How To Get Your Money’s Worth From A Black Card
When looking at the initiation fee ($5k) and the annual fee ($2.5k) for a Centurion card, a common question to ask is: “How do I get my money’s worth from that”. The answer is pretty simple, TRAVEL.
The major benefit difference between the Centurion and the Platinum, are the travel benefits. The major travel benefits of the Centurion include:
- Airport lounge access for Continental, Delta, Northwest, and Virgin
- Airline Elite status with Continental, Delta, US Airways, and Virgin (Elite status includes benefits such as ticket upgrades, dedicated check-in, priority boarding, and faster earning of miles)
- Free Business/First Class International Companion tickets
- Hotel Room Upgrades and late checkout
- Top Status with Hertz and Avis (2 class upgrade on car)
Obviously the concierge service is a great benefit, but to get your money’s worth, you need to travel and use the hotel upgrades and ticket upgrades to first class. The true benefit of the Black Card is the instant elite status with the above airline carriers.
For example, a recent check of ticket prices for Continental from Charlotte, NC to Las Vegas, NV total to about $200 rountrip for coach. The First Class ticket costs about $1,450 for the same trip. By being a Centurion member, you’d receive an upgrade valued over $1k (you also get upgraded for companions). So if you’re going to make 3 trips or more a year, the Airline upgrade alone makes the card worthwhile, or at least lets you justify the $2500 annual fee.
How do you justify, financially, being a Centurion member?
New Year, Check Your Credit Report & Score
Christmas has come and gone, sorry I forgot to wish everyone happy holidays! With the new year approaching, many people are setting goals and new years resolutions, and for many people they will be finance related. Whether it is going to be to pay down their credit card bills, get a black card, pay off a loan, save more, everyone is thinking about what they want to do in 2009.
I wanted to take this time to remind everyone how important it is to check your credit report and your credit score. The US government provides a free annual credit report from each of the 3 bureaus at annualcreditreport.com, however this report does not provide your credit score. Personally, I use FreeCreditReports360 to get my credit score because they offer a 7-day free trial where you can get your credit score from each of the 3 bureaus for free. I try to check my credit report and score every 4 months to make sure nothing fishy is in it, which can help catch identity theft attempts.
Also, if you want to opt out of preapproved credit card applications in the mail, you can do so at OptOutPrescreen.com, it is like the do not call list for preapproved credit card applications. If you do receive preapproved credit card applications, remember to shred the ones you don’t want, as these applications are a major source of identity theft.
Sorry for the general finance post, just thought it was relevant with the New Year. What are your personal finance goals/resolutions for the upcoming year?
Visa Launches New Black Card
In case you haven’t heard already, Visa has launched their own Black Card. This card will be made from carbon graphite, sport a $450 annual fee (much lower than centurion), offer a 24hr concierge like the Amex Platinum and Centurion, and has allows access to Travel Lounge Priority Pass.
Visa is saying only 1% of the US Residents will qualify, or about 3 Million people. Obviously showing this card is not nearly as exclusive as the American Express Centurion, especially since it doesn’t have the spend requirement or the high annual fee.
What this card does have going for it, is the appearance of being very high end, while really being a direct competitor to the Platinum card, and carrying the Visa logo. I am sure this card will be a big hit, especially if their concierge service is at least halfway decent.
For more information you can check out their official site Blackcard.com
Centurion Members Get $500 Ralph Lauren Gift Card
I got an email from a reader and apparently Amex is sending out more free gifts this month. It seems they’ve been sending out a lot in the last few months, not sure if this si because Merchants are pushing it on Amex, Amex is feeling charitable, or they are trying to keep members happy with their $2,500 annual fee. But anyway, they recently sent out $500 gift card to personal centurion members, opted into promotions, for use at Ralph Lauren. However, it didn’t seem to widespread, did any of you all receive one?
Interactive Black Card Benefits Guide
Ever wanted to see the benefits of a black card in an interactive, downloadable application? If so I have just the link for you. The other day I stumbled across a thread on a Credit Card Forum that had a link to a download of an interactive Centurion benefits guide (I checked it for viruses, it’s good). It is pretty interesting, I had never seen this before, it is definitely worth the look.
Centurion is Coming to Canada
Until now the Centurion card was not available in Canada. A member on flyertalk recently reported receiving a notice from American Express, notifying him that he would be receiving an application shortly.
According to information provided by a Centurion representative, the card will be available to Canadians nationwide, it will be invite only, and is due to roll out momentarily. She did say that your best bet on receiving an invitation is to be a current platinum card member.
If you’re a platinum member and want more information, I would suggest calling the number on the back of your card.
Happy Thanksgiving!
Maximizing Membership Rewards Points
Well, I got a few contributions from my last post, but based on my knowledge and research over the last few years, these are the best ways to maximize rewards points.
- Transferring miles to partner airline programs is almost always your best bet. Your points usually transfer over at a higher rate and their cash equivalent value, is always the highest when you transfer them to an airline. In fact, tranferring points to Delta is probably the best.
- Delta is currently running a promotion where you get a 30% bonus on points you transfer to them from your Amex - you can find that link here
- Trannsferring to Hotel programs is usually a horribly inefficient means to use your points. But you can do it if you want. Amex points transfer to Starwood at a rate of 333 Starwood points for every 1,000 Amex MR points.
- MR Points can be Transferred to Aeroplan at a 1:1 rate. Aeroplan is also a Star Alliance members, so their points are good across the Star Alliance network.
- Redeeming points for merchanise is usually a bad deal. Do it if you don’t want to have to buy the item, but it is usually cheaper to buy the item than to use points.
- You can redeem points for a statement credit on the Centurion at a rate of $.01/point
If it were me and I had a large sum of points I wanted to use, I would most likely transfer them to Delta during the 30% promotion, and use their frequent flyer miles for travel.
How to Maximize Rewards Points
Maximizing Membership Rewards points on your Amex is truley an art. There are many people who use complicated transfering processes to maximize their point value instead of redeeming their points directly through American Express. Typically speaking, transferring your points directly to your primary hotel/air carrier can usually be more beneficial, than redeeming through American Express. I am going to be writing an indepth post on how to maximize reward points, but I wanted to offer up the chance for you all to contribute. How do you maximize your reward points? Which programs to you transfer them to and why?
MasterCard is at it again
If you remember, awhile back I reported about MasterCard’s new Diamond studed card (in partnership with Dubai First), well they did it again. MasterCard has teamed up with Kazkommertsbank, the second largest bank in Kazakhstan, to create another diamond studded credit card. This card, called the “Diamond” will sport a 0.02 carat diamond in the center, if the card is for a woman it will feature a large peacock, and if the card is for a man it will feature a winged horse. New cards will be issued will start being issued in the next 2 weeks and the annual fee will be $1,000. Only 1,000 cards will be issued starting November 13 and they are estimating 30 cards will be issued every month, with a credit limit of $50,000.
In order to get an idea of how the people in Kazakhstan are receiving this new card, I asked Borat for a comment. Borat said:
Very Nice!!!
How To Spend Your Rewards Points
I recently received the new “First Collection” catalog from Amex. It is basically a list of high priced items that you can buy with your gobs of American Express membership rewards points, which most black cardholders have. It has nice wine for $50,000 points, a pool table for 2.3M points. But best of all, it had a 2008 Lamborghini Gallardo. For 9.5M points, your can have a 12 month lease on a new Gallardo from Lamborghini Chicago.
For Centurion members, MR points can be converted into statement credits at a rate of $.01 per point. This means that a 12 month lease through the rewards program translates to $95,000. I think I would rather take the statement credit.
