All AU Diners Club personal cards will be cancelled in January 2024

[MELso]

Surely there must be some law not allowing a company to buy another company and then closing that company's products and not offering àn alternative?! I guess not....

Yes, it's called the Competition and Consumer Act and gives the ACCC an oversight role in regulating mergers to stop lessening of competition, but the ACCC waved the NAB takeover of Citi's banking operations through...

 

[BlinkybillOz]

Not received notification but they don’t have an email address for me so snail mail has yet to arrive

Does that mean you are still receiving monthly bills by mail rather than email?

 

[CaptJCool]

Does that mean you are still receiving monthly bills by mail rather than email?

Yes

It’s $2 well spent as I don’t own a printer
I don’t find electronic bills helpful as there’s ZERO AUTOMATED reminders mapping the bill payment date to the electronic calendar - o don’t care to manually enter these reminders myself

So
It provides a papersheet with a due date that sit in a due date ordered pile on top the table.

Once the due date falls due, it’s a VERY simple process to pay….

 

[Jay100]

Any equivalent card alternative to Diners Club card in the market?

 

[albyd]

I'm all ears - there aren't that I know of aside from Amex - but we all know they exist

 

[newmarket]

I got the letter today too. I’m not an AMEX fan…

 

[CaptJCool]

Any equivalent card alternative to Diners Club card in the market?

Just use a credit card
Made me think …

I realised I could use my soon to be defunct Diners to buy endless Gift vouchers before 31 January and use them within 3 years
Who woulda thought ?

EDIT And today fri 10 Nov

 

[Maggs]

I’m so disappointed…I’ve been using Diners for more than 10 years, mainly for the lounge access. It was the BEST value. Are they ditching all Diners Club access to lounges or just the one linked to Qantas?

Now retired, it is almost impossible to get a credit card with lounge access. Can I justify Priority? Though in recent travels overseas, I did notice a lot if lounges offering a fee for entry.

 

[ThePointyEnd]

I remember using my Diners Club card in Russia in the late 70's. At that time, for an a-la-carte breakfast, every single item was individually charged. That meant that each individual scroll of butter was charged and itemised on the bill. Amazing!!

 

[oz_mark]

I’m so disappointed…I’ve been using Diners for more than 10 years, mainly for the lounge access. It was the BEST value. Are they ditching all Diners Club access to lounges or just the one linked to Qantas?

All personal cards are being ditched. Not sure whats happening with the corprorate ones.

 

[Mr He]

Reminds me of the Diners Club card that I hold, a foreign one issued by ICBC. It won't be affected by the change here for sure, but I hardly use it anyway, more for collection purposes as a cardaholic.

 

[kangarooflyer88]

Any equivalent card alternative to Diners Club card in the market?

Equivalent in terms of annual fee? No. But there are other cards which provide unlimited lounge access, some of which may be beneficial depending on how often you or your family frequents lounges. One particular one that comes to mind is the AmEx Platinum card. Now certainly $1450/year annual fee is not for most people simply getting a card for lounge access for themselves, but there are some perks that offset the costs, namely a $400 dining credit, an annual Amazon prime credit, $450 travel credit, Accor+ membership (valued at $400 AUD). If you are the type that travels frequently it would be easy to break even on the costs right there. Lounge access with AmEx is also amongst the best of the credit cards. Not only do you get Priority Pass membership to all lounges for yourself and a guest, you have access to Centurion lounges, Virgin Australia lounges, Lufthansa lounges and Delta lounge (those three being if you happen to travel with them), Plaza Premium lounge access (some will point out that Priority Pass gets you that but the AmEx Platinum version gets you even more such as a shower at the SYD international arrivals lounge). And the best part? You can add up to 4 additional card holders to your account for free and they get the same lounge perks for themselves. In other words $1,450 gets you arguably some of the best lounge access available for yourself, your partner and relatives.

I am unaware of other credit cards in the Australian market that offer unlimited lounge access. Most of the cards that do offer lounge access that I've seen offer maybe 1 or 2 passes a year. Fine if you travel very rarely but not enough for the frequent traveller. And I should point out, I hold the Canadian Platinum card from AmEx and have QFF Platinum status now. Yes, I do use QF and OW lounges provided with my QF status but sometimes that's not always available.For instance, flying out of MSP last month on AA there were no OneWorld lounges I could access. In PIT there was an Admirals lounge but I couldn't access it as my employer's travel policy required booking non-stop flights when possible and the only carrier offering non-stop service to MSP was DL. Fortunately I could access the Club lounge at PIT (Priority Pass) and guess what? When I landed in MSP I accessed the DL SkyClub on arrival using the Platinum card. Even flying back to SYD at the end of my overseas adventure, there aren't any OneWorld arrivals lounges at T1 and I sure as heck wasn't going to waste time taking the T Bus to T3, clear security with my luggage and all that just to access the QF lounge. Instead, I was able to access the Plaza Premium arrivals lounge at T1, grab a shower and a bite to eat.

-RooFlyer88

 

[VintageDom]

I, too, am saddened by this state of affairs. I've had a Diners Club card since 1982. I chose it in preference to AMEX - who treated me and my application like $H&*.
I have had snail mail and email correspondence advising of the closure. It is disappointing that NAB has chosen to dismantle Citibank. Westpac has kept St George, CommBank has kept BankWest etc and let each of them continue in their space in the banking world.

 

[CaptJCool]

Well today is the LAST day

Terribly inconvenient
Fortunately I’m in Sydney tomorrow so can head to a Citibank branch and work towards a new resolution

I did a $1.10 Woolies purchase to see if it was still working
Yes

 

[albyd]

End of an era - managed one last big payment yesterday. I imagine it will stop working at midnight tonight. Last chance to give NAB one final slug of using the Diners Line of Credit before it is withdrawn. RIP old friend.

 

[kpc]

I have had Diners continuously since Jan 1991 when I started full time work...so 33 years!! Beyond pi$$ed off with NAB...

 

[andye]

Equivalent in terms of annual fee? No. But there are other cards which provide unlimited lounge access, some of which may be beneficial depending on how often you or your family frequents lounges. One particular one that comes to mind is the AmEx Platinum card. Now certainly $1450/year annual fee is not for most people simply getting a card for lounge access for themselves, but there are some perks that offset the costs, namely a $400 dining credit, an annual Amazon prime credit, $450 travel credit, Accor+ membership (valued at $400 AUD). If you are the type that travels frequently it would be easy to break even on the costs right there. Lounge access with AmEx is also amongst the best of the credit cards. Not only do you get Priority Pass membership to all lounges for yourself and a guest, you have access to Centurion lounges, Virgin Australia lounges, Lufthansa lounges and Delta lounge (those three being if you happen to travel with them), Plaza Premium lounge access (some will point out that Priority Pass gets you that but the AmEx Platinum version gets you even more such as a shower at the SYD international arrivals lounge). And the best part? You can add up to 4 additional card holders to your account for free and they get the same lounge perks for themselves. In other words $1,450 gets you arguably some of the best lounge access available for yourself, your partner and relatives.

I am unaware of other credit cards in the Australian market that offer unlimited lounge access. Most of the cards that do offer lounge access that I've seen offer maybe 1 or 2 passes a year. Fine if you travel very rarely but not enough for the frequent traveller. And I should point out, I hold the Canadian Platinum card from AmEx and have QFF Platinum status now. Yes, I do use QF and OW lounges provided with my QF status but sometimes that's not always available.For instance, flying out of MSP last month on AA there were no OneWorld lounges I could access. In PIT there was an Admirals lounge but I couldn't access it as my employer's travel policy required booking non-stop flights when possible and the only carrier offering non-stop service to MSP was DL. Fortunately I could access the Club lounge at PIT (Priority Pass) and guess what? When I landed in MSP I accessed the DL SkyClub on arrival using the Platinum card. Even flying back to SYD at the end of my overseas adventure, there aren't any OneWorld arrivals lounges at T1 and I sure as heck wasn't going to waste time taking the T Bus to T3, clear security with my luggage and all that just to access the QF lounge. Instead, I was able to access the Plaza Premium arrivals lounge at T1, grab a shower and a bite to eat.

-RooFlyer88

Just to clarify that the Priority Pass access on Amex Plat is only for the primary (+ guest) and one nominated supplementary holder (+guest). Other supplementaries (+ guest) can access the Centurion and Plaza Premium lounges. Lufthansa and Delta similar but no guest. VA lounges are not officially open to all supps but in practice it works.

 

[CaptJCool]

Officially gone

 

[p--and--t]

 

[BlinkybillOz]