On Wed, 1 Oct 2003 07:37:51 +0100 Nicholas F Hodder said...

Either way, the retailer is worse off than accepting Visa or MasterCard.
I'm not sure what Diners Club do.

Correct, that probably answers your question as to why LUL (amongst
others) have made a commercial decision not to accept them.

Of course Amex & Diners card holders (or "Members" as they prefer to be
called) come out with the statement "The perks are much better" as a
standard response each time this point is raised.

Yes, but we don't forget how those better perks are funded.

By the retailer who chooses to accept Amex (or Diners) and accepts a cut
in his profit or commission margin or delays his cash flow.

IMO it needs more of the big retailers to start pulling out altogether of
accepting Amex & Diners. Budget airline Ryanair recently made a big
announcement that they stopped taking Amex. IIRC they never did accept
Diners.

If the consumer wants the goods he'll usually pay for them by some other
way such as Visa/Mastercard or bank debit card. If that started to happen
perhaps Amex & Diners might have to start thinking about their charges
passed on to the retailer.

--
Phil Richards
London, N4