Anyone know anything about this card?

http://www.usa.visa.com/personal/car..._benefits.html

Looks like a Amex Platinum, with a pinch of Diners (Car Rental Policy), and a smidge of Centurion (Concierge, etc)

Very interesting.

[This message has been edited by skofarrell (edited 03-04-2002).]

Not exactly...

Car Rental Policy: "Within your domiciled country this insurance is secondary to any other valid and collectible insurance from any other source."

Companion Airline Ticket: "Your Activated Free Companion Fare Voucher is a one-time gift to thank you for your patronage."

I also found a card that MBNA offers:

https://www.quantumcreditcard.com

Why do I feel like I am missing out on a number of potentially good Visa/MC deals?

Missed that. Now how much is the annual fee?

What nonsense with Visa. They now have 5 levels of cards. Of course this was only natural, since banks give out Platinum cards to anyone (look at all of those platinum cards Providian gives out to people with subprime credit).

Eventually they're either going to have 20 levels or they're going to have to change the way they do business.

This could be accomplished by setting and enforcing qualification criteria for the "premium" cards.

Otherwise, they can just drop the classic, gold and platinum from the line. Instead, Signature will be the lowest level (equal to todays Classic), Infinite (gold) will be the next one, and so on.

I think it makes more sense for them to just enforce a criteria. If they want to offer more services, they can just add them to the existing top-tier card. Otherwise every time they come out with a new card the banks have to process upgrades for tons of people.

d

Does anybody have a link to get information on the Quantum MBNA card? The link above doesnt give you info, you have to input an existing account number before you can enter.

Thanks!

A search on google.com for "MBNA Quantum" turned up a number of sites with credit card reviews, such as epinions.com and credicardfreedom.com.
Here are a few of the links:
http://www.epinions.com/finc-Credit-...splay_~reviews
http://www.creditcardfreedom.com/rev...d=MBNA+Quantum

I received an offer for this card recently, and was wondering if its worth switching. My initial impressions are that its more of a high-limit Platinum card, but also seems to lack some more common Platinum perks.
If the MBNA customer service is truly as good as the reviewers say it is, then it might be worth a look.

Thanks for the links, Upperdeck. I agree with you that the published benefits seem (at least at a glance) better with Amex Platinum.

I have a MBNA Quantum Mastercard. Don't use it much. It doesn't earn any points, but it is free and has some benefits. Nothing really above what most other platinum Visa/MC, though, that I have really noted. You do get dedicated cust service, though, I think, and it has some kind of concierge service that I've never tried. The translucent card is very cool looking.

My UA MP Rewards Visa Signature (mouthful!) has concierge too, far as I know. It's free and earns 1 mile per $2 spent. Supposedly Visa Signature has no preset spending limit. I can't imagine the concierge service on these free cards is anything close to equivalent to the concierge service on Amex Centurion, tho.

It's my other MBNA card that I use the most, though, I think. It's a Platinum Visa from LL Bean. The percentage you got back was higher at first; it's down to 3% for LL Bean purchases and only 1/2% for other, payable in $10 coupons. It used to be at least 1% for other purchases. But you still get free shipping on all orders. (Free monogramming too if you're into that; I'm not.)

The one thing I've seen is that the gold and platinum Visa/MCs have moved plenty downmarket. So perhaps the Quantum *does* have more benefits than today's platinums, but probably not by much. Heck, I don't know if I even have a gold Visa/MC anymore, let alone a classic. I don't carry any of the pay cards; just don't get that kind of use out of them.

Diners at $80 annual fee still looks like the cheapest entry into primary rental car insurance. They have a concierge service in that package too. If Amex doesn't have that kind of service trickling to at least the Platinum card, they're slacking. Or it had better be something a whole lot better than these guys. (Diners' concierge is outsourced; so, quite probably, are any that are tacked onto MC and Visa cards.)

Oh, as for that Visa Infinite, the added things over Visa Signature are minimal. Considering one can get Signature-level cards for free, it wouldn't be worth paying too much for the benefits of Infinite. I suppose it may compare to World MasterCard, which is MC's level above Platinum. The trouble with all Visa and MC levels, though, is that the final list of the benefits is set by the banks and may not necessarily include all those listed even though the card is what it says. I figure the MBNA Quantum is roughly just a Platinum MC. None of these compare to what is on an *Amex* Platinum or Centurion, really.


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--Greg

[edited to add final paragraph]


[This message has been edited by CrazyOne (edited 03-08-2002).]

Are you sure about this...? I thought you get 1 mile for $1 spent.

[This message has been edited by Gaucho100K (edited 03-11-2002).]

The 1 mile per $1 is the regular card. A few years ago I had a regular card for a year and scored big for the $60 or $65 fee. 10,000 signup miles plus at one point during that they gave out a bonus check that earned double miles for a balance transfer! So of course I transfered close to my limit... then paid it off right away. Only cost a couple bucks in interest and transaction fee. Anyway, after that first year with bonus it's not worth it for me to pay fee, so when I got the bill with fee I called to cancel. The lovely retention people offered me the Mileage Plus *Rewards* Visa. This card earns miles at half the rate but is free.

Indeed, I just got a new silvery card in the mail with Visa Signature on it. Seems to have everything mentioned on the Visa Signature site http://www.usa.visa.com/personal/car...ignature.html, except for the Dining Privileges. Instead it mentions Trip Delay Insurance, which is not available to me. You have to have a standard 1 mile per $1 card for that. Not a bad collection o' stuff for free, I guess.


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--Greg

Citibank does not know anything about infinite.

At present, there are three banks that issue the Visa Infinite: Chase, National City and Fleet. Cards are issued by invitation only. These banks have informed visa that they are not interested in taking calls whatsoever in regards to this card, however, the visa representative said that he believed a minimum of $3,000,000 in assets is required in order to be extended an invitation.

If they don't want calls, Visa shouldn't put info about the card on its Web site.

Furthermore, they must be kidding with the $3M requirement. The benefits of the card are hardly impressive, considering they're almost exactly the same benefits as the Signature card (which is available to pretty much anyone); the only difference is the one time free companion certificate, which probably requires the purchase of an expensive fare anyway.

Even AmEx doesn't have such a ridiculous requirement for the Centurion card, and that one provides a lot more in the way of airline/hotel/car rental elite benefits.

What a joke.

d