Pick a Card

American Express introduced its Plum Card this week, two months after announcing it at the annual INC 500 conference in Chicago. The new card--the sixth color in the AmEx rainbow--is for high rollers who also clip coupons: the target market is limited (at first, anyway) to just 10,000 small-business owners "with high materials costs and variable cash flow." These folks have incomes "in the 6- or 7-figure range" and appreciate getting a 2 percent discount when they pay on time. The catch: they have to spend $5,000 a month.

If you don't qualify, or don't look good in plum, Despair has a solution: "a card so exclusive it's accepted only in one place." The Despair gift card, which if you squint looks just a little bit like an Amex card, comes in Rust ($10), Pyrite ($25), and Tin ($50). Each low-value mineral is explained with a bit of charming blarney.

(Personally, I think the AmEx plum color is beautiful and distinctive, and I admire the choice of name. One meaning of plum is "an especially desirable position, assignment, or reward"--very apt indeed.)

(Thanks to DJF for the AmEx heads-up.)

Comments

[GoingLikeSixty]

Green, Gold, Platinum, Red, Plum, Black?

[Nancy Friedman]

GoingLikeSixty: Green, gold, platinum, blue, plum, black. I like the idea of a red card for members of Debtors Anonymous: "With the Amex Red Card, you're in the red!"

[John]

I've yet to understand the Amex Blue card, but maybe I'm just dumb as a fencepost.

[GoingLikeSixty]

Then there are six colors: Bono Red