Barclaycard Luxury Card Review - MasterCard Titanium Card, MasterCard Black Card, MasterCard Gold Card
Updated June 4, 2021.
The Facts
Luxury Card is a brand Barclays launched in early 2016 for a suite of three high-end MasterCards: MasterCard Titanium Card, MasterCard Black Card which replaces the discontinued Visa Black Card, and MasterCard Gold Card.
MasterCard Titanium Card
MasterCard Black Card
MasterCard Gold Card
The Math
MasterCard Titanium Card, with an annual fee of $195, returns 2% rewards at most and doesn't offer much more than the annual-fee-free Citi Double Cash or Fidelity Visa. In addition, Alliant CU Visa Signature charges a small annual fee at $99 but offers unlimited 2.5% cash back. Unless the stainless steel is your thing, we don't see a good reason to have MasterCard Titanium.
To see how MasterCard Black Card competes with other cards with similar annual fees, please check out our featured review Comparing High-end Cards covering Amex Platinum Card, Amex Delta Reserve, Amex Hilton Aspire, Amex Marriott Brilliant, Chase Sapphire Reserve, Chase United MP Club, Citi Prestige, Citi AA Executive, U.S. Bank Altitude Reserve, CNB Crystal, and MasterCard Black Card.
MasterCard Gold Card is $500 more expensive than Black Card, and offers $100 extra in airline credit so is effectively $400 more expensive. The only thing you get with that $400 per year is the gold-plated design. Well, what a piece of overpriced jewelry! We understand some people may apply for the Gold Card and keep for the first year since the increased signup bonus more than pays the increased annual fee.
The Conclusions
Out of the three MasterCard Luxury Cards, the Black Card represents the best value. Compared to some of our favorite high-end cards such as Amex Platinum and Chase Sapphire Reserve, MasterCard Black Card doesn't stand out as much.
The Facts
Luxury Card is a brand Barclays launched in early 2016 for a suite of three high-end MasterCards: MasterCard Titanium Card, MasterCard Black Card which replaces the discontinued Visa Black Card, and MasterCard Gold Card.
MasterCard Titanium Card
- Annual Fee: $195 for the primary card member, and $95 for each authorized user
- Signup Bonus: 10,000 Exclusive Rewards points (=$200 in airfare redemption) after spending $1,000 within 3 months of new account opening.
- Rewards: 1x everywhere
- Best Use of Exclusive Rewards points: Barclaycard's exclusive program for Luxury Card members. On Titanium Card, you might redeem them for 1% cashback as statement credit. However, when you redeem for airfare through Exclusive Rewards, your points double in value, at exactly 2 cents per point.
- Benefits: (1) Waived foreign transaction fees. (2) Luxury gifts for the members from time to time. (3) 24-hour Luxury Card Concierge service and member-only magazines. (4) Standard World Elite MasterCard Benefits: MasterCard Luxury Hotels & Resorts (a collection of 2,000+ luxury hotels worldwide that offer complimentary breakfasts for two, room upgrades upon availability, early check-in, late check-out, and a special amenity such as a certain amount of hotel credit up to $100 per stay, free internet, or welcome gift, etc.), MasterCard Travel & Lifestyle Services (offers for hotels, airfare, private jets, airport concierge, car rentals, chauffeured cars, cruise lines, tours, vacation packages, golf, sports and entertainment event tickets, etc.), complimentary ShopRunner membership (free two-day shipping and returns at participating stores), complimentary DoorDash benefits (3 months of complimentary DashPass membership & $5 off first two orders per month through 9/30/2022), monthly $5 Lyft credit after 3 rides each month, 5% discount for every HelloFresh order, $5 rewards for every $20+ Fandango purchase, the Dining Program (special amenities at participating restaurants), the Nightlife Program (exclusive access to and recognition at participating night clubs), Priceless Cities, Priceless Surprises, Priceless Causes, Priceless Golf, 24/7 World Elite concierge service, MasterCard Cellular Wireless Telephone Protection (up to $800 for a stolen or damaged phone as long as you charge your monthly cellphone bills to the card), MasterCard ID Theft Protection, etc.
- Other Facts: Titanium Card is made of brushed stainless steel and carbon, weighing around 20 grams.
MasterCard Black Card
- Annual Fee: $495 for the primary card member, and $195 for each authorized user
- Signup Bonus: 25,000 points (=$500 in airfare redemption) after spending $1,500 within 3 months of new account opening.
- Rewards: 1x everywhere. Points are worth 2% when redeemed for airfare, and 1.5% when redeemed for statement credit.
- The Black Card has all Titanium Card's benefits and offers the following additional benefits:
- $100 annual airline credit. Unlike Amex's airline credit that is limited to incidentals only, both airfare and airline incidentals are eligible for automatic reimbursement on this card.
- $100 Global Entry application credit.
- Priority Pass Select membership that gives unlimited complimentary access to over 1,000 lounges worldwide for the primary cardholder and guests. Please see our featured review on airport lounge access for details.
- VIP Hotel & Travel program that is advertised to give you VIP treatments at over 3,000 hotels, resorts, and villas. This program actually consists of three parts. This first one is a luxury hotel collection of 560 four- and five-star hotels and resorts through Ensemble Hotel & Resort Collection network and the benefits include room upgrades when available, early check-in and late check-out when available, and hotel specific amenity such as breakfasts, spa credit, food and beverage credit, afternoon tea, lunch, etc. While anyone can find an Ensemble travel agent (or an agent associated with similar networks such as Virtuoso and Signature Travel Network) to book a hotel in the collection, Black Card's program does save you from finding such an agent that will work with you (some agents may have specific spending requirements for new clients or charge a fee). The second one is for Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group whose global portfolio has less than 30 luxury hotels. We don't have details about the program; however, we suspect it may be through a MO Fan Club travel agent and the benefits shall be similar to Ensemble's. Note that Amex Platinum Fine Hotels and Resorts (FHR) program has a larger coverage (over 750 hotels) than Ensemble and MO combined, and in general FHR's benefits are more consistent than Ensemble's. The third one is Villas of Destination for booking benefits at over 2,400 villas worldwide. Amex Platinum has a similar program called Platinum Villas. So the bottom line is that Black Card's hotel offering is comparable but not superior to Amex Platinum's offering.
- Other Facts: The Black Card is made of stainless steel and carbon, weighing around 20 grams.
MasterCard Gold Card
- Annual Fee: $995 for the primary card member, and $295 for each authorized user
- Signup Bonus: 50,000 points (=$1,000 cashback or airfare) after spending $3,000 within 3 months of new account opening.
- Rewards: 1x everywhere. Points are worth exactly 2% when redeemed for airfare or statement credit.
- MasterCard Gold Card shares all Black Card's benefits except that the annual airline credit is raised to $200 and it is made of 24-K gold plated steel and carbon, weighing around 22 grams.
The Math
MasterCard Titanium Card, with an annual fee of $195, returns 2% rewards at most and doesn't offer much more than the annual-fee-free Citi Double Cash or Fidelity Visa. In addition, Alliant CU Visa Signature charges a small annual fee at $99 but offers unlimited 2.5% cash back. Unless the stainless steel is your thing, we don't see a good reason to have MasterCard Titanium.
To see how MasterCard Black Card competes with other cards with similar annual fees, please check out our featured review Comparing High-end Cards covering Amex Platinum Card, Amex Delta Reserve, Amex Hilton Aspire, Amex Marriott Brilliant, Chase Sapphire Reserve, Chase United MP Club, Citi Prestige, Citi AA Executive, U.S. Bank Altitude Reserve, CNB Crystal, and MasterCard Black Card.
MasterCard Gold Card is $500 more expensive than Black Card, and offers $100 extra in airline credit so is effectively $400 more expensive. The only thing you get with that $400 per year is the gold-plated design. Well, what a piece of overpriced jewelry! We understand some people may apply for the Gold Card and keep for the first year since the increased signup bonus more than pays the increased annual fee.
The Conclusions
Out of the three MasterCard Luxury Cards, the Black Card represents the best value. Compared to some of our favorite high-end cards such as Amex Platinum and Chase Sapphire Reserve, MasterCard Black Card doesn't stand out as much.