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Amex is passé. There's a new credit card being flashed by the rich and famous... but there's a major catch

Nov 05, 2024Nov 05, 2024

By ROSS IBBETSON FOR DAILYMAIL.COM 20:40 03 Nov 2024, updated 13:59 04 Nov 2024

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Wall Street bosses, hot-shot lawyers and A-list celebrities aren't using American Express.

There's a new credit card being flashed by the rich and famous but it's so exclusive you've probably never heard of it.

The typical user is dropping at least $500,000 per year and their net worth is north of $28 million - and there's a big catch, the Atlas card is invite only.

What they're getting for all their hard-earned cash is a modern concierge service that CEO Patrick Mrozowski says is taking the industry by storm.

Fort Knox restaurants like Tatiana, ITO Omakase and Nobu Malibu are unlocked by this shimmering stainless steel card.

Last-minute tickets for Taylor Swift - sold out for mere mortals - are available at your fingertips through the sleek, minimal iPhone app– or text-based concierge.

Among the delights that can be rolled out by the concierge – are helicopters to the airport, front-row Wimbledon seats and hotel upgrades at the Ritz.

Mrozowski previously founded a debit card that earned points. In that business volume was important but with Atlas he's chasing customers in rarefied air.

'What's interesting about credit cards,' he says, 'is the difference between an average customer and a really premium is that the latter is 100 times more valuable.'

To that end, he doesn't want to 'dilute the service' with low earners and believes 'Atlas can become a really large company without a lot of members.'

By the end of last month, they were on track to hit over 50,000 members on the waitlist. In contrast, there are around 100,000 users of the most exclusive Amex Centurion card.

There is no preset spending limit for the Atlas card, meaning that when its wealthy clientele buys a new car or watch, it gets a slice of that action through transaction fees. A thousand people spending $500,000 every month is worth more than 100,000 members who are only spending a few thousand in the same period.

Since Atlas uses the VISA payment system, it is also widely accepted.

Mrozowski says that another benefit of tapping into the high-net worth market is that his members are shielded from the tumult of the global economy.

Soaring inflation in the US has sparked a credit card delinquency rate of 3.25 percent - the highest since the 2008 global financial crisis. This is a huge red flag for typical lenders as it means that customers using their credit cards are not paying back their money.

But for Mrozowski, 'if the economy goes up or down, our clientele continues to have a lot of spending power.' In other words, they are so stinking rich that it doesn't matter whether the economy goes into meltdown, they're still going to jet off to St Tropez and buy that new Ferrari.

Around 60 percent of the concierge service is currently dominated by restaurant reservations.

'The dining portion of the app is like a more curated Resy,' Mrozowski says and it will deliver a shortlist of the top 15 to 20 restaurants in every city for its members to choose from.

In New York City, this includes favorite celebrity haunts: Sartiano’s, Rafs, and Corner Store.

And these VIPs and A-listers still love their points. Members earn 3x points on whichever category they spend the most money on - restaurants, hotels, flights - and then redeem these for vacations or air miles.

'There's the group of customers that literally doesn't know about the points and there's the other that's obsessed with the points,' Mrozowski says.

When it comes to flights and hotels, the CEO and founder says that Atlas can deliver its members benefits that they can't get by booking their travel arrangements off-platform.

'If you book the hotel through Atlas you'll often get a multi-category room upgrade and we’ll make sure you have a corner room with a stunning view’, Mrozowski says.

'On the flight side, it just comes down to getting better rates, we can secure a better rate than you would see elsewhere.'

When probed about who his members are, Mrozowski is guarded citing legal reasons, but adds: 'You definitely know these people, they are household names.'

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