The tale of the Black Card dates back to the 1980’s when a rumor began to circulate that American Express offered an exclusive credit card, which happened to be this color, to wealthy celebrities and the social elite. The buzz was that it had no credit limit, something unheard of at the time. While there is no proof that the American Express Black Card existed at that time, the rumors grew large enough that American Express decided to take advantage of all the free word-of-mouth publicity, and in 1999 launched the this card by invitation only. The card was given to their Centurion Platinum card members who had been spending at least $150,000 a year. It’s due to this history that the “black card” is viewed by many as the most prestigious of all the credit cards available.
The success of this ultra exclusive credit card encouraged other companies to try and copy the formula. The Chase Black Card was introduced in 2009 and is issued under the JP Morgan brand. It’s officially called the JP Morgan Palladium card. It comes with an annual fee of $595, and there’s a $99 fee for each additional user.
It isn’t your normal plastic credit card. Instead, it weighs in at about an ounce, and it’s made out of various metal alloys (mostly copper) including a small amount of palladium (There were rumors when the card first launched that it was made of pure palladium, and that the card was worth over $1000 in precious metal value alone, but these rumors turned out to be false.). Instead of signing the card when you receive it, your signature is laser etched onto the card before it’s delivered to you.
Not just anyone can get access to this card. In order to have a chance of getting this card, you need to have a private JP Morgan banker. Only those customers with at least $1 million worth of assets at JP Morgan qualify for a personal banker. There is also a loophole that can score you this card if you specifically ask for it. Customers who are part of the Chase Private Client program can also get hold of this card, and this only requires assets of $250,000 with the bank.
Here are some of the benefits that come with carrying this card around:
- 2x travel and 1x all other places point rewards.
- 35,000 point bonus if annual spending exceeds $100,000.
- Complimentary Lounge Club membership to over 350 airport lounges worldwide with 1 guest.
- Complimentary United Airline Club membership to over 270 airport lounges worldwide with 2 guests.
- Complimentary Global Hotel Alliance Black status.
- EMV chip embedded for which will allow chip-and-signature transactions abroad.
- Primary rental car collision damage waiver.
While the Chase-JP Morgan Palladium credit card was created to compete against the American Express Centurion Black, the fees for these two cards are drastically different. The Amex Centurion has a $7,500 initial fee, a $2,500 yearly fee, and there’s a $1,500 fee for each additional user. When this is taken into consideration, along with the benefits offered, the JP Morgan Palladium credit card is more on par with the American Express Platinum credit card. When it comes to exclusivity and how difficult it is to obtain, however, it’s definitely on par with the American Express Centurion card.
If you can get either of these two cards, you know that you’ve made it.
“Making It” has little to do with how much money you have.
I always find it funny looking at the benefits of these cards, usually you can get the same or better as a regular card holder in terms of points earning potential.
These are cards for big spenders who want the “Wow” factor.
I think it would be cool to hand over one of these cards when buying stuff since they would be so different than the normal plastic cards, but not at that price…
My dad has one. You get better treatment from sale associates when you use one of these cards. They see it and know you have a lot of money, so they go out of their way to treat you the best that they can.
The fees for these cards only seem high to those who don’t have enough money. If you are rich like I am, the fees on these cards are nothing. It’s much better to have the prestige that comes with the card than to worry about how much the card costs each year. Most people wouldn’t understand this because they don’t have enough money to understand. The fees for black cards aren’t high at all for the service that you get from them.
The fact that your name is “I’m Rich” pretty much assures that you’re anything but. Wealthy people don’t go about bragging about it, especially on blog posts like this. My guess is that you don’t even come close to qualifying for any of the black credit cards.
So glad you have so much money you can waste it ‘I’m Rich’. I think those fees are ridiculous. Any one who has worked hard to get rich I would think would have to think about if they really had a need for such a card. I think they would be better off with a no limit debit card from their bank, but I doubt they have those type of cards. I think it is sad that people have to buck up their self esteem to get the false prestige that comes from a credit card. I had an ex-MIL that was very proud of her Visa ‘Gold’ card and seemed to think that she was something special since she had been given one. Could be why her son, my ex, thought nothing of getting us into $40K+ of credit card debt in barely a year!?!?
They are only ridiculous if you don’t have the money for them. It has nothing to do with “bucking up their self esteem” and everything to do with taking advantage of the services they offer. If you don’t have enough money, you wouldn’t understand.
It’s a great card to have, the airline lounge memberships and lack of fees after the annual fee, and travel insurance (trip & rental car) make up for the upfront charge. It is very high profile and I’ve had the card info stolen twice, so I use the plastic version. It also sets off the airport metal detector.
This card does have its benefits and the fees are not overly high for what you get. My Amex Platinum carries an annual fee of $495 so another $100 or so isn’t bad. I must say that a few other cards offer some of the same benefits as well. A “no limit” debit card is a bad idea because if the info is stolen cold hard cash is gone and you have to deal with getting it back and it’s a pain in the ass hence why most wealthy clientele utilize credit cards. It’s a lot less of a hassle to deal with. Also, I don’t want ANYTHING linked directly to my bank account(s) that I use everyday because of skimming and theft of card information. I would much rather swipe my credit cards and pay in full out of my accounts at the end of the month. One more thing, I find the user “I’m Rich” obviously NOT rich because of the way he/she presents themselves and the wealthy do not brag on public forums. I find it amusing how you can tell the person’s character by just a few short sentences and a name.