Personal Finance

Discover card gives great intro deals, and keeps their customers happy. They have many different cards to choose from, motiva, rewards cards, etc, and they are all great.

Discover was my first credit card, and they started me off with a $2500 credit line. The credit line was high enough to cover my needs, mainly emergencies, but low enough so that even maxed out I could cover the minimum payments.

Customer service speaks to you like they care about you. If you are having problems, they help you the best they can. They are polite, and listen to what you say and do their best to help you.

My husband is from Ecuador and still has a lot of family down there, which means that we have to journey down there every couple years. Now that we have to buy four full-price tickets (and will soon need to buy five), we figured we should try to take advantage of a credit card that will give us frequent flier miles. The first one my husband tried was Bank Of America’s Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan credit card. Our reasons for choosing this card were simple: I usually flew Alaska to visit family in Arizona, it is a partner airline of American, which can get us to Ecuador, and they offered my husband 10,000 bonus miles to sign up for the card. After a couple of years, he convinced me to sign up for the card too. I’m glad I did.

I have been with Amex since 2004. Platinum in the United Kingdom and then in the States when I moved for work and then after spending over $300,000 in a one-year period, I was invited to become a Centurion member. I had heard a lot about the card, was intrigued about it, and accepted the invitation even though it comes with a $5,000 (NON REFUNDABLE) deposit and then a fee of $2,500 per year. So in the 1st year, it will set you back $7,500 and you don’t even have a Starbucks to show for it!

I’ve had many credit cards over the years, but this one has always given me the best service and options. I got it right out of college and it’s been nothing but a smooth ride for twenty years. I carry other cards at the moment, but this is the only one that I use, and I use it for as much as I can. If I could use it to pay for everything, I’d do it in a heartbeat. Customer service is quick to help you with whatever you need and has been great about explaining different options available for the cards over the years.

I remember making the transition from Citibank Visa to Citibank MasterCard several years ago, and it was virtually seamless. Same thing with the cash back rewards card account. They even let me keep my old number so I didn’t have to change it with my automatic payments.

Bottom line - you don’t get much more than with the Gold. If you have multiple cards, the extra annual fees start to divide out and it’s more reasonable, but for a single card it is way overpriced.

I used to have a black card through via my previous business, so I still have several years left on my Priority Pass, which gets you into many airport lounges - more than just the Platinum. (BTW, if you want a Priority Pass, you can buy them yourself - no need to get a black.)