Business: Charge It, Please

Unlike other mortals, the 42,000 members of the Diners’ Club need never pay he waiter when they wind up a spirited evening on the town. They simply sign the check, get billed once a month. Last month the club, run by Frank McNamara, a 35-year-old credit specialist, handled the checks for more than $500,000 worth of members’ restaurant and hotel bills from 330 U.S. establishments. Last week, as the Diners’ Club got ready to celebrate its first birthday, it enlarged its service. Club members, who can already charge food, drink, rented cars and hotel rooms, can now put flowers on the tab too.

For these privileges, members pay $3 a year. The restaurants, hotels and nightclubs* pay the club an average of 7% of its members’ checks (tips are included only when the management agrees). Last month the club rang up a $10,000 profit before taxes.

McNamara and his partner Ralph Schneider, a lawyer, started the club with a list of 14 New York restaurants and $250,000. Last week, with branch offices in Boston, Hollywood and Chicago, the club was growing at the rate of 800 members a week. Biggest advantage to businessmen members: it gives them a ready-made accounting of their expenses for income-tax purposes. So far, fewer than 1% of club members have turned out to be deadbeats.

* Among them: Manhattan’s Copacabana, E Borracho, Cafe Louis XIV; Los Angeles’ Giro’s and Mocambo; Washington’s Harvey’s, Chicago’s Blackhawk, Philadelphia’s Bookbinder’s, Boston Latin Quarter, Miami’s Copa City.