For those existing Diners Club and Qantas Club members like me who are considering taking up the new co-branded Diners/Qantas Frequent Flyer card, I have one word of advice -- don't. It is a blatant rip-off.
As a former Diners/Ansett Golden Wing card owner, I only pay $47.50 pa membership fee for my present Diners Club card, which includes their Rewards program where you can transfer points to Qantas FF at anytime.
The present card's annual membership fee is $95, double what I am paying at the moment.
However, the major rip-off is that you only have 14 days to pay upon receipt of their invoice. Existing members presently have 21 days to pay (this is down from 28 days when they conveniently changed the payment terms to suit themselves), a full week longer. Note also that the time available to pay is from the date of the invoice, and typically you don't physically receive this until several days after this date, meaning you have even less time to pay.
The misleading part is that on the offer letter it says "Up to 44 days to pay#". Note the little cross-hash (#). In fine print on the bottom on the back of the letter it says "to avoid fees you have 14 days after the account issue date to pay". These fees are Liquidated Damages, which Diners Club is all too ready to slug you if you are one day late in paying.
Diners Club is offering some nice carrots -- 2,000 points on joining, 1.5 points per dollar until February and no 1st year's membership fee, but after that they have got you.
This is a blatant attempt by Diners Club to woo existing DC and QFF members into accepting worse conditions all for the "excitement" of owning a card with two companies' logos on it. I can't believe any exisiting Diners Club member would join if they knew that all they were getting were higher membership fees and worse payment terms.
In any case, I'm sure even new customers would find more competitive credit card / frequent flier products than this one.
I thought I'd post this as the offer is open until 30/11/03.
Caveat emptor!!
As a former Diners/Ansett Golden Wing card owner, I only pay $47.50 pa membership fee for my present Diners Club card, which includes their Rewards program where you can transfer points to Qantas FF at anytime.
The present card's annual membership fee is $95, double what I am paying at the moment.
However, the major rip-off is that you only have 14 days to pay upon receipt of their invoice. Existing members presently have 21 days to pay (this is down from 28 days when they conveniently changed the payment terms to suit themselves), a full week longer. Note also that the time available to pay is from the date of the invoice, and typically you don't physically receive this until several days after this date, meaning you have even less time to pay.
The misleading part is that on the offer letter it says "Up to 44 days to pay#". Note the little cross-hash (#). In fine print on the bottom on the back of the letter it says "to avoid fees you have 14 days after the account issue date to pay". These fees are Liquidated Damages, which Diners Club is all too ready to slug you if you are one day late in paying.
Diners Club is offering some nice carrots -- 2,000 points on joining, 1.5 points per dollar until February and no 1st year's membership fee, but after that they have got you.
This is a blatant attempt by Diners Club to woo existing DC and QFF members into accepting worse conditions all for the "excitement" of owning a card with two companies' logos on it. I can't believe any exisiting Diners Club member would join if they knew that all they were getting were higher membership fees and worse payment terms.
In any case, I'm sure even new customers would find more competitive credit card / frequent flier products than this one.
I thought I'd post this as the offer is open until 30/11/03.
Caveat emptor!!
