Diner's Club is now taking applications for its new "Diner's Club Montage" card. Their marketing shtick goes something like this: You design the card. Translation: you can pick and choose your rewards program. The basic package, which includes the Diner's Club 20% discount at selected restaurants, has no annual fee. An intermediate package is $25/year. The full shebang which includes their full regular Diner's Club rewards program costs $75/year. You can also decide whether it functions as a charge card (pay every month) or as a revolving credit card. Looks pretty interesting! Here's the link: http://www.citibank.com/dinersus/montage/index.htm I may apply for their no-fee card in the next few months. Doc
Re: Diner's Club issues new NO-FEE Damn, there goes another inquiry LOL If anyone applies, please post which CRA they pulled. Saar
Re: Diner's Club issues new NO-FEE Ok, got some info: Source: https://www.citibank.com/dinersus/bounties/montage BTW - Just MHO, but the card does look ugly. Saar
Re: Diner's Club issues new NO-FEE Current cardmembers only, shucks. Well, the good news is that your post indicates the possibility of that changing shortly. Doc
Re: Diner's Club issues new NO-FEE Ok, I just called the Diners Club customer service number (1-800-234-6377) and asked to talk to someone in the Montage group. She immediately transferred me over to a very friendly woman who took my application by phone. She explained that the card was just released this week and that they weren't geared up for the onslaught of applications they were anticipating due to the no-fee option, but that there was no problem taking my application now. She also added that I would be one of the first non-members (no current Diners Club card) to hold the card if I was approved. Her statement: "There are only 6 or 7 of you so far." Saar, join me in the top ten. (Hell, you'll probably be approved, and I won't.) Doc
Re: Diner's Club issues new NO-FEE Sorry, Doc, no can do until I know which report they pull. One more inquiry on my TU report & I'll get a call from Mr. Isaac telling me their scoring model was not designed to handle that many entries. Saar
Re: Diner's Club issues new NO-FEE I'll keep my current Diners card - the Montage doesn't offer full & primary auto rental coverage (that's a biggie for me). It also doesn't say how much an additional cardholder costs?
Re: Diner's Club issues new NO-FEE mj, here are those specs -- they look pretty good: Additional card holders -- $0 (included) $200,000 auto insurance -- $0 (included) (Compare that to the $100,000 auto insurance you get with American Express.) However, if you upgrade the card to the full package for $75, you get all of the benefits of the regular Diners Club card. The only difference is that the regular Diners Club card costs $5 more. I also just called the Montage customer service number -- 1-866-532-8147 -- and they told me that the basic Montage $0 card does include complimentary access to the Diners Club Airport Lounges. Of course, they are in far-flung places (like Abu Dhabi, Amsterdam, Quito, Taipei, Zagreb, and 74 other equally exotic locations... like Miami and Newark). Doc
Re: Diner's Club issues new NO-FEE Psych- Note - it's NOT primary & full insurance on rental cars - it's secondary insurance (you file a claim with your own auto insurance 1st, then Diners picks up the rest).
Re: Diner's Club issues new NO-FEE How does this work if you don't have any auto insurance? I don't own a car but I do rent one on occasion. Would this then act as primary coverage? -Cindy
Re: Diner's Club issues new NO-FEE mj, aha, thanks for clarifying. What about the $75 full package? (A savings of $5 wouldn't justify changing cards, of course, but I am curious. The insurance stuff is above my head, lol. I'm just glad my wife pays the premiums or else we'd be in one helluva situation over here, lol.) Doc
Re: Diner's Club issues new NO-FEE I contacted a Montage rep. today. He informed me that... The card cannot be used as a charge card. There has to be a line of credit attached. He also informed me that the apr. on the card is ( 9.9% + Prime ). Not exactly a card to want to carry a balance on. But the rewards can be good if you dine out a lot. I did not apply for the card - yet. Best regards, Jim
Re: Diner's Club issues new NO-FEE Sounds like they're doing it like a World MasterCard - which means you'll lose your grace period if you don't pay in full - vs. Diners regular which gives you 62 days to pay & if you use LOC it doesn't affect your grace period (or your ratios, hint hint) Insurance - here's the poop. If you crash, with Diners they take care of it, period. They deal with the rental agency, they handle payments & everything. End of ordead. Nobody else ever knows about it. With everyone else's card (including Montage) YOU have to file a claim with YOUR auto insurance company 1st. They pay (less deductable) to rental agency. THEN you file with the card company, and they pick up what your insurance didn't. It's messier - and it risks your insurance standing (rates could go up or they could cancel you). Most folks don't think about it much - hopefully they don't have accidents. It happened to me once in Detroit- I got cut off, dude bashed the passenger side, and took off like a bat outta hell. Diners took complete control & care of it, by the time I got to Hertz to return the car, the rental agreement had already been noted, and a replacement was waiting. That's worth $5 a year to me. The grace period and 62 day thing added up to something like $1,000 last year (they send you a statement every year telling you what value you're receiving from the card ... WAY cool). OOOH - one more thing - the regular Diners Club Plus LOC interest rate may also start at 9.9+prime (like Montage) but they will lower it. It's not a retention thing, it's a credit department thing - they'll review and lower if they can. I'm at Prime + 6.99 (not great, but it doesn't affect FICO ratios hint hint). -mj -mj
Re: Diner's Club issues new NO-FEE Thanks mj, The rep I spoke to tried to convince me to apply for the Diner's Club charge card. Maybe I should do it as I do rent cars occasionally and I am back in the dating world again so I am visiting restaurants more often. An $80 annual fee is really not excessive if as I believe most higher end restaurants accept the card. That last sentence sounds a little ignorant but I have been paying cash exclusively at restaurants for years. So I really never paid attention to the credit / card list. If I may ask- is there anything you do not like about the Diners Club card? For example, do they try to sell you things over the telephone? Best regards, Jim
Re: Diner's Club issues new NO-FEE For what it's worth, I applied on Wednesday and today I called to check the status of the application. I was approved with a $10,000 line of credit. That's double my current highest line, so at the very least this will help my scores and will be good encouragement (I hope) in persuading AmEx Blue ($3000 LOC) and Citibank Platinum ($4500 LOC) to increase their limits significantly next year. One of my favorite restaurants here in town is included in their 10% off Diners Club discount, so this card will actually save me a few bucks over the course of a year. Doc
Re: Diner's Club issues new NO-FEE Thank you, Cyprigirl, heheheh! Saar, thanks! -- yep, Diners Club Montage. I'm getting the feeling that this is the Diners Club answer to AmEx Blue; like Blue, they offer secondary auto insurance as mj commented, but the amount of the benefit is twice Blue's. Doc
Re: Diner's Club issues new NO-FEE Thanks, Doc. Which report did the pull and how was your inquiry section on the report? BTW - this card should only be used as a charge card: Source: http://oak4.citicorp.com/dinersus/montage/trmcon.htm Saar
Re: Diner's Club issues new NO-FEE They pulled Equifax for me -- which is interesting because Citibank pulled Trans Union when I applied for the AA Card (the one I subsequently converted over to Citibank Platinum Select). Since Diners Club was bought up by Citibank years ago, I just figured that they would pull TU. My Equifax report (post-lawsuit) is the best of my 3. FICO is now 712 (which I thought I'd never see, btw, lol). In terms of inquiries, I've got 14 in two years of which 6 are in the past six months. Doc
