Yoosh

My annual fee of $95 was billed on 1-Feb-12. I called them a month or two ago. One rep told me there's no retention benefit. I called right back, and another rep told me she could offer me 2,000 points. At that time, I declined. Now that the annual fee shows up, I just phoned them today, and the rep said she can only offer me 500 points. I didn't say I would accept, but she said she's putting them into my account anyway.

I've been a Diners Club card member since 2002, and having been using it as my primary card. I plan to renew it for one last year, and move all my purchases to some other cards, as I don't find the Club Rewards points as valuable anymore.

As for the car rental primary coverage benefit, I plan to do one or both of the following: (1) Switch to a car insurance policy that does not provide rental car collision coverage (I believe MetLife fits the bill) so any secondary coverage becomes primary; (2) Apply for a Citibank Visa card that provides primary coverage (although I haven't been able to verify this benefit in any written form from Citi, other than for the CitiBusiness Visa card.)

mia

Be careful if this also eliminates liability coverage when using a rental car or other replacement vehicle.

JP Morgan Select is a card with primary collision damage insurance, no foreign transaction fees, Chip & Signature, and competitive rewards:

https://creditcards.chase.com/credit...lect-card.aspx

Discussion here:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/credi...signature.html

JIMCHI

I called a few weeks ago and told them that Citibank Diners had been giving me 10,000 points a year (2000 a month for 5 months). Got bounced to a supervisor who said she had no authority to award anything like that. She supposedly escalated the issue but I never heard from anyone even after a few followup calls. Finally contacted the corporate office. They advised no more point bonuses. They agreed only to waive the annual fee. As a result, I'm not going to use the card now for anything but car rentals.

super-mileage-fan

The direct phone # for the Retention Dept. at the start of this thread is no longer accurate.

To get your retention bonus, call the # on the back of your card during the month that your annual fee shows up on your statement.

It isn't hard to get your annual fee waived from the 1st rep who answers (given the disasters they have faced with the integration from Citi) but they are stingy on points. You can negotiate some points on top of the fee waiver depending on your card spend. The rep I spoke to was authorized to grant me 1,000 points + fee waived, I got just a little more points than that after he checked with his supervisor.

My guess is that if you spend $1,000 per month the card, you can get fee waiver + 5,000 points with a little haggling.

TheCount2

Unfortunately not. For all the trouble BMO put me through by their inability to figure out why I could not access my account for over two months, my fee was waived while the problem existed, and offered me 2,000 points ($13.33) for the tremendous inconvenience. My monthly spend is $6,000 or so, some months more and some less. Attempts to get better compensation have been ignored, including by BMO VP Steve Pedersen, mentioned elsewhere in the DC topic.

Neal

I just received my new card and was
up for renewal. I called to cancel yesterday. The agent was very nice but did not offer me any retention bonus. In fact, he didn't even ask why I was canceling nor try to persuade me not to. I was surprised after being a member for at least 20 years. But even if offered a retention bonus I still would have cancelled anyway.

phospho

after 20 yrs? wow

just had annual fees waived (which is $200 since we have a total of 3 cards on the account) but he wouldn't give me any points. He even mentioned that lately they've been giving either 2000 bonus points or they waive the annual fee, but they can't do both.

mia

It would be interesting to know the rationale for the policy. This values the points at $0.0475 each, which is clearly excessive.

FSU

Called the main number and was offered an annual fee waiver of $95. No points offered. Took the deal. I thinks its worth having the chip and pin card for foreign travel, especially with no annual fee.

jfadds

Had same experience as previous poster- no points but waived fee

BadgerFlyer91

Well - I got the best service and quickest wait time on the call I just made to cancel this card. No questions asked - I was a bit surprised, but it wouldn't have changed a thing.

What really took me over the edge was their account information on my statement saying that I was three payments past due - on a ZERO balance bill. I paid the charges before the statement dates as they still don't have an option to autopay the bill.

This was a great card for 15 years. It's too bad the transition took it from my favorite card to one that I will toss in the fire.

sdsearch

I called yesterday, regular number, didn't threaten to cancel, just mentioned that my annual fee had been billed and how they had had so many problems around the turn of the year but "it seems to be getting better lately", and were there any retention offers available to me, and after a short time they said they can waive my annual fee. Based on what I'd read here, I didn't bother pressing further, and just thanked them. They said it would take 2 to 3 business days to post, but today (the next day) it's already shown up in my account.

But as an aside note: Unlike in the Citi days, credits posted since the statement close no longer reduce your minimum payment due per the Bill Payment page. So essentially I apparently have to pay the annual fee (along with my purchases from last cycle) by my next due date, and then the credit equal to the annual fee will reduce my purchases by that much on my next statement. (But I'm used to it working that way anyhow at Citi with AA cards, which officially are called a 'credit" rather than "waiviing", and I have purchases way more than the annual fee amount toward the next statement already, so it's no big deal in this case.)

FLYMSY

Only offered the 2,000 points, after chatting for a few minutes. Agent told me he wasn't aware of fee waiver.

CountinPlaces

I have had a DC card since 1997, and decided to finally close the account. I guess I could have asked for a fee waiver, but I just did not want to keep track of it anymore.

The card is not what is used to be, and there are plenty of other cards out there worth one's attention if you have the "spend."

I have spent 300-400k with the card over the years, which is not a huge amount in the corporate travel world. (I spread my spend.) I have also never been late on a bill.

They did not make any attempt to keep me as a customer.

JIMCHI

I keep thinking of dropping it also. Only thing that keeps me is the primary rental car collision. I can't find any other card that offers that protection.