Bank Cards as Status Symbols and Acceptance

Dannydebt

Hypotechtical Question on which Bank Customer would be better In the sense of acceptance of the cards and appear to be of a higher status, this is for a project so would be grateful for some input, it is also about what people perceive status to be regarding what someone has or does not have. It is not about what they may or may not have in the bank but about what would your impression be if they opened their wallet and of course which customer you would rather be.

Customer 1
LTSB VISA DEBIT (PREMIER) WITH £250 CGC
LTSB MASTERCARD
LTSB AMEX

Customer 2
NATWEST (BLUE) VISA DEBIT CARD NO CGC
CAPITALONE VISA CARD
VANQUIS VISA CARD

Customer 3
A&L VISA DEBIT CARD NO CGC
CAPITALONE VISA CARD
VANQUIS VISA CARD

Mrs_Ryan

I am customer 3 I have all those cards

But I think customer 1 would be perceived higher especially with a Premier card.

noah271007

For me it would be customer 1 without shadow of doubt!
Premier, AMEX...those are associated with status.

bev309

Well customer 1's profile would come over as having a higher status I would guess.
But, I would also assume that customer 1 has a lot of bills to pay each month:rotfl:
Regarding the other two options, I'm not aware of the differences between the Natwest & A&L debit cards (sorry )

Inactive

I wouldn't know, or care to be honest, they are all just bits of plastic to me.

scottishblondie

Customer 1 would seem to have a "higher status" to me, at least in the credit rating sense. The Vanquis cards that 2 and 3 have are generally associated with people who have trouble getting credit due to poor credit ratings.

The debit cards don't indicate much to me tbh - I don't have a clue what kind of accounts they relate to, and the lack/presence of a CGC doesn't mean much these days imo since cheques are being phased out.

Olipro

bit of an obvious choice isn't it... clearly it's customer 1 because not only do they have an Amex they essentially have one of each of the major card brands so if a particular merchant doesn't accept one (or perhaps even 2) of those three then they've always got something to fall back on.

Toe-Jam

Inactive wrote: »

I wouldn't know, or care to be honest, they are all just bits of plastic to me.

I agree, Does it really matter what it says on it, as long as you have the funds to back up using it ?

You could have a visa electron with £100 in the bank rather than a centurian black card maxed to the limit at 39% interest lol who's better off then ?

I have a bog standard Barclaycard and they keep trying to give me a platinum one because if i take it I will loose my promotional interest rate and it will go up from 6% to 18%, so i'll do without the status

bev309

Toe-Jam wrote: »

I agree, Does it really matter what it says on it, as long as you have the funds to back up using it ?

I think it does matter to some people, where it comes to basic bank accounts anyway.
I know that previously, when I had a solo card on my old basic account, I used to hate people seeing it, then it was changed to a visa debit - albeit the blue one lol, it somehow felt more acceptable.
Maybe it's just me?:rotfl:
But I do agree regarding the credit cards - just because they are of a higher 'credit status' it doesn't mean that the cardholder in a better financial position than someone with a standard debit card. Why have a credit card when you can pay outright?:j

dizziblonde

I never actually think about it - on the AMEX front though, my step-dad's a bit of a skinflint and delights in having an Amex card because of the fact it's accepted in less places so he can sucker my mum into paying - so I never think "oooh posh" when I see one as I've seen many years of happy bickering between the pair of 'em!

Toe-Jam

dizziblonde wrote: »

I never actually think about it - on the AMEX front though, my step-dad's a bit of a skinflint and delights in having an Amex card because of the fact it's accepted in less places so he can sucker my mum into paying - so I never think "oooh posh" when I see one as I've seen many years of happy bickering between the pair of 'em!

I've never seen anyone ever with an amex card, and i wouldn't be that impressed if i did