Has anyone seen this article yet?
I wonder if this means the end of Mastercard acceptance for Diners Club... or the annual fee wavier for Citigold customers...
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- thok
- Senior Member
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posted: May. 9, 2008 @ 3:21p 
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- dolmar
- Senior Member - 4K
All they did was sell the credit card network outside of the USA to Discover card and not the credit cards themselves. Diners Club 2 years ago converted most of there cards to Mastercard network anyways. So Citi had no use for the old Diners Club network as Diners Club cards are really just upscale Mastercard's now.
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- thok
- Senior Member
Oh... no, I must have read it wrong, then. I thought they were selling the entire DC brand to Discover. So it's only the DC network cards that are going over?
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- gatzdon
- Senior Member - 3K
Does this mean that I'll finally get to use my Discover Card in South America??? Heck, when I was in Puerto Rico, I couldn't find anyone other than the Hotel that would accept Discover Card.
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- oopsz
- Happy Member
thok said:Oh... no, I must have read it wrong, then. I thought they were selling the entire DC brand to Discover. So it's only the DC network cards that are going over?
No, cards are remaining with their issuers. Discover just bought the network. Presumably so that they can crossbrand Discover cards, so that they can be accepted worldwide on the existing DC network.
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- thok
- Senior Member
Ha... that's interesting. So my Discover card will be accepted at overseas DC merchants, but my Mastercard-logo DC card will not
be?
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- DasBoot
- Greedy Member
oopsz said:thok said:Oh... no, I must have read it wrong, then. I thought they were selling the entire DC brand to Discover. So it's only the DC network cards that are going over?
No, cards are remaining with their issuers. Discover just bought the network. Presumably so that they can crossbrand Discover cards, so that they can be accepted worldwide on the existing DC network.
I don't know about that, Oopsz. The article says, "The credit card network Discover Financial Services said on Monday that it had agreed to buy Citigroup’s Diners Club International for $165 million, expanding its global presence." That sounds like they're buying the whole of Diners Club.
I would expect them to convert DC cards into "Discover"-type cards, instead of Mastercards. After all, you don't see Discover cards that operate on the mastercard network. They operate on their own network.
I would also expect the Citigold fee waiver to end, since Citi has little reason to eat yearly fees in order to support another company's brand.
On the maybe-bright side, maybe Discover decides to spruce up the DC brand a bit and expand its usefulness within the U.S. But that remains to be seen.
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- dolmar
- Senior Member - 4K
gatzdon said:Does this mean that I'll finally get to use my Discover Card in South America??? Heck, when I was in Puerto Rico, I couldn't find anyone other than the Hotel that would accept Discover Card.
Well if places you shop in South America currently accept older Diners Club without Mastercard Logo. Then Yes as Discover Card now owns old Diner's Club network that used to begin with 5XXX.
DasBoot Did you bother to read the whole linked article? It states that Discover Card bought the Diners Club International network. It specially states that network is outside of the USA.
The company expects to integrate the networks in two to three years. It said this would let its own cardholders use their cards at merchants that accept Diners Club, and Diners Club cardholders use their cards on its own North American network.
No where in the NYT article does it state it bought the card business. As far as Diners Club being useful in the USA it a Mastercard. It is accepted everywhere Mastercard is accepted. Citigroup Sold the network because they no longer use it as they have converted all the Diners Club cards to Mastercard. Diners Club Web Page look at the pic of the card and notice the Mastercard Logo on the card. The fact currently issue Diners Club card work on both Mastercard and Diners Club network is great because when Discover Card integrates the old Diners Club network and allows Diners Club card to use that network it will allow Diners Club card access to Discover only stores like Sam's Club and you will continue to be able to use your card at all places that accept Mastercard too. So it will be more widely accepted than a basic mastercard. The credit card themselves will continue to be issued by Citigroup.
Beside AMEX Charge card. No other credit cards allow you earn unlimited airlines miles except the few private bank Visa/MC which require a private bank account to acquire. So for everyone spending more than $75k a year the cap on most of the airlines cards Diners Club has a real value. Plus Diners Club every year runs a 2:1 promo into AA and BA for the last 3 years and 1:1.5 promo for Delta and Continental. So basically if you transfer miles at those times you are earning more than 1 mile per dollar spent.
Message edited by: dolmar on 2008-05-09 21:41:40 CDT-
- oopsz
- Happy Member
DasBoot said:oopsz said:thok said:Oh... no, I must have read it wrong, then. I thought they were selling the entire DC brand to Discover. So it's only the DC network cards that are going over?
No, cards are remaining with their issuers. Discover just bought the network. Presumably so that they can crossbrand Discover cards, so that they can be accepted worldwide on the existing DC network.
I don't know about that, Oopsz. The article says, "The credit card network Discover Financial Services said on Monday that it had agreed to buy Citigroup’s Diners Club International for $165 million, expanding its global presence." That sounds like they're buying the whole of Diners Club.
I would expect them to convert DC cards into "Discover"-type cards, instead of Mastercards. After all, you don't see Discover cards that operate on the mastercard network. They operate on their own network.
I would also expect the Citigold fee waiver to end, since Citi has little reason to eat yearly fees in order to support another company's brand.
On the maybe-bright side, maybe Discover decides to spruce up the DC brand a bit and expand its usefulness within the U.S. But that remains to be seen.
sigh. you're wrong, and it makes me sad that you didn't bother to do any cursory research before making wild assumptions..
Discover said Diners Club licensees in North America and globally are not included in the acquisition and added it will not issue cards or extend consumer credit in international markets as a result of the deal.
Citigroup will remain a long-term issuer on the Diners Club network.
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- DasBoot
- Greedy Member
oopsz
sigh. you're wrong, and it makes me sad that you didn't bother to do any cursory research before making wild assumptions..
Discover said Diners Club licensees in North America and globally are not included in the acquisition and added it will not issue cards or extend consumer credit in international markets as a result of the deal.
Citigroup will remain a long-term issuer on the Diners Club network.[/Q said:
The only thing these two new articles you link to make clear is that Discover bought Diners Club from Citi. Neither provides clear answers to OP's questions. It seems like the cards themselves will not change in the immediate future, so perhaps they'll remain as mastercards for awhile. But if Citi is selling the business in order to "streamline," I wouldn't expect them to continue to "waive" the card fees since they no longer own the network. There is no longer any benefit for them. But hey, we'll see.
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- dolmar
- Senior Member - 4K
DasBoot said:The only thing these two new articles you link to make clear is that Discover bought Diners Club from Citi. Neither provides clear answers to OP's questions. It seems like the cards themselves will not change in the immediate future, so perhaps they'll remain as mastercards for awhile. But if Citi is selling the business in order to "streamline," I wouldn't expect them to continue to "waive" the card fees since they no longer own the network. There is no longer any benefit for them. But hey, we'll see.
Maybe you just refuse to admit your wrong. Otherwise I have no idea what your trying to say.
Citigroup who issues all the Diners Club cards converted the cards over to Mastercard 2 years ago. Citigroup is largest owner of Mastercard. The reason Citigroup switched the Diners Club card over to Mastercard was because they wanted to widen Diners Club card acceptance and figured it was cheaper to pay Mastercard fee's than what it cost them to run the Diners Club network and expand it to compete with Mastercard. Now that Diners Club is a Mastercard it is no different or expensive for Citi to issue, run or maintain Diners Club over any other credit it runs.
They no longer need or want to run there own network. So they sold the old network to Discover Card in an effort to save cost. Ie I can not think of 1 place that Diners Club but not Mastercard. So there is really no reason for Citi to continue to run or operate Diners Club network. Discover on the other hand runs and operates there own network. So for them it was a benefit to buy the old Diners Club network as that would give them access to thousands of locations that took Diners Club card but not Discover Cards make there cards more widely accepted.
Also notice in every press release it says Diners Club cards will still be accepted on new Discover network. Citi did that just so that the card will be even more widely accepted than a normal Mastercard.
Message edited by: dolmar on 2008-05-10 02:15:02 CDT-
- irgins
- Member
I don't get why use a Diners Club when Credit cards = AMEX, Discover, MC, VIsa
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- oopsz
- Happy Member
irgins said:I don't get why use a Diners Club when Credit cards = AMEX, Discover, MC, VIsa
Most people are issued a DC by their corporate travel department.. the reward program is great, and DC's rental car insurance is primary, not secondary like every other card (if you total a rental car, DC steps in first, then once you hit DC plan limits you claim with your own insurance).
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- nmlss
- New Member
AFAIK, the Diners Club business was sold to Discover in toto - brand AND network. Note that this doesn't change the status of *licensees*, however. To that point, earlier this week in a local Citi branch I got confirmation that Citi is not 'seeking new applications for DC cards'. It was also however confirmed that the deal included a grandfathering provision for existing accounts, so nothing should change for existing cardmembers.
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- thok
- Senior Member
So this is a good thing, then... my DC card will be accepted at Discover-only merchants now (if there are any)?
DasBoot: I think you messed up the quoting or something; it's throwing the page off.
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- gatzdon
- Senior Member - 3K
dolmar said: .......I can not think of 1 place that Diners Club but not Mastercard. .......
I know of a few places in south america, but considering rounding errors have a larger impact on Citibank than these merchants do, your point remains just as valid.
Personally, I'd like to see this completed as quick as possible as this would be another backup card for me when I travel. (considering how quick some issuers are to freeze cards when you are out of the country, you can never have too many of those).
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- burgerwars
- Senior Member
Can anyone think of one place that just accepts the Diners Club card? I'm thinking the current card is just a MasterCard with the words Diners Club on it.
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- oopsz
- Happy Member
burgerwars said:Can anyone think of one place that just accepts the Diners Club card? I'm thinking the current card is just a MasterCard with the words Diners Club on it.
In the USA? None exist. Abroad is a different story.
Citi shut down the DC network in the US/Canada. All DCs issued in the USA/Canada are issued by Citi and are true Mastercards (acceptable worldwide on the MC network).
Foreign-issued DCs are *not* mastercards. They are only accepted on the DC network worldwide. However in the USA because there's no DC network anymore, they are accepted as mastercards. That's why a foreign DC will say on the back "Accepted as a Mastercard in the US/Canada". So in other countries, merchants who don't take DC but take mastercard will be able to process a US issued DC but not a foreign DC.
So why did discover buy the DC network? It gives them worldwide acceptance for the discover card. And they can transition foreign DCs to acceptance on the discover network here. It instantly takes discover upmarket and actually makes discover worth carrying when travelling.
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