 Hello everyone this is financial author Amit Dan of AmitDan.com. On this channel you'll find financial travel and more videos just like the one you're watching right now. If you like what you see please give it a thumbs up and consider subscribing. Hello everyone this is AmitDan of AmitDan.com. Summer is just kicking in in Canada and instead of doing informational video indoor I decided to do informational video outdoor and that way you'll be able to see different views every time I do these videos if situation permits to stay in outdoor. Today I'll talk about American Express removing a minimum income requirement. Now before I do that I'd like to mention that the information provided are the opinions expressed in this video are my own personal opinion and they do not reflect those of American Express or any credit card companies or anyone else's. These opinions are based on my own analysis and in reality the credit card companies may pursue these policies and procedures to accomplish different objectives. So I would like to start mentioning that the American Express just recently removed a minimum income requirement for all their credit cards starting low end to high end and whether this is a good thing or this is a bad thing and comparing the minimum income requirement for American Express and other credit cards. So first I'd like to start with the minimum income requirement for high end credit cards such as Visa and MasterCard. So the high end credit cards for Visa they're called they're two different types one is called Visa Infinite and the other one is called Visa Infinite Privilege. The minimum income requirement for Visa Infinite credit card is $60,000 personal or $120,000 household and the minimum income requirement for Visa Infinite Privilege is $200 both personal and household income. Now the MasterCard calls its elite card MasterCard world elite and the minimum income requirement for this card is even higher which is $80,000 personal minimum income or $150,000 household minimum income. Now this is my take that these credit cards such as Visa and MasterCard they implement higher minimum income requirement due to the fact that they do not want everyone to have these cards because whenever a merchant is accepting higher end cards they pay more fees to these great card companies and due to the fact that they're paying more on high end cards it is fair for the credit card the merchants to have those customers paying or buying more with more annual income so in that way they can balance the higher merchant fees paying to these credit cards because then it is the assumption is that people who have higher annual incomes will be spending more on merchants than lower annual incomes so that justifies somehow that higher merchant fees with higher annual income individuals because it will balance out the higher fees because they're buying more products. Now my opinion is that I do not think always that's the case always higher annual income people buy or spend more on credit cards than who have lower annual income so I don't think it it happens all the time although you know the credit card companies are trying to limit the people holding the credit cards with higher annual income to balance out the fees but I think in reality that's not the case and the reason American Express is eliminating or removing minimum income requirement from all its great cards this is my assumption or this is my take that they want to catch or absorb the market share from Visa and MasterCard and because if there's an annual income requirement then more people will be able to apply for any credit cards including high-end American Express credit cards such as American Express Gold or American Express Batting App Card because there are a lot of people who may not be able to meet the higher income requirements however they would spend more on these cards even with those have higher incomes so that's one logic I believe American Express is looking at and then another part American Express is relying on that the fact they're trying to get the market share from young people for example people who are in university or in college or who are just starting out in the workforce and they do not have higher income requirement however by removing the higher minimum income requirement if American Express can get these people they can make them sign up for American Express credit cards then these customers will be loyal to American Express for lifelong and whenever their income is exceeding the higher income threshold they will be still loyal to American Express and still will be using American Express for the years to come so basically American Express is trying to get more market share from Visa and MasterCard number one some people will not be able to meet the higher annual income requirement for Visa and Master so they're trying to get get those people and the second group of people they're putting a higher emphasis is that the one who are still young and going to college universities because these people will be spending more and more as they go through the higher levels in the workforce and that's the part they're trying to catch these people earlier than Visa and MasterCard so in terms of business I believe that this is a good step they're just not looking at the present they're looking at the future and I believe Visa and MasterCard will lose an important segment of market share to American Express if they keep restricting their higher end cards to only for those with higher income who those who meet higher income requirements so we'll see what happens in later years whether Visa and MasterCard they take more actions or they remove some of these minimum income requirements to fight American Express or it is possible that American Express will be catching or absorbing more market share and Visa and MasterCard will not be doing anything in this higher minimum annual income requirement scenario thank you for watching the video if you like what you see please give it a thumbs up and consider subscribing and there will be more videos to come so keep an eye and if situation permits or if weather permits then informational video I'll try to do it outdoor instead of sitting indoor and doing it closed environment and this way it's both have that natural feeling and you'll be able to see some scenic views or some views in Toronto this video is done by the lake or by the marina in downtown Toronto Canada and I'll be able to I'll bring you more places like this in the future when I do my next videos thank you for watching and have a good time bye