All That Glitters

It should not seem hard to close a credit card account that you don’t use, but it was hard for me with my American Express Gold Premium Plus card. Right there on the front of the card it says I have been a member since 1960. That was while I was a junior in college, 20 years old, driving a 1958 Ford, the year before we got married. It’s been a long relationship, not one to casually cut up and throw into the wastebasket.

I used to charge anything and everything on my AMEX card. There were those Membership Rewards points, you see, that I could convert into frequent flyer miles and the like. Then along came the cards that were (a) free, and (b) gave you back a percent of what you purchased in cash. And we don’t fly much anywhere these days. So, I switched to one of the new VISA cards and my AMEX card was relegated to second string.

Recently I downloaded my credit card information and saw that the annual fee of $150 was due for the AMEX card. Last year at this time, I rationalized and inertia prevailed for another year. This year, however, I thought I would go for it. I logged onto American Express and looked for ways to spend the final Membership Rewards points I had. It was harder than I had imagined to find stuff I really wanted, which was part of the problem with the card in the first place. But I did and spent all but spare change out of the account.

Then the hard part…calling in to cancel the card. The nice gentleman I spoke to asked why, after 46 years, I wanted to cancel. I told him. He asked if he waived $65 of the $150 fee, would that change my mind. I told him it would not.

The deed is done. The gold card is in tiny pieces in the trash. I no longer have unlimited credit, no due dates on payment, and the old cachet of being one of the original gold card holders.