Have had a gold card for a year and then they offered a discount on the platinum and we upgraded. We're also a little disappointed with the lowering of miles offered and might go back down to gold in the coming year.

Points and rewards aside, the customer service and responsiveness is impressive. They know who you are when you call and have excellent security measures. While on a trip to Cuba we had someone fraudulently using the card in the Dominican Republic and they quickly, painlessly resolved the situation and we could enjoy the rest of our holiday worry free. Any time we have telephone contact with them, no matter where in the world we are, we've always been very satisfied and impressed with their service.

The only 'negative' I would say is that it takes several days for money to clear on the account, even if you deposit cash directly at the bank, so you have to plan ahead if you're nearing zero balance and want to make a larger purchanse.

Hi Matt, 

Thanks for answering. 
What do you mean with "the money to clear on the account"?
I assume that monthly credit card bills are directly charged from your regular checking account, or do you have to do this manually for this card? 

The credit cards are with Credit Suisse, where we don't have an account, so we have to transfer money from our regular account to the card. You can only use the positive balance on your credit card account. This transfer and/or depositing cash directly at Credit Suisse takes a few days (cash even takes longer, if I remember correctly, so we just send money from one of our accounts) to clear and appear on the card. I'm not sure if Credit Suisse users can have direct debit from their accounts.

thank you for the question. Matt thank you for sharing your experience. I was asking the same question yesterday so very helpful. 

Its really hard to find any credit card where the fee to get it justifies the rewards they offer.  The only one I can see any value in is the TCS card where they give you cash back and if you really spend exclusively on the card all year then you can get more back in rebate than the fee they charge.  Otherwise frankly get a card with a zero fee. 

And to your question of direct debits, I've never come across a credit card that didn't accept direct debit instructions so that the full balance is automatically withdrawn at the end of the month.

I've been using the Cumuls Mastercard for three years now and I love it. It's simple, relatively cheap and not hassle-free.