New Diners / Qantas FF card

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Davo

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Nov 26, 2003
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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!!
 
I've just taken up on their offer however my clear intention is to close off the account when 12 months is up.
 
Will drop ANZ Diners Card after 11 months

I agree with you all. I got this card in November 2003 and I finally got to read the fine print.

I've posted a small rant about it in another post but it is only worth it for the unlimited points and that there is no fee for the first year. This now gives me time to figure out which card I should move to for the long term.

I am also seriously considering dropping my ANZ Gold Visa as well as the annual fee hikes are just too high. When my Diners Club annual fees takes effect next year it will cost me AU$300 (150 + 150) just to keep both cards!

Small question to Davo or anyone who can confirm. Do ANZ Diners Club members really get 1.5 points up until Feb 2004? I can't find that in any literature but would be very happy to find it is true.

Regards
Daniel
 
Danielh,

I believe AMEX has some promo's with 1.5 points.

Another catch I noticed with Diners is they charge a fee for Bpay. : :x
 
Yeah, I'm looking at the Amex option but I think they are also fraught with a few little problems and unknown fees.

I would like to get the 1.5 points per dollar (for 6 months) but I had to wade through a lot of material before I found what the additional costs for a FF based AMEX will cost and all that.

I will probably apply in the next week or so (I'm waiting on a client to decide if my company wins a 3 month contract in Canberra or not).

On the Diners side, because I got the ANZ Diners card, I can directly transfer the debt to my ANZ Gold Visa Credit card for $0 cost. I of course make sure that I have a more then positive amount to cover the debt first before I do that.

Funnily enough, I am now finding the Diners card really useful now that ANZ has capped their points program. I now use it exclusively for all my shopping (good with the 2 for 1 offer right now) and my ANZ card only does my plane tickets (as I get bonus points with the Qantas flights).

I hope to find a cheaper and better option in the future though. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Regards
Daniel
 
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