Lai See | Amex Black Card holders say the service is not worth the price

Our piece the other day about the complaints of a holder of American Express Centurion Card - the so-called Black Card - has attracted a surprising reaction from other dissatisfied cardholders.

A recurring theme in the e-mails we received was that service has deteriorated in recent years, the Centurion Card is not worth the HK$19,800 annual fee, and certainly not the new fee of HK$38,000.

Cardholders seemed particularly irked at the suggestion by Amex that the case we reported earlier was a one-off case.

"I am outraged that Amex said the slow call centre service was a one-off. I had the same experience last night. And it was not the first time," wrote one reader, adding that since she paid HK$19,800 for the service, she does not expect to wait, let alone the proposed new charge of HK$38,000.

A former cardholder wrote that he gave up his Centurion card when the fees rose from HK$8,500 to HK$19,800 some years ago. He selected the HK$5,500 Platinum card instead because it offered travel insurance, well, up to a point.

He recounted how his wife was pickpocketed in Paris and the thief ran up a large bill buying opera tickets. Amex covered those charges and cancelled the card and gave a replacement. It paid for the cost of replacing her identity card and driving licence but declined to cover the cash that was stolen, arguing that pickpocketing is not covered for cash loss, but only theft is. The difference, according to Amex, is that theft was only when you saw your thief and he threatened physical harm.