C-bird

Hi,

I have a combined Diners/Eurobonus card, silver level, which I got last spring. The silver level will expire at the end of March and the Diners card is valid thru 06/12. Does that mean that I'll have to start paying the annual fee in April or in July?

And is it possible to avoid the annual fee?

Is it possible to cancel the card before the free period ends and then simply sign up for a new card?

Alternatively, if the above is not possible, can I sign up for another combination, Diners + Finnair Plus, and be counted as a new customer?


Thanks for your answers,
C-bird

bjerregaard

I think you should ask about this in the SAS forum.

mia

Moved to Eurobonus forum where there is a greater number of members knowledgeable about this question.

CPH-Flyer

Normally the first year for EB Diners is without the annual fee, or at least there are very frequent campaigns with a free year. Once the first year is over, the only way to avoid the fee is having a Eurobonus gold card. The campaigns are normally with the condition that they are only valid you have not had EB Diners for a certain period, so you can't just cancel and sign up for a new one immidiately. I don't know if the Finnair Plus Diners option would work, I have not read the exceptions that thouroughly recently, depends on whether the above exception actually says EB diners, or just Diners.

mkgrip

Does EBS give you free DC somewhere? At least SE, DK, NO and FI only EBG gets it free, although NO EBS gets a small discount. Or are we just talking about the first year for free offer that DC has?

If you got first year for free, you got the first year (12 months) for free, and they bill you for the annual fee after that. The card validity has nothing to do with, they'll send you a new EBB Diner's when the time comes.

Although are you sure your EBS status ends in March if you DC is valid 6/12, would be weird that they'd send you such a card. "Old" EB status is valid for 3 months after your tracking period ends, so that could explain the 3 month difference if your tracking period is April - March.

chokeman

I had EB Master Card and then eventually got a EB Diners as well. I contacted customer service and told them I did not want to pay the annual fees anymore. They said that is only available to EBG (which I am not), but since I have both cards and a very high spend, they agreed to not charge the cheaper of the two annual fees. Not really sure which, I think it was DC.

CPH-Flyer

Master Card is the cheaper one, less than half of the Diners fee.

ebennike

I succeeded in getting the same arrangement.

C-bird

Thank you for all your answers!

My EBS does end in March and I just checked my Diners' papers and I got the card at the end of May 2011, so the "free year" apparently continues until the end of May 2012, i.e. a bit longer than my EB tracking period.

I've heard about people getting free credit cards (e.g. AMEX) thanks to high spend before. What kind of amounts are we roughly talking about?

Is there any deadline when I have to cancel the card in order to avoid the annual fee? Or is it possible to do it still on 31.05.2012?


Bottom line is that I'm about to lose both EBS and Finnair Plus Silver soon, so it'd be nice to have the Diners card in order to get at least some lounge access.

I will also check the Finnair Plus & Diners option!


- C-bird -

mkgrip

So what is your tracking period?

I'm still wondering is you are confusing tracking period and EBS validity, since you are saying that end of June is just a little bit over the tracking period, even though it is half a year over your tracking period if your EBS status expires in March.

C-bird

Copy-paste:

"Level status

Qualifying activities
Period APR 2011 - MAR 2012
Basic Points 16 890
Qualifying flights 14"

mkgrip

As I thought, so you EBS status is valid until the end of June as is you DC card.

Any status you achieve in EB is valid for the remainder of you current tracking period + the whole next tracking period + 3 months, so in your case 'till the end of June 2012 (unless you get those 3110 points or 6 flights before the end of March).