Barclaycard Cashback removing the 1% Amex card

Hmm need to decide what to do. AMEX has always been a pain for me anyway - seems to be about 50/50 whether shops accept it or not because of the fees, and it can be very embarrassing trying it then finding it's not accepted. The till often throws a hissy fit, in worst cases they have to call a supervisor over to help cancel the transaction before you can use another card etc. All while the queue grows impatient behind you. So really don't know if I want to switch to full AMEX.

Amazon is tempting. Same 0.5% deal but 0.75% on things you buy through them. Only in the form of Amazon vouchers, but I buy a lot of stuff there anyway. I also think they're more likely to eventually add Android Pay support (which Barclays will never do).

Or just simplify and do away with cashback cards. I do wonder if carrying extra cards and having extra accounts to log into when budgeting is really worth the £20-40 or so per year that I earn on them. (At best, as that's with most of the big spending being on the Amex card. Maybe that answers my quandary - the places where you spend big often accept it)

wolfiesmith wrote: »

Rang to cancel, hoped I might get the £50 incentive to stay that they did when the dual card was introduced, no luck so cut them up.....

Blimey, looks like I missed out on £50 a few years ago!

I think the difference this time is the vastly reduced commission that they receive since the EU legislation last year.

(EDIT should say as someone that runs my own business) - It is true that the % rate that I pay on card transactions has reduced significantly(typically down by 1%) the fact of the matter, in order to maintain profits, the intermediarys such as streamline, Worldpay, sagepay have only introduced minimum card charges and charge for extras like PCI compliance which now costs me as a business £50 extra a year and 'standing charges' for a virtual terminal have increased by £10 up from £20 to £30 a month, so the end result - consumer is worse off in CB, business pay higher charges overall the credit card issuers even lose in the reduced % they get, the only winners are the card acquiring companies that are in the middle.

Typical example of meddling with a system that the majority were happy with and making things 10 times worse !!

iAMaLONDONER wrote: »

Maybe the merchant fee caps might change this sooner than otherwise...

Amex's core products (Basic, Green, Gold, Platinum, Centurion branded) are not subject to the interchange cap, so if they change it'd be in reaction to others who are affected - but Amex are pretty much the only game in town for churning now anyway.

The situation with BA, Nectar and Costco branded cards is less clear.

NoviceAngel wrote: »

My card came today also with a £2k limit - in comparison my Barclaycard and Amex have limits just above £10k.. What on earth is the point in issuing a card with such a low limit? What a waste of my time even applying.

If you have high limits elsewhere and new cards will increase your available credit to earning ratio, new card applications will tend to come with lower limits. I have two cards with limits above or just under £20k but when I applied for another card they gave me only a £5k limit last year.

MBNA for example has a tendency to allow new application but automatically transfer some of the limits from other cards you own with them, or use the application data and reduce the overall credit line with them (I know someone who had two cards with them with £10k limits on each and when he applied for a third one because of the airline miles bonus offer, MBNA reduced the first two cards limits at £4K each and the new one at £2k, effectively halving in credit line with them- the same guy had opened new cards with other issuers in the months before...). With me, the simply moved some of the existing credit line onto the latest card, reducing the previous one.

NoviceAngel wrote: »

Typical example of meddling with a system that the majority were happy with and making things 10 times worse !!

no doubt. along with forcing the break up and weakening of UK banks.