The American Express Centurion Card, also known as the “The Black Card”, is a hard-to-get, invitation-only card that’s highly coveted among credit card enthusiasts. So why did I cancel the card when so many people want to get it?
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I’ve had this card since 2003, back when it was made from flimsy plastic and came in a simple envelope. Fast forward 22 years later, the card is now minted out of space-grade titanium and arrives in a fancy package made famous from all the unboxing videos on YouTube.
The Black Card has become the “it” card that everyone wants.
And it’s not easy to get either, you can’t just apply for it. You have to be personally invited by American Express after you meet certain requirements… and they don’t even tell you what those requirements are. Unofficially, you need to spend at least $250,000 per year across your American Express cards. But if you live in an expensive city like Boston, New York, or Los Angeles, the spending requirement goes up to $1 million dollars.
Along with the high-level of spend, it has to be spent mainly on “luxury”. So first class travel, fancy resorts, and fine dining are viewed as more favorable than supermarkets, gas, and cell phone bills.
Your chances would also be better if you’re worth at least seven figures with a 740+ credit score.
And if you do qualify and get invited, you’d have to be willing to pay a one-time $10,000 initiation fee and an ongoing $5,000 annual fee.
So in today’s post, I’ll go over why I canceled the Black Card, why it was worth having the card back then, and why it’s a total waste of money now.
Membership Fees
First up is the membership fee itself. I feel like an old millennial when I say this, but back in the day, and by that I mean when I first got the card in 2003, the Black Card had a much lower fee of $2,500 and it didn’t charge an initiation fee.
That’s pretty pricey, but it was easily worth it. For example, the Black Card used to have a benefit called Best Value Guarantee, where if you found a lower price for an item you bought, they’ll refund you the difference, up to $2,000 per year.
So let’s say you bought a laptop from Dell that cost $1,000 and then find the same laptop at some sketchy black market website for $200. American Express would cut you a check for the $800 difference, even if you wouldn’t buy from that site in a million years.
That benefit alone was almost worth the entire card membership fee.
Over the years, American Express has steadily increased the annual fee for this card, and it now stands at $5,000 per year. And if that wasn’t high enough on its own, they now tack on a one-time initiation fee of $10,000. So, if you get this card today, you’re going to pay a total of $15,000 out of pocket in your first year and $5,000 for every year after that.
Rewards Structure
The next topic is rewards. The Centurion Card earns Membership Rewards points, just like most cards in the Amex ecosystem. But for such an expensive card, it only earns one point per dollar spent.
That was okay back then because credit cards didn’t have these great category spend bonuses that we do now. Today, it doesn’t make sense to earn just one point per dollar when you can get bonus points with so many other cards.
Like 4x points at restaurants with a card like American Express Gold or 6x points at supermarkets with the American Express Blue Cash Preferred Card.
The average household spends $373 per month at restaurants and $504 per month on groceries.
That means if you spent those amounts with the Black Card over a one-year period, you’d earn just 10,524 points. If you spent it on the other cards instead, you’d earn 17,904 points from eating out and 36,288 points on groceries, for a total of 54,192.
That’s a difference of 43,668 points. I value each Amex point around 1.5 cents per point, so you’re essentially throwing away $655 worth of points.
Travel Benefits
Ok, let’s talk about travel benefits because this was one of the main things I loved about this card. I’m not gonna fault Amex 100% on how this has gone downhill, as parts of it were out of their control, but they do share some of the blame here.
As a cardholder, you received automatic mid-tier or top-tier elite status with a bunch of airlines and hotels. This allowed me to enjoy luxury life on the cheap – like I’d book the cheapest economy seat and get upgraded to first on domestic flights 9 out of 10 times or reserve a basic hotel room and get upgraded to a huge suite on a consistent basis.
For airlines, it provided mid-tier statuses for Continental Airlines, Northwest Airlines, Delta Air Lines, and US Airways. Outside of automatic first-class upgrades, you’d get priority check-in, free baggage, lounge access, and priority boarding.
I’m a sucker for good deals and loved buying a $200 Boston to Los Angeles ticket and enjoying a first-class seat for 6 hours that I didn’t pay $1,500 for.
For hotels, you received top-tier status at SPG Hotels and Priority Club and mid-tier status at Hilton. Outside of suite upgrades, you enjoyed other benefits like free breakfast, early check-in, late checkout, free parking, and waived resort fees.
This was really amazing because you’d have to stay 50 nights at SPG to reach their top status with them. And that was just at SPG. To get these statuses at all three hotel brands, you’d have to stay over 100+ nights a year, something impossible for most people.
So, what happened?
Well, for airlines, Continental merged with United, Northwest merged with Delta, and US Airways merged with American Airlines, so all those airline statuses and benefits went away, and we’re left with Delta as the only airline we’d get status with.
To add salt to the wound, airlines have become, mmm, for a lack of better words, smarter, in the way they upgrade people. Instead of handing out upgrades for free to elite members, they’ll try to upsell them for whatever amount of money they can get to people who booked an economy seat.
I’ve seen them offer upgrades for as little as $50 on some flights! So basically, these seats are gobbled up and now there’s barely anything left over for elite members.
Then for hotels, SPG was bought by Marriott so the brand no longer exists. Priority Club was relaunched as IHG Rewards. Although you do get Marriott Gold now, which is mid-tier there, and Hilton Diamond, which is their highest elite level.
But outside of Hilton, IHG isn’t known to be a generous loyalty program, and Marriott Gold is barely worth anything. You don’t even get free breakfast as an IHG Platinum or Marriot Gold member.
The Bottom Line
The American Express Centurion Card is an insanely popular card, and many people consider it a huge flex to have the card in one’s wallet, but outside of its pop culture relevance, it’s not a card that makes sense financially.
There are SO many other credit cards with better rewards and benefits that are close to what the Black Card offers. It makes no sense to pay an ongoing $5,000 annual fee for this card.
For example, if I wanted Hilton Diamond status, I can just apply for Hilton Honors American Express Aspire Card and automatically get it, plus I’d receive a nice welcome bonus, $400 in resort credits, and a free night reward every year to boot.
Or if I wanted Marriott Gold status, I can get that instantly with a credit card from American Express or Chase Bank. Those cards will also provide award certificates to redeem for multiple nights for free.
And if I wanted to use a card with a great rewards program, I could open a Chase Sapphire Preferred card and get almost $1,000 in value with their welcome offer.
Do I miss using the card for some of its benefits? Sometimes. But with so many great credit cards today, I can basically replace everything that it has to offer and save a ton of money.
What do you think of the Amex Centurion Card? Is the Black Card worth the hype or is it only for those who have money burning a hole in their pockets?
