Silver Credit Cards

The lowest in the hierarchy of precious metal named credit cards, silver credit cards have been around since the conception of credit cards in the mid-1950s. Today silver cards have been surpassed in prestige by gold credit cards and platinum credit cards and so have more commonly come to be known as ‘standard’ or ‘basic’ credit cards.

Aside from all being precious metals; silver, gold and platinum also signify the difference between the various strata of credit cards available to cardholders. So, what’s the difference between you having silver, gold and platinum credit cards? Besides the kudos of having a metallic covered card in a stratum higher than the one below it, with silver being considered the lowest, gold next and platinum at the peak, these days there really is little difference between each of these cards.

The Silver card by Citibank offers much of the same in terms of rewards as the Gold card. Every dollar you put on the card translates into 1 frequent flyer point, and the best part is, it happens automatically. There is no need to jump through hoops to try and get your points transferred from your card to your frequent flyer account because it just happens automatically. In fact, Citibank makes it extremely easy for card holders to redeem their points for flights. There are no ‘time period’ lapses where you need to use your points because they never expire. You can redeem your points today and fly tomorrow if you would like.

Advantages of silver credit cards

The advantages that silver credit cards have over other types of cards include:

* lower annual membership fees (if any)

* lower threshold salary which you need to earn if you want to apply

Disadvantages of silver credit cards

* lower cash withdrawal limits

* less rewards in rewards promotion packages, such as a lower percentage rate cash back return with cash back credit cards or lower airmiles with airmile credit cards

Credit Limit

At the beginning of the credit cards’ story, the main difference between these credit cards was that the amount of money you could spend with them differed substantially. Platinum Credit Cards had a credit limit much like a classic credit card, gold credit cards had higher limits and Platinum Credit Cards claimed to have no limits at all (we say claim because there was not and there isn’t such thing as no limits. However, to be honest the credit limit is high enough to consider that claim to be true.).

Spending Limit

Although the cards are supposed to signify a higher credit limit and spending power, in fact what they do is act as a signal as to you supposed income. This is because as you go up in the line of colors, so (supposedly) should your income – and thus your spending limit. The only problem with this is that while the platinum card used to be an ‘invite’ only card, these days the qualifying salaries for each of these cards are set so close together that you do not really need to earning that much in order to qualify for a platinum card!