So I’m a waiter in a busy restaurant in Los Angeles and every day patrons pay their bill with credit/charge cards. We as waiters have seen every kind, Diners to Master Card, Visa to Discover, and the always recognizable American Express. But here’s the deal with Amex cards, they are all the same, save the color. There are the usual green, silver, and gold cards. But every once in a great while I’ll get a black Amex card with gold lettering. I have no idea what the deal is with that card. I’ve heard plenty of theories (there are only 100 in circulation, the limit is $1,000,000.00, you can’t apply for one, etc…). So what is the story? Is there anything special about that card, and how can I get one?
From Snopes : http://www.snopes.com/business/bank/blackcard.asp
Ha, I just happen to have a friend who works in New York as a liason with Amex to restaurants. He was telling me about the black ones. There are several thousand out there (over 10,000) IIRC. They do not seem to have any special benefit in and of themselves. No particularly good rate or anything and a huge annual fee. They are only really good for two things. 1) Prestige. There are some very wealthy individuals out there who desperately want one, but those who give them out can be rather capricious. 2) Kudos. Because you have one Amex will go all out for you. Call em up and tell em you want front center seats to the hottest new Broadway musical for that evening, they are yours. Need a cup of sand from a beach in Madagascar by tomorrow morning, no problem. He went on with some of the odd requests people make. Of course you will pay out the ass for it, but if you have one of these little babies you aren’t the kind of person who needs to worry about it.
Even the green American Express card has no credit limit. That’s one of the features of their charge cards, as opposed to credit cards like Visa or Mastercard (although my Visa credit card recently changed from having a credit limit to a “credit access line,” which is supposed to be the same thing as Amex offers).
BTW, I find it amusing that American Express needed to develop first the gold, then the platinum and now the black card (properly called the Centurion Card). The original green card was supposed to be prestigious, but as they’ve become more common (I think any college student can get one), the company has been forced to up the ante.
So was the tip good from the patron using the black Amex or not? :dubious:
I know a film director who has a black card – yes, it takes the kind of person who makes millions/yr to really have one.
Also, about a decade ago, I dated a girl who worked at AmEx in the consierge dep’t that deals with the black card customers. She swore that AmEx would pretty much get them whatever they asked for. If a business customer gave them a week long itinerary through Europe and said he wanted two hookers and some cocaine in his room every night, AmEx would make sure it was taken care of. That level of thing.
Decide for yourself if you believe it or not, but she insisted it was true. Hmmmm.
As for why it’s the black card, I recall reading a book called ALL CONSUMING IMAGES which had the statement that as society moves from an industrial/real things economy to information/intangible economy, the levels of prestige start to take the ethereal.
If anyone cares.
NPR Marketplace had a story on the Centurion card last month.
http://marketplace.publicradio.org/shows/2004/04/26_mpp.html (scroll down)
Here’s a link to AmEx’s page on the cards:
http://home3.americanexpress.com/corp/latestnews/centurion_launch.asp
Sounds a lot less interesting than it probably is.
Here’s some stuff where it gets interesting…
I have a black Mastercard because Virgin let you choose the colour.