ZIPPY

I have been doing some business recently with a country club in Stoke Poges and they have an awfull lot of members using Black Amex cards.

Does anybody know the requirements you must have to get one.

Is it an obscene amount in your account or a really obscene amount.

Sonic'

Do you really want one, have you read Clarkson's view on them

alloy

Annual expenditure on card to exceed $250k

Generally speaking you have to be invited

scoob_babe

I don't think you can apply either - they 'select' you but don't know how they do this.

jods

You need to spend a minimum of £125k a year - and I believe they are by invitation only

Reality

Depends. knew a girl who had a black amex - she got invited to have it as she'd used her platinum card lots.

She didn't earn that much c£35k.

DCI Gene Hunt

[][][]NACRO Mode Activated[][][]

A BLACK Amex!?! what is you problem? don't you think that's carrying a racially motivated negative impact to MOST of the inhabitants fleeing London!!!

What's the problem with calling it Amex DARK .....???

what would scooby do

It's know as the Amex Blick in South Africa

Snazy

Superb

Prasius

iTrader: (1)

I so wish I could post what I want to post in relation to that..

Devildog

I suspect Nacro's comment would be that if you have to advertise your desire for one on a BBS, you don't qualify financially or socially

tonybooth

PITA anyway as a lot of places do not take AMEX

Sonic'

Quality

Luminous

iTrader: (3)

So do I, are you sure you don't have the points to spare?

Sonic'

And TSR wouldn't even ask on a BBS

RoShamBo

iTrader: (1)

I have one, but the only reason I have one is that I had a corporate Amex (normal green one) and had a job where me and my department were flying and staying here there and everywhere.
We all (about 8 of us) booked our flights & hotels etc on my normal corporate Amex and soon enough I got a letter from Amex asking if I would like an upgrade to a Black.

Diesel

You have to be invited for one, and you definitely dont need to be spending £100k pa on the card to be invited - I wish!!!

I declined as it was a £600 annual fee for little more than the card I have which costs under half that and gives great travel insurance for all the family (inc parents & mother in law).

Would have been a nice pose flashing it at some overpriced bar - for those that like this kind of thing though

D

Prasius

iTrader: (1)

I probably do - but I can understand that some of the less robust here would get all offended by it... even though I'm still sniggering about it now..

DCI Gene Hunt

I've two.... a corporate one and a standard one, they're great.... unless you actually need to buy something

scoob_babe

Our corporate card used to be the Amex charge card. PITA as it wasn't accepted in mainland Europe - rumour has it that we had it due to Marketing getting nice bungs from Amex to use it. Everywhere else in the world had Mastercard or Visa, just not us!

J4CKO

iTrader: (1)

Mines just a normal one thats got a bit grubby.

I worked with Amex and they told us all about it, cant imagine many Woolies customers have one.

AndyC_772

iTrader: (2)

So, what actually is the benefit? Just letting other people know you could afford £600 a year for a card?

OllyK

Put it this way, if Martin Lewis found one in your wallet, he'd burn it in front of you.

Milamber

iTrader: (2)

I was invited but as someone else said, the annual charge was ridiculous

dpb

Edcase

Main benefits are the great worldwide insurance (including travel insurance) for the whole family, but mainly the 24 hours international concierge service. Basically, whatever you want, wherever you want it (within reason of course!) you ring the concierge and they will sort it. Tickets to the sold out gig? No problem. Last minute table at Gordon Ramsay? Sure. You also stand a very good chance of being upgraded on flights and so on and so on.

It's not always successful. I tried to get a table at Petrus before xmas about a week in advance and they couldn't do it, but most times it's great.

Natwest also do a pikey version in Mastercard form, which you need to be earning I think 80k PA to qualify for, and has the same basic perks, and they do some good events (they had a special box with discount tickets and hospitality at the race of champions for example) but the concierge service is even less reliable than the Amex.

If you go to the US much on business, the amex is the one to have. It's also much more of a status symbol in the states than here for some reason.

Ed

Edcase

Yeah realistically if you are not the sort of person who needs last minute tickets to expensive restaurants or sold out theatre tickets, it's not really worth bothering.

Freak

Good credit history with amex, and have put through 250k through the card.
You then *may* get an invite... its not guaranteed by any means, and they arent set in stone.. you can get them with a lower spend if you do certain things...

I am more than happy with my platinum amex- in all honesty it has pretty much the same benefits (centurion/black has been cut down a lot- apart from a few extra ones which remain), and its 300/yr fee instead of 2k+/yr fee for the black.

Concierge is useful from time to time- most notably for restaurants- including places like the Ivy (from personal experience) or any other top restaurant on short notice.

Insurance is worth the fee alone for the platinum.

Regarding The status thing... platinum card rarely gets noticed in the uk (partially because fewer places take amex )- you get the odd comment..... but in the US where I am a lot of the time, a platinum or centurion card DOES get a reaction (and normally a request for ID actually...) , and from what I have experienced, often better service. Much more of a perceived status over there by having the cards... and the card over in the US is actually made of metal- not plastic!
Red Amex will get you more attention in the US though!

For people that need that sort of thing-airline lounges, concierge, and travel insurance, they are most useful and worth every penny.
For anyone else just to look the part, then just buy one of the dummy promo black ones and stick it in the front of your wallet, as you wont really get any value from the high fee...

At any rate, there are no new centurions being issued in the uk- huge revamp later this year, so no new invites until then. So you are out of luck anyway!

And btw-they are charge cards- ....so although the plat/centurion have no limit , it all has to be paid off at the end of the month...

Scooby Roo

You have to be invited.....end of. My missus works for Centurion Card [or Titanium now we've moved to Aus].

They're not cheap to own either.

r32

Amex cards crap, so many places wont take AMEX......