VisAmex and MasterAmex

My primary credit card has been from MBNA for many years now - their crisp, efficient website and up-to-the-minute balances were great in helping me keep track of expenses (and verify amounts charged within a minute of the swipe). Now that they merged with Bank of America, the website is a nightmare - they are going through glitches in pulling data across, unable to show transactions for days to weeks, and the super security- boy - forget about crooks, I can't get in myself!

So that's when I got thinking about credit cards and such, and took a look around to see what's what. And that's when the idea hit me - why not combine the best of both worlds?

Let me explain. On one side of the spectrum is Amex. They are great cards, give excellent cash backs to consumers, and some stores - like Costco - take only Amex, or cash. Given a choice, I would like to use Amex everywhere, and get a fat cashback bonus at the end of the year. The caveat - not many merchants take Amex.

The other side has Visa / Mastercard - they are both nearly the same, in my opinion, it's really rare to find someone who takes one and not the other. Rewards are good for some cards, but not as great as Amex. However, most people do take these, so it's really easy to use one of them as the primary card.

The third side had Discover - but I hardly ever miss them. Won't complicate matters here.

So, the best of both worlds approach - why doesn't a bank come up with a VisAmex or a MasterAmex - a 2-sided card, with one side a Visa or a Mastercard, and the other side an Amex? The new Amex cards have the magnetic strip in white, which looks good enough to appear on the face - so why not? The bank would link both cards to the same account, and allow me to make a single payment and manage them together. Me - I'll try to use Amex and reap rewards from every transaction - failing which, I'll use the Visa or Mastercard on the other side! Electronics purchases - use Mastercard. Car rentals - supplementary insurance. Costco - Amex. You get the idea.

So - why not?

If you see these cards coming up in a bank near you - remember where you read it first!