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Old 10-29-2011, 12:18 PM   #21
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Some cards at this level make sense for some people. The Amex Platinum at one time gave you access to all the airline lounges. When I was doing a lot of global travel for business it was worth having. Now it is not.
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Old 10-29-2011, 12:49 PM   #22
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Some cards at this level make sense for some people. The Amex Platinum at one time gave you access to all the airline lounges. When I was doing a lot of global travel for business it was worth having. Now it is not.
That was my take on it as well. BiL is a world traveler and I talked him into getting the AmEx platinum just for that. He even managed to get his company to pick up the annual fee so it's all gravy for him.

Mine is the purple looking SPG awards card. I get comments and second looks all the time from cashiers/waitresses, "I've never seen a card that color". Can't say that it gets me better service or respect or anything like that.
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Old 10-29-2011, 12:56 PM   #23
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The card that might be worth it for some that does a lot of business traveling.

I'll keep my no fee card for now.
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Old 10-29-2011, 01:27 PM   #24
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I got that same wonderful offer for Visa Black. The laughter I derived from it was free though.
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Old 10-29-2011, 02:08 PM   #25
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Interestingly, I can buy a magnetic stripe encoder and make my own card out of any color I like for less than $495. Do you suppose it's legal to make your own card including the magnetic account info if it's a legitimate copy of your own real account? I could have a different color card for every day of the week.
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Old 10-29-2011, 02:44 PM   #26
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Received an invitation of a per-qualified VISA Black card.
I also received this opportunity recently. I returned the application. I wrote this on the app "No thanks. Remove my name from your list"
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Old 10-29-2011, 02:45 PM   #27
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I have a Sea Turtle on my Discovercard.
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Old 10-29-2011, 03:15 PM   #28
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Boo hoo, I didn't get a Visa Black card offer. I feel so inferior. I can't believe you folks didn't rush out to take advantage of this amazing offer. I bet you folks don't have a different Rolex for each day of the week.


Actually it is very clever of you all to flaunt your elite status on this forum, and not even have to pay $495 to do so.

I pity the advertisers hawking high end prestige products trying to get money out of this forum.
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Old 10-29-2011, 06:23 PM   #29
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I have a Sea Turtle on my Discovercard.
I have a red eyed tree frog.
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Old 10-29-2011, 07:50 PM   #30
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I have a fancy Chase Sapphire Visa card. It has a thin metal sheet wedged between the plastic faces. Makes the card noticeably heavy and has brought occasionally awkward attention to me. Cashier at Pier 1 imports put me in the category of Lee Ann Rimes and some other quasi famous person when she mentioned fancy credit cards. And later at a Taco Bell, the employees were all admiring my credit card, and I think I had a few young ladies almost propose to me because they thought I was rich. They were saying things like "wow, how does someone get one of these cards? You must have a lot of money, huh?". Little did they know that Chase paid me $1000 to sign up for that credit card.
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Old 10-29-2011, 08:58 PM   #31
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The only one that has any real bragging rights is Amex black. Rumor is you have to spend $250,000 per year minimum on the card to qualify.
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Old 10-29-2011, 09:37 PM   #32
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I don't care to belong to a club that accepts people like me as members.

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I'll stick with my FREE Pentagon Federal Credit Union Platinum Rewards Visa that give me 5% back on all gas purchases. Or, to paraphrase a famous Winston Churchill quote:

"Never, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, pay for a credit card. Never pay. Never pay. Never pay."
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Old 10-30-2011, 04:30 AM   #33
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Boo hoo, I didn't get a Visa Black card offer. I feel so inferior. I can't believe you folks didn't rush out to take advantage of this amazing offer. I bet you folks don't have a different Rolex for each day of the week.


Actually it is very clever of you all to flaunt your elite status on this forum, and not even have to pay $495 to do so.
I wouldn't get in too big of a hurry to be impressed. Going on memory, it is my understanding that the card is offered to those who are meeting minimum (and very excessive) expenditures per year on their existing cards.

In all fairness, I realize that some pay their balances off every month anyway. But this is one thing I actually agree with Dave Ramsey on - you play with snakes and it's just a matter of time before you get bit.

As someone who uses either cash or debit cards to pay for 90% of what I do, I stand approximately zero chance of ever getting one of these offers.
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Old 10-30-2011, 04:37 AM   #34
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I have a red eyed tree frog.
What a way to make a guy feel low class. I just have an ordinary white Visa card with the credit union's logo on it and another platinum (or is it only silver? I forget.) with the bank's logo on it.

No tree frogs or grasshoppers or any socially redeeming characteristics at all.

But then again, the cards are fee-free.
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Old 10-30-2011, 05:36 AM   #35
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This thread has made me feel somewhat deprived in that Visa has never sent me an offer for a "Visa Black" that I could then reject...
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Old 10-30-2011, 06:59 AM   #36
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The only one that has any real bragging rights is Amex black. Rumor is you have to spend $250,000 per year minimum on the card to qualify.
Not sure about that, but I understand the Amex black card has a $5K initiation fee and $2,500 annual fee. Guaranteed to impress the clerk at 7-11 when you use it to buy that beef jerky.
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Old 10-30-2011, 10:58 AM   #37
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Remember when the Gold card was the status symbol? Then came platinum, and now black and sapphire. I wonder when diamond and kryptonite cards become the "it" cards?
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Old 10-30-2011, 06:55 PM   #38
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What a way to make a guy feel low class. I just have an ordinary white Visa card with the credit union's logo on it and another platinum (or is it only silver? I forget.) with the bank's logo on it.

No tree frogs or grasshoppers or any socially redeeming characteristics at all.

But then again, the cards are fee-free.
Discover has recently started offering all sorts of designs on their cards. Still fee free and no extra cost. I wouldn't do it otherwise. Interestingly, I've had the tree frog for about a year and it's already starting to have problems getting read at the POS locations. That's point of service, not the other acronym. So I'll have to request a new card soon. I should go online and look at the new designs.

Actually, I saw an ad somewhere (may have been Discover) where you can upload your own picture and have it printed on your card. I'll have to check and see if that's free too.
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Old 10-30-2011, 07:03 PM   #39
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Actually, I saw an ad somewhere (may have been Discover) where you can upload your own picture and have it printed on your card. I'll have to check and see if that's free too.
Been there and done that. I can't remember which bank it was, but many years ago we had our pictures on our Visa cards, apparently to decrease fraud as signatures were never checked. A few months after we got our picture id CC's supermarkets introduced those hands-off credit card swipers where you swipe your own card and the cashier never gets to see your card or your photo
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Old 10-30-2011, 10:20 PM   #40
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I got this goofy black card offer too (I get at least 5 CC apps a week). My first thought was that it would be so cool to get that fancy card and toss it around to every waiter/waitress/cashier/attendant, so they could write my name down, find my home address and pay me a visit at 3:00 in the morning with their friends Smith and Wesson. All of only $495 a year - what a deal!
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