Aug 21 2008, 07:27 PM
Hi guys, I’m 'new' here technically speaking but have been the unofficial member of the forums for 2 years or so, I only read all this while and never had the intention to post, but after looking at this thread, I felt that I needed to correct some wrongs and misperceptions of the 2 brands that I know best, Diners & Amex.Customer service for both companies can only know that much, and we have too many people here pretending to be smart alecks (no offense) which adds to the confusion. And if you were to ask me things like A/F waiver, service charge waiver, how to apply etc I might not be that well versed to advise you on, and a point to note is that most of the time CS reps will always refer the more important questions related to a cardholder to a department in the card centre, which I think is the mother of all departments in a card centre.
Diners:
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Those of you who think that this card is useless, I would only agree with you partially. For its lack of acceptance, yes. But then again, this is a charge card which is privately owned, and the merchant charges is more or less as high as what Amex charges, and for it not being a bank owned company, obviously its card base would be significantly less then the competition. But for its benefits, I beg to differ. Reason being, many people here do not know the benefits that come with the card, and do you know that Diners has the highest credit-free period of 57 days(if my memory serves me correctly) And that they only have one billing period for everyone with cuts off either on the 30th/31st every month? What about the membership points that does not expire and requires no enrolment fees? Air mile conversion of 6000pts compared to 5600pts Amex is offering? Or do you know the fact that this card has only one colour, regardless whether you are a royalty, Tun or Datuk, you still be holding the same coloured card? Also, do you guys know that in most major airports around the world, except for airports around S.E.A including KLIA, they have a dedicated lounge for its cardholders and you are eligible to enter those lounges free of charge? Major locations that I know of are HK, US, Philipines, Japan and the list goes on? And the fact that even though this is a charge card, there is a limit to start with, which you are not aware of?
If any of you ever hold Diners, and ever had a charge referred at the point of sale, and after swiping it for a few times again, the charge will go through automatically? This is because of the limit thingy most of the time, or probably the amount you swiped had exceeded the parameters that are being set into the system for each merchant type, which I won’t reveal. And for Diners, every referral that happens will, no matter it is a lost/stolen, overlimit/pastdue will be known immediately by its staff on duty and immediate attention will be given to your account to allow the charge to go through or maintain the decline on the card.
I’m sure some of you notice that your card is still being able to use to make purchases after the payment due date? Reason being probably you had so-so payment over the last 12mths or maybe the charge you are putting through is smaller then your ‘highest spending’ they call it, meaning if in the past you had in one swipe, swiped for RM15K, and had the ability to pay that back in the same month, chances are they will let it through even if your account is past due. Another exceptional case would be if you are the who’s who in Malaysia, you probably won’t have your card blocked, because they know for a fact you are somebody and the account would only be blocked once it reaches 90 day = 3 months! In most cases, except for new cards, say you are a member since 1980, 1997 or even 2005, they will probably block your account once it hits30/60 days. Meaning, factoring in the 57 day interest free period, you have around another 60-120 days before they acctually block your card. That’s if you had a so-so payment history, had large transactions coming in on your card before and managed to pay it in full the month after with long enough tenureship, you can expect them to give you this little leeway. And I would also like to clarify the fact that many people here have the impression that they are well valued by CC companies...bla bla bla...that is because the way the CS of the respective banks are trained to lick your toes, whether or not you are a good paymaster.
To those people, you wouldn’t want to see what kind of messages respective banks have placed on your account, possible credit runaway messages, poor paymaster messages, history of passing card for 3rd party usage (this works to your disadvantage should fraud happens), arrogant/rude/fussy cardmember, business rolling with your card, cash exchange etc..Messages that if you were to see for yourself, would probably feel like the scum of the earth...hehe...this applies to cardholders across, and all banks. So to those of you that brag that you had so and so limit, you are probably very closely monitored by your respective banks, for having so much credit to your name.
Besides that, Diners also offers 0%/12mths interest-free purchases, just like Amex's Flexi-Pay plan, Diners interest free plan is good in the sense that the offer is on-going for as long as I can remember, but the downside is that you are only able to use it at selected merchants ie: Harvey Norman, courts, Best Denki, HSL Electronics, Metrojaya...and you do not have the liberty to, like Amex convert whatever you bought into interest free plans.
Annual fee. is RM110 for generic cards, and like other cards can be waived most of the time, downside is you have to call every year, but not for the privilege fee if you were to hold its co-branded cards like Secret Recipe, Metrojaya, Manhattan Fish Mart cards etc. This applies to everyone, and in order to go around this, all you need to do is to call the to cancel your card upon reaching its expiry and few days later someone would probably call you to persuade you to take the card with the fee being waived, for the whole year. And if you want it to be waived again next year, do the same thing all over again...hahaha...
Customer service, Diners they are not as professional as the ones in Amex, and at many a times, the service rendered is nothing but lackadaisical. The pros to their CS is that since the card base is small, chances are that you would be given a more personalized service if you are the type that calls in often, as they would probably remember you. And Diners do have a in house travel agent, Diners World Travel, which accepts payments with other cards too should you wish to take up its travel arrangements plans, air tickets, hotel bookings etc. They used to have this Travel Now, Pay Later plans for its travel packages, do ask them if they still offer such plans. Payment methods to them is also fairly simple and easy, if you owe more then 1k, just give them a call (klang valley), and get them to come to your doorstep to collect the cheque, or alternatively you can always go to the nearest maybank/cimb branch to do so.
Amex:
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I think no introduction would need to be done on this brand name. And they are really a class above the competition. Talking about class, other then having a butler, or P.A or secretary who else could do things that you could never imagine is done by a card company? This is the company that makes the difference. Their service, from CS to back end reps is nothing short of world class, apply for it you will see the difference. Whipping out a Amex charge card (be it green,gold or plat), really raises an eyebrow compared to if you were to take out a Visa/Master
And to those who are still confused with Amex/Maybank, let me clear this up once and for all. Maybank took over as the ‘independent operator’ of American Express in 2006 for a sum of RM80 million, which means to say all existing Amex Malaysia’s card and merchant base is absorbed by Maybank as well, and most of its existing staff were either absorbed or they just left after the takeover and thus they are licensed to produce the Amex branded cards (charge and credit) with the centurion head and also the Amex branded card with the just the Maybank logo on it, minus the centurion head. Contrary to popular beleive to the man on the street, Maybank 'owns' the brand, no they dont. And for staff's that claim that they work for Amex, no they dont, they are working for Maybank, except for those who is directly employed by Amex Malaysia in The Weld. And for your information, the real Amex (M), still exists and they are located where they were previously The Weld KL it has been turned to become a global hub for fraud, authorizations, collections, merchant & customer service for Singapore.
If you wonder what is Hong Leong’s role then? There are classified as ‘network card licensee’ and with this they are only authorized to issue Amex credit cards that bears their banks logo. This entirely has nothing to do with Maybank. Just that the roles of the 2 banks are different. ‘independent operator’ & ‘network card licensee’. And both banks will not have access to each others card base or information either.
Pre-set spending limit, similarly to Diners the concept they are practicing, just in another way. Amex really does not have a limit set on its charge cards, and charges is approved is based on your past 6 months spending and payment pattern and often not you will be embarrassed at the point of sale if your charges if referred as the staff on duty would not be able to track down each and every transaction that is referred/declined, and unlike Diners where immediate tracking and action could be done, the same cannot be said for Amex until you call in personally. I mean their charge cards, if they trust you with it, trust me small matters like this would not be able to bother you and you can whack really high with it. Oh yeah, you woudn't want your amex to go overdue past 30 days as most likely, your charges will be auto-declined by the system once you swipe it past its due date.
Promotions and offers by Amex is really enticing if you compare it to most banks Visa/Master, and they even have this ‘selects’ booklet sent to you every now and then and have exclusive discounts for its card members at selected stores, i.e Banana Republic, British India, or if you are holding the Platinum charge/Credit cards with the centurion head, you can get 10x points at its platinum partners i.e Parkson, Apple..You could see their logo sometimes right beside the signboards of restaurants and shops everywhere, just like how MBF is. Since Maybank took over, more and more merchant’s are signing up to take Amex at their store, and its just a matter of time before Maybank overtakes the rest to be the preferred acquirer tag from MBF, whose merchant base is as wide.
To those who say that you hold a black charge card locally issue is a big fat lie, as far as I know only countries such as U.S, U.K, Hong Kong, Singapore, Mexico, Japan, and a few other EU countries has this card. And in case if you are a merchant who happen to accept people with black amex cards, you better be licking their toes when they come knocking at your shop, because you wouldn’t want to know how their potential spending power is like. And the black card is made out of titanium, and it’s quite weighty!
Travellers cheques is another feature only unique to Amex, and they starve off competition from Visa/Master with a legal battle and subsequently won to be the sole issuer of travellers cheques. Then again, with the introduction of the Visa Signature/Infinite product, I don’t think Amex’s share as the ultimate high end card would be affected much, as it will remain strong for the years to come.
Annual fee for charge cards, as far as I know, could be waived for the green and gold card but never for its platinum card. imagine paying RM2K+ very year for its platinum regardless whether you use it or not. This one of the company's initiative worldwide to maintain its exclusivity worldwide.
Oh goodness, I’m being long winded, no offense meant to anyone if I had, my sincerest apologies, and feel free to give me a PM for all your questions and queries.
Credit Card Thread V4, Plastic Money @ World Access
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