Author Topic: Visa Black Card  (Read 5843 times)

eostache

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Visa Black Card
« on: July 09, 2014, 03:21:25 PM »
I got a big black envelope in the mail yesterday. It told me that the Visa Black Card is the ultimate buying tool. The card it self is made of stainless steel and carbon fiber. I'd rather they sent me a road bike made from stainless steel and carbon fiber.

Anyway I can fill out the form to apply for the card. I'm not sure how I got on the mailing list for this card. My income is tiny and my spending is even less. My favorite place to shop is the dumpsters in the neighborhood. Pretty sure they don't take Visa.

I looked to see what is costs for the privilege of using this Black Card. Is it less than my REI Visa or Discover card? (Free).

Nope. $495 per year to be Black Card popular. Yikes!

I noticed a postage paid return envelope and all the crap they sent me to try to impress me was pretty heavy. So I stuffed it all back into the return envelope and looked around for some other heavy things to cram in there (didn't find any). And I sent it all back to them. After they pay the postage to get all that crap back they might take my name off the mailing list.

brewer12345

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Re: Visa Black Card
« Reply #1 on: July 09, 2014, 03:44:36 PM »
My BIL hates getting junk mail with a passion.  So he takes all the prepaid return envelopes and puts some of my niece's voluminous artwork output into each one and drops them in the mail.

GrayGhost

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Re: Visa Black Card
« Reply #2 on: July 09, 2014, 04:38:17 PM »
My dad has gotten some offers for cards like that. They do have very high annual fees, but if you spend a ton of money on them (for business reasons, for example) they can pay themselves off with miles and stuff pretty soon. So it's not necessarily anti-Mustachian... but I bet 90+% of its effective use is.

odput

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Re: Visa Black Card
« Reply #3 on: July 10, 2014, 06:31:16 AM »
Yeah...my wife has the American Express Platinum card for work travel and expenses.  Even if the company she works for didn't reimburse the $400 annual fee it would still be worth it in rewards

BUT:
I bet 90+% of its effective use is.

Probably higher...what is the ratio of mustachians to consumer sukkas?

forward

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Re: Visa Black Card
« Reply #4 on: July 10, 2014, 06:50:11 AM »


I got that offer as well.  It was an interesting black envelope, so I guess that bit of marketing worked to get me to open it.  It went down hill from there though.  "You want me to pay you $495 to have the privilege of spending my money using this card, yeah right."

nordlead

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Re: Visa Black Card
« Reply #5 on: July 10, 2014, 08:07:52 AM »
I got two offers for that card I believe (one for me, one for my wife).

I gave them to my two sons, since they came with large fake CC's made out of fairly heavy paper stock. They had fun with them for a while.

slugline

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Re: Visa Black Card
« Reply #6 on: July 10, 2014, 09:10:47 AM »
I got that "invitation" this year and had a good laugh.

I found out later that this "Visa Black" is considered to be a knockoff of the American Express Centurion (black) card, which is actually carefully marketed to big earners/spenders. I wouldn't get either, but especially not the Visa if your object is to claim you're in exclusive company.

steadierfooting

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Re: Visa Black Card
« Reply #7 on: July 10, 2014, 09:18:41 AM »
I signed up for the credit card opt out so haven't gotten any of those.  It reminds me of the starbucks gift card that was made out of metal I guess?  and you had to pay $50 for it.  And it sold out super fast.  Starbucks is smart though, they know their customers piss away money on frivolous drinks so why not frivolous gift cards?

We get low junk mail, I work from home and have down time, so while sitting in front of my laptop will call up the customer service department and request to be taken off.  lot's of times they keep sending me junk, and I keep calling.  It makes me happy that I'm running up their customer service department costs every time I call.  I figure if enough people do it they'll realize it's not worth the cost of the marketing.


eyePod

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Re: Visa Black Card
« Reply #8 on: July 10, 2014, 09:31:56 AM »
I signed up for the credit card opt out so haven't gotten any of those.  It reminds me of the starbucks gift card that was made out of metal I guess?  and you had to pay $50 for it.  And it sold out super fast.  Starbucks is smart though, they know their customers piss away money on frivolous drinks so why not frivolous gift cards?

I wish I bought as many of them as I could at $50... http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_sacat=0&_from=R40&_nkw=starbucks+metal+gift+card&LH_Complete=1&LH_Sold=1&rt=nc

dandarc

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Re: Visa Black Card
« Reply #9 on: July 10, 2014, 03:14:47 PM »
I signed up for the credit card opt out so haven't gotten any of those.  It reminds me of the starbucks gift card that was made out of metal I guess?  and you had to pay $50 for it.  And it sold out super fast.  Starbucks is smart though, they know their customers piss away money on frivolous drinks so why not frivolous gift cards?

I wish I bought as many of them as I could at $50... http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_sacat=0&_from=R40&_nkw=starbucks+metal+gift+card&LH_Complete=1&LH_Sold=1&rt=nc

Wow . . . who would've thought that a gift card could be a collector's item.

DeepEllumStache

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Re: Visa Black Card
« Reply #10 on: July 10, 2014, 03:34:37 PM »
I've been doing the same thing with the junk mail about mortgage insurance and title services since buying my condo last month.  I have been shredding these (or drawing over them with permanent marker) and mailing them back in the convenient postage paid envelope stuffed with other useless junk mail offers.

Pegasus

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Re: Visa Black Card
« Reply #11 on: July 10, 2014, 05:48:02 PM »
I rely on junk mail -- mostly catalogs -- to line the hamster cage ...

annod

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Re: Visa Black Card
« Reply #12 on: July 11, 2014, 08:41:33 AM »
As a small business owner just starting to take credit cards using a merchant account, I realize that by accepting these "black" cards, "platinum" cards, businesses get charged a higher rate for processing these cards. So you think it is the $495 that gets you the double rewards? Nope, the business you are purchasing from is paying for it.
So visa wins on both ends.