Will Amex ever revamp the Green Card?

[wasCB14]

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@K-in-Boston wrote:

Wow, my 1000th post coming up!  

My perception could be completely based on region.  Lots of older fairly affluent New Englanders around here.  I wish Amex broke our merchant statements up like our other card networks are and I could give real numbers.  LOL  (With a direct merchant relationship with Amex, the swipe fees for a EveryDay revolver and a Centurion card are the same.  On the other hand, there's a huge difference between the Interchange rates on a Visa debit card and MasterCard Business Level 4 without supplying LII or LIII data.)

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Yep...premium Amexes definitely seem to be more common in the Northeast and CA.

Edit: By "around here" do you mean you live in New England? Or you mean there are many New Englanders on MF, and you live in a different region?

[mitchblue]

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@wasCB14 wrote:

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@mkhan1093 wrote:

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@wasCB14 wrote:

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@K-in-Boston wrote:

Those of us here are certainly in a minority of credit card holders so we think about cards quite differently than the general public.  Amex does make periodic changes to the iconic card.  My first charge card was "The American Express Card with Membership Rewards," which appealed to me for its MR program compared to the regular American Express Card.  Fast forward to today and that variation of the card became the norm, was renamed the Green card and the old one that many of us grew up with silently disappeared.  I don't have any numbers whatsoever to back me up, but in the wild I see as many Green cards as all other Amex revolving and charge cards combined.  I think there is a huge population who "never leave home without it," that are willing to pay the modest AF, don't really understand and/or care about rewards, and are perfectly content to get 0.7 cpp when using Membership Rewards during their Amazon checkout.  It's likely one of the most profitable segments of Amex's consumer market, so there's likely little need to make it competitive with other lenders' offerings.

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Wow. My experience is totally different. I mostly see PRGs, Delta/Hilton cobrands, and Platinums. I rarely see a Green.

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I guess I must be shopping at the wrong places, because I rarely ever see Amex cards being used. Mostly debit cards in my experience, and the CCs I see are usually from Chase.

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I meant PRGs, etc. were common among Amex cards...though they are common among all cards I see, too. Certainly not rare in my experience.

When I think of a Green card user, I think of someone who hasn't done comparison shopping for cards in the last few years. Before 2014, it wasn't that bad.

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I think a lot of people who were working on their first CC, remember the one good old Dad had, or Grandma. That's why I have 1 because my dad had it for years when I was small. Amex green was just so familiar. With backdating I wouldn't give it up for nothing. I also don't see nothing wrong with people of today owning a charge card and like mentioned it is the cheapest one.

[Anonymous]

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@K-in-Boston wrote:

Those of us here are certainly in a minority of credit card holders so we think about cards quite differently than the general public.  Amex does make periodic changes to the iconic card.  My first charge card was "The American Express Card with Membership Rewards," which appealed to me for its MR program compared to the regular American Express Card.  Fast forward to today and that variation of the card became the norm, was renamed the Green card and the old one that many of us grew up with silently disappeared.  I don't have any numbers whatsoever to back me up, but in the wild I see as many Green cards as all other Amex revolving and charge cards combined.  I think there is a huge population who "never leave home without it," that are willing to pay the modest AF, don't really understand and/or care about rewards, and are perfectly content to get 0.7 cpp when using Membership Rewards during their Amazon checkout.  It's likely one of the most profitable segments of Amex's consumer market, so there's likely little need to make it competitive with other lenders' offerings.

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The corporate cards are Green. I am sure there are more corporate cards than all the other charge cards combined.  

[driftless]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@K-in-Boston wrote:

Those of us here are certainly in a minority of credit card holders so we think about cards quite differently than the general public.  Amex does make periodic changes to the iconic card.  My first charge card was "The American Express Card with Membership Rewards," which appealed to me for its MR program compared to the regular American Express Card.  Fast forward to today and that variation of the card became the norm, was renamed the Green card and the old one that many of us grew up with silently disappeared.  I don't have any numbers whatsoever to back me up, but in the wild I see as many Green cards as all other Amex revolving and charge cards combined.  I think there is a huge population who "never leave home without it," that are willing to pay the modest AF, don't really understand and/or care about rewards, and are perfectly content to get 0.7 cpp when using Membership Rewards during their Amazon checkout.  It's likely one of the most profitable segments of Amex's consumer market, so there's likely little need to make it competitive with other lenders' offerings.

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The corporate cards are Green. I am sure there are more corporate cards than all the other charge cards combined.  

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+ 1

[Anonymous]

They should. I rarely ever see the Green Card. I run a very busy retail store and I'll see maybe 3 Green cards a year. Much more PRG and Platinums.

[driftless]

My wife's company card is a green Amex.  My guess is that you will see the use of the corporate green cards used almost always for travel, dining out, hotels, rental cars, et.  

[wasCB14]

Why bother to improve a card that...whether out of ignorance, convenience, and/or nostalgia...customers are willing to accept?

The business they get with the Green card must have very high margins. Amex gets an AF, pays out fairly little in rewards, and doesn't have to provide a lot of expensive perks. It may make economic sense to just lose a few customers (to lower-margin Amex products and other banks) rather than to kill the golden goose.

[AverageJoesCredit]

I like my green , reminds me of money and since i dont have any, good to have one in stock

[Anonymous]

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@wasCB14 wrote:

Why bother to improve a card that...whether out of ignorance, convenience, and/or nostalgia...customers are willing to accept?

The business they get with the Green card must have very high margins. Amex gets an AF, pays out fairly little in rewards, and doesn't have to provide a lot of expensive perks. It may make economic sense to just lose a few customers (to lower-margin Amex products and other banks) rather than to kill the golden goose.

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Not a good mind set. Amex will be in trouble in 10 years if they don't make any changes. Millenials and younger people are less likely to adopt an Amex compared to previous generations. 

[K-in-Boston]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Not a good mind set. Amex will be in trouble in 10 years if they don't make any changes. Millenials and younger people are less likely to adopt an Amex compared to previous generations. 

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( I am getting old.  I hadn't even considered the fact that there was already a generation after Millennials.)  I think Amex does offer a lot of innovative products that are more in-tune with the rewards and perks-seeking crowd.  While it would be nice to see a revamping of the green charge card, I agree with wasCB14 that it's likely a very high margin card for them (the swipe fees are the same as Amex's best rewards cards after all) since the cardholder doesn't get a lot out of it.