Q: What are the American Express Black card requirements?

A: The American Centurion black card qualifications (officially called the Centurion card) have changed slightly since it first came out in 1999, but they’ve always been strict nonetheless. Let’s take a look at what’s currently required in order to get this credit card:

The Annual Fee
When the card first came out, the annual fee was “only” $1,000. Less than ten years later, AmEx jacked up the annual fee all the way up to $2,500. In addition, they’ve now tacked on a $5,000 so-called “initiation fee” just to get the card! So as far as the fees go, previously it was a $1,000, but now you will need to cough up $7,500 up front.

The early Centurion cardmembers are lucky – they’re still paying a $1,000 annual fee. Why? Well, it’s a common practice in the credit card industry that your annual fee is locked in when you get a card (future annual fee increases won’t apply to you). Now, I bet those early cardmembers are happy they got the card when they did!

The Exclusivity
The card has gone back and forth from being invite only to open application. Currently, it is back to being invite only, but I’m sure if you qualified and were willing to pay the fee, you could get them to give you one.

When the card first hit the scene, it was only issued it to a few thousand people (celebrities, business moguls, etc). Although the American Express black card requirements have grown tighter recently, that hasn’t stopped the cardmember base from ballooning exponentially.

According to to this creative detective work about how many people have the Amex Black card, it’s now estimated that up to 100,000 or more people worldwide have the card. It’s estimated that anywhere from 20 to 40% of those cardmembers are based in the United States.

Spending Requirements
The American Express black card qualifications including spending $250,000 in a given year on another AmEx card. That means you must have an existing AmEx card for one year or more, and spend (and pay off) at least $250,000 over the course of a year. Once you do that, you meet the spending requirement. There has been talk of increasing that requirement to 500,000 or even a $1M, plus requiring that amount to be spent every year. Personally, I think that’s a good idea if they want to keep it exclusive.

The Benefits
So you would think with such a drastic fee increase, that the benefits must have improved, right? Well, think again. Many feel the concierge has greatly deteriorated the past few years. In fact, I have read a number of forum posts by cardmembers who have canceled or downgraded to platinum because they said it simply was no longer worth anywhere close to the annual fee.

Personally, I feel there was only one benefit which really made it worth the price; they used to offer free first class upgrades on domestic flights. So you could buy a coach ticket and automatically get bumped to first class for free if there was availability. However they got rid of that benefit a few years ago.

With the reported dwindling benefits, it makes one wonder why people bother with the black card at all. Other than the prestige and status that comes with it, there’s no point in paying more for less benefits.

The Platinum Card
If you agree the American Express black card requirements are absurd, you may want to look into the Platinum version. It’s comes with a wide array of benefits, many of which are comparable to the AmEx Black. To learn more and for the special bonus signup offer, visit our sponsored review of the American Express Platinum.

If you carry a balance and someone said they know how you can reduce credit card interest rates, you would probably listen up. But if you get a phone call that makes this claim… hang up! There’s a new scam sweeping the nation that you need to know about.

The Typical Call
It starts out with a random call. Sometimes it’s a live person, but usually it’s a pre-recorded message that goes something like this:

“Your account is within good standing, but it’s important that you contact us regarding your interest rate. You may be eligible for an APR as low as 6.9%.”

The “robocall” then instructs you to call a certain number, or it might give you the option to press a button and be connected with a live person. No company name is mentioned in this vague recording, but the caller ID might read Cardmember Services or Cardholder Accounts. This is done to give you the impression that it’s your credit card company calling… when in reality it’s just some scam telemarketing company.  You also may think “My name is on the Do-Not-Call registry so it can’t be a telemarketer.” Well guess what? These scammers target everyone, whether you’re on that list or not. They don’t care about obeying the law.


The Sales Pitch
Once they have you talking with a live person, they try and claim that they can work with your creditors to get your interest rates either reduced or eliminated completely. (This sounds similar to the popular debt settlement scam, but it’s different). For a fee of several hundred dollars, this boiler room operator promises they can do this for you. They also make a guarantee that they will refund your money if it doesn’t work out.

The Truth
Often times, these boiler room operations just collect the fee and you’ll never hear from them again – they will not reduce credit card debt interest. In the “best case” scenario, they will do nothing more than simply call up your credit card company and ask for an interest rate reduction… something you can do yourself for free! So either way, this is a total ripoff you need to watch out for. Most importantly, be sure to warn people in your life who you feel may be more susceptible to falling for the bait, especially the elderly because that’s who these scammers love to target the most. If you want a better APR on your card, then read this thread about how to negotiate lower credit card interest rates yourself for free.

Today, black is the new platinum. The Citi Chairman card is this respective banks premier credit card. It’s actually been on the market for several years now, yet it doesn’t have the notoriety of the other uber-luxury credit cards. It’s issued by Citi, but operates over the American Express payment networks. I decided to do my own Citi Chairman card review and this is what I found…

Annual Fee
The Chairman carries an annual fee of $500. This is steep, but it’s also comparable to other high end credit cards. For example, the AmEx Platinum is $450 and the Centurion is $2,500 (plus a $5,000 initiation fee). So the annual fee on the Chairman credit card isn’t too bad for this category, but let’s find out whether or not the benefits are worth it…

Airport Lounge
This is a benefit I expect to be on any high end card, so it’s not surprising to see this one has it. If you’re not familiar with Priority Pass, it’s a program that lets you have free access to those nifty little airport lounges (normally for first-class ticket holders). These lounges typically have free beer, wine, champagne, assorted snacks and ho’orderves.

If you travel a lot, using this feature will actually save you money; you won’t have to buy the overpriced drinks and food in the airport. But as mentioned, this feature is not just a Citi Chairman card benefit… most of its competitors offer the same thing.

Rewards
Spending earns Thank You Points; this is the typical rewards program you will find on most other Citi credit cards too. To be quite honest, I think this program is a big yawn. It’s the typical 1 point per 1 dollar spent. I’m also disappointed with how poorly the points convert over when it comes time to cash them in. Therefore, don’t fill out the Citi Chairman card application just to get rewards.

Concierge
This is a benefit you will also see on AmEx Platinum, Centurion, etc. Basically, they all give you 24/7 access to a dedicated personal phone concierge service. This service can be used for all types of things… snagging hard-to-get dinner reservations, hunting down a sold-out article of clothing, or just about anything else you can think of for them to do.

Travel
Like many other top tier cards do, Citi Chairman offers an assortment of travel related benefits. For example, there’s free car rental insurance and roadside assistance, travel accident insurance, trip cancellation, luggage insurance, etc.

Should You Apply?
Here’s my take on it: The benefits on the Citi Chairman credit card seems to be pretty comparable to the others in its league, so that’s not reason enough to apply for it.

As far as its status and prestige is concerned, unfortunately Citi has done a horrendous job with marketing this card. In fact, the vast majority of people have never even heard of it. Considering that the card looks pretty blah, don’t count on it impressing anyone when you whip it out to pay for dinner. And whether you care about status or not, the truth of the matter is that the type of card you have does matter when it comes to business. For example, I decided to ditch a deal with someone because they paid for drinks with a sub-prime credit card. Are they really at the top of their game if they have a bottom rung credit card? I don’t think so.

Therefore, I will have to pass on the Citi Chairman Card. I feel the AmEx Platinum is a better value. In fact, that’s why this site has chosen to be affiliate adverting partners with them – among the premium credit cards it is clearly the winner and the value of the benefits are immense. To find out more check out our American Express Platinum review.

Q: How can you apply for an American Express Red Card?

A: This is a question I get asked regularly, so at this point I figure it would be easiest to write a blog post about the Red Card

What is it?
This credit card has been around since 2006. It’s a rewards card, but different in that the rewards your earn go to charity. On annual spending of above £5,000, the charitable donation is 1.25% of your purchases. For less than that amount, it’s 1.00%. These proceeds go to The Global Fund – an organization founded in 2002 to fight the pandemics AIDS/HIV, malaria, and tuberculosis.

Who has one?
A number of A-list talent have supported the American Express Red credit card. Examples include supermodels Gisele Bündchen and Ella Macpherson, as well as the musician Bono. Gwnyth Paltrow has been photographed with the card before.

Kanye West has also favorably discussed the AmEx Red Card and Timbaland even rapped about it a couple years ago in his song The Way I Are.

How to get it?
If you live in the USA, you’re not going to find an American Express Red Card application to fill out… because it’s only available in the UK. For those residents, fortunately the card has no annual fee and the requirements to qualify are reportedly similar to the AmEx Green and Gold cards.

So unfortunately as of now, Americans can’t get the card. Hopefully, American Express will bring the Red Card to the United States someday. Considering that The Global Fund helps people in over 136 countries and has saved over 2,000,000 people, it’s too bad this card isn’t available outside the United Kingdom.

p.s. If you’re an American and looking for a credit card that no on has, then check out the new Visa Black Card

By now, we all know about the horrific catastrophe which has struck Haiti. Of course this would be horrific for any country, but for Haiti it’s a whole lot harder. Why? Because according to the CIA World Factbook, they are the poorest country in the Western hemisphere. If you think you have it tough, the average per capita there is only around $2 per person, per day!

A Little Money Makes a Big Difference
Because this country is so poor, just a tiny bit of your money can make a very big difference in Haitian lives. Even if you are in dire financial straits yourself (a student, on unemployment, have a crappy job, etc.) remember, you still have far, far more than they do. Even a small donation can make a huge impact here, so please, give something…

in no particular order:

Feed My Starving Children
I love this one because they are very efficient – 94% of your donations fund the feeding programs and only 6% go towards fundraising/administrative costs (so rest assured your money is actually being used to help the Haitians, not employees). Every 17 cents equals 1 meal, so a little goes a long ways! They have been operating in Haiti for over ten years and have over two hundred partners there. Credit cards accepted: Discover, American Express, Visa, MasterCard. You can easily and quickly make a credit card donation using this link!

Mission To Haiti
This Florida-based Christian charity sends volunteer mission teams to Haiti and helps them build clinics, schools, etc. Half the people in this country cannot read or write; this organization helps to change children’s lives by providing education, food, healthcare, and spiritual support to the neediest. You can use your credit card – American Express, Discover, MasterCard or Visa – and make a donation using this link!

FOCAS (Foundation of Compassionate American Samaritans)
This charity is rated 4/4 stars for both organization efficiency and organizational capacity by Charity Navigator. Based out of Cincinnati, Ohio since 1986, this Christian organization helps the poorest, rural areas of Haiti by providing elementary education, medical, and food. The Executive Director/Founder of this organization receives no salary or compensation. Credit cards accepted: Visa, MasterCard, Discover, American Express. Here is a direct link to make online donations!

Remember the hysteria that surrounded the year 2000? Many believed it would bring about the end of the world! People were pitching their survival products. Some were saying gold coins were the only solution post-Y2K (sounds like today, huh?). But then when the clock finally struck midnight on December 31st that year, nothing happened!

The world did great job preventing that, but apparently, there are some folks in Germany that overlooked a similar glitch for the year 2010. On New Years, 20 million of their debit cards and 3.5 million of their credit cards stopped working. Some estimates even place that number high, at more 30 million affected cards… that’s about 1 in 4 bank cards in Germany.

This was the result of an error in the code, which supposedly made it impossible for the cards’ microchips to process the year 2010. (Meanwhile, it should be noted that most debit and credit cards in the US don’t use microchips. And when they do have one, it’s used for things like contact-less payment. If the chip was broken, the transactions can still be processed by swiping the card.)

So who’s responsible? Blame it on the French. The French company, Gemalto, which manufactured the affected chips takes full responsibility for the problem. They’re working around the clock to try and figure out a solution which doesn’t involve replacing the affected cards.

As a result, some estimates say the economic damage is in excess of $300 billion Euros (or about 430 billion in U.S. dollars). Way to go Gemalto!

As some of you may have heard, earlier this year American Express filed suit against Courtney Love, alleging that she has an unpaid credit card balance of over $350,000 (with that amount I’m guessing she must have a Centurion card).

Now, Courtney has turned around and filed a counter-suit against them… she blames AmEx for the problem! Reportedly her attorney, Keith Fink, told TMZ that American Express issued her (and her business entity) a staggering 104 credit cards! They seem to imply that AmEx was negligent in issuing her so many credit cards that supposedly she didn’t ask for or want. She also claims all the charges were fraudulent and not made by her, and therefore she’s not responsible for them.

What do you think? Is Courtney Love just a victim of identity theft or is there more to it than that?

(p.s. Courtney – if you’re looking for an Amex Centurion alternative, check out the Visa Black Card!)