Raffles

Tell him to get Virgin Black or Emirates Elite. 2 miles per £1, show him what he could do with 1 million Emirates miles after a year of Google spend and he would pay the £140 fee pretty quickly.

camille55

A fellow Cent I know spoke to a rep on the Cent line the other day and, apparently, there are 709 Cents with medallion status already, based on spend to March 17. This was queried with a manager and that was the figure quoted.

I'm not sure what to make of it? It does seem like rather a lot!

I either know or have made the acquaintance with 7 or 8 Cents in the uk, over the years. Every one of them doing well, but perhaps only one of them with I guess what you could describe as having the "look" or lifestyle of someone who spends a quarter mill pus a year Obviously, that's a very subjective view!

If that figure is accurate, and some of them are on FT, mit would be interesting to hear of medallion experiences.

tangfish

Do they have tiers of Centurion cardholders in the US?

If they do then that probably explains why I stopped getting annual and surprise gifts after shifting all my everyday spend to another card (I've since shifted some purchases over $5K back due to the changes in earning and redeeming MR points - yes, value received does influence our spending decisions AMEX).

YClass

Sounds like a smaller figure than I expected, aren't there like >15,000 Cents in the UK or something?

A friend of mine and I both have Cent Medallion so will let you know. Already got an invite to an event, its not entirely clear is it complementary or simply access, will figure it out. Not going to go as not my thing, but will see what else turns up over the year.

camille55

Great thanks, would be good to hear your experiences.

I got the invite for the supercar event in a couple of weeks. I'm not that big into cars, but some mates are big time, so thinking of taking them one of them. If anyone on here going to be there, good to say hello.

rg77

I'm actually going to the supercar event on 11 May - would be good to meet other FT posters as well...

RichardMannion

Yes they do in the US - I have a RM in the US, and I'm told it is a select number of Centurion US customers that have them. TBH though, you're not missing too much - as pleasant as my RM is, she is based on the East Coast so the operating hours don't align with me on the West Coast, and I've found her and the management chain above her lacking in any real empowerment to make things right when they have gone wrong.

YClass

The first update is that Medallion receive the Preview and Great Artist brochures early. This allows Medallion to essentially be ahead of the curve in booking events.

For the Great Artist Series the brochure includes a note with the additional benefit, which appears to be for most events a private dinner with the performer after the event, exclusively for Medallion.

camille55

Thanks for that update YC. For the last few years, more recently with GA series, they have marketed tickets as indicate your 'wish list', then they get back to you if you are successful. I assume cents with RMs then got first dibs. With
Medallion, I guess they would now get first chance instead? This won't cost Amex anything extra but will help give medallion something extra.

The dinner is a nice Touch. Additional cost for Amex but Medallion would feel special.

Thanks in advance for any further ainfo YC. For me, I was surprised to note I would have qualified 2 out of last years 3yrs for total send across every Amex card I use, of which less than 10% went on cent. That spend habit ain't changing so long as the spg Amex is stil here!

dhuey

I'm kinda marveling at how there seem to be some folks here who may charge £250,000 on a credit card in one year. If it's simply someone in business who can shift company payments to the card, I get that. I do that on a much, much smaller scale.

But day-um, if you're putting £250,000 per year on the card for personal stuff, you must be leading quite the interesting personal life.

YClass

It can quickly stack up depending how you eat/travel. E.g. a week in the Maldives with a decent room and J both ways runs £20k+ and if you do that kind of trip 5-6 times a year, let alone with a whole family. I know a guy who spent £125k on one two-week safari for his family (incl. PJ). Furniture purchases were particularly large for me last year alongside a renovation. And then there is day to day eating out/drinking, random purchases etc. which can be another £5-10k+/month depending how aggressive you are (if your "standard" for restaurant wine is £100-150 instead of say £30). Then add one or two big events (bdays/weddings) or investments like wine, art, watches etc. which can all be put through your card..... I do however agree that many are probably putting through business expenses whether its corporate or self-employed.

dhuey

What you describe above qualifies (in my mind, at least) as quite the interesting personal life.

camille55

Add to the above general boring household stuff - utilities, satellite tv, fuel for 2 or 3 cars, car insurance, home insurance, AV equipment for home, a new kitchen, club memberships, etc...the list goes on....everything can be paid on amex if you can be bothered to find a merchant who accepts it. And if you have kids like me, boy does spend rack up! If their schools accepted amex, add 50-60k per annum. More if they board, etc,.

I now average probably 50/50 for personal/business? I could add a lot more on the business side, but choose instead to diversify into schemes (eg. LH) that let me take the family away when demand is at its highest over school holidays LH.

Even for my £125k+ personal, I can assure you I lead a life a lot less glamorous than many I know and see!

Steve M

I don't think it's so much that GBP250,000 of annual spending would be hard to do if one had the money, but the marvel is that someone has the capability of doing so. A family would probably need to have income of at least triple that in order to sustain that level of spending, unless they were just spending down some much larger pool of assets. Either way, such a family is probably in the top 0.5%.

camille55

.....or another way is you could just spend other peoples money! Remember this: -

http://abcnews.go.com/images/Blotter/MadoffAMEX.pdf