Wilbur

I have had a Citi credit card account for almost three decades now, and over the course of time the account velocity has been millions of dollars. This is just to say that as a long-standing customer, Citi surely makes a hefty profit on my business.

Over the past decade, however the service has been less and less valuable to me, and nowhere has the quality of service been more evident than in the physical card that Citi sends me every year or two. Less than a decade ago, my physical card possessed these properties.

- Physically substantial card - thick, well-made
- Attractive designs (holograms, the old AA logo, the old AAdvantage logo, etc.)
- My photograph on the card to ensure proper use
- My signature embossed on the card to ensure proper use
- Proximity scanning / contactless RFID function

Today I received a new set of cards, and the current set includes unattractive, flimsy cards without pictures, signatures, proximity chips, or really anything else to make them objects with inherent value. The features I mentioned above have been withdrawn over the years, but this set is truly dismal - they look like Soviet ration cards.

Citi hasn't exactly amazed us with their service over the recent years, and the slow slide seems to be reflected in the physical reminder of their value to us in these cards. It is the little things like suddenly freezing the account when I am overseas on a long trip, or changing the account number every other year that accrue anti-goodwill, or switching from Visa to MC, or trying to charge new fees. All of these little peccadilloes come to mind when I see this limp piece of limited-function plastic.

Given that our credit union seems to constantly upgrade their services and performance, and Amex acts like Amex, and our state bank has been very valuable to us, we have constant points of comparison. Is this physical card deterioration something that others have experienced, or am I overreacting?