I’ve just spent over two hours of my vacation on the phone listening to hold music while trying to reach my credit card company. Ultimately no one ever answered the phone. This so-called customer service is unacceptable and I’m ready to switch cards. I’ve seen a few other threads here about credit cards, but my situation is a little different. I have an excellent credit score, and I pay off my card balance every month so I don’t care about the interest rate. I also don’t care about miles or rewards or cash back or any of that crap. I just want a card that will work everywhere and has excellent customer service.
It seems that most of the card rating sites are focused on perks like rewards and cash back. I see very little about rating customer service. I found some info that indicates that Discover has good customer service, so I’m leaning towards getting a Discover card.
So two questions:
I’ve always heard or believed that Discover is accepted in fewer places than Visa / MasterCard. Is this actually true? What I’m reading indicates that at least in the US, it shouldn’t be a problem.
Any opinions for or against Discover, or recommendations for a different card?
I’m linking to an article about an outdated report, but it looks like Discover is only just barely behind in coverage wrt Visa/MC.
I can’t speak to Discover’s customer service. For Visa/MC, it’s the issuing bank you need to worry about. I’ve noticed no real difference with Citi, Barclays, Chase. They’ve all been fine for me.
If this is an older line of credit, consider the hit your credit score could take if you close that card. I know people can’t believe at first that having less available credit is a bad thing but to the credit companies, they’d rather see longevity. Shred your card if it makes you feel better but keep the line open.
My mom loves her Discover card, it’s all she’ll use now. And she’s in rural NC so it must be widely accepted. She likes the annual check!
When it comes to customer service, you really can’t beat American Express. As both a cardholder and a merchant that accepts it, I’ve never called them about something and been annoyed when I hung up.
Which is easy for them, because they only have to support customers of the five merchants in the world who take it.
OK, I kid, but not much. I’ve NEVER had a service person (plumber, grounds, septic, etc.) who would accept Amex, almost no mom-and-pop stores will, and non-chain restaurants are basically right out. I have one (good rewards), but we pretty much had to get an additional Visa because of all the places we couldn’t use the Amex. Leave the US, and the dismal numbers drop even lower. It would surprise me little to learn there are more places that accept Discover than Amex.
I’ve got a Chase Sapphire Preferred and a Chase Sapphire Reserve. I won’t mention the awesome perquisites because you don’t care, but whenever I call, they deal with me instantly. Literally (in the literal sense of the word) there’s never, ever been any hold time. Any request I’ve ever made had been dealt with in a single call.
If you can take advantage of the costs (particularly with the Reserve), this is no doubt the credit card you’re looking for.
You want to go with Visa/MC, then, from a top tier issuer.
(Not that I have anything against Amex or Discover - I have both, and have in sum racked up thousands in cash bonuses, miles, etc. from them and others - surely one of the advantages of having a high credit score.)
We have VISA thru our credit union and not only do they respond to calls, they’ll call us if something hinky shows up on the card. They knew our card number had been stolen before we did! Plus it’s a cash-back card, so every October, a big credit shows up on our statement, since we use the card for virtually everything.
Anyway, it does appear that the issuer is more important than the actual card itself with regard to service.
I agree with FCM that the issuer is the important part. I have a Chase Visa and a Capital One Quicksilver. Chase is the only one I have had to deal with by phone and they were basically perfect (no hold; solved my problem). Capital One I have only needed to deal with once, did it on line and they too were perfect. I know OP doesn’t care about perks but Quicksilver gives me cash back on everything (just like the ads say) and I have it applied to my card balance. What’s wrong with an extra $25 or $50 every month that I don’t have to do anything to get, just use my card as usual? I would only have the Quicksilver but I just use Chase for on-line shopping and that way if something goes amiss I know where to look.
ETA I have never had either card refused anywhere; they both get accepted everywhere I’ve ever been.
I have an Uber card, which is issued by Barclays. No issues with customer service at all. What’s also nice is that if you get multiple cards, they each have their own number so losing one (or having someone use it fraudulently) doesn’t shut them all down.
I’m not sure why you don’t care at all about perks and cash back. It’s pretty easy in the Barclays app to just apply any cash to your balance – every few months, I just clear out the cash back against my account.
For what it’s worth, I don’t like Uber and don’t use them. I use Lyft for those rare times that I need a ride somewhere. The cash back with the card is so good that someone is losing money, so I’m hoping it’s Uber. I doubt Barclays would lose money on their behalf. Other non-cash perks are: No international fees and if you pay your cell phone bill with the card, you get insurance on all the phones on your account for free. I canceled my insurance after doing this. Also, you get your credit score, alerts when it changes, etc.
I use my Discover Card for nearly everything (including incredibly expensive plumbing work) so I check the windows of restaurants etc. I patronize. Discover seems to be far ahead of Amex. I’m not a storekeeper, but my understanding is that Amex charges them higher fees than Visa/MC/Discover do.
Discover customer service has been great. We’ve had suspicious activity on our card once, and they were great about it. Ditto in helping me understand what looked like suspicious activity but wasn’t. Never had a bad experience with them, and I have had a card since 1987.
Another vote for Discover, I have been a customer for probably 20 years now. I like their website and practices. I can use my cashback balance directly on Amazon. I don’t think I’ve ever had a problem with it not being accepted in the US but I haven’t tried traveling out of the country with it.
Yeah, see Slickdeals is the type of site I looked at which is useless to me. It’s all about points and APR and cash back etc. I didn’t see a word about customer service.
I’ve applied for a Chase Sapphire Preferred. Thanks for your help everyone.