The WORD platinum no longer means much. Heck, I just got the "platinum" AOL software in the mail yesterday for crying out loud.

I thought I was hot stuff when I received the first gold card way back when. If you have good credit, your in the game, you don't even need to make much money. And face it, people do use them as status symbols and they are starting to tarnish considerably. Every card I have now is platinum, even discover which I liked because of the 12.9% APR. All but the rewards plus gold which I use for just about everything just for the points. That's my spark...I have a little over 30,000 points, which made the annual fee worth it.

As far as the Platinum AMEX, l've only had my AMEX for seven months and last month during a call to customer service, they asked me if I'd be interested in upgrading. Because of the slower point earning on the Platinum (info I found out from my good buddies right here), I said no. But that just shows me that they're literally willing to pass these cards out now. It's kind of a shame. But for those of you who are carriers, it still says something for your ability to handle your finances well!

And as for the BLACK AMEX. Hasn't Discover been Black since their dawn - they just went platinum! They've come full circle.

What would be a better moniker? Go SOLAR? THE UNIVERSE CARD - accepted anywhere in the Universe. How 'bout DEEP THOUGHT? The card that makes you smarter. Or, the heck with it, just call it SEX. That's what most everyone is after anyway.

As my good buddy might say, sorry for getting CATTY, but these branding wars are really getting quite tiresome. They're all scambling to out-do one another and we're all out here scrambling after them. Some of the perks are nice - okay, but enough with the branding already!!! Black...sheesh.

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mahalo!
www.hotshirts.com

[This message has been edited by wanderlust (edited 07-07-1999).]