Looking for a credit card? It pays to be rich

[The Straight Story]

Looking for a credit card? It pays to be rich

---Snip---

— Generous balance transfer options abound. Think 0% interest for up to a year on new purchases, and as long as 18 months on transfers.

— Foreign transaction fees are a source of annoyance for the well-to-do, who travel abroad more often. American Express, Chase and Citi have all announced they're doing away with the fees on select cards, marketed to their wealthiest customers.

In other cases, banks are going all out on enhanced perks. With Citi's new ThankYou Prestige card, customers who book airline tickets get one complimentary ticket for a companion each year. The card's annual fee is $500. That underscores another attractive trait among these customers — willingness to pay handsomely for premium services.

This group's propensity to spend is also attractive because issuers collect fees of 1% to 2% from merchants whenever cardholders make purchases.

http://www.usatoday.com/money/perfi/credit/2011-02-21-credit-cards-targets_N.htm

[DeadEyeDyck]

1. we are returning to the era of the Jet Set

In the 50s and early 60s, only the rich had credit cards or any credit for that matter.

Happy days are here again!!

[rfranklin]

3. Average people had credit through a mortgage in those days...

but you had to put down 20% or more and you had to have a job. That's when banks actually held the mortgages themselves rather than selling and reselling them to collect fees on the transactions.

[onehandle]

2. Hmm. I'm not rich but have most of those benefits.

Don't have the airline ticket thing, but I don't pay $500 for a card either.

[Buzz Clik]

4. These are just more extravagant ways to take your money.

It's like giving them an expensive designer drug rather than the weed everyone else buys on the street.