How To Get a Black Card - Tip 1
Meeting the spend requirement for a black card can be very difficult for most people who want one. The spend requirement to qualify for a Centurion card is $250,000 in a year. One thing that everyone has to pay each year is taxes (this is geared toward people in the US). By putting your personal or business taxes on your amex card you can come much closer to the spend minimum.
How do you pay your taxes with a credit card? You can pay your taxes with a credit card at https://www.officialpayments.com/. This is an official source for tax payment for the IRS and 25 states. I have heard of many centurion members charging their taxes to their cards either to qualify for the card, or to get the points. The only downside is you have to pay a 2.49% fee to charge them to your card.
I personally have not done this yet, but will most likely do so for the upcoming tax year. Have any of you?
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Comments
I think that the post was discussing the goal of achieving high enough spending to qualify for the card. It never discussed whether it was a money saving tool. It also mentioned that some cardholders might do this for the points.
I think you’re right, by the way, that it doesn’t save money to spend the 2.49%.
Yes I aggree the poster did not say it was about saving money. It seems kind of counter productive to spend 2.49% on your taxes when you are allready having to pay what most people think is to much to the goverenment. Amex also charges anywhere from 2.95 to 3.95 to merchants to take the card per transaction. I hear they are raising the people from 2.95 to 3.20%, higher % vs Visa/Mastercard and Discover.
While I lived in New York I didn’t know anyone who had a black card. But soon after arriving in Hong Kong, I knew four friends who have the black card. This being Asia and not wanting to lose face to the locals, I found the easiest way was to pay my US taxes on it. I make a bit less than one million USD a year but I prepaid my HK Amex Platinum Credit Card (Not Charge Card) with 300,000+ USD and charged my taxes on it. After the payment cleared, I called Amex HK and asked to be upgraded to Black. They did want prove of income, but after the application I was accepted. Since 2005 I have been a Centurion member. I know only spend about 150k a year on the card.
This proves that you don’t have to be invited.
BTW, it was more than 2.49 percent as I had to pay my bill off in HKD and amex charged over a percent for FX from USD to HKD.
Doesnt the 2.49% negate the fact of saving money. Unless you use the plum card you can get 2% of that back atleast.
Just a tip.