Diners club companion card

[Legoman]

Yes, took about 1 week or so for me to receive the Diners in the mail.

What about before the physical card actually arrived? Did you have the new card details added to your online banking? Activation instructions? Or indeed was there any other vapour confirmation that your application had been received before you got the physical evidence?

 

[theblank]

I dont remember

 

[Legoman]

Just received my whizz-bang brand new 1st November release Diners Club card c/w chip, paywave, holographic mag stripe, non embossed numbers on the back and Discover / pulse logos.

I feel speshul. Activated just fine in online banking but it still doesn't show up in My Citi accounts summary page.

 

[Chicken]

Activated just fine in online banking but it still doesn't show up in My Citi accounts summary page.

It won't, not until you have made a transaction, and it is pushed into Citi by Diners.

 

[Legoman]

It won't, not until you have made a transaction, and it is pushed into Citi by Diners.

But the bizarre thing is, my supplementary card holder had their new Diners Club card details show up in their My Citi account summary page almost straight after application and long before the card was actually received. At the time I wasn't even aware the supplementary card holder would even get a Diners card at all, so for it to be the first one to show up as having been processed was quite weird. But then again that's Citibank for you: weird.

 

[Chicken]

But then again that's Citibank for you: weird.

I got supplementary card off my account for my sister, my sister did vice versa.

One of us could see our supplementary card, the other of us can't (I'm in China hard to check now)

But then again, Citi internet banking platform is run by people who don't write test cases LOL

 

[Legoman]

Just used my DC card for first time this morning at Coles. The chip/paypass bizzo doesn't work even if you do have it on your card. I had to swipe/PIN after trying to payWave it for an amount < $100. Still nothing showing up as regards a new card in the credit card section of My Citi account summary page in online banking.

I'm thinking this will be like the ExpressPay implementation after American Express cards got chips. It'll be about a year down the track before vendors start getting their readers replaced or firmware flashed by the issuing banks to read the DC chips. The cards come first, then the readers to support the cards come a lot later on.

 

[theblank]

Just used my DC card for first time this morning at Coles. The chip/paypass bizzo doesn't work even if you do have it on your card.

Yep, I still get Same thing happening with AMEX cards at some terminals, but not others. I figure its either old technology or the merchant hasnt registered for contactless payments with Amex, (if thats a thing)

 

[Legoman]

Just used my Diners to get fuel at a Coles/Shell servo. Worked fine, but the readers are definitely not compatible with the chips yet. Tried payWave first and got a message saying the chip has not been registered. Then inserted and got a message saying chip is not activated, use swipe instead. Swipe+PIN worked fine first time.

I also asked Citibank if it's possible to stagger the billing/statement dates of the two cards (in my case Signature Visa + Diners Club) for the purpose of making them more useful in an interest free days sense. ie. if the billing date for the Visa is say 20th of the month, then can you make the Diners billing date 20-15 = 5th of the month instead and thereby have an option to maximise interest free days as much as possible. It was clear they understood what I was asking for, but the answer is no. The cards and their statement periods are inextricably linked together.

I thought it was worth asking because I do know for a fact that Citibank can change your CC billing/statement date at request. I did so once because I also have an HSBC Platinum card which inconveniently had the exact same billing date and 55 interest free days as the Citibank one, so I asked if I could move it to offset it by 15 days to the HSBC and to my utter amazement, they said yes. For the record HSBC also agreed to move the billing date too, but obviously I only needed to move one, so Citibank it was since they responded first.

It's also taking a long time for Diners transactions to appear across in the My Citi summary page of online banking in Citibank. I used mine at Coles supermarket for first time on Saturday and I still have no Diners Club card even showing up as existing at all in the My Citi summary page of online banking. Not a problem for me. In fact if they lose the transaction entirely and it never shows up at all… then bonus! But just a bit weird is all. New thing beta-testing bugs is my guess.

 

[psi999]

First couple of purchases here with the diners companion card (only worthwhile for me for overseas spend).

AliExpress.com - 6 purchases from a few dollars to many hundreds. Prices displayed on site in AUD (but billed in USD).

Charged to card exact USD to AUD conversion for when the transaction was completed.

No FX fee funny business to be found.

 

[Legoman]

First couple of purchases here with the diners companion card (only worthwhile for me for overseas spend).

Agreed. It's not really any better than other free cards when using in Australia. The Velocity Escape + Qantas Discovery cards (both no annual fee) direct earn at a rate of 1:1. The Citibank Signature FFL-deal earns Velocity at any of 0.4, 0.6 or 0.8:1 depending on the vendor: 0.8 for airlines\hotels, 0.6 for Colesworth and 0.4 for everyone else. The HSBC Platinum earns Velocity at 0.5:1 and the Diners Club only earns Velocity at the same top rate of 0.8 as the Signature FFL despite being described as a points accelerator card by Citibank.

I can't actually think of a single vendor in Australia who would accept Diners Club but at the same time not accept Amex. That's the only situation where the Diners Club card would be useful in Australia. Otherwise, you're always going to pull out your direct earn Amex instead and getting the higher points earn rate. The only advantage it has is as you say for foreign currency or foreign transaction processing purchases, where the Amex FX transaction fee is prohibitive. Even then, this option is severely curtailed by the fact the Diners Club card can't yet be added to PayPal.

 

[theblank]

The Citibank Signature FFL-deal earns Velocity at any of 0.4, 0.6 or 0.8:1.......

My reckoning is the Signature minimum earn is 0.5

and the Diners Club only earns Velocity at the same top rate of 0.8 as the Signature FFL despite being described as a points accelerator card by Citibank.

1.0 ppd

 

[Legoman]

My reckoning is the Signature minimum earn is 0.5

When I went to test/try a conversion to Velocity from my Signature FFL Citibank points account, it told me the conversion would be done at the ratio of 2.5:1

Hence, the conversion factor you have to apply when talking about earn rates in terms of Velocity points is 2/5 or 0.4. So get 1pt\$ = 0.4VFF; 1.5pt\$ = 0.6VFF & 2pt/$ = 0.8VFF

 

[theblank]

When I went to test/try a conversion to Velocity from my Signature FFL Citibank points account, it told me the conversion would be done at the ratio of 2.5:1

When I login to Citi Rewards (i just checked)
Citi points to Velocity points transfer is 2:1 (doesnt matter what card product you have)

BUT.

this page, not logged in, shows 2.5:1
https://www.citirewards.com/tygr-we...CB&cmp=nav&lid=sub-nav|travel|points-transfer

I dont know what this all means (without making any rash assumptions)

 

[Legoman]

When I login to Citi Rewards (i just checked)
Citi points to Velocity points transfer is 2:1

Right you are. Apologies, I must have been looking at the wrong thing (was using unfamilar computer at work)

The variable earn rates for the Signature FFL therefore do equate to 0.5/0.75/1.0 as you said, while the Diners card is a hard 1.0 all the time assuming you can actually use it. In reality, the most likely places that will accept it are the same ones that will earn 0.75pts/$ with the Visa card. ie. Colesworth/Bunnings/Petrol stations. So it represents realistically a 33% gain points accelerator card (as Citibank staff like to call it).

 

[theblank]

Right you are. Apologies, I must have been looking at the wrong thing (was using unfamilar computer at work)

I know I am right but did you see this. Maybe thats what you saw. possibly an upcoining change not yet announced. and I am not surprised, its on a par with other banks.



this page, not logged in, shows 2.5:1
https://www.citirewards.com/tygr-we...CB&cmp=nav&lid=sub-nav|travel|points-transfer

 

[oz_mark]

Is the card supposed to have any numbers on it, or have I just received a blank?

 

[ChrisFlyer]

Re: the confusion on 2:1 vs 2.5:1 conversions to Velocity from Citibank: for Platinum cards the rate is 2.5:1, and for Signature and Prestige cards it's 2:1.

So if you have the Diners linked to a Signature or Prestige card, you can earn the equivalent of 1 Velocity point per $1 spent. If you have the Diners linked to Platinum, you can only earn 0.8 Velocity points per $1 spent.

(The website shows the worst available conversion rate when you're not logged in, which is 2.5:1, but if you log in as a customer with one of those higher level cards, the conversion rate adjusts accordingly - and if you're a Prestige cardholder, all the other partners appear too.)

 

[Legoman]

The website shows the worst available conversion rate when you're not logged in, which is 2.5:1, but if you log in as a customer with one of those higher level cards, the conversion rate adjusts accordingly

This is precisely the mistake I made. Assumed I was auto-logged in, but I wasn't.

 

[theblank]

Is the card supposed to have any numbers on it, or have I just received a blank?

Did you look at the reverse.