Help picking which American Express to get

englandcrew · 19 February 2017 at 11:43AM

Hi,

Thanks for looking.

I am just looking for some advice around which American Express card to apply for any others you think.

I am not a big spender so will probably put around £800-£1000 through the card each month if I remember to use it!

We are getting married in June and still need to pay off a lot of the final bills etc (I have the money for it) so I could possibly out these on the Amex.

We haven't got a date for the honeymoon but will probably look to go away for a week somewhere nice at the end of the year or early next year. No idea what company we would use.
I am also looking to go Vegas for my 30th in around a year and a half.

My question is can I make use of the Airmiles perhaps through American Express or perhaps the virgin American Express card. Is it too late to save enough points to perhaps get some money off these holidays?

What's the best card for me to try or is it not worth it with how much I spend. I don't go on lots of flights so unless it's for these holidays it's unlikely I will need the flight points.

Thanks in advance

WillPS · 19 February 2017 at 12:19PM

MBNA pay out Virgin Flying Club Miles within a week of the statement going out

I believe Amex are very prompt when it comes to paying out Avios too.

£1000 leads to a max of 24,000 base miles - and that's taking out the premium £100+ versions of the credit cards. You will be able to get significantly more than that by playing the sign up bonuses. For example, you could:

>Apply now for Virgin White, spend £1000, get 10000 bonus miles + 1000 base miles (no fee)
>In 2 or 3 weeks, apply for Virgin Black, spend £3000, get 25000 + 6000 base miles (£140 upfront fee, so cancel at the end of the first year)
>When you're about to hit £3000 on the black, apply for Amex Gold Charge Card - spend another £1000 on that and get 20000 bonus miles + 1000 bonus miles. (no fee in first year, cancel when done!)

So that'd be 55,000 bonus miles and 8000 bonus miles, and that's only on your first £5000 of spend, if you've got another £7000 to put through it before the year on your Virgin Black is up that's another 14000 points sitting in the back. The Virgin Black & White offers are enhanced if you sign up by April 1st, so prioritise those if that's what you want to do.

As for how useful these points are going to be to you - it probably depends how flexible you are with dates for when you want to travel. Availability is restricted to only a handful of seats on every flight, and the popular dates (school holidays etc.) are taken almost as soon as they become available (many months in advance).

To be honest - whenever I've looked in to it I've always felt I'm better taking the cashback options, but then I don't fly often so perhaps I would see it that way!

JuicyJesus · 19 February 2017 at 1:20PM

I actually plotted the different reward levels for the Gold Rewards credit card, the Everyday Platinum Cashback and the Platinum Cashback cards against each other recently for my own purposes. For spend over £5000pa the Platinum Cashback and Platinum Cashback Everyday are equivalent, over £10kpa the Platinum Cashback is better even with the monthly fee.

At a spend of £12kpa, the PC gets you £100 after the fee, the PCE gets you £95 with no fee, the Gold Rewards gets you £60 with no fee and is generally never the best choice unless you really like the rewards points for some reason. This doesn't include any sign up bonuses but these are all roughly equivalent for the required spend. A rate of 0.5% is used on the reward points as that is roughly what they are worth.

The important thing to notice is that Amex's reward schemes are all roughly equivalent, and differ between cards largely due to the annual fee.

copperclock · 19 February 2017 at 1:50PM

JuicyJesus wrote: »

I actually plotted the different reward levels for the Gold Rewards credit card, the Everyday Platinum Cashback and the Platinum Cashback cards against each other recently for my own purposes. For spend over £5000pa the Platinum Cashback and Platinum Cashback Everyday are equivalent, over £10kpa the Platinum Cashback is better even with the monthly fee.

At a spend of £12kpa, the PC gets you £100 after the fee, the PCE gets you £95 with no fee, the Gold Rewards gets you £60 with no fee and is generally never the best choice unless you really like the rewards points for some reason. This doesn't include any sign up bonuses but these are all roughly equivalent for the required spend. A rate of 0.5% is used on the reward points as that is roughly what they are worth.

The important thing to notice is that Amex's reward schemes are all roughly equivalent, and differ between cards largely due to the annual fee.

Really useful analysis across your posts. I don't think it's geeky to make graphs!

For a real world example, we have the platinum cash back with fee and, with the sign up bonus, we've made £300 CB so far on a £16k spend. That's my husband's card. I've just applied for my own so that we can do it all again. The casback on these cards pays out on the anniversary.

JuicyJesus · 19 February 2017 at 8:18PM

copperclock wrote: »

Really useful analysis across your posts. I don't think it's geeky to make graphs!

For a real world example, we have the platinum cash back with fee and, with the sign up bonus, we've made £300 CB so far on a £16k spend. That's my husband's card. I've just applied for my own so that we can do it all again. The casback on these cards pays out on the anniversary.

I'm at about £223 so far, including whacking my iMac on it, then paying it off with a balance transfer at 0% for 40 months on a 0.7% fee so I actually profited from the transaction :money: Haven't been able to fault Amex yet.

I only really did the graphs because I wanted to see if the Gold Reward credit card (which I already also have) was actually worth it, and all it's done is underline for me that Amex charge cards are really, really, really not worth it unless you're one of about five people in the world.

englandcrew · 19 February 2017 at 11:21PM

Thanks for the reply, very helpful.

Silly question, do they send you two cards (virgin)? Why is that?

Am I able to check who many points I need for flights etc?

newuser86 · 19 February 2017 at 11:53PM

Virgin have just increased their reward prices for flights to Vegas and the West coast of America. if you go off peak its still pretty reasonable but you will have to factor in taxes.

Miles required link

I would suggest getting the white virgin card as it currently offering a boost of miles, you get two cards, one amex and Visa. Think this is so you can use the cards at all locations as some places dont take Amex.

I would also suggest the gold Amex, its free for the first year. Spend £2k in three months and receive 20,000 points bonus which can be converted into miles 1:1 . If you want a referral where you get a 22,000 bonus then PM me. One you have taken the card out do the spend and then refer your partner so you can earn referral points and they can repeat the spend and you can accumulate a large number of points. Once you cancel the AMEX you can re-open after 6 months and get another sign up bonus so if you do this properly you can easily in 18 months get enough miles for possibly one way in upper and economy return etc

englandcrew · 20 February 2017 at 1:11AM

Thanks again for the reply. Last question hopefully, with the companion voucher offer can that voucher be used if I am buying my tickets with the points. I have read the terms and conditions and it's not clear, it's just says it's valid with a qualifying flight purchase

theburningcat · 20 February 2017 at 9:53AM

If you are seriously considering a Membership Reward paying card, do some research first on how best to use the points. You can use them for vouchers and statement credit but the conversion rate is really poor. The conversion rate is much better for travel related redemptions such as transfers to airline and hotel chains, and Eurostar. Airline redemptions are a bit complicated because taxes and fees still have to be paid in cash - and sometimes they are the vast majority of the ticket, sometimes they are not. It's worth signing up for Avios and Virgin Miles just to play with it and see what a typical redemption looks like.

Redemptions via Hilton are a good safe bet - 1 MR = 2 Honours points, and good rooms can be had in peak times for 20k Honours points.

Also remember that all Amex cards charge 2.99% for foreign currency which outweighs even the most optimistic valuation of the points or cash back.

If you want a referral link for a Membership Reward paying card, send me a PM

System · 20 February 2017 at 12:11PM

It's also worth looking into Lloyds Amex Duo as they offer a companion ticket after a certain spend plus points and free overseas usage for £24 x

AgentOso_2 · 8 February 2018 at 9:44PM

Hi Folks, I just took this card out to pay for a holiday and collect the cashback now that the card fees have stopped being added by travel agents.

It's such a good intro rate of cashback that I can refer my partner for 1 too and collect £20 cashback for the referral.

This £20 is credited as:

"Unless we tell you otherwise (with advance notice), cashback will be paid to you by crediting your Card Account in the month after your Card anniversary date with the cashback earned in the preceding 12 months if your friend or family member's Card application is successful."

Does anyone know if this is actually credited as cash or is it cashback that I need to wait another year to collect as its past the month of my anniversary?

Thanks

Help picking which American Express to get

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