This discussion originated in a thread in the American Express Membership Rewards forum:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/ameri...ining-fee.html

Is the annual fee confirmed as increased to �2500? Or is this a joining fee and annual fee remains at �1800?

With Cent becoming more expensive and changing benefits, the aforementioned Coutts World Card is undergoing a change too. Now known as the Coutts Silk Card.

Changes include: slightly improved insurance, additional cards included (with possibility to cap/monitor expenditure), defined gifts at different expenditures e.g. @ �25k get x, @ �50k annual fee refunded, @ �75k y..... and so on. The old points program "Courtesy of Coutts" is also being scrapped for "Thank you from Coutts". All else remains the same.

Personally I think the "Silk" rebranding is a bit weak, as is the points program renaming. I liked the old card style, purple theme and understated market position. Silk appears to also have a grey theme. Will see what the new one looks like and the benefits it provides in a few months....

Yes have heard about the Coutts Silk, their Gold card is also changing to the 'Coutts Black' card. Not many changes except now includes priority pass, scraps concierge trial and coutesy of coutts, adds sentinel protection.

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Interesting change to the gold card. A la mode these days I suppose. Interesting to see what it looks like.

Regarding CoC I imagine its improving, otherwise a real waste of time and money. Though I did use it once for ebookers though and saved me a few bob. Still, transfer partners or e.g. good wine deals with BBR would be better - bring on avios!

Yeh right!

Coutts clients prefer easyjet?

Pull the other one!

Or maybe that's how they have enough wealth to be Coutts customers in the first place, from all the money they saved flying easyjet?

Yeah, CoC was/is crap. I've only ever redeemed for the wine on my gold. i got the letter the other day (ie. as I have a Gold card, they have sent me all the info for the new Black) and it includes:-

Sentinel Gold
Priority Pass (but only 6 visits p.a.)

But no mention of the reward/gift for xyz spend....which I think is only for the new Silk. Annual fee on black, I'm told, will remain at �90.

Annual fee on the Silk will be �350, but credited back for �50k pa spend. Other benefits will include-

Concierge
Quintessentially wine club

I wonder if my RM will give me the Silk? If not, may ditch my gold-black card as benefits are more than matched by Cent. Lets see.

I got offered the Silk the other day, don't think they're particularly strict about it but I'm not sure it offers me huge value over the Black given the benefits of Centurion. TEN UK concierge is OK, but not massively better than Amex, and in some cases, worse.

Quintessentially Wine is available on any World Elite Mastercard. I am a member and have never received any exciting deals - you get the odd email offering you 10% off certain stock and the odd invite to tasting which come with disproportionately high price tags.

There are other World Elite travel deals that would come with the card - visit the Priceless London website, look under Travel and see which deals are marked as 'World Elite'. Again, nothing life changing.

I did something stupid yesterday! I had a few thousand CoC points and figured I would up wasting them as not planning any significant spend on my Coutts Gold between now and when CoC shuts on 28 march.

but then i thought why waste them. So I put about 10k of my tax bill on that card to hmrc.....instead of putting it on my bmi 2miles/�1 MasterCard. Given the 1.4% fee, a waste as I am now few hundred quid away from redeeming 6 bottles of red....instead of Pocketing 20k avios! Really kicking myself.

I think the rewards for hitting the various spend thresholds would need to be mega to bother with the �350 fee for the Silk card. If not, then assuming you are in the category of spending 50k pa on a MasterCard, there are IMHO more rewarding cards out there.

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As a client, I undertook market research for Coutts about 9 months ago for Silk and Black.

You will be disappointed (assuming they haven't changed much from feedback - and given the leaflets sent through, they haven't).

The Silk card has a Chinese street scene as the faded image on the card and nasty Orange typeface (like their diaries). The black card was grey/black with lines through it. Boxes/envelopes they came in were OK, but who cares.

Major missed opportunity not to have something classic and classy, but coming from the bank that thinks Stella and Boateng is what their customer base wants, it should be surprising.

Artois or McCartney ?

Funnily enough, the McCartney designed debit/account cards are no longer issued. I had my last one the entire length of its duration and it was falling apart, so the new (McCartney) one I got in mid-December was a welcome replacement.

I promptly lost it. A few days later. In Aldi!!....I think!

Anyway, the 2nd replacement arrived a few days after that and it was not a McCartney one but a dull grey, with a birdseye view of an old map of the Strand & Thames. Not an improvement, IMHO.

(Reason I mentioned its no longer issued is that when I called to activate the card, which I later realised I did not even need to do, I asked about the change and was told the old McC one is no longer issued - guess I must have been sent one of the last?)