Realisitically, how easy is it

PandaPants_2

to get a credit card? I have 2 platinum cards, yet i live with my parents and earn £19k a year. I was under the impression you had to be a homeowner or earn mega-bucks to get the best credit deals....

CannyJock

PandaPants wrote: »

to get a credit card? I have 2 platinum cards, yet i live with my parents and earn £19k a year. I was under the impression you had to be a homeowner or earn mega-bucks to get the best credit deals....

If you're on the electoral register, lived there for a while, have been with your bank/employer for a period of time, haven't missed a payment then it'll all go in your favour.

Naming cards "Platinum cards" is more of a sales gimic now I think.

PBA

Agree with Jock. I've got a Platinum Barclaycard with a limit of #850!! Obviously if platinum was actually worth something they wouldn't have actually given it to me....

Martinslovechild

The problem with these cards is that owners tend to mistake them for status, i.e. owning a Platinum card indicates a high-earning, corporate-climbing, upper-middle-class, well-to-do individual. It couldn't be further from the truth...

The new 'top-of-the-tree' cards are apparently Black cards. Platinum cards were introduced as there were far too many gold cards around; in the early 90's, everybody seemed to have a gold card and they were no longer deemed 'superior' enough, so the credit card companies came up with the idea of Platinum cards.

Now of course, everybody seems to have a Platinum card, so again, the very folk who felt that they were too good for Gold and found themselves in a 'select' group of Platinum credit card owners, have found themselves surrounded by just about anybody who can sign their name on an application form.

So, the marketing people at the Credit Card companies decided that what was needed was a new status facelift, this time in the form of the Black card. Amex's 'Centurion' black card was wonderfully invented to satisfy demand from punters who felt that Platinum didn't match their status. This is a card that you cannot apply for - you have to be invited! And it doesn't come free - there's a rather large annual fee (I'm not exactly sure how much but have a feeling that it's around £500). Other banks have followed suit (e.g. Natwest Black).

For more info, have a look at http://www.amex-black.com/ which is an American site. Some people on there have been charging between $30,000 - $50,000 PER MONTH!! on the card.

reehsetin

CannyJock wrote: »

Naming cards "Platinum cards" is more of a sales gimic now I think.

agreed, i was 18 with a part time job minimum wage/student and barclays gave me a platinum card £750 limit, what a joke