Recently, I was channel surfing when I stumbled on an episode of the Family Guy. I don’t know if it was an old or new episode, but the plot involved Peter and the familiy owning/running a restaurant.
There was this prolonged (aren’t they all?) bit in which Peter mercilessly mocks a customer asking to use his Discover Card. I know that the DC is not as universally accepted as Visa, MC or AE, but is it really considered so low class – or something so mockworthy?
I tend to use my DC when I can. It comes with a lower interest rate than my Visa Card. Are people snickering at me behind the register when I’m not looking?
And that Peter is the most hopelessly pathetic restaurant manager and has no idea how to deal with even the easiest of customer inquiries without being a complete asshole. The joke works because Discover card is not really mock-worthy.
Yes, they are all prolonged. I think that show is really funny, but they always carry on their jokes about 5 seconds too long, to the point where I’ve stopped laughing and am ready to throw something at the TV.
Anywho…I don’t have a discover card (don’t really use credit cards in general), but don’t they have pretty good cash back things? I don’t see anything wrong with them.
I used my Discover card for an entire year for business travel (because of mega screw ups in the process of getting my corporate American Express). It was accepted literally everywhere I needed to go. Now that I have my corporate Amex card, I recently went to Toronto & found that outside of the hotel, that one was pretty much worthless anywhere. I don’t think Discover is anything joke-worthy.
Amex charges twice what Visa and MC charge businesses to use their card. If I ran a business I wouldn’t accept it either. I don’t know what Discover charges.
A pretty common thing to see (not accepting Amex or any CC) at smaller lunch type places - which makes business travel/expenses fun. Trying to hunt down a place that takes Amex (submitting cash expenses is such a pain) and also serves decent food is a good way to get to know the area!
The other thing I see, which drives me up a wall, is the “minimum charge $X” businesses try to enforce. Always fun to get in an argument over violations of their agreements with visa/mc/amex to not do things like that
I signed up for one because they offered me a 0% interest for the life of the balance as long as I use it 2 times a month. So I transfered my Visa to it and buy little things like gas (well, that used to be a little thing) twice a month. If I DON’T do the 2 transactions, however, I bet the APR would go up to something crazy like 21%.
I do think it has a reputation of being the underdog of cards though. I think this is because in the past the interest rates were one of the highest, and it was an easy card to get.
I guess it’s different now, but I still recall that it was originallly issued by Sears, and – in as much as I ever think about class issues, which isn’t much, but since you asked – I’ve always thought that it was a card that the “lower class” was more likely to use.
That is, you wouldn’t expect to see a guy in a suit and tie pull out a Discover Card at The Four Seasons.
The fact that low-class Peter mocks it is somewhat funny. I never saw that clip, though.
I have a sneaking suspicion that you’re whooshing me but here goes: the Family Guy’s premise is a spoof off all those sitcoms with the fat slob husband who’s a complete jerk to everyone (including his family) but is somehow also a “loveable” loser. On the Family Guy, they make it obvious that Peter’s a complete (almost sociopathic) asshole (as are most of the family, Brian the dog is the normal one). And so would be the absolute last person who could make a resaurant (or any business which relies on good customer service) as success. The Discover card bit is a chance to demonstrate it as well as poke fun at Discover card’s status as a lower tier credit card. But if the Discover card was really that mock-worthy, it wouldn’t work as well to expose Peter’s inherent jackassedness.
I had no idea it was a lower-class card! I use it as much as I can, since it gets between 1 and 5% back as bonuses, with additional discounts at certain stores. I almost never fly, so frequent flyer miles aren’t worth it for me.
