Credit card names and descriptions: Where will it all end?

[Gunnar419]

Today somebody mentioned the newish "Prestige World Elite Mastercard." Which made me laugh.

I mean, nothing against the card (which really does seem to be as hoity-toity as its name implies). But "Prestige Elite"? Pardon me, I repeat myself.

For the last few decades, there's been a "description creep" of cards each trying to be more "elite" than the other one. First, there was the Amex Gold Card. And when other card marketers discovered that customers thought they were hot stuff for carrying that around, all of a sudden, "gold cards" were being marketed to every Joe Sixpack in America. So then we got platinum and palladium and then those hotty-totty black cards with the kabillion dollar annual fees so the upper crust could go on distinguishing themselves from us peasants. And now, naturally, we're getting black cards marketed to more ordinary Joes. And currently metal cards are winning the fancy card race -- which is pretty funny because the first charge card my mother had back in the 1950s was metal. Back then, plastic ones were a big advance, so we're coming full circle. And now the uppers are moving to embedding diamond chips and edging their cards with real gold. Seriously.

And those names! Prestige and Elite and Premier and Ultra and Centurion and Ultima and Infinite and Chairman's and Stratus White and Diamond and Royale and Accolades! Where will it all end?

Don't get me wrong, I think it's great fun http://www.billshrink.com/blog/9897/25-weirdest-funniest-coolest-credit-card-designs/

But where will the effort for cards to out-prestige each other end? When we have a Global Elite Ultimate Ad Astra Infinitum I'm-Richer-than-Thou and I can prove it because my card's made out of a 5,000-ounce gold bar and I'll club you over the head with it if you aren't sufficiently impressed card?

[TravisD]

The 11th card is awesome.

[Gunnar419]

Yeah ... Ceiling Cat. Amen.

[injustifiiable]

I just want a card with an lolcat on it...

[navigatethis12]

Well the real name of the card is just "Citi Prestige". The World Elite part is because it is on the Mastercard network. Anyway, I really am not into the names and everything, but there has to be a way to distinguish the different teirs of cards. Citi has three cards with Thank You in the name, and Preferred and Premier sound better than Level 2 and Level 3.

I think it's just issuers want to try something different to get more customers. If there were two houses for sale (same price) and one had a nice garden, drive, stone walls, brilliant interior, and the other was just a plain house with nothing extra, more people would probably go for the one with the added things.

I am not a fan of metal cards, or unembossed cards with the information on the back. Really the only thing I care about when considering a credit card, is how much cashback it will earn me.

Sport Utility Vehicle names are the same. The always have names like Expedition, Excursion, Navigator, things that represent big nature things or something tough. You will probably never hear of a Lincoln Daisy.

[Gunnar419]

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@navigatethis12 wrote:

Sport Utility Vehicle names are the same. The always have names like Expedition, Excursion, Navigator, things that represent big nature things or something tough. You will probably never hear of a Lincoln Daisy.

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Well, that's true for sure. And most of those Excursions and Expeditions are being driven around by people who would panic if they ever ended up on a muddy side-road.

I know the whole naming thing is nothing new. And that it's not just in credit cards. (How many ugly rows of look-alike houses originally had names like "Winchester Green" or "Cherryblossom Hill"?) I still think it's being taken to some pretty silly extremes and it's fun speculating about how much farther the "prestige" naming can go.

If I were marketing a card that's part of the World Elite network I don't think I'd name it something that's such a close synonym: prestige-elite. Or maybe I'd go whole hog and call it the Global Prestige World Elite Galaxy Top Hat Intergalactic Puttin-on-the-Ritz card. :-)

[jsucool76]

Navigatethis beat me to it, but "world elite" is all mastercard.

[Gunnar419]

Sure. But when Citi chose the name "Prestige" to go with it, they were being redundant. And also following a long, ongoing trend of coming up with more prepostrously "elite" names for cards.

[jsucool76]

Chances are it is called prestige to fit into their line up. Thank you, preferred, and premier.

[Dustink]