JetJock

Once I used my boss's regular AMEX card to charge $58,000 in aircraft maintenance fees. The people at American Express were not happy, but they had to eat it. My boss was cheap....and used credit cards to put out fires. Not exactly what I'd call good money managment, but....he's the one in the back of the airplane....I'm just the driver.

tl_soso

is there really such a thing as a black amex card? i think its an urban legend, no?

PaulKCK

No myth, the black card is called the Centurian card. I see pictures of it all the time in the Departures Magazine. You have to be asked to apply and be charging $100,000 anually. Plus the $2,500 yearly card fee is pretty high!

1995hoo

Go to flyertalk.com and visit the American Express forum. The Centurion Card is a frequent topic of conversation there.

The general rule is that you have to have charged at least $150K on any combination of personal Amex cards (as opposed to a corporate card) within the past twelve months and have been a cardholder for at least a year. The annual fee is $2500 in the US.

agd

Rather than charge your card, you can request the credit card company to put the wire into your checking account as cash or they should send you checks..I do know they charge a 1x transaction fee about 100 max but if you really wanna charge, this option is like cash if the dealer declines the charge card. Keep in mind its better to inquire about the amount you wish to charge because credit cards work on different formulas and it may wind up costing you more per month than you expected even if the interest is low...trust me I've had about 25g's in cc debt been through all the balance transfers and what not, fortunately now down to less than 4g's..

and whatever you do, do not be late one day on a balance for life of loan deal it will go up to the max amount....

TBone2004

It was the dealer - CC does not limit anything I do - they want the business.

wrooni

Got my TL 3 weeks ago w/$5000 on my Platinum AMEX. I called AMEX first... they said that as far as they were concerned I could put the whole price on it. The dealer limitedme to $5000 because of the percentage they have to give back to AMEX.

JT3

Keep in mind that to the credit card companies, either of the listed methods will be deemed a cash advance, NOT a purchase. Thus, there is typically no grace period (interest will accrue immediately), and the interest rate may be substantially higher than the rate you normally see (purchases and cash advances usually have different rates, with CAs being much higher). In short... This is USUALLY a very bad idea.

Typically, the ONLY time you'd want to use credit-card-checks (especially for large amounts) would be to pay off another line of credit; in other words, a balance transfer. Even then, you want to make sure that this transaction will be considered a balance transfer (not a cash advance), and that the rate for balance transfers is lower (and stays lower... sometimes, balance transfer rates go up after 6 months or a year) than the rate you're currently paying on the other account.