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Amex cashback on foreign purchases?

Just got an American Express Platinum card for the 5% cashback offer, but wondering if I still get it on foreign purchases? Wanted to use it for my hols. I know they charge 3% for conversion but that still means 2% cashback to me right? Thanks anyone

Comments

  • NickX
    NickX Posts: 3,046 Forumite
    Yes you can use if for purchases on holiday and still get the cashback.

    As you point out you will still make 2% which actually beats the cards such as Nationwide and Abbey Zero which do not charge for foreign currency transactions.
  • antuk
    antuk Posts: 374 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 100 Posts Name Dropper Combo Breaker
    If you use an AMEX abroad they convert the transaction into US$ first if it wasn't to start with, before converting to GB£, does this mean that the fee is applied twice? ie 6%, 3% on each conversion?
  • simongregson
    simongregson Posts: 892 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 500 Posts Name Dropper
    No, they only apply one fee, it is 2.73% of the amount. The details of this are printed on your statement.
  • No, they only apply one fee, it is 2.73% of the amount. The details of this are printed on your statement.

    I'm about to apply for the Amex Platinum card but I'm not sure whether to use it abroad instead of my Nationwide VISA which has no conversion fee.

    To work out whether it's better to use the Amex card, bearing in mind the 2.73% fee but 5% cashback, I would still need to know the actual exchange rate they use.

    How do the actual Amex exchange rates compare against VISA in general? Worse? Same? Better?
  • mystic_trev
    mystic_trev Posts: 5,434 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper Combo Breaker
    jezza2412 wrote: »
    How do the actual Amex exchange rates compare against VISA in general? Worse? Same? Better?

    Worse - I'd use the Nationwide Visa.
  • nickers wrote: »
    Just got an American Express Platinum card for the 5% cashback offer, but wondering if I still get it on foreign purchases? Wanted to use it for my hols. I know they charge 3% for conversion but that still means 2% cashback to me right? Thanks anyone

    You are taking a gamble that you would actually get 5% cashback (in a year's time). There is discussion on the Amex thread plus this one
    http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1142519
    where there is confusion as to how Amex calculate the 5% cashback. At the moment, it would seem that you could get 2%.
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