Just saw this online. I wonder what it will be, other than just an expensive Mastercard...
I did a quick search, but did not see any threads mentioning it. What kind of "premium pricing"?

http://www.marketwatch.com/News/Stor...ord=mastercard



NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- MasterCard Inc. said Thursday it's teaming up with luxury travel consortium Virtuoso to launch the World Elite MasterCard, a new card platform aimed at affluent customers with more than $250,000 in income.

With the move, MasterCard is taking aim at a rival American Express, which has made inroads with its Platinum and other products.

World Elite MasterCard offers a mix of travel benefits, rewards, and global acceptance, including personalized travel agency benefits.

An advertising push behind the World Elite platform gets underway in October.

The program will have associated premium pricing expected to be announced the first quarter of 2007.

"MasterCard understands the importance of the affluent and high spend business segments to our customer financial institutions, and has made it a priority to understand (their) mindset," said Wendy Murdock, chief product officer, MasterCard Worldwide. "We believe that it will drive a higher level of spending on our cards by taking MasterCard from an 'in the wallet' to a 'top of wallet' position, and deliver greater value to our cardholders."

Soleil analyst Craig J. Maurer said he wasn't familiar with the specifics of the plan, but added that MasterCard appears to be "late to the party" in courting the affluent.

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fuzz