Diners Club International

The precise details as to the origins of the idea are lost in history and myth, but all are slight variants on the story of a man who was embarrassed to find that he couldn’t pay for his restaurant bill because he had forgotten his wallet. Hence, Diners Club was born in 1950 after an initial injection of $1.5 billion in start-up funds. By the end of that year, the service already had 20,000 customers, and it continued to grow rapidly. The first actual plastic card that we may recognise today was introduced in 1961.

Of course, the monopoly on this idea did not last long. Rival American Express soon arrived on the scene, followed by the more popular and more generally available credit cards provided by the Visa and MasterCard brands.

Diners Club is in fact a charge card, and not like most typical credit cards available today. Most typical credit cards allow you to spend up to a certain limit. Customers are then charged interest on the amount outstanding at the end of the monthly billing period.

With charge cards like Diners Club, you are instead required to pay off the entire balance on the card each month. In return for this, customers are not charged any interest at all. This means that members can enjoy up to 56 days of interest free borrowing (dependent on where in the monthly statement period the purchase is made). You have up to 25 days from the statement date to pay off your balance (hence the 56 days: 31 + 25). Instead of interest payments, members are charged a £50 annual fee, which is added to the customer’s account balance at the beginning of each year.

The company and its service have come a long way since its origins as a convenient way of paying restaurant bills. It is now recognised around the world as a valid method of payment for goods and services (hence it is now known as Diners Club International).

Today, the card is most often used as a business account and indeed the card is heavily focused on and marketed to the corporate world, especially the international business travel market. Most international luxury hotels rely on Diners Club holding customers and their expense accounts for their commercial success. Most major international airports also provide exclusive luxury members lounges for card holders too.

Many online casinos now accept Diners Club as a method of payment, so look out for these if you are a member.