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Credit cards with images on them have been around for a long time — you could get cards that represent your alma mater, etc.

But lately some companies have begun offering personalized cards; cards where you can upload an image of your own to use, or where you can select from a variety of stock images.

Capital One is doing this, and Wells Fargo is as well (at least for their debit cards).

So, now I have a zebra on my credit card, because I didn’t like the old picture.

I’m assuming that this is intended to generate pleasant feelings when people look at their cards, which presumably would translate into more spending. So of course I want to be careful about getting any sort of warm-and-fuzzy feeling about a piece of plastic.

The zebra won’t affect my spending; since I only use that card for business expenses, and those are fairly fixed. But at least I won’t be thinking “That’s an ugly card” every time I look at it anymore.

And I do find the idea handy, especially from Wells Fargo. I have multiple accounts with them, and the cards all look the same. It used to annoy me to no end.

I didn’t want to accidentally use the wrong debit card, and double checking the last four digits all the time got to be a pain. I never felt confident that I was keeping them straight.

So, I had resorted to putting a little frog sticker on one of them so that I could tell them apart at a glance.

That worked, but I’ll probably personalize my debit card using their service the next time it updates, as I’m running out of frog stickers…

What about you? Have you taken advantage of this ability? If so, has it impacted your spending or how you feel about the card in any way?

While the little frog hasn’t impacted my spending, it definitely has influenced me when it comes to feelings about the card. I smile every time I see the frog, because I like frogs. It’s all too easy to have those feelings subtly translate into a pleasant feeling when using the card.

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