This isn’t a great card by any stretch of the imagination. When I went around to try to find information about what other, I was fairly shocked to find that several personal finance bloggers and other respected financial portals actually had something nice to say about it; aside from the fact that it’s made from carbon graphite – which is cool.
What isn’t cool is the annual fee of $495, which in my opinion is unwarranted. Let me preface this by saying that I am not opposed to paying high annual fees on credit card if it’s justified. I’ve been an AMEX Platinum card user for 7 years and that card comes with a similar fee, but there is at least a reason.
Here are 3 reasons why I think this card is a joke:
Reason 1 – It offers a 0% APR on Balance Transfers
Ok, the main reason to transfer a balance online is to save money on interest. Granted, you can save money with a 0% introductory transfer rate…BUT YOU DON”T SAVE ANYTHING WHEN THE CARD CHARGES A $495 ANNUAL FEE.
The reality is that nobody in their right mind who is trying to save money would switch to this card even with the 0% balance transfer rate because there are far superior balance transfer offers out there that have a 0% term for the same time (15 months) or longer. On a side note, the balance transfer fee with this card is 4% so they whack you twice.
Reason #2 – The Rewards Program Doesn’t Justify The Annual Fee
As stated, I’ve been an AMEX Platinum holder for years. In my opinion the fee for that card is warranted even though it’s a bit high. For the Visa Black Card the annual fee isn’t. Or maybe it is, but a potential applicant would never know because they don’t disclose much about the rewards program. It eludes to luxury gifts. What are the luxury gifts and how to you get them?
It also talks about the “exclusive rewards program.” Ok what’s exclusive about this program? The rewards program is a standard 1% program like just about every other standard rewards program on the planet. They say that you can redeem points for airline tickets with no blackout dates. Again, standard.
There is also a 24-hour concierge service. Typically, credit card concierge services (even the American Express concierge service) is not very good. I mean, they aren’t horrible, but they aren’t as good as say the concierge that you’re going to get at a high-end hotel.
Reason #3 – I trust American Express more than I trust Barclays Bank Delaware
Barclays has no street credit in the US. Sorry, it’s the truth. There is no way in the world that I am going to believe that they have forged better relationships with US merchants that are going to benefit me when I go to redeem my rewards than AMEX has. This is fairly important in my opinion.
Conclusion:
This card is trying to be something that it isn’t. It’s got the price tag of an exclusive card without the benefits that are typically associated with one. Again, I do think that fact that it’s made from a cool carbon compound is neat, but that’s not going to get me to fork over $495 annually to carry it. If their target market is truly people who enjoy the finer things in life they should spend less time marketing the physical material make-up and provide some marketing copy on the rewards program itself. I think I’m gonna pass on this one.
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