Centurion

I am trying to be helpful. The prior phone number is NOT AMEX. It is a marketing phone number the equivalent of email spam. Often these numbers are based on a person dialing 1-800 versus 1-888 or 1-877 etc. I am not sure whose number but it certainly is not amex.

newbie88

I know the Centurion card is by invitation only but I read a lawsuit where a member got sued cause he did not pay and the pleadings said "he applied " for the Centurion. Is that just some legalese?

mia

One is invited to apply.

newbie88

and apply he did and he owns a boat load!!!

mdosu

You always "apply" for credit. You can get pre-approved to apply, read my post from prior page

jerome88

You don't need to run into the millions to get a Centurion. There is a threshold of course, and I would say it's still at $250k.

2014 Gold card spend was $280k
2015 Platinum card spend was $380k
2016 Platinum card spend to when I got an invite in August/2016 was $270k.
FICO above 750... only have two credit card accounts, no other loans mortgages etc.
The numbers above were across three users on my account. Girlfriend + brother.

I use the card for everything from a Starbucks to booking holidays.
I had used Fine Hotels and Resorts three times in total before getting an invite.
Most of my travel booking and car rental previously was done through Expedia or direct.
Now I use the Avis perk on the Cent which is great and I use FHR quite a bit.

My recommendation for US customers are:
- get a Platinum account
- get an additional two Platinum cards for family
- use all the cards only for lifestyle expenses... don't use them for any business expenses.
- use the cards to get Starbucks, gas but also luxury spend, hotels. Use them for everything.
- Once you have reached $250k for two years in a row on your account. Express interest and call Centurion for them to annotate your account.
- If you buy two watches on your card for a total of $250k that won't work, you need to be seen using the card daily. That being said, you should have transactions from $2 to $50k
- Pay balances in full, no longer than 5 days after the bill is due.

ryanjm

We spend around $200k/mo on business expenses right now, but that's projected to be closer to $400k/mo starting in October. The only reason I want a Centurion card is to get that 50% back on travel purchases using MR points. They cap it at 35% and 500,000/yr, but that cripples the value of our points on the platinum card.

I see people recommending using the amex for luxury purchases, but we like to keep our business purchases separate from personal, so it's only business expenses running through this. I'd imagine it would be a pain in the ... for our accounting team to separate expenses if we ran it all through amex just for a centurion invite.

Is there a better card for travel rewards? It's hard to find anything that lets you book a flight at 1:1 and then refunds you 50%.

YClass

If you are going for the Business Cent it has entirely difference criteria to Personal (as does Corporate Cent [extremely rare]). Estimates are in the $5-10m p.a. expenditure and you want to use travel services and multiple card holders. Just managing expectations....

mia

This nets $0.02/point which is only remarkable if you are earning more than one point per dollar on much of your spending. You could move the non-bonus spend to a card that earns straight 2% such as:

https://www.capitalone.com/small-business/credit-cards/

ryanjm

Over 50% of that is the 1.5x multiplier.

We have that Cap 1 card, but our accountant advised that while reward points aren't really tracked by the IRS, and cashback card is. So the reward points are "free money" but the 2% back is taxed.

ryanjm

Any idea where you're getting those estimates from? And for travel services, do they count when we pay with points? Because we use all points on travel, lately a lot of it for 1st or business class.

mia

Understood, but note that there is more than one version of the Capital One card. (I am not advocating Capital One, merely making the point that $0.02/point is not exceptional unless you earn more than one point per dollar. The 50% rebate simply brought American Express up to parity, and they backed away.)

mdosu

not surprised that lifestyle purchases is a path to Centurion invite. My issue is spending enough....but I guess if I don't think I can do it, then "I really can't afford" Centurion. lol. I mean, $300k is what my household makes in a year before tax, I'm not spending all that on discretionary.

williamqian2014

Thank you for information. I have some question about Centurion invitation.

1. I spent over 330k on my business platinum this year and 180k on other American express cards like delta platinum(50k) delta business platinum(50k) and blue business (50k) PRG personal+SPG personal(30k), does AMX count all spending when they consider business centurion card invitation or only business?

2. My spending mostly came from luxury goods and some other shopping charge.

Do I have chance to get invitation? When will AMX send out invitation usually?

Thanks!

mileschlinger

If you are not spending over 1M per year on your biz acct no chance ..