Eldarwen and smcc, have you guys looked into the Schwab Invest First Visa card? It gives you 2% cashback if linked to a brokerage account. If you're interested, you have to act fast because I heard that they were going to discontinue this card.

I thimk that they discontinued it last month. I am not looking to accumulate more credit cards this year. I am looking for credit line increases. Any cash back that I redeem goes into my savings account.

Eldarwen and smcc, have you guys looked into the Schwab Invest First Visa card? It gives you 2% cashback if linked to a brokerage account. If you're interested, you have to act fast because I heard that they were going to discontinue this card.

Eldarwen, The Premier Gold card is great ! racked up 16,000 points in one year ! Were the points really rack up is Groceries / Gas. Use if for all my gas purchases and everytime I purchase groceries, no matter how large or small the purchase is, I use the card.

My Achilles heal is my ego though, I can deal with the AF for the Platinum; my issue is I know there is even a better card within AMEX that's is in my reach. Colonative and the "Young Man" (HJM331) have always given solid advice about reasons to apply for the Platinum Card, I just need a challenge...........

The double points for the first year that I had the Green and the Platinum I racked up about 15,000 points on groceries. Now, since the conversion is in motion, I don't have that right now. I do like double points back. The points are paying for birthdays and Christmas gifts. Now if they had giftcards for Sephora and Amazon.com that I could redeem my points for, I would be set. I just have to be content with the options that I have.

Eldarwen, The Premier Gold card is great ! racked up 16,000 points in one year ! Were the points really rack up is Groceries / Gas. Use if for all my gas purchases and everytime I purchase groceries, no matter how large or small the purchase is, I use the card.

My Achilles heal is my ego though, I can deal with the AF for the Platinum; my issue is I know there is even a better card within AMEX that's is in my reach. Colonative and the "Young Man" (HJM331) have always given solid advice about reasons to apply for the Platinum Card, I just need a challenge...........

To each his/her own but I would never do business with AMEX again after they reduced my $1,000 CL to $500. That's pretty low of them.

They seems to be evening out somewhat. Except with the CLD they gave me, they have treated me decently.

Good move, Eldarwen! Personally, I wouldn't carry an AMEX card again because they are very inconsistent with their underwriting. It's kind of like being in a relationship with someone that's emotionally unstable.

I don't have a huge spending power. Plus is my ego really that big to justify the annual fee on the Platinum? No.

I decided to downgrade my Amex Platinum to the Premire gold card. I called a few days ago and asked to do that. Customer Service was very nice and asked why. I told them that I don't use all the benefits to warrent paying an annual fee of $450 and my ego wan't that big. They told me that I could convert to either the regular green card or the premire gold card. With the premire gold card, I get 3 points for every dollar that I spend on airfare, 2 points for gas stations and grocery stores and 1 point for everywhere else. On the green, I would get 1 point for every dollar across the board. So the Premire Gold card is the better deal even though the annual fee is $175.

Good choice. The Platinum Card is for those with huge spending power.

I decided to downgrade my Amex Platinum to the Premire gold card. I called a few days ago and asked to do that. Customer Service was very nice and asked why. I told them that I don't use all the benefits to warrent paying an annual fee of $450 and my ego wan't that big. They told me that I could convert to either the regular green card or the premire gold card. With the premire gold card, I get 3 points for every dollar that I spend on airfare, 2 points for gas stations and grocery stores and 1 point for everywhere else. On the green, I would get 1 point for every dollar across the board. So the Premire Gold card is the better deal even though the annual fee is $175.

I would think with RFID being assimilated into a cell phone that even though the consumer still would have to use some type of POS terminal to interact wtih the phone that another layer of security would be enabled for this type of scenario (lost or stolen phone). I would think the terminal would request the user to enter in a password from the cell phone to continue the transaction and as with an ATM card, after so many attempts, the terminal would let the phone know that password attempts granted have been exceeded and thus no further transactions allowed.

Or the Transaction isn't declined offline and the transaction goes online and is cancelled there hopefully the customer has notified his carrier/ issuer and information is gathered, i.e. where transaction occured, time / date, attempted transaction amt, etc..

I would hope. Unless it works similar to the Pay Wave technology where you would just pass the phone near a terminal.....

I would think with RFID being assimilated into a cell phone that even though the consumer still would have to use some type of POS terminal to interact wtih the phone that another layer of security would be enabled for this type of scenario (lost or stolen phone). I would think the terminal would request the user to enter in a password from the cell phone to continue the transaction and as with an ATM card, after so many attempts, the terminal would let the phone know that password attempts granted have been exceeded and thus no further transactions allowed.

Or the Transaction isn't declined offline and the transaction goes online and is cancelled there hopefully the customer has notified his carrier/ issuer and information is gathered, i.e. where transaction occured, time / date, attempted transaction amt, etc..

I agree with Colo. It would be one more reason to steal celphones. It's scary thinking about it because other people may lose their lives over a celphone that may not even contain details of their credit cards.

Lot's of people do lose their cell phones. If the phone was lost or stolen a remote wipe system is probably being thought of now. Right now with my iPhone, since I have a MobileMe subscription, I can do remote wipes & find it's location via a map. I bet if Visa and Apple have a relationship going they'll allow remote wipes from the Visa application (online, calling-in, etc.)

I know. It is kind of cool on one hand but really scary the next. That may be a target of criminals in the future, they willl steal your cell phone in the hopes that you have your credit card on it.

It is kind of scary really.

Lot's of people do lose their cell phones. If the phone was lost or stolen a remote wipe system is probably being thought of now. Right now with my iPhone, since I have a MobileMe subscription, I can do remote wipes & find it's location via a map. I bet if Visa and Apple have a relationship going they'll allow remote wipes from the Visa application (online, calling-in, etc.)