Pulling out a black metal American Express card shows power and the wherewithal to make a six-figure purchase. James Bond wields one.
Alex Miller, a 26-year-old state government employee from Denver, has a metal card, too. Cashiers at Chick-fil-A sometimes take notice when he pays with his blue metal Capital One Venture card, he said: “It’s a status symbol.”
Matt Wrhel, of Shavertown, Pa., also uses his metal credit card to impress. It is from Capital One but unlike the black AmEx card, it is copper color and has a sensible $10,000 spending limit. Even so, the 32-year-old electrician’s apprentice said, his dates often ask to hold the card and comment that it is “heavier than normal.” Waiters ask how he got it, he said. It wasn’t hard.
Like other luxuries once restricted to the wealthy—cellphones, private airport lounges and French handbags—metal credit cards have trickled down the income stream.
Capital One Financial Corp. and other banks have added metal to some of their credit cards with the idea that the hefty feel makes customers feel special and maybe spend more.
Customers typically can’t ask their bank to swap out their plastic cards, but at least 20 types of credit cards in the U.S. contain metal, including offerings from JPMorgan Chase & Co., Citigroup Inc., and Wells Fargo & Co.
More than 32 million metal credit cards are in circulation world-wide, up from around 5 million five years ago, according to the Nilson Report, a trade publication. While that is a tiny fraction of the 4 billion credit cards in circulation, Nilson forecast the number of metal cards to quadruple in the next two years.
For many bank customers, the heavier the card, the greater the cachet. Plastic cards typically weigh about 5 grams, metal cards can weigh five times that. Citigroup recently bulked up its Prestige card from about 12 grams to 18. The bank said the weight gain responded to evolving customer tastes.
American Express Co. introduced its black card, named Centurion, in 1999. The titanium card still is issued only by invitation. Customers pay a $10,000 initiation fee and $5,000 annually.
The company didn’t advertise its black card, but word spread. It surfaced in Kanye West songs, James Bond movies and the HBO show “Entourage.”
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CompoSecure, a New Jersey company, has produced metal cards in the U.S. for AmEx, Capital One, JPMorgan and others. Jon Wilk, the chief executive, said international sales, led by the U.K., Germany, Russia, the United Arab Emirates and Singapore, are five times higher this year than in 2017.
The cards are often made with stainless steel, titanium or a blend of metals. Some are entirely metal, others include a sheet or two of plastic. CompoSecure has made cards of gold for banks in the Middle East, Singapore and the Czech Republic.
Marriott recently went the other direction, changing a metal card to plastic. Customers weren’t pleased.
Tim Burke, 36 and a software architect in Ithaca, N.Y., received a plastic Marriott card in the mail this summer. “Eww,” he tweeted. Mr. Burke put the plastic card in a drawer and kept the metal one in his wallet.
In October, after customers complained on social media, Marriott tweeted that it was working “to find a way” to bring back the metal cards. Marriott wouldn’t comment. A spokeswoman for JPMorgan, which issues the cards, said it had “no plans to reissue in metal right now.”
Like a Louis Vuitton bag, the metal cards can require special care.
This year, Apple Inc. published a care guide for its new titanium credit card. The guide advised against keeping it in a pocket or bag with loose change, keys “or other potentially abrasive objects.”
Corey Beverly of Greensboro, N.C., polishes his Apple card every six weeks with a microfiber cloth, warm water and a cleaning solution that his family uses on countertops. The Apple guide instructs cardholders to clean the card with rubbing alcohol. But Mr. Beverly, a 35-year-old graphic artist, didn’t bend. “I’m not a rubbing alcohol kind of guy,” he said.
Danica Reaves, 41, of Birmingham, Ala., was surprised when Capital One mailed her a new Savor card made with metal to replace her plastic card.
Ms. Reaves works in a supermarket and has handled the metal AmEx cards of affluent shoppers. “I opened it up and I was like, ’Whoa,’ ” she said. “It really did make me feel important instantly.”
Eric Roitman, a 31-year-old IT service analyst in New York City, stumbled into an unexpected problem. He needed to get rid of his metal Amazon Prime card after it was used for unauthorized purchases.
He knew scissors weren’t strong enough to cut it in half, and he didn’t own tin snips. He put it in a document shredder with a slot for credit cards, he said, and it “just folded over on itself.” He gave up and tossed it in the garbage.
Even if your metal credit cards rank a notch or two below the AmEx Centurion, they can be just as useful.
Murat Karslioglu, a 40-year-old tech entrepreneur in the San Francisco area, has used his AmEx Platinum card to scrape off an icy windshield and fix the loose handle on a kitchen drawer.
People don’t always have tools close by, Mr. Karslioglu said, “but you always carry your wallet.”
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Write to AnnaMaria Andriotis at annamaria.andriotis@wsj.com
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