Everything You Need To Know: The Black Amex

Working in a downtown Southampton boutique, I find myself exposed on a daily basis to a world I never thought existed, one whose token is the Black Amex Card. The Centurian Card, as it is officially named, seems to be what every third customer is using. I’ll never forget the first time I was handed one over the counter, cold and heavy and dark. After a few days of accepting these sources of payment I began to wonder what these strange metallic sources of credit really implied, and so I did a little research.

You probably all know this but one cannot apply for a black Amex card; he must be offered it, presumably after years of pristine credit and the collateral to back it up. Furthermore, there is an annual fee of $5,000 which comes along with this piece of social status. And finally the kicker, the cardholder must spend at least and indeed more than $250,000 per year on the Centurian in order to keep it. Maybe the rich are getting poorer, but, judging on our store's ratio of Centurians to customers, their spending habits haven't gotten wind of it.

Written by John Hering [Image via Upgrade Travel Better]