What's the difference between gold and platinum credit cards?

There are two kinds of gold cards I’m aware of. Some card issuers granted gold cards to their customers with higher incomes and/or better credit ratings. Another type of gold card has certain extra features that come at the price of an annual fee that the standard card doesn’t charge. Someone who travels a lot might pay extra for a card that includes rental car and travel insurance, lost-card assistance, etc.

Eventually gold cards became rather pedestrian. Clever card issuers lowered the requirements for gold cards so a whole new market opened of people who never qualified for gold cards before. Some consumers jumped at the opportunity to be a gold card member even though it didn’t really signify anything.

Thus came the Platinum card. Platinum became the new gold. Everybody and their brother had gold cards but now select cardholders had the platinum card.

Now I guess Platinum doesn’t mean much. I have a platinum Visa check card for my ordinary checking account. Interestingly my wife who is on the same account got a gold card. Feeling slighted she went to the bank and demanded the same level of card I had.

I notice that above platinum we now have titanium cards. To me the next logical metal would be Rhodium, Rhodium prices now exceed that of platinum but I guess rhodium just didn’t pass marketing muster. Titanium is cheaper than silver so it sounds like a downgrade. I suppose the high-tech titanium is associated with in sports raises its prestige.

The most prestigeous of all cards is the Centurion card, also known as the American Express Black card. To own this coveted piece of plastic you must ring up at least $250,000 a year on it, pay a one time $5,000 fee and an annual fee of $2,500.