Metal Credit Cards, Important to you? Why?
 

Completely juvenile and shallow thread topic, but I'm curious what the metal credit cards are out there today. I think AMEX has 1 (Cent) and Chase has 3 (Palladium, Sapphire Pref, Ritz Carlton), but would be curious if there are others...

The new Chase United Club card is also metal.

Seriously? This is true..??

FWIW, there is a huge difference in the feel of sapphire preferred and the Pd card. The Sapphire card is very light. I have not seen the other chase metal cards but I wonder if they are more like Sapphire or more like the Pd card.

A bit OT, but I'll tack something onto your thread.

I recently canceled my Sapphire Preferred card (we're going to keep my wife's card and I don't want to pay 2 annual fees). I always destroy canceled credit cards. Plastic cards are easy to cut up or shred. But the metal in the Sapphire card made it very difficult to destroy. My shredder wouldn't take it. A scissor didn't work. Garden shears failed. I don't own tin snips, so I tried a wire cutter, but that also failed. Finally cut it with my Dremel using the metal cutting head.

I have the Palladium, and the Sapphire Preferred (Both the Visa and Mastercard version, due to business spending at Sams Club) and have to say, the Sapphire was nice, but once I got the Palladium it plays second banana in terms of feel and weight. I am a Noob on here and would post pictures with info blocked but noobs seem to be flamed on these boards:D

By far, the Pd card is the most amazing CC I've ever seen/held. And the requirements to get one are damn impressive.

What are they? AFAIK no special underwriting or criteria, other than the basics. So if you are approved for CSP or Freedom, you can also get Palladium.

In my understanding, you need to be a private banking client of JPMC. I think what gets me is the average Pd card holder has $30 million invested with them

There a thread on this topic:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/credi...shredder.html?

There is ample evidence in this thread that anyone can apply and they do not even ask about assets:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/credi...dium-card.html

I can attest to this; I am not a private client and prior to applying my only relationship with chase consisted of two credit cards and chase bought one of our mortgages. IMHO, JP Morgan Chase wants the card to be perceived as exclusive, but the problem with making it exclusive is there are too few cardholders. Last time I asked I was told there were under 5,000 cardholders (compared to 1 million or more amex platinum card holders).

Moderator observation
 

Please use this thread to list additional metal credit cards. Posts discussing the characteristics of the American Express Centurion, Chase Sapphire or Palladium cards should be made in the established threads for those cards.

I read the forums and was pretty sure the talk about assets was a bit overstated. I have scores in the 760-780 range with high annual income, over 300k (again new to ft so I say this more for those wanting to know criteria more than for show) customer service was great during app process. Did whole thing by phone and app by email, took 3 days. FYI I watched a linked unboxing and when they opened up package for the first time, revieled the brown JP Morgan signature visa. This is the standard "back up" plastic card (same account #s) which I found pretty cool. I wanted back up card because the sapphire preferred got scratched up pretty quick, but after multiple uses you can tell the palladium won't have nearly the same problem. Much higher quality card.

Hope that helps!

Oops sorry Mia, please disregard palladium requirement comments, but hope the quality suggestion is helpful for those looking for "metal cards" I know it would have helped me.

I guess now its Amex (1): Cent, Chase (5): Sapphire Pref, Palladium, Ritz, UA MP Club, and Marriott. I'm pretty sure Chase will turn all their AF cards to the same material. Anything else?

Marriott Chase

As a person who has never understood the fascination of metal cards, can someone chime me in on how one is supposed to destroy such cards when they send you a replacement card? They don't go into the shredder as well do they, right? :confused:

Discussion here:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/chase...-shredder.html

And it seems I posted in that thread. Short memory indeed. :D

That is hilarious...

Did Chase redesign their Ink Bolds? They look sparkly now, I wonder if they are made of metal as well?

Metal cards are impractical. I have the Chase UA (formerly CO) Presidential Plus and the Sapphire Preferred. On a few international trips i used the Presidential Plus. Cashiers are flipping the card around an extra 2 or 10 times trying to figure out which side the numbers are on and which side the strip is on. One person thought it was a membership card and not a credit card. A few said they don't take "this kind of card", which to me meant they were so confused they just decided not to accept the card, than listen to my explanation. And it gets even worse when dealing with a small shop where they still use carbon slips and the rack. They end up tracing it with a pencil.

So any time I get a metal card I immediately have them replace it with the standard plastic one. Although Chase CS originally claimed that there was no plastic version of the Sapphire Preferred. They sent me the postage paid envelope to send them back the metal cards for destruction.

call me old, but having the card look and feel cool is secondary to being able to use it anywhere without extra hassle.

However, I find my plastic cards barely last a year before they split in half or otherwise get ruined. Plastic was fine for the world where cash still had a place. But for those of us who no longer carry cash and use a card for every transaction, no matter how small the amount, plastic is just not a long lasting material for these things.

(I'm Canadian, and so have no choice but to use a plastic card, btw.)

Use better plastic? :p

When I compare the plastic of my 1990s issued AMEX and Diners, they were made sturdier than the plastic that credit cards uses today. I've also noticed that credit cards and bank cards issued in Asia also tend to be made of higher quality than those issued in North America.


This too.

Banks like to think that carbon copy imprinters are gone and there's no need for raised numbers anymore.

But somethings are better to be kept as is for backwards compatibility. Carbon copy imprinters still have use in places where there's no telecommunication access, take out deliveries, incidentals at places of stay, or as a back up during natural disasters when power is disrupted. If it has worked and is still is an accepted form of payment as the back up, keep it.

Help me get Chase to offer a version of the Sapphire Preferred in Canada, and I'll say goodbye to all the others.

I agree with you there. All my cards are Chip & PIN and I find that they all crack and split in the same way at the place where the embossed numbers and the Chip meet. Next time it happens (and by the look of my Amex Plat it could be momentarily) I'll try to post a picture, since I think this is a fundamental weakness in all EMV cards.

I actually meant it in a way that "card production companies should use more durable and stronger plastic materials than the ones they are using today" with the addendum being that back in the 1990s, they were made out of stronger materials.

My suspect is that card production companies (perhaps pressure from bank issuers?) have begun cost cutting into using cheaper plastic materials that down the road, last less and break more. In sharp contrast, my old AMEX and Diners that I used to have back in the 1990s are still pretty strong and durable with nary a crack.

If anyone has an old plastic card, they should compare it to ones today. In all likelihood, the older plastic feels more durable than those being made today which IMO, are more "flimsier."

So very true! ^^^

Sparkly yes, metal no.

I'm not saying i prefer plastic over metal. What I mean is that the single sided metal cards with flat numbers and strip on the same side is a PITA when traveling. I have to explain and point to the fact that the strip and numbers are on the same side at almost every cashier. that's after all the flipping and confused looks. It doesn't help that the strip is blue and blends in with the background blue.

If they made the standard double sided design in metal. I would be totally fine with that.

A little off topic, but isn't it common sense for Chase to put a EMV chip in every card that has 0 foreign usage fee? It seems silly to have for only some cards without the fee.

Add that you have to explain to them when they do not understand English so well it because more of a hassle than a convenience.

The "flat number" thing is good for prepaid cards to save costs. But for a truly EDC credit card, flat numbers IMO are not a good idea. Imprinters still are in use in many places these days whether it be somewhere with no electricity or telecommunications, when ordering pizza, carbon copy for lodging incidentals, or in times of natural disaster. They also have a benefit of the numbers being raised to help the visually impaired; sort of like a braille thing.

You have to wonder if banks really put these things into consideration over "hey it looks cooler that way."


The EMV thread has shown that banks and common sense don't seem to go together. :D

Many international travelers have been complaining to US banks to issue an EMV card. Until recently, the diatribe spat out of US banks were "we can't issue them because all the terminals in the US has to change and that'll take years to do."

Their common sense lacked the idea "duh, why don't we just issue hybrid cards that still retains the mag-stripe on the back so that's it's still usable that way in the US, just like oh I don't know, practically every EMV card in existence in the world?" :p

The flip side of course being that with all the sturdy plastic cards you needed hip replacement about every 5 years because your wallet would be a solid brick that would not bend, even with only one or two cards we used to carry back then.

I do have a European card with an EMV chip that is much sturdier than US issued cards, but over there hip replacement is covered by health insurance. :D

Wouldn't that be the same of metal cards? :confused:

The diners club cards are still thicker than regular credit cards. They make good ice scrapers as well!

Not off topic at all, as Chase cites the design of the card as the reason that it does not yet have EMV. And I agree: a card with no foreign transaction fees, designed for high-income spenders (higher income consumers spend more on dining out and traveling, obviously), and for international travels should have EMV.

The palladium is made of a "weird" metal design with EMV. I wonder what's taking so long for other cards. Is the Hyatt card metal or made of a "weird" material? How about the JP Morgan Select? What is that made of?

The Hyatt card is made out of plastic.

CSP, Marriott Signature, and JP select are all made out of the same metal. The palladium actually has some palladium in it.

and Chase can't get the EMV in the CSP because the darn "preferred" lettering is taking up the space where the EMV should be. Okay.....

I say, paint all the JP selects blue (or sapphire), and where "JP Morgan" is, replace it with Chase Sapphire Preferred and be done with it. Wow, I should be a credit card engineer.

Wait, the CSP is metal, so are you saying they're sending out metal JPM Selects; or are you talking about outside the US where everything is plastic? My JPM Select is plastic, and I thought the card was on the path to extinction, so I would be surprised if they changed the design now...

And, not that this helps anyone here, but I really want an EMV CSP. :( They need to get on that...

I have no idea what the Select is but I did see a few posts where someone said the JP select is metal. If the JPSelect has EMV, made of the same material, and has the SAM benefits, why is it so hard to have the CSP converted?

The JPSelect is already extinct (no one can obtain anymore). I guess if you still have it, it probably still works with all it's benefits.

You got the CSP AND the JPSelect? Two different accounts? Does your plastic JPSelect have an EMV?