Silver credit cards

Silver credit cards are prestige cards that are aimed at the more budget conscious credit card holder.

Gold cards were the first prestige card.  They were cards that were aimed at the top end of the credit card market with better services offered for a higher interest rate and higher fees.  At first gold cards were invitation only, and they had quite a high perceived value due to their scarcity.  However, due to customer demand and competition among card holders many of these cards quickly became available to the general public upon application.

While gold cards were in demand, there were many card holders who wanted more services than the standard credit card offered but were not prepared to pay the high costs of the gold card.  For these customers the silver card was developed.  Unlike the gold card, silver cards have never been invitation only.

Generally silver cards have been consistently positioned between standard credit cards and gold cards.  They do not have the stringent application criteria that higher end cards have, such as gold and platinum cards (platinum cards are cards that offer higher services than a gold card).  They tend to be open to people with a worse credit rating than gold cards have and have lower minimum income levels, and some silver credit cards have no minimum income requirement at all.

There are more benefits offered to silver card holders than there are to standard credit card holders, and rewards programs tend to be more generous. This tends to vary and it may be possible to find a standard credit card with similar services, however if a silver credit card is offered by a bank it is highly unlikely that this bank’s standard cards will have that level of service.

Many silver credit cards offer some of the free insurance that the gold credit cards will offer.  These tend to include free travel insurance and purchase protection.  The rewards programs tend to be on a par with many specialist rewards cards, although the silver card is likely to have slightly better terms and conditions.

Silver cards are seen by many credit card providers as the first step to upgrading some of their higher worth but budget conscious clients on to prestige cards.  As a consequence there do tend to be offers that would not be associated with many other prestige cards, such as aggressive zero percent balance transfer and low annual fee offers.

Silver cards can be a way of benefiting from prestige services without paying prestige prices.