2023 Has anyone actually received a Centurion Card invite?
 

Here's to those of us participating and following this thread ending 2023 with a Centurion :D

I'm willing to bet this post won't age well when it comes time to open the 2024 thread...

Ah, I may be one of those who may need to rely on insights on the application process! Not sure where to post this but I'll just do it here, if that's ok. It hardly deserves its own thread.

I recall having read a few threads where some Centurion card members after an evaluation determined the annual membership fee escalation had risen to a point have where it’s no longer justified and ended their long relationship (if I recall, sdix & seacharl – end of an era?). After all these long years, the time has arrived for me to make a similar determination.

Long story short, because of CA’s new regulatory powers passed in 2020 (mini Dodd-Frank), we’ve decided to unwind our firm and dissolve our operations by the end of this year. For my part, I’m leaving for a State with ZERO income taxes to start a Family Office and as we go through the State’s dissolution process, at some point we will cancel our Business Centurion. Alas, I must consider if it would be beneficial to apply for a Bus Cent for my newly formed Family Office or accept an invitation (assuming it would be forthcoming) for a personal one.

Assuming I’ll be spared another initiation fee, coughing up $5K absent tax deductions and the cost shared with my partners has put me in a position similar to sdix & seacarl—is it worth the $5K sticker shock tag for what is essentially a charge card?

No, it's not worth it and it hasn't been for awhile... that is my opinion anyways. I used to be able to eke out value meeting the cost in about half of the years I had the card, but ever since the addition of the Equinox gym membership for $3,500 a year, and the fact that I don't have an Equinox location within two states of where I reside, it has become impossible to recoup meaningful value for the AF paid. I'm a Centurion and later a Business Centurion of 20 years as of 2023.

While there’s an Equinox where I live now, I’m sure wherever I’m locating to will be without one. Assuming I’m even given the option to transfer my Bus Cent to my new outfit, the benefit analysis would be similar except the cost of the annual fee will be borne by me entirely. At this point, not sure if they’ll even consider a transfer since I’m essentially starting a new outfit absent of any track record or history.

I may have to reapply and have no idea how one does that absent an invitation. I haven’t even spoken with them regarding my Bus Amexes for almost a decade—everything has been handled by my assistant.

The overlap of "states (cities) with an Equinox" and "states with no income tax" (AK, FL, NV, SD, TN, TX, WA, WY) is vanishingly small. Specifically: Florida and Texas.

Note that while Florida does not collect personal income tax, there is a corporate income tax which might, or not, apply to a Family Office.

Honestly, how lightly regulated SFOs are in the US can almost counteract all the downsides of getting caught by FATCA. We don't get any easy passes with FCA here in the UK.

I had a professionally managed SPV some time ago where I was the only shareholder. Both the vehicle and the manager were authorised, but I retained some oversight over the manager. Before the prime broker would onboard us, I had to instruct quite an expensive legal opinion for my personal involvement, and lawyers only managed to conclude that the arrangement was "unlikely to fall under the regulatory perimeter of FSMA"

It will be interesting to see how this year goes for this thread given the economy.

A personal question: for myself, I was able to get the JP Morgan Reserve. I primarily use this and the Amex Platinum, and I use the latter where benefits help (e.g., FHR) and the former for most everything else.

My collective annual spend is not near the rumors of $250k-$500k for the card. However, I anecdotally have seen mention that living in a lower CoL area, and having a thicker credit and client file with Amex, may help chances of getting one. It's all speculation anyhow.

Part of me wants to focus in on trying to get an invitation and try to capitalize on its benefits -- moving virtually all spend to the Platinum, etc. I have updated my income and assets with Amex and submitted the interest form.

The rest of me thinks I am being silly and should leave it alone, focusing on my JPMR as basically a CSR plus better service and United Club, plus the Platinum, and putting my time and money to better use.

Curious as to others' thoughts, especially those with any experience with the cards.

I don't know anyone in recent years who has received an invite with less than $250k on a personal card except maybe some Scandinavian countries where Amex is not popular at all. Even in Asia $250k-$300k is the bare minimum right now along with the right spend profile. I know some people from way back in the early days of Centurion who were invited with much lower spend but the requirements seem to have tightened up since cardholder numbers have risen. To be honest if you are not charging at least $500k+ per year I doubt you would get much value out of Centurion anyway, for me the greatest benefit is power to charge very large amounts followed closely by intangible lifestyle benefits. I also make fairly heavy use of concierge where I used to pay a separate PA service. There is no way to justify the card from a 'benefits worth $x' perspective (don't tell my wife). Just my 2c.

I got a UK invite in 22 with a £140K spend.

Interesting. Sounds like spend threshold still the same as before of over c.£125k. I thought it might have been raised to closer to £250k but evidently not. Not even inflation adjusted.

Appreciate the thoughts. Your comment about not getting adequate value out of the card based on not having that high of a spend was part of my concern, as well.

I find it difficult to put a value on the "soft benefits". Biggest motivation for me was some combination of the Delta status, a better concierge service (unclear how this compares to JPMR, though), and I suspect I'd find organic use for some of the other perks, as well as the fact that it was something to strive for, similar to the JPMR before I got that and plan on keeping.

As you alluded to, the value of all of that doesn't even approach a fraction of the cost of the card, though -- and the JPMR has a good amount of utility for me (used to have a CSR).

Moot point without an invitation.

I actually believe it is pretty common in most EU countries (maybe outside of France and Germany) to have a spend requirement of around €100k-150k pa so not to the US and Asia levels at all

Dallas has a very nice Equinox