Amex Cashback Warning!!

holly876dog

Decided to apply and use amex plat cc as you get upto 2% on purchases if spend over 7500k, you get this paid directly on anniversary of opening account. So as I and partner put on 8000k in a year I was expecting a nice £160 in cashback. What I got was only £70. Called amex and they sent me a breakdown of their cashback. I my case as I put on 8k I get the first 3000@0.5%, then the next 4500@1% and anything over 7500@2%. So I only got 500 at this 2%.
Just a warning in case you all out there are expecting big cashback....
It is stated on their T&C but its not clear, it makes out if you spend over 7500 you get 2% on it all, this isn't the case. Just be aware!
xx

King_Of_Fools

The same is true for the Blue card - you only get the bigger cashback above the tier and not on the whole amount.

grumbler

holly876dog wrote:

...It is stated on their T&C but its not clear...

I agree that wording in T&C is not very clear, but everything is very clear in Martin's article:

Top American Express Cashback cards

• Big Spenders. Spend over £9,000 a year on the card and the winner is the American Express Platinum* which anyone with a salary over £20,000 can apply for. Its cashback is tiered, paying 0.5% on the first £3,000 a year, 1% between £3,000 and £7,500 and 2% above that.
  
  
  
• Mid-level spenders: Spend less than £9,000 and the American Express Blue* pays 0.5% cashback for the first £2,000 spent a year and 1% above that. However, it also has a very handy introductory offer of 2% for the first three months you have the card. Any spending in the first three months counts towards the annual total, so spend £2k in the first three months and you'd be earning 1% cashback straight after; you wouldn't drop to the 0.5%.

The boundary of £9,000 is based on simple maths, as Platinum Amex soon overtakes the Blue Amex once it starts paying 2%.

Don’t use Amex for low annual spending
Anyone spending less than £500 a year will pay a £15 annual fee with either Amex card, plus you'd need to spend £1,000 on them before they pay out cashback anyway. If this is the case the Morgan Stanley card (see later) is a better bet.

King_Of_Fools

Any spending in the first three months counts towards the annual total, so spend £2k in the first three months and you'd be earning 1% cashback straight after; you wouldn't drop to the 0.5%.

This is not my experience with Amex Blue. I have just got my first cashback and recieved 2% on the first 3 months spending, then 0.5% on the next £2000 and 1% on everything above that.

(Actually, what really happened is I got 2 qualifying spending points for every £1 I spent in the first 3 months and 1 point for £1 after that. Then the actual cashback was worked out as 0.5% for the first 2000 ponts and 1% above that. However, the end result is the same.)

The_Boss

It was perfectly clear to me and others I know

grumbler

In fact this is very common misanderstanding. See for example post #10 in recent Amex Blue-get full 1% on all spend thread.

The actual wording in T&C (for blue card) is:

1% for aggregate amounts in excess of Ј2,001

:think: I insist in the assertion that this is not clear enough, although I understand that it would be a nonsense to pay £10 for the first £1 spent in excess of £2001 ...