Does Diners Club still offer personal cards in Australia?

Mattg

Mattg

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I've just been having a look at the Diners Club website, and none of the personal cards appear to be advertised.

Diners Club

www.dinersclub.com.au www.dinersclub.com.au

If you click on the "individual" tab, which used to bring up the Frequent Flyer Diners Club cards (linked to Qantas) and Diners Club cards (which earn Diners Club Rewards points), you just get a generic "members area" page. But if you click on the "business" or "corporate" tabs, there are cards advertised.

Am I missing something or has Diners Club withdrawn its cards for new applications?
 
I called last month to get the annual fee waived and happened to enquire about switching from Qantas rewards to Diners.
They said that couldn't be done and would require starting a new application from scratch.
I didn't take it any further, but it suggests that the plain card is still available.
 
For what it's worth, Diners Club isn't listed as an option on Qantas' Cards and Banking page as I write this:

[removed link - appears to have nasty tracking cookies attached when coming from AFF]
 
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I've recently re-started using mine. It's mostly a glorified MC. The AF did post the other day and I called up and politely asked for a waiving of the AF. They offered me 2,000 points which I declined. A day later, they've come back and confirmed a waiving of my AF. We'll see what happens under NAB. I'm happy to keep mine at nil or half AF. If they can ramp up DC to anywhere near its former glory days, it will be the card to hold.

Out of curiosity, I did go onto the DC site and you're right, there doesn't seem to be a way of applying - even with the old paper based application I did long after everyone had moved to online and instant decisioning. thought they'd want to fatten it up before sale.
 
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I received a Diners card with my new Citibank Rewards Mastercard. It was free so I thought why not.

Know virtually nothing but at a quick glance it has zero foreign currency conversion fee and 2 rewards pts per dollar spend.

So it will be of value for OS spend and also a better return than the Citi card on regular spend.

Any other upsides or downsides with this companion card?
 
Direct individual applications are on hold, Diners support told me in September. So, companion card is the only way to get a non-business Diners at the moment anyway.

Citibank T&Cs say you don't get lounge access with the companion card. Benefits seem limited to the zero-foreign currency fee and points earn.

I think you still get insurance if you use the Diners for purchases, which could be good if you use it somewhere without a surcharge. You might want to try adding your Diners to PayPal so you can use it more places – I think people have had mixed results doing that.
 
woodyren said:
I received a Diners card with my new Citibank Rewards Mastercard. It was free so I thought why not.

Know virtually nothing but at a quick glance it has zero foreign currency conversion fee and 2 rewards pts per dollar spend.

So it will be of value for OS spend and also a better return than the Citi card on regular spend.

Any other upsides or downsides with this companion card?
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Diners uses their own conversion rate, rather than the equivalent of Visa/MC rate. The Diners rate varies and my analysis long ago from memory is that they seem to convert about the day it posts to your account, rather than the transaction date and is about ~1.2%.

That doesnt mean Citibank is lying. They are passing on the exact AUD of the transaction. At end of the day if you dont have a points earning overseas card, then it serves a good purpose. Especially that I use it on Paypal all the time.
 
theblank said:
Diners uses their own conversion rate, rather than the equivalent of Visa/MC rate. The Diners rate varies and my analysis long ago from memory is that they seem to convert about the day it posts to your account, rather than the transaction date and is about ~1.2%.

That doesnt mean Citibank is lying. They are passing on the exact AUD of the transaction. At end of the day if you dont have a points earning overseas card, then it serves a good purpose. Especially that I use it on Paypal all the time.
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Yea they get you two ways on the QF branded cards

one on the lousy foreign exchange rate calculation
two on the 3% foreign exchange conversion fee
 
Another nail in the coffin for Diners in Australia - received a text from Vodafone today to say that Diners Club will no longer be accepted for direct debits from next month.

Doesn't say whether DC will still be accepted for one-off bill payments, as the link it points to hasn't been updated in any respect.

Not terribly bothered as I have other cards that earn more. I'd just been using it for the free smartphone screen insurance at a lower surcharge than AMEX (which has similar cover).
 
An update here on Vodafone (as I can't edit my previous post). I dug some more and asked what the deal was with ditching Diners. Vodafone is switching to a new payment processor / acquirer, and apparently, the payment processor doesn't even have the ability to handle Diners. We're at the point where acceptance is so bad that major businesses can't even accept the card because their acquirers can't be bothered with it. 😂 If there was demand, surely that wouldn't be the case.

However, there is an upside. Vodafone's AMEX surcharge will be cut from 2.15% + GST at present, to 0.94% + GST from June 22, when they've switched to the new acquirer. Rates for international Visa and Mastercard payments will also come down, but there are some slight rises for Australian VI/MC cards. Basically, bad news for Aussie Diners Club, Visa and Mastercard users... but quite a win for AMEX users.
 
Has anyone tried using their DC for lounge access recently? The lounge website says access to "upgraded DC pass". I think in the US it now has access to priority pass lounges and have had several different answers each time I call.
Hoping we can still use our qf dc for overseas lounge access!
 
Well as Diners was run by Citi, and NAB has bought Citi, and specifically mentioned in the shareholder briefing that Diners is included in the purchase.

There is no mention what NAB plan to do with Diners, but they have purchased it for a reason.
 
camcam said:
Has anyone tried using their DC for lounge access recently?
Click to expand...
I used it a couple of weeks ago in BKK at the Turkish lounge. No problem at all.

It's about the only reason to keep it! but it is nice in that situation - I was flying to SIN on SQ and with no SQ lounge open VA status didn't do anything for me.
 
newmarket said:
I used it a couple of weeks ago in BKK at the Turkish lounge. No problem at all.

It's about the only reason to keep it! but it is nice in that situation - I was flying to SIN on SQ and with no SQ lounge open VA status didn't do anything for me.
Click to expand...
Fantastic, thanks for the info
 
theblank said:
Well as Diners was run by Citi, and NAB has bought Citi, and specifically mentioned in the shareholder briefing that Diners is included in the purchase.

There is no mention what NAB plan to do with Diners, but they have purchased it for a reason.
Click to expand...
I received a letter in the post today that NAB had acquired Citigroup incl Diners Australia. At this stage no changes to anything incl fees so hopefully lounge access remains as is!
 

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