Diners Club International, originally founded as Diners Club, is a charge card company formed in 1950 by Frank X. McNamara, Ralph Schneider and Casey R. Taylor. When it first emerged, it became the first independent credit card company in the world.

In 1952, McNamara sold his share of the company to Joe Williams of Archer City, Texas, and the company grew unabated for several years, eventually signing merchants all over the United States. Diners Club created what would later be dubbed the Travel & Entertainment (T&E) card market, which focused on cardholders who were frequent travelers and had a substantial income to pay for other high-value charges. As these customers had no need to pay for purchases over time, these cards required that the entire balance of the bill was paid upon receipt. This type of account is known today as a charge card. Diners Club's monopoly was short-lived, however, as American Express and Carte Blanche began to compete with Diners Club in the T&E card market.

Diners Club also faced competition from banks who issued revolving credit cards though BankAmericard (later renamed VISA), and Interbank MasterCharge (later renamed MasterCard) towards the end of the 1960s. Diners Club began early on to allow franchises of the Diners Club name, at first in Europe and later throughout the world, for many years eclipsing the BankAmericard or Interbank MasterCharge networks abroad. Amoco gasoline also issued its own co-branded Diners Club cards for a time called, American Torch Club, as well as Sun Oil Company with its version called Sun Diners Club Card.

Diners Club International, the franchisor that holds rights to the Diners Club trademark, was acquired in 1981 by Citibank, a unit of Citigroup, as well as many of the largest franchises worldwide, although a majority of its franchises abroad remain independently owned.