Has Amex lost its prestigious status?

[wasCB14]

Prestige is going to be relative, and in the eye of the beholder. I live between NYC, SF, and LA. I got a PRG with 6.5 months of history, and even Platinums are pretty commonplace where I go.

Now, if you're in parts of Mississippi (the state with the lowest per capita income as of 2014) you might be impressed with even a BCE.

[MrDisco99]

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@wasCB14 wrote:

Prestige is going to be relative, and in the eye of the beholder. I live between NYC, SF, and LA. I got a PRG with 6.5 months of history, and even Platinums are pretty commonplace where I go.

Now, if you're in parts of Mississippi (the state with the lowest per capita income as of 2014) you might be impressed with even a BCE.

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I live in Georgia (not Atlanta) and can offer a data point. I've had several people comment on my "fancy" BCE.

[Anonymous]

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@wasCB14 wrote:

Prestige is going to be relative, and in the eye of the beholder. I live between NYC, SF, and LA. I got a PRG with 6.5 months of history, and even Platinums are pretty commonplace where I go.

Now, if you're in parts of Mississippi (the state with the lowest per capita income as of 2014) you might be impressed with even a BCE.

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Not that it matters (I kind of get tired of this), I live in LA as well and NYC– still get tons of people talking to me about my card when I use it at restaurants or food places. But imo in the end I've learned prestige is meh; if the card benefits are good then it shouldn't matter how many people have it– as long as I'm winning!

[Anonymous]

When I got my first Amex Apr 2015, I felt like I was on top of the world. I wore a shirt that said, "Prestigious". 

Two years later, I don't really care now. It's just some more cards in my wallet with great benefits like the rest. My friends think my Amex cards are cool though. 

[AverageJoesCredit]

Any consilation on prestige, lol, was watching The Wedding Singer last nighr, and Sandlers friend the limo driver whipped out a Green card to save the day at end so seeing its still around , you know its got the "It" factor

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the food for thought! I guess what I was trying to get at was if Amex's business model changed, and the short answer apparently is yes! Makes sense... they have more competition, and the consumers spend patterns/habits have changed since the 80's & 90's. 

[MrDisco99]

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@Anonymous wrote:

they have more competition

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Absolutely.  Now that Citi and Chase have cards that compete with Platinum, Amex doesn't own that top end segment anymore.  They have to expand their reach to keep from shrinking.

[Anonymous]

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@MrDisco99 wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

they have more competition

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Absolutely.  Now that Citi and Chase have cards that compete with Platinum, Amex doesn't own that top end segment anymore.  They have to expand their reach to keep from shrinking.

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At least Amex doesn't call their cards prestigious.  If anything is called "Prestige" you can gurantee yourself that it is not prestigious. 

[Anonymous]

http://hamodia.com/2017/07/19/american-express-2q-profits-fall-33-percent-due-costco/

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

http://hamodia.com/2017/07/19/american-express-2q-profits-fall-33-percent-due-costco/

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Actually you read the article their profits did not fall they actually went up.  A year ago they sold their portfolio of Costco Credit Cards for 1.1 billion.  So if you subtract the 1.1 billion from the one time sale they had 0.88 billion profit a year ago for the quarter.  This year the profit is 1.31 Billion.  So their profits are way up.  I was afraid for a second because I own a lot Amex Stock.  Which is still up over 50 percent from my purchases in February of 2016.  

People over-reacting to the Costco deal has been good to me.