Visa Black - what gives?

[Anonymous]

Completely different from the Amex Centurion. Amex charges me $2500yr as a fee but I do use the hell out of the services so it does save me a little money. They're now apparently trying to charge people a $7500 initiation fee. It was $5k when I got mine. You have to spend north of $250k in a given year on another of their cards such as the platinum.

[Anonymous]

I have a delta amex platinum with an annual fee of around $200. The main perk I get is the companion delta ticket anywhere in the country. Normally that pays for itself.

Not sure if the other perks are exclusive or not - the fraud protection, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Completely different from the Amex Centurion. Amex charges me $2500yr as a fee but I do use the hell out of the services so it does save me a little money. They're now apparently trying to charge people a $7500 initiation fee. It was $5k when I got mine. You have to spend north of $250k in a given year on another of their cards such as the platinum.

What services do you use? Was thinking to try for the Centurion by putting all my company expenses on my gold AmEx to hit the Centurion level.. but not sure if worth it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Completely different from the Amex Centurion. Amex charges me $2500yr as a fee but I do use the hell out of the services so it does save me a little money. They're now apparently trying to charge people a $7500 initiation fee. It was $5k when I got mine. You have to spend north of $250k in a given year on another of their cards such as the platinum.

What services do you use? Was thinking to try for the Centurion by putting all my company expenses on my gold AmEx to hit the Centurion level.. but not sure if worth it.

Wow. PPs, I can only hope you are financially independent. What is with the spend spend spend treadmill?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Completely different from the Amex Centurion. Amex charges me $2500yr as a fee but I do use the hell out of the services so it does save me a little money. They're now apparently trying to charge people a $7500 initiation fee. It was $5k when I got mine. You have to spend north of $250k in a given year on another of their cards such as the platinum.

What services do you use? Was thinking to try for the Centurion by putting all my company expenses on my gold AmEx to hit the Centurion level.. but not sure if worth it.

It's a status symbol. You do get some surprises every year (my wife got $500 gift card to saks on her birthday) - that kind of thing, but if you are hoping to get back more than you put in.... I doubt you will. The travel services are similar to those available on platinum, and unless you are looking for help finding a jet on short notice, the difference isn't there. The point of the black card isn't to have one, it's to show people you have one. I once sat in a meeting where people pulled theirs out to compare what date they joined (it's printed on the card). The purpose of that of course being to try to be the most longstanding member.

[Anonymous]

What about a black Mastercard? I have one, and it costs nothing, and I don't get anything extra either. They just sent it to me when my card # was stolen in the Target theft. Didn't think anything of it when they sent it to me. I am going to swap it for a free card if they try slapping any charges on the account!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Completely different from the Amex Centurion. Amex charges me $2500yr as a fee but I do use the hell out of the services so it does save me a little money. They're now apparently trying to charge people a $7500 initiation fee. It was $5k when I got mine. You have to spend north of $250k in a given year on another of their cards such as the platinum.

What services do you use? Was thinking to try for the Centurion by putting all my company expenses on my gold AmEx to hit the Centurion level.. but not sure if worth it.

It's a status symbol. You do get some surprises every year (my wife got $500 gift card to saks on her birthday) - that kind of thing, but if you are hoping to get back more than you put in.... I doubt you will. The travel services are similar to those available on platinum, and unless you are looking for help finding a jet on short notice, the difference isn't there. The point of the black card isn't to have one, it's to show people you have one. I once sat in a meeting where people pulled theirs out to compare what date they joined (it's printed on the card). The purpose of that of course being to try to be the most longstanding member.

This exact same thing happened to me, only it was with Subway "Buy 10 get 1 free" cards. I had mine all the way back from 2004 and everyone was like, "dang! you the man!" I felt pretty good about myself that day.

[Anonymous]

What? It's very exclusive.Got the invitation.
Signed, stripper.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Completely different from the Amex Centurion. Amex charges me $2500yr as a fee but I do use the hell out of the services so it does save me a little money. They're now apparently trying to charge people a $7500 initiation fee. It was $5k when I got mine. You have to spend north of $250k in a given year on another of their cards such as the platinum.

What services do you use? Was thinking to try for the Centurion by putting all my company expenses on my gold AmEx to hit the Centurion level.. but not sure if worth it.

I use them for VERY extensive travel arrangements and itineraries where I'll be taking 7 people where we're all coming from different locations and will be traveling on some strange schedule to random places. It's easy to send them the details and have the concierge put together the trip without have to worry about it. They do the work and just ask for approval before billing. There are a number of cool things they've done for me while I was off the grid in a remote area and needed assistance. Maybe you enjoyed some funny tasting treat at a hotel in Jakarta but forgot to ask what it was or if you could purchase it? I've done just that but after describing what I was talking about the concierge was able to find it and have it sent to my office. They've also been very helping when I needed to source incredibly difficult to find items or even contact a fabricator of something I saw in a photograph.

You might not get all of the money back but that depends on how else you would handle some of these things. Me? I would probably have to hire someone at least part time as an assistant and I don't want to do that. If you have to figure out some way to scheme to get it, don't worry about it. It's just a charge card. People will think you're lucky to have it even though you're charging/spending $100k/month with amex. It isn't a privilege

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I received an "invitation" too. I don't think it's very exclusive.

+1