The World's Most Exclusive Credit Cards - Forbes.com

The World's Most Exclusive Credit Cards - Forbes.com

Bank of America (nyse: BAC - news - people ) joined the field with its Accolades card, issued on the American Express (nyse: AXP - news - people ) network. It includes a fairly standard set of perks, like access to premium concert tickets, airline rewards programs and the like, and Bank of America will wave the annual fee for customers who stick with its private wealth and investment management division.

Banking to the ultra rich has been long dominated by JPMorgan and big brokerage houses, like Morgan Stanley (nyse: MS - news - people ), where the threshold to just get in the door is often $30 million of assets or more.

Cards are an obvious way into the market, and though lenders aren't going to make much in the way of late fees and interest charges (assuming rich people pay their bills on time and in full, which isn't always the case) they make up for it in the fees they charge to merchants to process transactions. American Express network transactions mean fees of about 4% each purchase, so a $60,000 car charged to a Black Amex could potentially rake in $2,400 in processing revenue.

Everyone is playing catch-up to American Express, the 800-pound gorilla of high-end cards, with its invitation only Centurion (aka, Black) card legendary among Hollywood types.

The Luxury Institute's recent survey of customer preferences ranked Centurion first and its Platinum card second.

Amex Black carries an annual fee of $2,500 and a minimum annual purchase threshold of $250,000.