It's all happened rather quickly. In less than two years, it seems, there's been a sea change in the way card services are structured. These days, more and more cards are issued that can be tailored by consumers, co-created in a way that suits and benefits them financially. It's no exaggeration to say there has been a seismic shift towards consumer empowerment, towards financial flexibility, although for some reason you don't really read about it all that much.
Capital One,
Chase and
Discover all allow their cardholders to create cards that suit their lifestyles and spend. Not only is this fun to do, but it saves people real money — and by allowing people to save money, the issuers offering this kind of product tend to gain their loyalty and trust.
The latest example of all this is TD Banknorth's
Simply Flexible Visa credit card, which claims to be the 'credit card that gives you control over your monthly rate'. And that it is. Each month, this card allows the cardholder to choose a lower rate — in this case 7.99%. OK, you have to pay off at least 10% of your outstanding balance to get this rate but that, to me at least, seems pretty damn reasonable.
If you pay off less than the 10% balance at the end of the month, you pay 13.99% (5%–9.99% of the outstanding balance) or 18.99% (3%–4.99% of the outstanding balance).
This card isn't super complex, and its website doesn't have any of the bells and whistles that some do, but it has one quality that is very contemporary and completely in tune with the times: it puts the consumer in control.