Mastercard^® Black Card™ Review

If you want a top-of-the-line travel rewards card with benefits such as a 24/7 concierge service, airport lounge access, including an airport meet-and-assist program, plus a credit for Global Entry or TSA PreCheck, the Mastercard^® Black Card™ might be right for you.

This is the middle tier of the three Luxury Cards issued by Barclays. The Mastercard^® Black Card™ offers more benefits (for a more expensive annual fee) than the Mastercard^® Titanium Card™, but doesn’t quite break the bank like the Mastercard^® Gold Card™.

The Mastercard^® Black Card™ also comes with some physical heft to match its perks. It weighs in at 22 grams and is made of a black-PVD-coated stainless steel front and carbon back. PVD stands for Physical Vapor Deposition, and to put it simply, involves metal being vaporized in a vacuum chamber. Pulling a card covered with vaporized metal out of your wallet is sure to be a conversation starter.

However, this card falls short in some areas compared with other luxury travel cards, such as its low earning rate and not being able to transfer points to airline and hotel partners. Unless you really want the high-end travel benefits like the concierge services, you might be better off with The Platinum Card^® from American Express or Chase Sapphire Reserve^®.

• Airport lounge access

  Perhaps one of the best features offered by this card is complimentary Priority Pass™ Select membership — which allows for unlimited visits for you and your guests to more than 1,300 airport lounges in more than 600 cities worldwide.

  Without the complimentary benefit, standard Priority Pass membership plans start at $99 per year, and charge $35 per member visit and $35 per guest visit. The top-tier plan costs $469 per year, with unlimited free member visits and guest passes for $35 each.

• Valuable travel credits

  The Mastercard^® Black Card™ offers the following travel credits, which can help offset the card’s annual fee:

  • Annual airline credit. Get up to $100 in annual air travel credit as reimbursement for airline tickets, baggage fees, upgrades and other flight-related purchases.
  • Global Entry and TSA PreCheck application fee credit. Receive a statement credit to cover the $100 Global Entry application fee or the $85 TSA PreCheck application fee every five years.

• Luxury card concierge service

  You can access a Luxury concierge rep 24/7 via live chat, phone or email for help with everything from travel bookings to dinner reservations to sourcing high-demand products. Some of the situations concierge representatives have helped cardholders with in the past include rescuing jewelry left in a hotel room, researching school districts ahead of a move and arranging for a late-night delivery of Tylenol for a sick child. Access the concierge via live chat, phone or email.

• Intro APR on balance transfers

  If you have a large amount of existing high-interest credit card debt, you can transfer it to the Mastercard^® Black Card™ without incurring interest charges for more than a year. The card offers a 0% introductory APR for the first fifteen billing cycles following each balance transfer that posts to your account within 45 days of account opening. After that, (and for balance transfers that do not post within 45 days of account opening) the APR will be 20.74% to 28.74%, based on your creditworthiness. There is a fee for balance transfers. You’ll be charged either $5 or 5% of the amount of each transfer, whichever is greater.

• No foreign transaction fees

  If you use your Mastercard^® Black Card™ to make international purchases, you won’t be charged foreign transaction fees. By contrast, some travel cards charge fees ranging from 3% to 5% of the amount of each transaction when you use it to make purchases outside of the U.S.

• Low rewards earning rate

  For a card with an annual fee as expensive as this one, you’d expect a higher rewards rate than one point per $1 spent. Granted, you effectively earn 2% back if redeeming points for airfare or 1.5% back if redeeming points for cash back. This means 10,000 points will be worth $200 when redeemed for airfare and $150 when redeemed for cash back.

  That said, there are cards with no annual fee that earn 2% cash back on every purchase you make.

• No sign-up bonus

  Unlike most premium travel cards (and rewards cards in general), the Mastercard^® Black Card™ doesn’t offer a sign-up bonus.

  If you want the opportunity to earn a huge lump sum of rewards after reaching a specific spend threshold within a given timeframe, you should choose a card like The Platinum Card^® from American Express. The card lets you earn 80,000 Membership Rewards® Points after you spend $8,000 on eligible purchases on your new Card in your first 6 months of Card Membership.

• Can't transfer points to partners

  American Express, Capital One, Chase and Citi all offer travel cards that let you transfer rewards to hotel and airline loyalty partners — sometimes for even more value. However, the Mastercard^® Black Card™ does not.

  Instead, points can only be redeemed for travel, cash back, bank deposits, gift cards, merchandise or experiences.

• Pricey annual fee

  With the Mastercard^® Black Card™, you’ll be responsible for paying an annual fee of $495 ($195 for each Authorized User added to the account), and a fee of $195 for each authorized user added to your account.

  It’s not unusual for a premium travel card to charge a high annual fee. For example, The Platinum Card^® from American Express has a $695 annual fee, and the Chase Sapphire Reserve^® has a $550 annual fee. However, each of those cards offers more robust and valuable travel benefits, as well as better rewards rates and welcome offers than the Mastercard^® Black Card™.

  *To see rates & fees for The Platinum Card^® from American Express, please click here.

• No intro APR on purchases

  While the Mastercard^® Black Card™ provides an intro APR on balance transfers, it does not offer one for purchases. This means, if you carry a balance on your card from month to month from purchases, you’ll be subject to interest charges at an APR of 20.74% to 28.74% (variable).

  It’s worth noting that it’s pretty rare for a premium credit card to offer an interest-free period on purchases. If you do need to finance a large purchase and pay it off over time, you’ll be better off with a card that offers a 0% intro APR on purchases for a year or longer.

Mastercard^® Black Card™ vs. The Platinum Card^® from American Express

If  you want access to much more valuable rewards and travel benefits, The Platinum Card^® from American Express will be a better fit — as long as you don’t mind paying a higher annual fee.

The card lets you earn 80,000 Membership Rewards® Points after you spend $8,000 on eligible purchases on your new Card in your first 6 months of Card Membership. If you use your points to book a flight through American Express Travel, that’s an $800 value. Plus, get 5X Membership Rewards® points on flights booked directly with airlines or with American Express Travel on up to $500,000 on these purchases per calendar year and 5X Membership Rewards® points on prepaid hotels booked with American Express Travel. Terms apply.

You can redeem your points for travel, statement credit, merchandise and more. But you’ll get the most value by transferring them to an American Express travel partner, which includes British Airways Executive Club, Delta SkyMiles®, Marriott Bonvoy™ and Singapore KrisFlyer.

Along with a number of travel insurances and purchase protections, The Platinum Card^® from American Express also offers the following credits, which can easily cancel out the card’s $695 annual fee:

• Up to $200 annual hotel credit
• Up to $200 airline fee credit
• Up to $100 Global Entry or TSA PreCheck application fee credit
• Up to $189 CLEAR® Plus credit (enrollment required)
• Up to $200 Uber Cash
• Up to $155 Walmart+ credit (enrollment required)
• Up to $300 Equinox credit (enrollment required)
• Up to $240 digital entertainment credit (enrollment required)
• Up to $100 Saks Fifth Avenue credit (enrollment required)
• Up to $300 SoulCycle at-home bike credit (Equinox+ subscription is required)

This card also offers access to American Express Global Lounge Collection, which includes complimentary access to The Centurion Network of lounges and Priority Pass Select lounges (enrollment required).

Mastercard^® Black Card™ vs. Chase Sapphire Reserve^®

Where the Chase Sapphire Reserve^® really packs a better punch is the value you can get from the card’s rewards – since they’re worth 50% more when redeemed for travel through Chase’s portal and can be transferred to a variety of loyalty partners at a rate of 1:1.

You’ll earn 60,000 bonus points after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening.. Additionally, get Earn 5x total points on flights and 10x total points on hotels and car rentals when you purchase travel through Chase Travel℠ immediately after the first $300 is spent on travel purchases annually. Earn 3x points on other travel and dining & 1 point per $1 spent on all other purchases.. You can redeem points for travel, cash, gift cards, statement credits and products and services, or transfer them at a rate of 1 to 1 to 14 airlines and hotel partners.

Card benefits include a $300 annual travel credit, complimentary Priority Pass Select membership and a Global Entry, TSA PreCheck or NEXUS application fee credit. You’ll also get access to protections, like trip cancellation and interruption insurance, lost luggage reimbursement, purchase and return protection, extended warranty protection and more.

This list is less robust than that of The Platinum Card^® from American Express, but the Chase Sapphire Reserve^® charges a lower annual fee than that card ($550 compared to $695). The authorized user fee is also lower than that of the Mastercard^® Black Card™ ($75 compared to $195).

If you want luxury service packaged in a stylish black metal card, and you won’t balk at an expensive fee, you may like the Mastercard^® Black Card™. But we think you can get much more value from The Platinum Card^® from American Express or the Chase Sapphire Reserve^®.

Although those cards come with higher annual fees, they provide excellent travel benefits and protections, as well as lucrative welcome offers and more flexible rewards that can be transferred to airline and hotel loyalty partners at a strong rate.