Lately, I’ve been trying to get a credit card, but my applications have been turned down by the likes of SBI, HDFC, Axis, and ICICI. (I’m not a defaulter, just not old enough.) They demand my CIBIL score. To generate a CIBIL score, you need a credit card, and to get a credit card, you need a CIBIL score (pretty F’ed up).
While surfing the web, I came across something called the American Express Centurion card, and it’s crazy stuff.
American Express is a prestigious card issuer. Only about 141 million Amex cards exist (this number is 4 billion for Visa and 3 billion for MasterCard). The reason is that the annual fee for Amex cards is sky-high. While you may get a Visa or MasterCard for no charge, Amex charges as much as $800.
Amex offers six types of cards, but the most popular are the Gold and Platinum ones. However, there is a seventh type of card, which you cannot find on their website: the Amex Centurion or the Black Card.
Made of titanium, it’s the most premium card in the world. You can’t apply for it; you have to earn it. Amex invites selected individuals and offers them the Centurion. Some websites suggest a credit score of over 800 (a hell of a lot) and annual spending of $500,000 to a million dollars is required to be a potential holder. This card is so hyped that Amex has never advertised it, never disclosed the list of cardholders (which is around 100,000 according to Forbes), never published the selection criteria, and never disclosed the perks offered. They even denied its existence in the initial decades of issuance.
The fee is crazy: a $5,000 annual fee and a $10,000 joining fee. The card has no credit limit. You may purchase a private jet just by swiping it, and purchases as high as 170 million dollars have been made through it (a painting at an auction).
With premium costs come premium luxuries. Lounges and reward points are common perks. Complimentary air tickets and hotel stays, a personal travel agent, a personal attendant at shopping stores, a concierge (kind of a personal assistant) for arranging hotels, private jets, restaurants, concert bookings, hospital reservations, and even emergency evacuation are all included. It’s like having your own Jarvis (or Alfred, if you’re a DC maniac). Cardholders even get an unnamed mysterious magazine.
There are other cards offering better benefits, but this one offers something that no other card does: status. Taking it out from your wallet at a get-together and flaunting it while making a payment is a moment of pride and honor, which outweighs all the cost-benefit analysis.
Amex has built its image as a luxury card issuer whose cards symbolize status. They don’t rely on earning through fines and penalties but rather through high commissions (more on this in some other post).
The Amex Centurion is James Bond stuff. So, if you see someone having this, you may be looking at a millionaire, so make friends with them (you gold diggers).
Maybe I’m also not getting any other card because Mahadev has other plans. Maybe I’m about to get a direct invitation for the Amex Centurion (yeah, forgot I’m a CA article).
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