The better rewards (and $50 less yearly fee) of the AmEx Plat is a better deal overall, even factoring in when I cannot use it. I’ve decided to cancel my Visa Black and I signed up for a simple no annual fee Visa Cash Rewards card instead. For 90% of my purchases I can use the AmEx Plat and enjoy the better rewards vs the Visa Black, and for places where AmEx is not accepted I use my Visa Cash Rewards card that accumulates points that never expire. Over time, I can simply get cash back from the forced Visa purchases. For my mostly domestic purchases plus a few trips a year, this combination of 2 card use (AmEx Plat/Visa Cash Rewards vs Visa Black) is superior over just having the one Visa Black… I crunched the numbers. For both cards, though, I made use of the annual fee just by taking a few vacations a year. Both travel programs got great rates and hotel amenities that more than make up for the measly ~$500 a year. If you’ve never had a premium credit card and claim things like, “I can book this myself”, “I can get that deal for no money at all” obviously have never had a credit card that come with concierge and travel services. The things are freaking great and worth the money.

Also, for those where prestige matters, the Visa Black card was not looked on as a ‘baller’ card. It got a few eye brow raising looks, but more often than not people know it is not at elite card status just yet. The AmEx Plat is looked upon with more respect. In the few places that dont take AmEx, you still get people treating you better because I always slap the Plat card down first. They then tell me AmEx isnt accepted and i’ll switch it out for the Visa Cash Rewards (which through USAA looks very high class and tasteful in itself), but they still are impressed by the AmEx Plat attempt.

If you qualify for both, want to be a ‘pimp daddy’, and can cover the annual fee in perks. Go for the AmEx Plat and some other regular Visa. I recommend the USAA Visa Cash Rewards card if you are a USAA member.

The limit – My limit was $10,000 which is hilarious for a card where you’re supposed to have the power to make very large purchases.

The gifts – About a month later I received an engraved multipurpose pen, pencil and stylus.

The concierge service – I called inquire about hotel room reservations in Miami, FL. About 28 hours later I received an email with my options. Thats a long time to wait. I could’ve went on any internet based travel site and got the results in a fraction of the time.

The winner – Barclay’s. Think about it…Barclay’s states only 1% of the U.S. residents (308,899) will be approved for the card, which equates to $152,905,005 (308,899 x $495) in annual fees!

The verdict – The value of this card isn’t worth $495 a year and I will be canceling before the next membership fee is due. Save your money get a basic rewards card with no annual fee and comparable interest rate because the Visa Black Card isn’t worth the money.

I had a nice limit, but it was not worth keeping to me for the annual fee. If the annual fee was $150 or less I would have kept it however it was not worth the $495. Before I cancelled I offered to stay on for half of the annual fee but they declined. I am glad they did anyways.

The customer service in itself was MISERABLE. I only had one Customer Service Rep who was ever polite. I am happy with my AMEXs and will be getting the CitiAdvantage Mastercard for my non-Amex needs. Very disappointed with my black card experience…