It all started at Major's Cabin Grill in New York City.

一切都始於紐約市的 Major's Cabin Grill。

Businessman Frank McNamara was dining at the restaurant and forgot his wallet.

商人弗蘭克-麥克納馬拉在餐廳用餐時忘帶錢包。

His wife drove for 45 minutes to deliver his wallet to the restaurant and in that 45 minutes he came up with an idea.

他的妻子開了 45 分鐘的車，把他的錢包送到餐廳，在這 45 分鐘裡，他想出了一個主意。

What if there was a card that you could charge your restaurant check to and then you could pay off the balance at the end of the month?

如果有一張卡，您可以將餐廳的賬單記在上面，然後在月底付清餘額，那會怎麼樣？

No need to carry cash around and the restaurant could keep your card on file so if you forgot your wallet, no problem.

無需隨身攜帶現金，餐廳還可以將您的卡存檔，如果您忘帶錢包，也沒問題。

McNamara discussed the idea with his lawyer and with his friend Alfred S.

麥克納馬拉與他的律師和朋友阿爾弗雷德-S.

Bloomingdale, the grandson of the founder of Bloomingdale's department store in New York.

布盧明戴爾是紐約布盧明戴爾百貨公司創始人的孫子。

A year later he walked back into Major's Cabin Grill and paid his check with his new Diners Club card.

一年後，他又走進少校小屋燒烤店，用新的大來俱樂部卡付了賬。

At the time it was made of cardboard, charged the member a $5 annual fee and the restaurant a 7% merchant fee.

當時，它是用硬紙板製成的，向會員收取 5 美元的年費，向餐廳收取 7% 的商戶費。

Although 7% sounds a lot by today's standards, McNamara said in a newspaper interview at the time, it saves the restaurant owners a lot of bookkeeping and the bother of collecting bad debts.

麥克納馬拉當時在接受報紙採訪時說，雖然按照現在的標準，7% 的利潤聽起來很多，但它為餐館老闆省去了大量的記賬工作和追討壞賬的麻煩。

After all, Diners Club was now responsible for collecting on those debts, not the restaurants.

畢竟，現在是大來俱樂部負責追討這些債務，而不是餐館。

The club quickly grew from just 200 of McNamara's friends and family at the start up to 20,000 members by the end of 1950 and then to 42,000 in 1951, expanding across the US.

俱樂部迅速發展壯大，從最初只有 200 名麥克納馬拉的親朋好友，到 1950 年底已發展到 20,000 名會員，1951 年又發展到 42,000 名會員，並擴展到全美各地。

In 1953 they expanded across the world and by 1967 Diners Club was accepted in 130 countries.

1953 年，大來俱樂部的業務擴展到全世界，到 1967 年，大來俱樂部已被 130 個國家接受。

Alfred S.

阿爾弗雷德-S.

Bloomingdale was involved with Diners Club at the beginning but then started a competing venture in California called Dine & Sign, which later merged with Diners Club and he joined the board of directors.

布盧明戴爾一開始參與了大來俱樂部，但後來在加利福尼亞創辦了一家名為 "Dine & Sign "的競爭企業，該企業後來與大來俱樂部合併，他也加入了董事會。

Bloomingdale would later serve as CEO from 1964 to 1969.

布盧明戴爾後來在 1964 至 1969 年間擔任首席執行官。

In addition to being the first charge card, Diners Club is also the grandfather of Amex Travel, Expedia and just about any computerized travel booking system you can think of.

除了是第一張消費卡，大來俱樂部還是運通旅行卡、Expedia 和幾乎所有你能想到的電腦旅行預訂系統的鼻祖。

In 1969 they created Reservations World, the first hotel reservation service that allowed users to book hotels anywhere in the world by dialing a toll-free number.

1969 年，他們創建了首家酒店預訂服務公司 Reservations World，用戶只需撥打一個免費電話號碼，即可預訂世界任何地方的酒店。

This developed further in 1984 when Diners Club created the credit card industry's first rewards program called Club Rewards.

1984 年，大來俱樂部創建了信用卡行業首個獎勵計劃 "俱樂部獎勵"，使這一計劃得到進一步發展。

In contrast, membership rewards from American Express didn't start until 1991.

相比之下，美國運通的會員獎勵直到 1991 年才開始實行。

But Diners Club wouldn't dominate the credit card industry forever.

但是，大來俱樂部並沒有永遠稱霸信用卡行業。

Frank McNamara had said in a newspaper interview in the 50s, It's so simple an idea that at least 25 people have told me they had the same idea before me but they didn't follow through.

弗蘭克-麥克納馬拉（Frank McNamara）在 50 年代接受報紙採訪時曾說："這個想法非常簡單，至少有 25 個人告訴我，他們在我之前也有過同樣的想法，但都沒有付諸實施。

Well, that may have been true before he launched his card, but once others saw the success of Diners Club, they all wanted to jump on the bandwagon.

在他推出大來卡之前，也許確實如此，但一旦其他人看到大來俱樂部的成功，他們都想加入這個行列。

Hilton Hotels launched Cart Blanche in 1958, which would become the most prestigious card in the world despite having a small number of card members.

希爾頓酒店於 1958 年推出了 "白卡"（Cart Blanche），儘管該卡的會員人數很少，但卻成為世界上最負盛名的卡。

And American Express launched their card the same year and Amex really started to give Diners Club a run for their money.

同年，美國運通推出了他們的卡，運通卡真正開始給大來俱樂部帶來衝擊。

Eventually, American Express won and came to dominate the members card space, despite Diners Club having pioneered many aspects of American Express' business model, such as the card itself, a travel booking service, and a membership points system.

儘管大來俱樂部開創了美國運通業務模式的許多方面，如卡本身、旅行預訂服務和會員積分系統，但美國運通最終勝出，成為會員卡領域的霸主。

Cart Blanche also faltered and later merged with Diners Club.

購物車布蘭奇（Cart Blanche）也搖搖欲墜，後來與大來俱樂部（Diners Club）合併。

Diners Club was acquired by Citigroup in 1981 and then by Discover Financial Services in 2008, and Canadian bank BMO currently owns the rights to the North American franchise.

大來俱樂部於 1981 年被花旗集團收購，後於 2008 年被發現金融服務公司收購，目前加拿大銀行 BMO 擁有北美特許經營權。

Sadly, the cards aren't what they once were.

遺憾的是，這些卡片已今非昔比。

In 2004, Diners Club had done a deal with Mastercard to use their payment network.

2004 年，大來俱樂部與萬事達卡達成協議，使用萬事達卡的支付網絡。

This led to far wider acceptance of Diners Club cards but came at a price.

這使得大來俱樂部卡被更廣泛地接受，但也付出了代價。

The merchant fees Mastercard charged were lower and thus this meant less revenue for Diners Club and thus less rewards offered to card members.

萬事達卡收取的商戶費用較低，這意味著大來俱樂部的收入減少，是以提供給會員的獎勵也減少了。

Gary Leff wrote in travel blog View from the Wing, Up until 2005, Diners Club was a great card.

加里-勒夫（Gary Leff）在旅遊博客 View from the Wing 中寫道："直到 2005 年，大來俱樂部都是一張很棒的卡。

It gave you an outstanding rewards program on top of the two full billing cycles to pay.

除了兩個完整的賬單支付週期外，它還為您提供了出色的獎勵計劃。

Free iDine Prime, 20% back or more at participating restaurants, concierge services, and primary collision damage coverage for rental cars.

免費 iDine Prime、在參與計劃的餐廳消費可享受 20% 或更多的折扣、禮賓服務以及租車的主要碰撞損壞保險。

Back in 2006, the Diners Club card eliminated restaurant benefits, which struck me as absurd.

2006 年，大來俱樂部卡取消了餐廳優惠，這讓我覺得很荒謬。

We used to see the annual summer 100% transfer bonus to British Airways.

以前，我們每年夏天都能享受到 100%的英國航空轉機獎勵。

That dropped to 50% for a while and in recent times, that's been down to 30%.

有一段時間降到了 50%，最近又降到了 30%。

Right now, Diners Club does have a large selection of transfer partners such as British Airways, Alaska and Delta, as well as some more unusual ones such as SAS, South African Airways and Iceland Air.

目前，大來俱樂部有很多轉機合作伙伴可供選擇，如英國航空公司、阿拉斯加航空公司和達美航空公司，還有一些比較特別的合作伙伴，如 SAS、南非航空公司和冰島航空公司。

Points typically transfer at a 1 to 1 ratio.

積分通常以 1 比 1 的比例轉讓。

You can also transfer to Hilton, Marriott and Starwood but at less favourable ratios.

您也可以轉至希爾頓、萬豪和喜達屋，但轉會費率較低。

Or you could just spend 18,000 points on this.

或者，您也可以花 18,000 點積分購買。

Ok, it is 3 feet wide, but seriously, who would want that?

好吧，它是 3 英尺寬，但說真的，誰會想要呢？

Sadly, in North America, the cards are not available to new applicants at the time of this video.

遺憾的是，在本視頻播出時，北美地區的新申請人還不能使用這些卡。

Some commentators in online forums such as Flyertalk blame manufactured spenders for taking advantage of the card's generous categories to earn huge rewards which cost the company a lot of money.

在 Flyertalk 等在線論壇上，一些評論家指責那些利用該卡豐富的類別賺取鉅額獎勵的人為消費，這讓公司損失慘重。

For example, the Diners Club Elite card offers 3x bonus categories at gas stations, drug stores and grocery stores.

例如，大來俱樂部精英卡在加油站、藥店和雜貨店提供 3 倍的獎勵類別。

I think you can see the potential.

我想你能看到其中的潛力。

CVS, for example, is a drug store and they sell Visa prepaid gift cards, just what manufactured spenders want.

例如，CVS 是一家藥店，他們出售 Visa 預付禮品卡，這正是製造型消費的人想要的。

This article talks about a guy who spent $119 in activation fees on $10,000 worth of Visa gift cards which he then used to pay back his Diners Club card, probably via another card, such as Amex Serve, and earned 30,000 points in the process that he then transferred to SPG.

這篇文章講述了一個人花了 119 美元的激活費購買了價值 10,000 美元的 Visa 禮品卡，然後用來償還他的大來俱樂部卡，可能是通過另一張卡，如運通 Serve，並在此過程中賺取了 30,000 點積分，然後將這些積分轉入 SPG。

That could probably get you close to $1,000 worth of hotel stays.

這大概能讓你入住價值近 1,000 美元的酒店。

This is why many cards limit spending in bonus categories or give bonus categories that are hard to do manufactured spend in, such as travel.

這就是為什麼許多卡限制在獎勵類別中消費，或給予難以製造消費的獎勵類別，如旅遊。

Right now, the Diners Club cards on the company's US website don't look especially competitive on benefits, except for the great selection of transfer partners.

目前，該公司美國網站上的大來俱樂部卡除了有大量的轉帳合作伙伴可供選擇外，在優惠方面似乎並不特別具有競爭力。

None of them are accepting new applications, although the corporate card does allow you to inquire.

它們都不接受新的申請，儘管公司卡允許您進行查詢。

I hope Diners Club does make it back for a relaunch sometime in the future, since it would be a shame to see a company with so much history fade into obscurity.

我希望大來俱樂部能在未來的某個時候重新啟動，因為看到一家擁有如此悠久歷史的公司逐漸銷聲匿跡實在是太可惜了。

Guys, what do you think about all this?

夥計們，你們對此有何看法？

Please leave your comments below.

請在下方留言。

Subscribe if you are new for more credit card videos almost every day.

如果您是新用戶，請訂閱，幾乎每天都有更多信用卡視頻。

We'll see you next time.

我們下次再見。

Bye bye.

再見