Carte Blanche / Diners Club

[snowangel]

Lol.  I had one a few years ago and I'm not that old.  At least in my mind I'm not.  It was a Diner's with a MC logo.  It was given to me when I worked at Citi.

[MrShush]

Funny this thread just popped back up! I was just looking into getting one the other day. The AF is lower than AMEX and you get the airport lounge access to boot. I would love to get my hands on a DC charge.

[Anonymous]

I called citi and asked about this card a while back. Apparently they sold it to bank of Montreal (or a bank in Montreal..) well one way or the other... the new holder wasn't taking any apps but planned to in the near future. From what I hear it's similar to amex plat with a lower AF, so it definitely looks like a good deal, especially with the mastercard logo.

[Ron1]

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@MrShush wrote:
Funny this thread just popped back up! I was just looking into getting one the other day. The AF is lower than AMEX and you get the airport lounge access to boot. I would love to get my hands on a DC charge.

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I didn't know that I could get Airport Lounge. I should have charge my airline tickets to my Diners Club instead of Amex PR Gold.

Ron.

[Walt_K]

Isn't the Diner's Club lounge access only certain international lounges?

[Anonymous]

Well, there really is not much exclusivity anymore since it's basically a Citi MasterCard. 

[scottwagnon]

ok, i have been wrapping my head around this confusion for a couple of hours now. but here is what i have been able to eek out. it turns out i have learned some new facts that i was not exactly correct about.

in 1982 citibank acqires the diners club franchise and network,

then in 2004, master card created an alliance with then citibank diners club owned franchise.

in 2008, discover financial purchased diners club international network.

Diners Club International's North American franchise in 2009 was then bought out by Bank of Monteal citibank. (currently the only part of the franchise that issues with the mastercard network)

finally in 2010, citibank sold the rest of diners club franchise to Anthony J. Helbling.

so it is true diners club franchise owned cards today take the diners club international network acceptance owned by discover financial.

HOWEVER, if you have a diners club branded card issued by bank of montreal, it continues to take the mastercard network. but if you have a Anthony J. Helbling private investment group branded card (the remainder of diners club franchise), you will see both the discover and diners club logo on the back (just the same as you would see with a discover more card.)

i could not find this, but my guess is that from 2004 to 2010 there were no diners club branded diners club network cards.

[Pat1111]

.

I've had both. Carte Blanche was the premium card before AX. Citibank bought it, sold it and bought it back. After observing their atrocious marketing of CB, I wrote in Biz School that they should market it as a competitor to the AX Platinum Card. Years later (2000) they did just that. It was distinguished by 62 days to pay (a perk for all its heavy international travelers) (as well as a generous credit line that could be activated), primary car rental insurance, incredibly personal service for travel any any other need. I got to know the Assistant to the President who would help if I ever needed any.

Citibank in 2005 brought a two-edged sword to the card. They got it accepted anywhere in the world MasterCharge was accepted (take that, AX!), but soon it became known a "just a Mastercard." Citibank was dismantling its domestic Diners/Carte processing system and this was one way to do it. Citi let both these cards languish until they sold the North American franchises to Bank of Montreal and the franchise parent to Discover. NOt a lot has happened as they "migrate" the cards except BMO has aggressively marketed the corporate Diners Card. I keep meaning to write them about CB before it gets lost in the shuffle.

It's a card with a great heritage (originally Hilton's VIP card with $1000 check cashing privileges at any Hilton) and I am hoping BMO will make the most of it

[RickyRay]

I had Dinners Club and Carte Blanche in the early 90's It was from AMACO Oil Co.,  Beautiful Cards. The payments were a moderate 25% of your balance. But The cards worked at the most unusaual places, You could could get cash advances at pawn shops and other strange places. Pretty cool cards. Then I got notice on day in the mail that the card accounts were changing to Citi or some other bank, AMACO was no longer having them. I paid my account off and closed them. They were fun while they lasted. Back then were very different times and credit was so easy to establish with good credit cards. Also Amex had more awsome cards to (so much compitition).

[Anonymous]

I had Diners Club and Carte Blanche Card back when they were exclusive charge cards like the American Express Gold Card with a bank line of credit. Afraid that was back to 1973 when revolving bank cards were few and far between.