and their press releases talked only about the good fit with their Corporate card business. BMO did issue some new consumer cards, but they withdrew them after a few months and have not come back. However, they have not shutdown the consumer card business that they inherited from Citi, or the new cards that they issued in that brief window.
#13
Join Date: Apr 2005
Location: The Baltic Sea
Programs: AY, BT, DY and SK. Scandic, Radisson, Marriott and HHonors. ClubONE
Posts: 5,890
Diners is a franchise system, and it sounds as if Diners Club International (aka Discover) appointed inexperienced franchisees in some countries. If they cannot interest any of the mainline banks in taking a franchise, they may do better to operate it themselves in some countries - if they can meet the regulatory requirements.
#14
Join Date: May 2014
Posts: 411
The does seem to be a Diners Club card offered in the UK for Lufthansa's Miles and More loyalty scheme if anybody really wants one. I'm surprised to be honest that there are not more airlines or hotels looking to Diners Club for their loyalty cards as I think it falls outside the 0.3% fee cap. I presume acceptance of the card is thought to be too narrow to be of interest.
https://www.milesandmorecards.co.uk/index.html
https://www.milesandmorecards.co.uk/index.html
#15
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jan 2014
Location: San Diego, CA
Programs: GE, Marriott Platinum
Posts: 15,507
The does seem to be a Diners Club card offered in the UK for Lufthansa's Miles and More loyalty scheme if anybody really wants one. I'm surprised to be honest that there are not more airlines or hotels looking to Diners Club for their loyalty cards as I think it falls outside the 0.3% fee cap. I presume acceptance of the card is thought to be too narrow to be of interest.
https://www.milesandmorecards.co.uk/index.html
https://www.milesandmorecards.co.uk/index.html