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Remember when qualifying for a credit card meant having nearly perfect credit? I still remember how embarrassed I was when Sears refused me a credit card because I had missed a payment on my car some three years earlier.
My first Visa card had me feeling as proud as a peacock. It wasn't everybody who could pull a piece of plastic from his wallet and tell the guys from the office "Hey, you can stop counting out your pennies. I'll take care of the lunch bill, and you can pay me back later." I never was one for charging stuff I couldn't afford. Still, having that card on hand for the unexpected 'great deal' like two weeping willow trees for only $15 at the local nursery seemed like a God send when payday was eight days in the future and I only had $6 to my name. I seem to remember kids shoes, dresses, jackets and other 'back to school' items being paid for with that same card. As I grew a bit more solvent, I used the card only for concenience and would always pay in full, the bill I received at the end of each month. I attributed my receiving a 'Gold card' in the mail to my thrifty ways and my now perfect credit rating. It makes a feller kinda proud when a credit card company recognizes his responsible spending habits this way. Well, you coulda knocked me over with a feather when the mail came last week and Visa had issued me a new card. It might have taken forty years of conservative spending and never missing a payment, but I was now the proud owner of a Platinum credit card. I figured I now ranked alongside Bill Gates and verious other giants of industry. Obviously someone at Visa had done their homework and picked up on the fact that my Social Security had risen some 2.6% this year and that I had money in my checking account, in a savings account, a mutual fund and nearly three hundred dollars in quarters in a jar I keep behind the rolls of paper towels in the garage. My daughter called this morning to tell me how well she was doing these days. The two of us chatted about how Aunt Harriet, cousin Willie and various other family members were doing. Conversation was running down when I saw an opportunity to brag just a tad. "Guess what, honey" I said. "I've got a Platinum Visa card now. "Pretty neat, huh?" "You only have Platinum?" "Uh........yeah.....pretty impressive, huh?" "You don't have a Titanium credit card?" "Uh.....what's titanium?" "Dad, all the girls at the office have Titanium Visa cards. Even the guys in the warehouse have them. You should ask for one. You DID say you got a 2.6% raise in your Social Security didn't you? That might be enough to do it." Well, here I sit.......mad as a wet hen and fit to be tied. All those years of paying bills on time, building up little nest eggs here and there, saving quarters for the last five years and what does it get me" A lousy Platinum credit card is all. I wonder what comes after Titanium? I think I'll write to Visa and demand a Plutonium credit card. Maybe even a Uranium one. You think my having the quarters might make a difference? Maybe if I mentioned the empty Gallo wine bottle in the closet that I filled with dimes? Something's definitely not right in the world of high finance these days. I'm gonna write a letter to somebody about this.
 
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