Business Insider India has updated its Privacy and Cookie policy. We use cookies to ensure that we give you the better experience on our website. If you continue without changing your settings, we\'ll assume that you are happy to receive all cookies on the Business Insider India website. However, you can change your cookie setting at any time by clicking on our Cookie Policy at any time. You can also see our Privacy Policy.
The ultra-wealthy are dropping up to $50,000 on gold credit cards decked out with precious gems. Here's a look at how they're designed.
The ultra-wealthy are dropping up to $50,000 on gold credit cards decked out with precious gems. Here's a look at how they're designed.
Melissa WileyFeb 19, 2020, 01:37 IST
Courtesy Rosan DiamondRosan Diamond creates its luxury art collection credit cards using high-strength gold plates with a thickness of 0.87 mm.
Rosan Diamond, a payment-card manufacturer, handcrafts credit cards made with gold, diamonds, and other precious gems.
Designs range from pandas outlined in gold to reproductions of ancient frescoes bedazzled with hundreds of diamonds.
The cards function on VISA Infinite and VISA Signature platforms, cost between $18,000 and $50,000, and never expire.
Rosan Diamond sells its bespoke cards through concierge services like Insignia, a luxury lifestyle management company for millionaires and billionaires, as well as directly to individual clients.
$50,000 can buy you a lot of things - including a fancy jewel-encrusted credit card with which to buy even more things.
Since 2012, Rosan Diamond has designed bespoke credit cards for the 1% made with gold, diamonds, pearls, and other precious stones. The cards cost as much as $50,000, so they're definitely not the kind you want to lose. In 2017, CNBC's "Secret Lives of the Super Rich" called Rosan Diamond's art collection "the most over-the-top credit cards ever made."
Business Insider spoke with Ruslan Aybazov, Rosan Diamond's business development director, to learn more about how these cards work and the details behind the company's dazzling designs.
Rosan Diamond is a payment-card manufacturer that merges luxury jewelry and technology, with offices in Russia and Switzerland.
Founded in 2000, Rosan Diamond started out by selling gold, gem-encrusted cards as art. Over time, the company developed integration with payment technologies and in 2012 received certification from VISA to begin selling its cards on VISA Infinite and VISA Signature platforms.
Today, Rosan Diamond's clients include both concierge services, including UK-based luxury lifestyle management company Insignia, and directly to individual clients.
To date, Rosan Diamond has sold around 450 art collection cards.
The majority of Rosan Diamond's direct clients are businessmen from Eastern Europe, CIS, Malta, Switzerland and Latin America, Rosan Diamond's business development director Ruslan Aybazov told Business Insider.
According to Bloomberg, Insignia — one of Rosan Diamond's concierge partners, which is launching a new credit card service for members in 2020 — has 800 clients around the world. Approximately 50 are from the US, one quarter of whom are billionaires.
Each card takes between six to nine weeks to craft, once it has been designed.
Design development takes anywhere from three weeks to three months, Aybazov said. That includes both premade designs and custom designs for clients.
Designs range from botanical scenes to reproductions of historical palaces to more whimsical and modern designs like pandas and planets. Each card is unique — while some are developed as a series, each iteration features different materials or color schemes.
Premade art collection card prices currently range from $18,000 to $34,000. Custom designs, on average, cost more than premade designs. The most expensive custom designed art collection card sold for $50,000, Aybazov told Business Insider.
Cards incorporate "chip and pin" technology and can be used anywhere VISA is accepted with the exception of ATMs.
For ATM and online use, a client's bank will issue a plastic companion card with a credit card number and CVV.
If a client does not have an account with a Rosan Diamond partner bank, a Rosan Diamond and VISA representative will contact the client's bank to talk through an arrangement.
Once completed, a card is shipped to a client's bank in a luxury wooden box.
Rosan Diamond offers chip replacement and polishing free of charge, Aybazov told Business Insider. On its website, Rosan Diamond touts the cards' heirloom worthiness, suggesting that they can be passed down through generations.
Here are some of Rosan Diamond's most bespoke Art Collection cards:
'Pandas'
Design details: Two pandas in a tree
Made with: Gold, 612 diamonds, 6 rubies, 12 pink sapphires, 4 green diamonds, jasper, jadeite, malachite, violane, seashell, mother of pearl
Design details: The card reproduces two frescoes (one on the front; one on the back) from the ancient Palace of Knossos on the island of Crete, which dates back to 1900 BC.
Made with: Gold, 413 diamonds, 245 blue sapphires, dumortierit, jasper, lazurite, mother of pearl
