This Credit Card Costs $15,000 Just To Open. Is It Worth It?

Looking to read all of my articles? Sign up for Medium for unlimited access! Click here to sign-up and support writers on Medium all over the world.

Look at your wallet. Open it up and let the moths fly out, then count how many credit cards you have. One? Maybe two or three? Chances are, you have a card to cover your gas and groceries, and then maybe one that gets you cash back on your Amazon Prime purchases. Do any of those have annual fees? Maybe $99 a year? Just enough to be annoying when that time of the year hits, right? Now imagine for a moment that each year, you see a line on your credit card for “Annual Fee,” and that amount is $5,000. How would that make you feel? If you’re a normal person? Sick to your stomach. If you’re a millionaire? Probably still sick. But that’s the reality of those that are the proud owners of the American Express Centurion Black Card, the pinnacle of uber-luxury and clout.

via Forbes

The Centurion Card is invite only. That means you reading this right now will probably never own one, and will likely never see one. American Express has to specifically reach out to you to see if you’d like to apply. So how do you get on their radar? Well, no one is quite sure of the firm spending numbers. The Points Guy estimates that to get invited for the personal card, you need to spend around $350,000 per year on your current American Express card. For the business card, the number is closer to $450,000-$500,000 a year. Only then will American Express take notice of your baller status and reach out. And when they do reach out? You have the privilege of accepting the card and spending $10,000 on the initiation fee alone. Add another $5,000 in that annual fee I mentioned earlier and you have to spend $15,000 total to even get in the door for this card.

Let’s say though that you spend $350,000 a year on yachts and caviar and now you have qualified for, and accepted, the card. What next? Well American Express has gone all-out-luxury for their all-out-luxury credit card. The box the card comes in looks like your new favorite Christmas present. When you open the box, you’ll see a sub-box that the actual card comes in, accompanied by a wallet that screams “you are one of the few who is deemed worthy to even hold this card.”