If there was ever a single credit card to rule them all, it might feel like a distant memory now. Bygone are the days of credit simplicity — just swipe, pay off, and take the crumbs of cashback along the way. These days, there’s a card for everything and everybody: 3% cashback on this, 5x points on that, a lounge in your local airport. And increasingly, it’s not just plastic mounting in wallets; it’s metal, too.

In recent years, highfalutin ‘premium’ ‘travel’ cards like the American Express Platinum Card and Chase Sapphire Reserve have upped the ante with steeper annual fees, the promise of bigger and better airport lounges, and almost ‘too many to count’ credits and benefits in tow. Some creditors have followed in their footsteps, looking to tap the seemingly infinite amount of fee revenue exuding from the mass affluent.

But increasingly, the threat of higher fees and ‘more benefits that nobody can use’ is being met with frustration. Cardholders who have been particularly resolute in the face of higher and higher annual fees are claiming — although I’m not sure that I believe them — that they have had enough. I’m not sure Amex, Chase, or other financial institutions believe them either.

All About Value

Travel has become cheaper, more accessible, and undeniably vogue; so too have other lifestyle pursuits. Young people (really, anybody under the age of 65) love dining out, shopping new-agey experiences, and living in glossy new build apartments. Life is their moodboard. At the center of all of those spendy experiences is a credit card.

The star of the show, at least recently, has been American Express. Leaning into the ‘main character energy’ of America’s young people, their cards have become something of a status symbol; although it might be in dispute how much ‘auramaxxing’ there is to acquire from the arrogance of using an Amex Platinum card at dinner.

That’s because, fundamentally, the Amex Platinum is not a great credit card to spend on.