Diners Club
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| Subsidiary of Discover Financial | |
| Industry | Finance |
| Founded | 1950 |
| Founder | Frank X. McNamara Ralph Schneider Matty Simmons Alfred Bloomingdale |
| Headquarters | Riverwoods, Illinois, United States |
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Area served
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Worldwide |
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Key people
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Eduardo Tobon (President & CEO) |
| Products | Charge and Credit cards |
| Parent | Discover Financial |
| Website | www |
Diners Club International (DCI), founded as Diners Club, is a charge card company formed in 1950 by Frank X. McNamara, Ralph Schneider, and Matty Simmons. It was the first independent credit card company in the world, and it established the concept of a self-sufficient company producing credit cards for travel and entertainment. Diners Club International and its franchises service affluent and well-travelled individuals from around the globe, with operations in 59 countries.
The idea for Diners Club was conceived at the Majors Cabin Grill restaurant in New York City in 1949. Diners Club cofounder Frank McNamara was dining with clients and realized he had left his wallet in another suit. His wife paid the tab, and McNamara thought of a multipurpose charge card as a way to avoid similar embarrassments in the future. He discussed the idea with the restaurant owner at the table, and the following day with his lawyer Ralph Schneider and friend Alfred Bloomingdale.
McNamara returned to the same restaurant the following February and paid for his meal using a cardboard charge card and a signature. The story became well-known and is credited by historians as the beginnings of contemporary credit. Various versions of the story differ about whether it was a lunch or dinner at which McNamara forgot his wallet, and whether the bill was paid on loan or McNamara waited for his wife to drive his wallet to him. Some journalists later credited Alfred Bloomingdale with the idea for Diners Club.
McNamara and his attorney, Ralph Schneider, founded Diners Club International on February 8, 1950, with $1.5 million in initial capital.Alfred Bloomingdale joined briefly, then started a competing venture in California before merging his California-based Dine and Sign with Diners Club. Diners Club International was named for being a "club of diners" that would allow patrons to settle their bill at the end of each month through their credit account. When the card was first introduced, Diners Club listed 27 participating restaurants, and 200 of the founders' friends and acquaintances used it.
Diners Club had 20,000 members by the end of 1950 and 42,000 by the end of 1951. At the time, the company was charging participating establishments seven percent and billed cardholders $5 a year. In 1952, McNamara sold his interest in Diners Club to his partners for $200,000.
The first plastic Diners Club card was introduced in 1961; by the mid-1960s, Diners Club had 1.3 million cardholders.
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Wikipedia