Interesting Ad Age Article
In order to try and stay on top of black card mentions on the news, I constantly get Google Alerts for black/centurion card mentions. Just yesterday I noticed an interesting Ad Age article. This article, about midway through, asserts that:
Financial planners, I predict, increasingly will assume the roles of American Express Black Card concierges. Already, planners are helping clients find the right college for their children, and soon they’ll assist in finding the most-satisfying second career or best fractional jet-ownership program.
It is an interesting thought that I figured I would pose to you all for discussion, since many of the readers, have both a black card and a financial planner. Personally, I can see how financial planning firms/advisers might want to try and differentiate themselves from their competition, possibly trying to offer more catered services for their high end clientele. Not to take anything away from American Express concierge staff, but I would think that if financial planners start taking on tasks, literally like the author asserted, it would cheapen the image of their services a great deal. I would also hardly liken the services of the Amex concierges to helping find the right college or choosing a career.
At least for me, in the few meetings I have had with my financial adviser, there is a role that I feel is similar to teacher/student. Meaning, while he respects me, the respect flows much more in his general direction. As I think it naturally should, since he is the expert in his field. While in my few dealings with my Platinum concierge at Amex, they pretty much kiss my ass the whole time. Personally, I just don’t think I can agree with the author. Anyone have an opinion? Particularly someone who might be a financial planner.
Centurion Welcome Letter
One of the readers sent me a copy of the welcome letter he just received. It must be nice to come home, heck the mail after work and receive this. It is much better than the Geico and Capital One mail I always seem to get. Does this look similar to ones the rest of you have received?
UK Centurion Update
This post is for all the UK readers. If you are a current Centurion UK member, you have likely heard about an update to the program or a benefits refresh. I heard from a reader that Amex told him the update was coming this September. That probably translates to sometime in Q4, since this stuff almost always comes out delayed. Some things you can likely expect are:
- Increased benefits
- Raised annual fee
- Tougher joining requirements
- Titanium cards
This refresh is long over due according to the UK members I have talked to. One thing to think about as well, is this could be American Express’ first step to a worldwide standard for Centurion members, as right now there are large discrepancies. Any thoughts from the UK readers?
Black Card Roundup
This post is mainly for new visitors to help find older and general information on the black card. These types of posts have become slightly buried in the site.
Black Card benefits and requirements
Black Card no longer invite only
I will try and take this information and put it into an easily accessible quick facts page.
Site Updates & Advertising
It is hard to believe the site has been up just shy of a year. What started out as a small hobby has turned into a larger site than I had imagined, explaining one of the reasons amex-black.com has recently started to out grow its web hosting. I apologize if there has been downtime or long page load times. I am hoping to have everything migrated over in the next 2 weeks to a new service, which is still TBD while I work things out. In addition to new hosting, I have grown tired with the current design of the site and I am going to be redesigning it during the move to the new server. It should hopefully look a lot cleaner and be a little less buggy. I didn’t realize until today that this site had been rendering terribly in IE6 browsers. I have fixed the issue, but I am surprised none of you said anything before.
When the redesign rolls out I will offering up several new advertising spots. The site is currently receiving, and has been for several months, over 1200 visitors a day, and 60k page views a month. If you are interested in advertising, please contact me at advertise@amex-black.com, and we can work something out.
In the meantime, check out this guy who just received his black card this week.
Spotlight On A Reader - Neil Patel
Sorry for the delay in posting a reader spotlight, I kind of slacked off. This reader profile is on Neil Patel, a well known internet marketer and owner of Crazy Egg, a heatmap visualizer for websites. Neil is a very humble guy as you can tell from his answers below, and if you ever want to enlist his consulting services you can find him at ACS.
What is your name: Neil Patel
How old are you: 23
Where are you from: London, England
Where do you live now: La Palma, CA
Describe what you do for a living and how long you’ve done it: I am an Internet marketer. I help companies place better on search engines and have been doing this for 5 plus years.
How long have you been a Centurion card member: I have been a Centurion member since 2007.
Are you happy with the card, if so what are your favorite aspects: The credit card isn’t bad, but the perks could be better. I have tried to get room upgrades at the Westin or W and when they have suites available Amex wasn’t able to get me a free upgrade when they should have. Or if you use the concierge service they are usually slow and they aren’t too great at keeping you happy. They aren’t good at doing things like getting a dinner reservation at a booked restaurant, but they are good at getting reservations at an empty restaurant.
Roughly, how much do you spend per month/year: To be honest, I have no clue on the spending amount because I don’t pay the bill. 
Have you ever been treated differently because you have it: At fancy clothing stores I have been treated nicer. But as a dotcom guy I usually don’t wear fancy clothes so it doesn’t really help.
Do you ever use it to buy small stuff just to show it off, be honest: Not really. I am naturally cheap, so I try not to spend money on things I don’t need. On the other hand I am great at using it at places like Ralphs so my parents don’t have to pay for groceries with their own money.
Do your friends ever force you to use it when you go out: My friends are very humble and never force me to pay for anything. In fact people like Brian and Greg from Best of the Web or Chirs Winfield always try and pay for things and never let me pay.
What is the largest ticket item you have purchased with it: I am not a big spender, so I would have to say all my expenditures are less than $1000.
What is your most expensive month if you remember: I believe Affiliate Programs spent 200k plus in a month.
Have you used the concierge service, if so what for, and have you used it for anything ridiculous: I try not to use it because it sucks. I have used it for hotel upgrades, restaurant bookings, and suit shopping. They did a good job with the suit shopping, but all my other experiences were not too great.
Do you have any funny or interesting stories that involve your black card: I don’t have any funny stories… the only interesting ones are when cashiers try and swipe the card through their machine when it won’t fit. And if it doesn’t fit, I tell them “it won’t fit”, but they keep on trying.
You Recently blogged about your black card, has the publicity helped or hurt you in any way: It actually has helped me a lot. I got tons of PR from it.
Because of your age, do you ever feel like your black card helps your credibility: It helps a lot. Some people take me more seriously or look up to me because I have one.
Centurion Card Demographics
Ever wonder who actually has a black card? Luckily for us, a 2007 survey to European cardholders can give us an idea of who actually has one.
This is how amex describes their centurion members :
Centurion readers are super-affluent high net worth individuals on a continual quest for the best and most exclusive. They own companies and frequently travel; they define success. Exceptionally discerning and style-conscious, Centurion readers are global players who gain truly worldwide access to the inaccessible. They do not compromise and expect only the highest level of personal commitment from those around them: individually tailored service, unlimited financial power, exclusive travel benefits, global access and influence.
Centurion is more than just a Card: it’s a global community of the highest earners and spenders on the market. To receive Centurion Magazine, one must be a Centurion Member from American Express: an individual who can afford virtually anything. The card itself is the
world’s most exclusive, offered by invitation only and at a high annual fee.
Now that we know how they are described, here is there actual demographic profile, based on 2007 survey results.
- Average Age: 49
- 94% of primary cardholders are male
- 83% of supplementary cardholders are female
- they average 2.8 people per household
- average 3.7 cards per account
- 63% are company owners
- Average household income was 653,00 euros ($1.01M US dollars)
- Average net worth of 4.5M euros ($7.14M US dollars)
- On average, spend 11.5 times more than the typical American Express cardmember
- Average MONTHLY disposable income for shopping and entertainment is 8,800 euros ($13,974 US dollars)
- Majority of disposable income went to women’s fashion
- On average, Centurion members have been American Express cardmembers for 16 years
- 82% use their Centurion card as their primary method of payment
There you have it, that is your average black card member. Keep in mind, these are 2007 survey results from European cardmembers. However, I would think the US members, roughly ~20,000, would be very similar on average.
Data Source
Hosting Problems
Sorry about the site going down. I have been experiencing some hosting problems, but I will be moving to a new server shortly so things should get better. I am typing up a few posts right now if I can get the server to stay up long enough for me to finish them. Thanks for being patient.
Looking For Black Cardholders In Boston
I am putting out a request to all you readers. I have a unique opportunity for a select person(s). Don’t worry, I am not soliciting you anything. I am looking for Black card members in the Boston area. Leave a comment to this post, using your real email address, so I can contact you about this really cool opportunity. This is a good thing I promise.
Number of Centurion Cards Outside the US
Here is a rough number of Centurion cards issued outside of the US (which has the largest number issued):
- UK 18,500
- Germany 10,500
- Switzerland 2,800
- France 1,500
- Italy, Spain, Sweden, Netherlands 4,500
- Israel 800
- Saudi Arabia 1,000
- Middle East (others) 500
- Hong-Kong 13,500
- Singapore 1,300
- Australia 6,000
EDIT- These numbers were deduced from the number of Centurion magazine subscribers, since no one should be receiving the magazine that isn’t a Centurion member. Here is a press kit for the magazine ad sales for Europe and Asia. Again, I say these are rough numbers since the number of cardholders should be the same as the number of magazine subscribers.
