I think word of my debt-free status is getting around the financial community, becuase I’ve started to receive spam-mail advertising “gold” credit cards. After looking through the fine print on one such, I saw that it had a yearly fee of $120.
I get the impression that these cards have extra travel insurance and purchase insurance, but I also have the impression that there are so many restructions on these insurances that they are next to worthless.
Do these credit cards offer any real benefits over regular “green” credit cards, other than snob value?
I don’t think they offer much value. One time when renting a car I thought about dumping the insurance offered by the rental company and relying on the insurance provided through the credit card. Before doing this I decided I’d call the credit card company to get the details of this insurance. I found out that while the credit card companies always tout this feature when advertising their cards, they really do not provide much information about it when you want learn the details.
Then I realized that credit card companies are a pain in the neck to work with on normal credit card issues. I figured that filing an insurance claim on a rental car would be at least 10 times worse. Certainly not worth paying an annual fee for this supposed benefit.
All my current credit cards are of the Ultimate Limited Edition Platinum varitey. As far as I know they they haven’t given me any more benefits than a standard basic card.
The answer varies by credit card issuer.
Many vendors provide additional benefits at each grade.
Some vendors provide nice benefits with gold cards, some “gold cards” are good products in name only.
Looking at the links, it seems that there would not be enough additional benefits to justify the yearly price, even assuming I could get one. As I thought. Thanks!
Me either. When they put the yearly fee on my card I call customer service and tell them I have 5 pre-approved cards sitting in my mailbox, why would I want to pay the yearly fee, they then respond “let me remove that”, and I say “thanks”.
The only tangible benefit I’ve received from my Amex Gold is that the local concert promoters reserve a bank of decent seats at all concerts that are “reserved” for Gold Card holders. I guess if they don’t all sell they are released to the general public.
But they also provided a separate toll free number to call in for tickets. This helped out greatly when the general toll free numbers would be overloaded.
There’s now an analogous on-line purchase priviledge.
Yes, this benefit helped several individuals I know of get tickets to the Coachella music fest a few months after it had officially sold out. At the time people were paying $1000+ for a $250 ticket so some were deliriously happy to have that ability.
Dag,
The rental car coverage is an insurance policy held by either the credit card association (Visa, Mastercard, Discover) or the issuer. You would deal with the insurer, not the credit card company about claims. They even have a separate phone number to call if you have questions about what the policy covers.
I’ve had to submit claims on rental car damage to 2* different platinum Visa cards and can say that it wasn’t hard. The rental agent gave me a form to describe what happened, possibly spoke to someone at a call center, then got a letter a few weeks later thanking me for using Visa International Platinum. No bill for services. From what I could see, as long as you don’t tarry on submitting the form, there’ll not be a hassle.
It was very convenient, serving as the primary insurance coverage on the rental car. My car insurance didn’t cover property damage on any car I drove, so this came in real handy. Some rental car LDW coverages are secondary, so that they get what they can out of your insurance before it pays.
TIP: Before renting a car, call your insurance company and verify what your policy covers for rental cars. Likewise, prior to rental, contact the credit card company to see if the rental coverage is primary or secondary. Primary is best, as my anecdote above attests. While the 2 platinum cards were issued by different companies, they used the same insurance underwriter.
PS-Back to the OT: I don’t believe in paying annual fees for credit cards. Been platinum for years without dues.
PPS-$120? Sounds like American Express. I always leave home without it. Surprisingly, traveling overseas I’ve found it’s not nearly as accepted as Visa or Mastercard at ordinary kinds of places I frequent, such as bistros and two-star hotels. If you’re staying at the Paris Hilton (sorry, couldn’t resist) and eating caviar every meal, maybe Amex works better.
To compound matters, one of the cars was damaged in England. What’s a perfectly good muffler doing in the right lane of the M25!??!? Tore up a tire and banged up the passenger side.
I have a Citibank gold card. All of the supposed “benefits” of this card have proven over the years to be advertising hype and completely useless, such as a buyer protection program that covers your item if it is lost or stolen (ha - what we really mean is we’ll try to get you to cover it under your home owners insurance and if that doesn’t work we’ll find some fine print that makes sure that Citibank doesn’t pay a penny). Other banks may be different, but Citibank has proven over the years to be completely worthless. Other than a higher credit limit, it’s the same as any other credit card.
While not technically a credit card, I have an Amex gold card, and it has a few great benefits. First, Amex will extend the warranty of any product I buy on it by one year. So my laptop is covered for a fourth year. Also, I get twice as many air miles per dollar as I got with an Amex Blue card. Plus, no blackout dates, whereas the Blue card and my Visa have tons of restricted dates, usually on holidays. Also, I get free roadside assistance. The aforementioned car rental insurance. Travel accident insurance. $500 of insurance for my checked luggage. Return protection - I can return a product to Amex if the retailer won’t take it back (up to $300 per product). New purchase protection - if a new purchase is stolen or damaged in the first 90 days Amex will pay up to $1000 to have it replaced. And ticket protection - If I’m ill and can’t attend an event I bought a ticket for, Amex will reimburse me up to $1000.
I have a United Mileage Plus gold card. It costs me $60 a year. I get an additional 1 mile for every one I fly, plus 500 miles (or more) for booking on line. I get 1 mile for every $1 I spend using the card (which is all of my business expenses) plus more when I shop at certain retailers. I also get four 500 mile upgrades for every 10,000 miles I fly.
Although I don’t travel as much as I used to, I still get about 60,000 miles every year over and above what I would receive without the card. That is a free round trip ticket to Hawaii or the Carribean, or two within the U.S. It is also four one class upgrades, and since I fly Denver - Washington D.C. a couple of times a year, I can take a 777 and ride in Business class. A nice meal, free drinks, and a big wide seat with legroom on a 3 1/2 hour flight. Every one of those legs is worth more than $60 to me.
For some people, the cards are a great deal. I am one of those people and gladly pay the $60 every year.
I think it depends on what you plan to use the card for.
My wife has a number of gold/platinum/diamond/whatever cards. They do open doors–they get her a seat on the plane that’s leaving now, they find her hotel rooms in places that would be full to us ordinary card holders, they get her fully-insured rental cars in sixty seconds or less, they save her from embarrassment when hosting clients and the tab comes to a lot more than was expected. But–and this is a big but–they really belong to her employer, and are for her to use in the course of their business as she travels tens of thousands of miles a year for the company. These fancy cards make things easier and often faster during what is a very grueling schedule.
On the other hand, she also has her personal Visa card. Normal, everyday, garden-variety nothing-special Visa card. This is what she uses when she’s not on business and doesn’t have enough cash and the place doesn’t take Interac. Or whatever she’s buying is expensive enough to exceed her daily Interac limit. Anyway, the important thing is that in her personal life, she really doesn’t need all the benefits of the gold etc. card.
You probably don’t either, if your use of it will be that of a regular personal user who doesn’t travel frequently nor racks up thousands of dollars in charges in the course of a week. My advice would be to ignore these offers and stick with your regular card.
