The VISA Gold card is a prestige credit card supplied by VISA and offered financial institutions such as banks.
A prestige card is aimed credit card borrowers who either earn more than average, have a high net worth or who spend a large amount on a credit card. Prestige cards offer generous rewards in return for higher interest rates and annual fees. Gold cards were the first prestige cards that were offered, but after a while prestige cards such as platinum cards and silver cards started to be offered. Silver cards were offered as a halfway house between standard cards and gold cards while platinum cards were offered as an even more exclusive from of the gold card.
VISA is the largest credit card originator in the world. More than 29 million shops and services around the world accept the VISA card. All VISA cards allow for payment in the currency of the country where the purchase is made with the amount automatically being converted to Australian dollars. If ATM machines are used abroad these can attract fairly high fees.
VISA Gold customers have access to the Emergency Assistance Centre which is staffed 24 hours a day all through the year. It can be accessed through a world-wide toll free number. Emergency card replacement is part of the emergency service.
VISA gold offers a high spending limit; usually this is more than $5,000. There is also a revolving line of credit.
Depending on the bank that provides the gold card, the card holder may be eligible for free overseas travel and medical insurance. There are usually conditions attached to this, such as the card holder should purchase some of the overseas journey using the credit card. There may be a minimum spend for this.
There are other benefits that come from holding a gold card, although these differ from provider to provider. These include benefits such as extended warranties, purchase protection or locking in lower interest rates.
Gold cards are offered by a large amount of banks and other financial institutions. All but the smallest institutions that offer a VISA card will also be offered a gold card.
Gold cards used to be very exclusive and at the beginning were offered on an invitation only basis. However, this has not been kept up and gold cards are now widely advertised and open to any applicant who fulfils the conditions for the card.
