May 1, 2010: The Visa Black Card is the latest entrant in the prestigious credit card market category and has created a lot of buzz in the industry. Is it just another luxury card with prohibitively high annual fees? Or do the benefits of the new Visa Black Card justify its expense? Read this review to find out whether or not you should get a Visa Black Card of your own!

First, let’s debunk some of the hype surrounding this card:

Black card?
This should not be confused with the AmEx Centurion “black” card. That one requires $7,500 in fees just for the first year ($5,000 initiation fee and $2,500 annual fee) and is invite only for AmEx’s biggest spenders (you have to spend several hundred thousand annually on another AmEx card in order to be invited).

In a nutshell, Visa Black Card is just Barclay’s trademarked name for the card… reportedly there is no such thing as a “black card” tier for Visa cards. In fact, the Visa Black Card is reportedly only the “Platinum Plus” tier (however I have personally not confirmed this, so it may or may not be true). That is usually the tier people get when they aren’t approved for a Visa Signature Card, so it’s far from prestigious.

Limited to 1% of U.S. residents?
Many people out there assume this means the Visa Black credit card is only for the wealthiest 1% of the population…. nothing could be further from the truth. It merely means they are limiting the total enrollment to 1% of Americans. Truth be told, 1% equals around 3 million Americans… that’s a lot of people. In all honesty, probably not more than 1% would ever want the Visa Black Card, so saying this really doesn’t mean much. Probably far less than 1% of Americans have the AmEx Platinum Card, but you don’t hear American Express saying that as a marketing gimmick, do you?

Exclusivity?
It’s marketed as something that is highly exclusive, but what are the Visa Black card requirements? According to numerous sources across the net, it sounds like they are not much different than most credit cards (for example, be a U.S. resident, have a qualifying credit score, etc). If indeed this card doesn’t have any extra special requirements (like the AmEx Centurion does) then it appears that a large number of Americans would easily qualify if they truly wanted the card. In fact, there are stories out there of people from just about every walk and life reportedly getting a Visa Black Card application in the mail, including rumors of an old lady on Social Security, college students with little to no income, etc.

Carbon black card?
One of their selling points is that the Visa Black credit card is made of carbon. However after finally examining the card in person, it looks and feels similar to plastic. I don’t think that many people would consider the carbon material much different than normal plastic. In fact, my guess would be that some people wouldn’t even think anything of it.

First-Class Airport Lounge Access?
The Visa Black includes Travel Lounge Priority Pass, the largest airport VIP lounge program, which gives complimentary access to more than 500 luxury airport lounges across the world. However if you read the fine print, cardmembers only get 4 free visits per year! Compare that to the AmEx Platinum which gives you unlimited visits and at a lower annual fee!

Luxury Gifts?
The card touts various “luxury gifts” as perks that Visa Black Card members get. When the card first launched, it sounds like there were some decent gifts that some members got. However as of lately, it sounds like a frequently awarded first gift is a Cross pen set… most of us couldn’t care less about a pen and for $495 annual fee, we expect a heck of a lot more.

What the Visa Black card really is…
Just do the math: 3,000,000 (1% of Americans) x $495.00 annual fee = $1.48 billion dollars every year! The issuing bank, Barclays, is the real winner with this one. It’s hard to justify the annual fee when you consider the competition.

Skip the Visa Black Card application and go for…
…the AmEx Platinum. The annual fee is slightly cheaper and the benefits are far better than the Visa Black Card. As a sponsored affiliate of American Express, we also have a special signup offer for our readers. Check out the American Express Platinum Card benefits to see for yourself why it blows Visa Black Card out of the water!