What's the most expensive thing you've ever bought on a credit card? A computer? A piece of furniture? Maybe a car? Chances are, it doesn't even come close to measuring up to the most expensive thing ever purchased on a credit card, probably by a factor of 30,000 or more. Buying things on credit cards can be good if you pay them off and don't pay any interest on that purchase. Most credit cards come with points or rewards,which means buying more expensive things on a card can actually earn you a lot of money back after the purchase. That was the exact motivation of why one billionaire decided to use his credit card for a massive purchase.
Billionaire Liu Yukian purchased a $170.4 million painting by Amedeo Modigliani featuring the female form at a Christie's auction in New York in 2015. He paid for the painting with his American Express Centurion card, which is an exclusive card for high net worth people with no credit limit. Reportedly, Yukian had to get prior approval for the purchase, but American Express trusted that he would be able to pay his bill. American Express claims that theoretically, they would allow Centurion Card members to spend an unlimited amount of money if they have a good relationship with the client, and of course when they know the client has money for the most expensive credit card bill in history headed their way. So how many points did yiki and rake in after the massive art purchase? The Centurion card earns one point per dollar with each point worth a cent, so he would have earned about 1% of the purchase back in points or $1.7 million worth of credit card rewards. That's enough to buy 8 Lamborghini Huracan Evos completely with credit card rewards points basically free. That's not even considering that sometimes the exchange rates for points is even higher when you trade them in for travel or other expenses. If you want to make an incredibly large purchase on this insurance card, you'll have to be invited and pay $7500 to join and pay out a $2500 a year fee for the membership. Chances are though, if you don't have 10s to hundreds of 1,000,000 in the bank you won't qualify.
Comments
Post a Comment