The license to be an adult: a credit card

Meet Mr. Right, his name is American Express

Six months ago, I joined the adult club. As part of my induction to this mandatory society, I signed a one year lease to my apartment, had a stint where I cared about which health care plan I had, and landed a 9-5 that makes me want to go to sleep at 10. It gets even worse- on vacation my 17-year-old cousin asked me why I had to pay my rent when I hadn’t been at my apt. for the past two weeks and I laughed and thought how naïve he was. 6 months ago, his question would have made perfect sense. I continued doing grown up things like paying student loans and phone bills, and a month ago I upgraded to a platinum adult member -I got a credit card.

My credit card journey began with my mom.”Honey,” she said, “You should get paid for using your money, I bought the flat screen in the living room with points from my credit card.” Silly me to think she had worked hard and saved up; the credit card company paid for my 1080 high def TV-duh. What? If there are credit cards that give you presents like TV’s and vacations, why are there people crying on TV and begging Ellen to help them with their credit card bills when that very same credit card took the family to Hawaii?

Oh the scary and unknown world of credit cards. Where to begin? How should I know which credit card was the best, I just wanted the one that got me the flat screen and better seats at Celtics games and didn’t have any hidden fees. I wanted a love maker not a heart-breaker, so I researched all the big boys: Chase, Amex, Visa, Discover, Bank of America and MasterCard. I looked for the card that gave me the most rewards, no annual fee, and most importantly, the one that made me pay on time. I have a spending problem you see, and the last thing I wanted to do was add on to my 30k student loan debt. So I went about choosing my credit card like I would the perfect boyfriend.

Chase was a contender for a while but didn’t seem like the type to reward me for my weekly manicures, so I politely told him thanks, but no thanks. I didn’t give his cousin Discover a chance either; they seemed to be made up of the same DNA- bland and boring. Next was Bank of America, talk about giving and no receiving and an APR rate bigger than his ego. Then came MasterCard, while he had the looks and the sweet talk down, in the end he was the caviar in the relationship and I was the Tostito so I thought it’d be better if we went our separate ways. And then I was hit with a tie breaker-Amex and Visa.

Visa was the fun guy: loved to travel, go to ball games and diners, and I knew my friends (Anthropologie, JCrew and C&B) and family (Jenny’s Nails, The Paramount in Beacon Hill and Marshalls) would love and accept him. On the other hand was Amex: intriguing and sexy, this guy had attention to detail and knew how to make a night out extra special. Whether it was premium seating at a concert, or being extra generous with gifts like inviting me to 5 star hotels in NYC, Amex was charming and had no annual fee- I was in love.  I mean Visa was cute, but who wants a regular Joe when you’ve got Rico Suave at your side?

So I signed up, got approved, and ten days later I was the proud owner of an American Express Blue Card. Awesome rewards program, no annual fee, 0% APR for the first 6 months, and a requirement to pay in full every month  all made him my Mr. Right. I lowered my credit limit to $2k so I could never spend more than I had in my checking account, and we’ve been happy ever since. I’ve paid my bills on time, he’s helping me build my credit score, and hopefully for our anniversary he’ll take me on a cruise in the Caribbean. Sadly, the chase is over, but I was happy to discover I don’t need a visa to go or get what I want when I’ve got a master card like American Express.

Photo Credit: clemson