I would give anything to have my diners back
 

I recently had both my Capital One (business) and Chase (personal) swiped or otherwise stolen. Chase handled it reasonably well, Capital One did NOT.

Basically, Capital One ended up saying that because my card was "tapped" that I am responsible. Please, unless anyone has some great insight, it's probably not worth getting into.

Point is, I have absolutely loved 17 years of having Amex, and they have treated me so so well. Except when I'm out of the US, I feel like I'm just dead with whatever card I can take.

I had Diner's for years prior to Amex, but obv as a US citizen that is off the map. I have called and emailed and begged. I just want something that's not another lower grade card.

I can't emphasize the begging part enough. I am shocked Diner's doesnt want business. I know there are political reasons like Discover owning their network etc.

I am months from Portuguese residency, and hoping that gives me a chance.

Chase's 24/5 rule keeps me from one of their cards, although these Ink thinks seem like nothing special. I don't need 12% back in the candy section - I just want to be treated like someone when I need help.

I know this sounds modest and inquisitive. But for the first time in my life since being dumb and young - I WANT MY DINERS BACK! - nothing has come close!

Could you elaborate on why you liked the Diners so much? Reading between the lines, it sounds like the service was top notch, but you haven't explicitly said that or given a reason. ;)

Hehe of course! Yes the service was top notch.

Big thing is that I have been through hell and back with Visa/MC outside of the US and I'm not quite sure what to do. It's not sustainable. Amex may be super awesome, but it just isn't accepted everywhere. I'm not sure what to do :/

Diners Club, MasterCard and VISA do not issue or service cards. If you have service problems they are with the card issuer, not with the transaction network.

There is no Diners franchise issuer in Portugal.

Apologies, I do understand this. Just my general luck I've had.

I've heard rave reviews about the Sapphire Reserve but Chase just won't let me. And obviously Amex acceptence out here (esp Africa) is very limited.

To put it in perfective, my inbox has been full of "FRAUD ALERT" despite telling my backs of my travels plans. I am regularly rotating cards, like they are maxed out, and can't possibly keep up with which will work. I carry cash to be safe (aka hit the ATM card when that works), but more cash = greater chance of being mugged.

Sorry if this comes off as whiney. I'm just very frustrated with my international card experience and trying to figure out what others do to improve it a bit!

So your main complaint is that your card gets blocked when you're overseas?

This is going to happen if you're in some out of the way places, or places that are high in card fraud (you mentioned Africa). I always keep multiple cards with me when traveling as I know it's inevitable a card is going to be blocked. At least they are sending you an email, my annoyance is when a card is blocked, but they don't tell you, so you don't know if it's an issue with the card machine, or a blocked card.

My cards always seems to get blocked when making ATM withdrawals in China for some reason. Normally it's a simple matter to click a link on the email they send me to indicate it's a genuine transaction.

Actually does help to hear I'm not alone in that.

I feel in general that nearly any card is just a nonstop struggle. My Chase Visa was blocked yesterday, 2nd day in a row. First time I got the email (great, easy!) and second time nothing. Just walked away from a vending machine and figured I'd look elsewhere for food.

I guess I am just shocked the world can deal with this. I'm sure regional banks and their respective cards offer a better experience, but it just seems anything on the Visa/MC network in general is just...bad.

Again, I apologize if I come off as a pretentious Amex guy, but for nearly 20 years they've really been worth every penny I spend on that damn annual fee ha.

For the record, I called Chase earlier today about some things. I'm still on hold. It's been a few hours.

Using it at a vending machine in a 'high-risk' country could have been the issue for the second block. I did once hear from a credit-card security person that often a fraud begins with a small $1 or $2 transaction they make to test it works, before putting a big payment through.

For me, it's not a big issue. I don't have a problem in the UK, France, Australia etc, only when I go to places like Cambodia, Morocco etc. I accept that it's probably going to happen and carry backup cards, I always have 3 options in my wallet.

Why is it that you think you would not experience the same block if using Sapphire Reserve?

Which Chase card(s) do you have now, how long ago did you open them, and what is the specific reason that Chase will not approve a Sapphire Reserve application, is it just that you have opened more than four personal cards in the past 24 months?

Do you realize that if you got USA Diners back it would be an MC? It changed to an MC back when Citi had it, and it stayed an MC when it moved to BMO/Harris.

So how is that different from having an MC from a different bank (other than requiring a PIN for chip transactions, which most other banks don't, except perhaps in some cases Barclays)?

Meanwhile, the international Diners Club card network is now operated by the same people who operate the international Discover card network. So there are fewer totally separate card networks than there used to be.

FWIW, I don't get fraud blocks that often from Chase, but the charge usually does go through the second time after I confirm it. It could be some sort of block on the vending machine/local processor side preventing the second transaction, which of course won't help you unfortunately until the block gets lifted.

That's not even really true domestically anymore. While the card itself is still programmed to prefer PIN, a lot of places simply disabled credit PIN support altogether (or never supported it in the first place). Plus, BMO Harris does allow PIN bypass transactions to go through for those places that still ask for one.

Internationally is a different story, of course, but given that a lot of the rest of the world is moving away from inserting for most transactions anyway, I'd argue that PIN isn't as necessary as it once was. And for those instances that still need one, it's likely not 100% necessary for it to be one of the US Diners Club cards.

Getting a DC as a US citizen
 

I had a DC back when I was in my early 20's (it was my first card with real benefits) and loved it until some of the services started going downhill. I now have an Amex Platinum personal and business. They're wonderful, but not accepted very much in Europe.

A few friends suggested I go with the Chase Sapphire Reserve for international travel business expenses, but Chase got me for their 24/5 rule.

So I use my Capital One Spark card internationally, but it's not really...great. I've had to pay for fraudulent charges when I left my card in Ecuador, because had left for Africa, and Capital One demanded a police report. So I ate $500 spent at a strip club and just moved on, after plenty of fighting.

I'm now at the point of missing my DC so much, I pieced together my Spanish Vodafone number, an Airbnb address, and applied for DC in Spain. Until they wanted proof of residency and various government ID numbers.

Has anyone found a workaround? I tried applying for a corporate account with my LLC but never heard back. I have another company that generates a lot more revenue, but I have a business partner and don't want to be applying for cards for myself and messing with our business credit.

PS If anyone happens to know of a country where DC doesn't require all sorts of ID numbers (which I suspect is unlikely), that would be helpful as a starting point.
Unfortunately I'm working on Portuguese residency, and have a tax number there, but it seems DC does not service PT at this time either.

Moderator action
 

I have merged in posts from a similar thread started in March for context.

Sorry about that, and thank you!

Diners Club is just a brand. It doesn't tell us anything about customer service, because the brand is operated by unrelated franchisees in various markets. If you held a USA-issued Diners Club card between 1981 ~ 2009 you were dealing with Citibank. If you were satisfied with the service, why not apply for (example) a Citi Premier card rather than focus on Diners Club? If you think BMO Harris Bank is a superior issuer, why not apply for one of their other MasterCard products?