Closed Diners Club after 10 years

[UncleB]

It's been a while, @taxi818!  Good to see you! 

[taxi818]

Yep. I drop in from time to time.

[Thomas_Thumb]

---

@markhs777 wrote:

Hard to believe in the 80's and 90's Diners Club was more wildly accepted in Europe and elsewhere than Amex.

---

Back in the mid 80s I had an Amoco Torch Diners Club. Great card, accepted in Japan as well. Fond memories with it and sad to see it go.

[TrapLine]

Recognize that ... forgot! Did have one but was not aware you could use it outside the United States. Interesting!

[NRB525]

---

@Anonymous wrote:

---

@NRB525 wrote:

When I first joined MyFico ten years ago, it was just as the BMO Diners Club card was being offered. It would turn out to only be available to apply for about three months, in late 2014. At the time, it was interesting as a Chip+PIN card, and actually has a decent airport lounge access which I used a few times, such as in Amsterdam. 

Alas, ten years of $95 AF and limited earning, plus the low value of the points led me to push some charges / payments through the card to get to a redemption level, clear the points out to Alaska, then today call to close the card. End of an era I guess. But honestly, it was mostly a sad little "trophy card" and not much more than that. 

Also closed the AMEX Marriott card recently. These closures are because I've added the BofA Alaska card, and the AMEX Delta Reserve card. Those give more direct benefits for the airline travel, but they each really have a spend demand to make sense, so I have to reduce the number of low-value, distraction cards to keep things sane. For example, the Alaska card now requires $5k spend in a card year to earn the companion pass.

---

First, I hope that closing a 10 year old card doesn't ding your credit age too badly.

I had DC in the mid 80s for about a year, and found it wasn't accepted often enough so I cancelled it.  As a curio, I wish I hadn't.  I think BMO, or Discover, or whoever, is missing an opportunity given the pressure from some quarters to open up credit card payment systems to something beyond the big three (V, MC, AX).  If Discover took advantage of this, and possibly undercut the swipe fees, it could be a good bet.

---

I've got multiple cards that are longer-aged than that, so I'm not at all worried about averages. Regardless, most cards will still report for many years after you close them, so the general concern about "Closing cards hurts your score" is bad info repeated often.

The arguments that another network can somehow get traction in this business, where driving costs down and expanding usage are paramount, has a very difficult path to negotiate. BMO probably doesn't push the card because it requires an investment, and they are not into growing their portfolio. I'm honestly not sure how they got into Diners in the first place, it's likely some sort of management shakeup after they committed / rolled out the card initially, and now they are just waiting for their cardholders to age off the system. 

[IcyCool7227]

You know I have only heard of this Diner Clhb card from the Planes, Trains and Automobiles movie. It seems in over a decade this has been closed to new applicants but what benefits did it offer cardholders? I wonder if Redstone's 5% dining card or PayPal's 5% dining today would out value the old Diners Club.

[UncleB]

---

@IcyCool7227 wrote:

You know I have only heard of this Diner Clhb card from the Planes, Trains and Automobiles movie. It seems in over a decade this has been closed to new applicants but what benefits did it offer cardholders? I wonder if Redstone's 5% dining card or PayPal's 5% dining today would out value the old Diners Club.

---

I had one of the OG cards issued by Citibank with a 14 digit account number (the same type card that would have been in the movie you mentioned above). 

I got mine in the mid 90s when credit card rewards were nothing compared to today... 1% (or equivalent points) were about as good as you could do.  Diners Club gave points and I think there was some lounge access but I didn't pay attention to that; the main draw for me was instead of giving you 30 days to pay like Amex (which I also had) they gave you 60 days (two billing periods), and I thought it would be neat to have a niche card that wasn't common.  Yeah, I know it sounds lame... younger me had different priorities than older me. 🙄

Another perk I remember was the ability to charge in-person without having the physical card - this was long before mobile wallets were ever dreamed of.  I never tried it, but in theory you could have the merchant/cashier phone Diners Club, show your ID, and the Diners rep would provide the necessary info to the cashier to complete the sale.  I guess in a pinch it would have been nice (?) but even then it seemed like a logistical headache (that's assuming you managed to convince the cashier to call) so I didn't try it out.

Compared to many no-AF cards today the rewards were rather basic.  Acceptance was also an issue back then, mostly just airlines/hotels, gas stations, and some sit-down restaurants in the area I lived (more than once I had a consfused waiter tell me they didn't take it, and I had to point our their own signs - when they finally swiped the card it *did* work).  IIRC some large anchor stores at the mall had it on their register signage but I never tried mine there.

It was cool (?) at the time, but back then to me (mid 90s) the $95 AF was a bit steep.  To put the AF in perspective, my Amex Green had a $55 AF.

[Total_Synergy]

Adding onto @UncleB 's response to this old thread, since it came up during my "curiosity search" for news of Diners Club post-Capital One merger...

I had a Citibank Corporate DC card, and was doing 3+ airline round trips/week back in the 90s for a NYSE listed "Beltway Bandit"/defense contractor.  The card that we were issued covered all of our "government contractor" travel. 

- It offered the Net 60 so we could push paper expense reports to Uncle Sam and get reimbursed (hopefully) before our DC bill was due.  When we used Net 30 Amex, you would find pink 'While You Were Out' phone message  slips on your desk saying "Call Amex re your bill" - making you look like a deadbeat. And you had to call the Amex Mafia to swear they would get paid so they wouldn't freeze your card before your next business trip 2 days later.  

- It offered Primary CDW. We were lectured by HR that if we forgot to decline the rental agency CDW, the cost would come out of our pocket.

- It was accepted by every taxicab, airline and hotel/hotel restaurant, "take the client to dinner" (aka fancy) retaurants or "chain" restaurants (for the solo employee) like TGI Fridays, Bennigans, Hoss' Steakhouse, etc.  You were expected as an employee to float some petty cash (~$40/day) yourself and then get reimbursed from your crumpled up saved paper receipts to go against your per diem allowance. Save those receipts!!

- It did not offer lounge access.  My boss, a retired Joint Chief of Staff general (all hail) was allowed an Amex Platinum, which gave him branded airline lounge access (no Priority Pass generic lounges back then; the dinosaurs didn't approve), which he flaunted at us lesser mortals mercilessly.

Life in the Stone Age, with heavy wool pinstripe suits, full t-shirts under starched dress shirts, neckties and straight-laced black dress shoes...

[SeanA]

Wow. Haven't heard about Diners Club in a minute. That card should go in a museum