Archive for February, 2008

Diners Club is Dead - Long live Diners Club

Published February 13th, 2008 in diners club, sucks and nostalgia. 0 Comments

Diners Club; the logo and name are familiar but they are only now seen on

“the peeling window decals of closed restaurants of the service charge/dress code variety, the former haunts of the gray flannel suit businessman”

That was what we said last month in an article on Credit Cards. Now, having had time to muse we still agree. It’s hard to even get an application form for the card in Ireland, so you might imagine it is an ultra exclusive magical card. But it has more problems then benefits.

Problems

  • Poor acceptance (only large hotels and upmarket restaurants will take it, and even then they will try the “Do you have any other cards - because Diners Club take a high fee and take ages to pay us” - line)
  • It is a charge card (so if you spend too much and find you can’t pay it off in full you are in trouble, this is unlike a credit card where you could, if necessary, make the minimum payment and tackle the remainder later)

Benefits

  • Access to Airport lounges worldwide (UK and Irish lounge service terminated with an on 31st October 2007)
  • Rewards (what might I ask is wrong with cash, why must rewards always be compicated points systems, with Diners you can convert your Club Club Rewards to vouchers for “selected” - i.e. limited - high-street retailers)

We have looked at Diners Club in Ireland, which is part of their UK franchise. The situation in the USA is different. There the card it a MasterCard that happens to have the Diners Club logo printed on it, like a Sports team affiliation credit card Thus it is accepted everywhere that a MasterCard is. Yet isn’t a pity the corporate overlords at Citibank have chosen to slowly kill Diners Club, surely the drop-down menus of websites worldwide will be poorer for its loss, and the flash value of the executives wallet will be diminished.

We are sure the Diners Club was an amazing card, and the story of its founder is wonderful, but today - and we do live today :) - there are simply much better cards on the market; cards that offer more, cost less, and are easier to apply for.

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Bahamas, Barbados, Bermuda

Published February 1st, 2008 in WI, British West Indies, British Overseas Territory, BWI, caribbean, anglosphere, ambrand, west indies and commonwealth. 0 Comments

Bahamas, Barbados, Bermuda… the names call forth images of white sandy beeches and warm green waters, but what exactly is the difference between these three nations?

Bahamas

north caribbean
independence from the United Kingdom 1973 (now a commonwealth realm)
population 330,549
currency Bahamian dollar (pegged to USD 1:1)

Barbados

south-east caribbean
independence from the United Kingdom 1966 (now a commonwealth realm)
population 279,000
currency Barbadian dollar

Bermuda

north east atlantic (east of the USA, north of the caribbean)
British Overseas Territory
population 66,163
currency Bermudian dollar

All were part of the British West Indies/British Caribbean/Anglophone Caribbean (the politically correct terms keep changing), so English is an official language, two are commonwealth realms, and one is still a British Overseas Territory. But even though information about the islands in English is easy to find it is still hard for our European minds to tell them apart. Perhaps a resident can shed some light on the differences for us.

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Fake Titles

Published February 1st, 2008 in ebay scams and fake titles. 1 Comment

Lord of the Manor?
Laird?

These titles can be real, but if you buy from ebay all you’ll get it instructions on how to change you name by deed poll to “Lord John Smith” (where Lord is a first name) or a certificate granting you a short lease of a square millimetre or land in Scotland.

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