@Jeff532003 wrote:
I read on some site or another that Visa dropped the 5k minimum requirement last year. The article was basicly talking about how WMC and Visa Sig are no longer really a special perk. The WEMC and the new Visa you can't get in the states yet (forget the name) are somewhat more prestigious but even then....
I remember reading a book as a young teen where the girl "dropped her platinum card" and shocked the store clerk into realizing she was wealthy. Imagine?
LOL... that's funny 
"Back in the day" ('90s) when somebody had a 'Gold' card, it meant something.
When Citibank upgraded my Visa to their 'Gold' before my trip to the U.K. in 1995, it took a HP to see if my credit limit could be increased to meet the $5K minimum for 'Gold' (I wanted the card to be gold for the rental car insurance benefit). After it was approved, I not only got a new card, they changed some of the numbers on the account as well (the BIN changed) to indicate the card was in a different class.
Back then I had a second part-time job in retail, and if (when) the computers would go down and credit card approvals required a phone call, a lot of times if the purchase was under $100 and the customer's card was 'Gold', we wouldn't even call for an auth code until the end of the night, since none of us had ever had a gold card declined. (While I worked there, the streak was unbroken, BTW).
But today, you can get a 'Gold', or even 'Platinum' card with a $300 credit line, so it no longer means anything. Heck, even my Wells Fargo debit card has 'Platinum' written on it... LOL
@kdm31091 wrote:
@Jeff532003 wrote:
I read on some site or another that Visa dropped the 5k minimum requirement last year. The article was basicly talking about how WMC and Visa Sig are no longer really a special perk. The WEMC and the new Visa you can't get in the states yet (forget the name) are somewhat more prestigious but even then....
I remember reading a book as a young teen where the girl "dropped her platinum card" and shocked the store clerk into realizing she was wealthy. Imagine?While "special" is of coure subjective, the point is few people are ever going to use or care about the benefits. I hassled with Capital One awhile back to get my QS upgraded to a Visa Sig. Guess what? Was not worth my time or effort at all. Have not used even one of the benefits. I should have just realized that ahead of time. The movie tickets are a nice perk, yes, but for real world use there's really nothing else I'd even slightly use
Sometimes it's not about the benefits of the card itself, but the ego boost it gives the cardholder. My Freedom was originally a World Mastercard and when it was reissued came as a Visa Platinum, an error perhaps as it has a 12K limit but it doesn't bother me one bit. I still swipe it at the pump this quarter for 5X UR. 
@Anonymous wrote:
@kdm31091 wrote:
@Jeff532003 wrote:
I read on some site or another that Visa dropped the 5k minimum requirement last year. The article was basicly talking about how WMC and Visa Sig are no longer really a special perk. The WEMC and the new Visa you can't get in the states yet (forget the name) are somewhat more prestigious but even then....
I remember reading a book as a young teen where the girl "dropped her platinum card" and shocked the store clerk into realizing she was wealthy. Imagine?While "special" is of coure subjective, the point is few people are ever going to use or care about the benefits. I hassled with Capital One awhile back to get my QS upgraded to a Visa Sig. Guess what? Was not worth my time or effort at all. Have not used even one of the benefits. I should have just realized that ahead of time. The movie tickets are a nice perk, yes, but for real world use there's really nothing else I'd even slightly use
Sometimes it's not about the benefits of the card itself, but the ego boost it gives the cardholder. My Freedom was originally a World Mastercard and when it was reissued came as a Visa Platinum, an error perhaps as it has a 12K limit but it doesn't bother me one bit. I still swipe it at the pump this quarter for 5X UR.
Ah yes, the "prestige"!!! Manipulation by marketing
