Changes Coming To Your Merrill + Visa Credit Card: Visa Signature Benefits

Merrill + Visa cardholders will soon be receiving Visa Signature benefits with their cards, according to a person I spoke with at FIA Card Services, the Bank of America subsidiary that handles Merrill Lynch cards. Merrill is currently in the process of implementing the change. At a time when card companies are moving to cut costs, and kill credit-card perks, it's nice to see Merrill adding -- rather than slashing -- benefits.

Cardholders can expect to receive plenty of literature regarding the new benefits before January 1, 2009. Importantly, even though cardmembers will receive Visa Signature benefits, the card will continue to look the same (you won't receive new plastic) and the card number will remain the same. (Hat tip to AJ over at the cardratings.com forum for first mentioning possible changes.)

Additionally, in January cardmembers will receive credit-card statements with the new Visa Signature logo. In a lot of ways these new benefits will make the Merrill + card feel like a hybrid card. While it will still be a Platinum Plus rewards card (that's what the Merrill card is), we'll be receiving Visa Signature benefits in addition to the Merrill benefits that we've always enjoyed.

Indeed, with the new benefits, card members will no longer have a preset spending limit. If your current credit limit is $50,000, you'll be able to charge in excess of that amount without incurring over-the-limit fees (assuming, of course, Merrill approves the charge).

I'm told that our assigned credit limits will continue to get reported to the credit bureaus, thereby keeping our limits in play for utilization purposes. We'll see. My Nordstrom Visa Signature card, for example, does not report the limit to the credit bureaus. Instead, only my high balance is reported. In fact, most Visa Signature cards do suppress the limits when they're reported to the credit bureaus. Still, because Merrill is not actually issuing new Visa Signature cards, maybe consumers -- who want the limit to report -- will be pleasantly surprised. I'm taking a wait-and-see approach.

Finally, because Merrill is not issuing a new Visa Signature card (and has no plans to), applicants will continue to be greeted by the Merrill + application on Merrill Lynch's Web site. The only difference for them, as opposed to existing cardholders, is that the application (when Merrill changes the language) will tout the Visa Signature benefits that now come with the card.