Mastercard® Black Card™ review: High price tag for low rewards

The Mastercard Black Card offers an annual airline credit of up to $100 toward qualifying airline purchases. You also receive a credit of up to $100 for Global Entry, which makes you eligible for TSA PreCheck, and you can rest easy at a Priority Pass Select lounge, which has more than 1,300 airport lounges in more than 500 cities worldwide.

The card provides 24/7 access to the Luxury Card Concierge — a service that helps you with everything from booking your travel and vacations to locating a must-have, hard-to-find gift for someone. If you’re traveling to one of the 3,000 featured properties, you’re treated to upgrades worth an average of up to $500. These properties include brands like Waldorf Astoria, Ritz-Carlton, Montage, The Peninsula Hotels and several others.

You might be able to offset the annual fee with these features, but only if you plan to use the concierge service at one of its eligible hotels.

As a plus, you can also download the Lyft app and enroll your Luxury Card. Lyft will automatically add a $5 Lyft credit to your account once you take three rides in a month and pay with your Luxury Card (one Lyft credit per calendar month). 

With the Mastercard Black Card, you have access to Mastercard's World Elite program and its own suite of elite offers and partnerships. Popular retailers include ShopRunner (terms and conditions apply), Instacart, Peacock and Priceless Golf®. On top of that, you can book members-only experiences like unique sightseeing tours, spas and private dinners.

You'll also receive Mastercard Black's exclusive publication, LUXURY MAGAZINE, so you can stay on top of the latest travel, fashion, real estate and more. These publications feature cover art from various artists, making them a limited-edition collector’s item.

This card comes with terrific travel protection: travel cancellation and interruption insurance, auto collision waiver, travel accident insurance, and travel assistance (including medical and legal referral services). So travel can be less stressful if something unexpected occurs.

The Chase Sapphire Preferred earns bonus rewards for dining, streaming services, online groceries, Lyft rideshare and travel with a relatively affordable annual fee. Unlike the Mastercard Black Card, you might be able to offset the annual fee easily with rewards and its annual hotel credit. Plus, Bankrate's latest valuations place the value of Chase reward points at about 1.0 cents, comparable to the Mastercard Black.

The Sapphire Preferred doesn’t have an introductory APR on purchases or balance transfers, and it lacks luxury perks like lounge access, but it does come with a valuable welcome offer and account anniversary bonus points. If you’re the type of cardholder who values upfront rewards, wants an affordable annual fee and can do without luxury, the Sapphire Preferred card might be a better choice for you.

If you want a great travel card to accompany you on trips — whether they’re luxury getaways or casual escapes — the American Express Gold Card outshines the Mastercard Black Card on nearly all fronts.

The Amex Gold boasts an impressive 4X points rewards rate for purchases made at restaurants and U.S. supermarkets and 3X points on flights booked with airlines or on AmexTravel.com. It comes with a lower $250 annual fee and a welcome offer worth around $1,500 based on Bankrate’s latest credit card point valuations. While Amex points are worth 1 cent each when you redeem for flights with Amex Travel, Bankrate values Amex points at around 2.0 cents each on average if you redeem with a high-value travel transfer partner. This gives Amex points a competitive value, all while earning about four times as many points as the Mastercard Black for select purchases.

In addition to its stellar rewards rates, the Amex Gold also comes with a host of travel perks and other cardholder benefits that, if used, can easily offset the card’s annual fee. While it isn’t a luxury card, the Amex Gold is a highly valued card and is difficult to pass up.

If you don’t mind keeping track of rewards tiers, the Chase Freedom Unlimited has some of the best rewards rates on travel and other popular spending categories, all for no annual fee. This card also offers intro APRs for both purchases and balance transfers.

If you prefer a flat-rate card, then the Wells Fargo Active Cash® Card boasts one of the top rates at 2 percent cash rewards on purchases. You can take advantage of its purchase and balance transfer APRs in addition to some Visa Signature benefits. 

Travelers who fly often may want this card in their wallet. With lounge access and opportunities to upgrade at select hotels, you can enjoy high-end experiences whether traveling for fun or business. 

If you are looking for a luxury card and need to reduce debt, then the Mastercard Black may be an ideal choice. You can avoid interest for more than a year without sacrificing elite perks and exclusive cardmember benefits. 

The primary criteria for a rewards or cash back card’s rating is its rewards value. This includes the card’s average rewards rate, estimated annual rewards earnings, sign-up bonus value and reward redemption value.

To estimate a card’s average annual rewards earnings, we first calculate its average rewards rate based on how much it earns in different bonus categories and how closely its categories align with the average person’s spending habits, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. 

Based on this data, we determine a “chargeable” spend (which purchases are likely to be put on a credit card and earn rewards). This includes the following spending by category:

• Groceries: $5,200
• Dining out: $3,000
• Entertainment: $2,500
• Gas: $2,100
• Apparel and services: $1,700

Using this data, we assign a weighting to each of a card’s bonus categories. For example, a card’s grocery rewards rate receives a 23 percent weighting based on how much of the average person’s budget is spent on groceries. We also estimate the redemption value of points or miles from various issuer, airline and hotel rewards programs.

This weighting and rewards valuation allows us to estimate a card’s average annual rewards earnings — how many points or miles you’d earn with a given card if your spending was about average and you used the card for all of your purchases, as well as what those points are worth. We also use point valuations to determine a card’s sign-up bonus value

With these calculations complete, we assign each card a score based on how its average rewards earnings, sign-up bonus value, rewards rate and redemption value stack up against other rewards cards.

We also rate cards based on how much it costs to keep them in your wallet or carry a balance. 

To start, each rewards or cash back card is scored based on whether it offers an intro APR and how its ongoing APR compares to the rates available on other rewards or cash back cards. 

We also score each card based on how its annual fee influences its overall value. 

We consider a card’s annual fee in two ways — how it ranks relative to the fees you’ll find on other cards in the category and how it impacts a card’s overall rewards value. Cards with an annual fee will always be at a slight disadvantage in our scoring system since annual fees inherently cut into your rewards value, but if a card offers terrific value via its ongoing rewards and perks, it can earn a high score even if it carries a high annual fee. 

With this in mind, we rate a card based primarily on how its ongoing rewards value and ongoing perk value (such as annual credits or bonuses) stack up against other cards in the category when you subtract its annual fee.

We rate each card’s flexibility based on the restrictions it imposes on earning and redeeming rewards and factor this rating into a card’s overall score. 

Flexibility factors include whether a card only allows you to earn a high rewards rate on a small amount of spending or requires you to meet a certain earning threshold before you can redeem rewards. We also examine whether your points are worth less when you redeem for some options versus others and whether a card gives you the flexibility to transfer rewards to airline and hotel partners. 

We also score each card’s set of features – its perks and benefits — against five tiers of features to provide a rating. 

We break down these tiers as follows:

• Tier 1 has less than standard card features (an ultra-streamlined card that offers basic utility and next to nothing in the way of ancillary benefits. 
• Tier 2 includes the benefits you’d expect on standard Visa or Mastercard credit cards, such as free access to your credit score, car rental insurance and $0 liability for fraudulent charges. 
• Tier 3 includes luxury features such as airport lounge access, elite status with an airline or hotel and credits for expedited security screening membership programs. 
• Tier 4 includes the sort of exemplary benefits you’ll find on top-tier luxury cards, such as high-value travel credits, cardholder memberships and other unique and valuable perks.

• No, you do not need an exclusive invite to apply for the Mastercard Black Card. You will primarily need a positive credit history and recommended credit score of excellent (740 to 850 on the FICO scale) for the best chances of approval.

Cardholders are not allowed to request credit limits, but the minimum credit limit typically is high on a Mastercard Black card. Credit limits depend on your creditworthiness.

Yes, the Mastercard Black card is made of patented black-PVD-coated metal and weighs approximately 22 grams, giving it a great “plink” factor that some consumers may value.

No. Though the Mastercard Black card offers some quality luxury benefits, it is not the most prestigious. That title is reserved for the Centurion® Card from American Express, also known as the Amex Black card.

Information about the Centurion Card from American Express has been collected independently by Bankrate.com. The card details have not been reviewed or approved by the card issuer.