Diners - Jumping on bandwagon

[blessed11]

Hi all,

Just signed up for Diners. Main attraction for me was effective earn rate of 1.5 SPG and AA miles per dollar. If transfer to SPG then AA you receive a 25% bonus, which gives an effective earn of 1.875 AA miles per dollar. Velocity is also 2 miles per dollar. I've luckily got a fare few suppliers who accept Diners with minimal surcharge.

My Amex Centurion transfers at 0.5 miles per MR. I feel more expenditure will now be finding its way to Diners.

Anyone else using Diners successfully? Anything specific to look out for? Their comfort limit won't be anywhere near what I need and prepayment will be a necessity until payment history is accumulated.

All processed and approved in two business days - can't complain.

Cheers

 

[Hvr]

Have you found a merchant who actually accepts Diners? Even with a huge surcharge they're a hard card to use.

 

[Homer]

Have you found a merchant who actually accepts Diners? Even with a huge surcharge they're a hard card to use.

Yes I think that's going to be the biggest issue, isn't it? AFAIK their cardmember numbers have been going backwards for some time and, as a merchant myself, I can't remember the last time Diners even bothered contacting us to try to get us to take their card.

 

[blessed11]

Totally agree their card numbers have been going backwards. However, did my research prior and from my base of suppliers I'm lucky enough to have a few large ones accept with minimal surcharge. Will be nice to start building a base of points there

 

[drron]

I don't have too much trouble finding places to use it.The problem is they often get reward points wrong and refuse to acknowledge their mistakes and their website often has glitches-eg recently you could only transfer to SPG with 3000-1500 SPG points.They can be very frustrating.

 

[blessed11]

I have heard that their systems are archaic / quirky. Has this the issue of points transfer been rectified? I'll be transferring very well above 3000 points at a time.

 

[Supersonic Swinger]

I'm just about to cancel mine:

- the insurance and lounge access I already get through other cards which are either fee-free or much lower cards
- in the 18 months I've had it, quite a few merchants I have originally been able to use the Diner's with have moved to non-acceptance
- the SPG earn is nice to get to AA but I suspect that with the AA merger and what has happened at Delta and United the appeal of the AAdvantage program is going to diminish, and I'm no longer chasing points as heavily.

 

[blessed11]

I'm just about to cancel mine:

- the insurance and lounge access I already get through other cards which are either fee-free or much lower cards
- in the 18 months I've had it, quite a few merchants I have originally been able to use the Diner's with have moved to non-acceptance
- the SPG earn is nice to get to AA but I suspect that with the AA merger and what has happened at Delta and United the appeal of the AAdvantage program is going to diminish, and I'm no longer chasing points as heavily.

Same here - insurance and lounge access is covered by Centurion. I said might as well trial - agree that AA may soon be heavily devalued after the merger. Worst case can transfer to Velocity at effective rate of 2ppd or to KF at 1.5ppd.

 

[Foreigner]

So what was the cost of getting the card?

 

[blessed11]

So what was the cost of getting the card?

$389 annual fee

 

[blessed11]

Can anyone confirm whether or not the MC attached to Diners personal account awards points for ATO transactions? Or has this been affected along with Citi cards?

 

[Supersonic Swinger]

Can anyone confirm whether or not the MC attached to Diners personal account awards points for ATO transactions? Or has this been affected along with Citi cards?

I can't confirm but I haven't tried given the general Citi attitude.

 

[blessed11]

Going to try a small amount today and will report. Processed some large transactions beginning of the week, charges have posted but points haven't. Does Diners usually award points on billing or like Amex when charges post?

 

[Supersonic Swinger]

If your billing cycle ends on the 10th of the month, your points for that month won't post until the 10th of the following month.

 

[digpomi]

I can confirm that points were paid on the mastercard for my financial contribution to our commonwealth government and diners in their wisdom classify it as airline spend

 

[blessed11]

I can confirm that points were paid on the mastercard for my financial contribution to our commonwealth government and diners in their wisdom classify it as airline spend

Thanks for the confirmation!

At .78 ppd AA Miles (via SPG) actually not too bad of an offer considering how much cheaper AA is

 

[sparoy]

I don't have too much trouble finding places to use it.The problem is they often get reward points wrong and refuse to acknowledge their mistakes and their website often has glitches-eg recently you could only transfer to SPG with 3000-1500 SPG points.They can be very frustrating.

Fully agreed! Once you worked out the merchants who accepts them, then it's pretty smooth sailing plus there's the MasterCard combo to fall back on.
They too initially got the points wrong on my account but I complained to them immediately and then they got the points wrong again but in my favour, so I'm not complaining now

 

[CWM]

Anyone else using Diners successfully? Anything specific to look out for?

Yes:
1) very fine trigger on fraud alert, means they can and will block your card anytime without notice and it takes quite some time on the phone to get it rectified (e.g. took me 40 minutes to unlock my card - locked during a purchase at Coles Supermarket). Always carry another backup card.

2) They don't like to hand over reward points, you need to keep a record of your spend each month and follow them up each time they fail to post the points. It is not automatic and reliable like AMEX.

 

[albyd]

I can confirm that points were paid on the mastercard for my financial contribution to our commonwealth government and diners in their wisdom classify it as airline spend

Hi,

I'm looking at DC particularly for the MC. A swing factor will be whether we can contribute to Canberra with the MC. Is this still working? I understand citi proper no longer covers this type of spend. How hard is DC to get nowadays? I'm already with citi with a high credit limit on select. Would this harm my chances?

Have I interpreted the conversion to Velocity correctly:
1.25 MC points/$
1.5:1 conversion to Velocity
0.83 velocity points per $ spent on MC - would have to be best MC/Visa earn for velocity.

Albyd.

 

[nickfromeastryde]

So I just rang up as I'm very keen to get points into SPG and other than staying in their hotels or using my DJ Amex at selected sites, am finding that quite difficult. The website is hopeless as a source of information

The help desk operator stated that no points earned on BPAY transactions using the mastercard which makes the card less attractive to me. She didn't really seem that switched on about what a BPAY transaction as opposed to a payment so I'm still not a 100% sure

Is anyone able to confirm whether you do get points for BPAY transactions to Canberra or anywhere else for that matter. At this stage no real incentive to apply as the point earn at Supermarkets/Servos/DJ's even using the Diners is no better than the DJ card. The trouble is I can't bear to use the DJ card anywhere else where the SPG earn is effectively 0.5 points per dollar and being an AMEX, no BPAY functionality