Amex Platinum annual charge waived if balanced transferred?

Mr_Pink_3

Amex Platinum levy an annual fee of £15 if spending is below £500 pa.

Does a BT constitute spending? ie will a BT of £500+ mean that there will be no annual fee?

TIA

JohalaReewi

Not on the Platinum Credit Card.

From the T&Cs on the Amex website...
"No annual fee is currently charged for the running of the Account. However, if in the 12 months preceding each Card Anniversary Date the total value of Transactions (excluding interest, charges and Balance Transfer) on your Account is less than £500, we will charge you an Account servicing charge of £15. This charge does not count as a transaction when we calculate whether the account servicing charge is payable."

“Transaction”
Any payment made for goods or services or Cash Withdrawals obtained by the use of the Card, Card details or PIN.

https://www66.americanexpress.com/eapp/uk/platinumrevolve/termscond_uk_platinumrevolve.jsp?cgid=null

creditcardking_2

JohalaReewi wrote:

Not on the Platinum Credit Card.

From the T&Cs on the Amex website...
"No annual fee is currently charged for the running of the Account. However, if in the 12 months preceding each Card Anniversary Date the total value of Transactions (excluding interest, charges and Balance Transfer) on your Account is less than £500, we will charge you an Account servicing charge of £15. This charge does not count as a transaction when we calculate whether the account servicing charge is payable."

“Transaction”
Any payment made for goods or services or Cash Withdrawals obtained by the use of the Card, Card details or PIN.

https://www66.americanexpress.com/eapp/uk/platinumrevolve/termscond_uk_platinumrevolve.jsp?cgid=null

If you have an interest rate of 4.9% for the life of the balance transferred, Would the interest on the 15 pound fee be calculated at 4.9% or the normal credit card rate.

deemy2004

Just spend £500 on the card before the 12months are up i.e. after your 0% balance transfer period. Then cancel on the statement prior to the 12months

JohalaReewi

deemy2004 wrote:

Just spend £500 on the card before the 12months are up i.e. after your 0% balance transfer period. Then cancel on the statement prior to the 12months

It's not a 0% balance transfer period, it's a 4.9% life of balance offer so you could take more than a year to pay it off. If you spend £500 on the card, your payments go to clearing the BT first so your purchases sit there clocking up interest at 14.9% (or something like that). Not a smart move. Better to factor the £15 fee into the interest paid on the balance.

creditcardking:
The £15 fee is not part of the BT so will not attract 4.9% interest but, according to the T&Cs...

We will apply your payments in the following order and will repay:

1 interest;

2 any repayment protection insurance premiums related to your Account;

3 any Annual Card fee;

4 any fees other than the Annual Card fee;

5 any money in respect of Promotional Purchases and Balance Transfers shown on previous statements;

6 any money in respect of Transactions (other than Cash Withdrawals) shown on previous statements;

7 any money in respect of Cash Withdrawals shown on previous statements;

8 any money in the same order as shown in 5 to 7 above to pay amounts shown on your latest statement

9 monies in the same order as shown in 1 to 8 above to pay amounts shown on your latest statements


So it would seem that any of your payment left over after clearing the month's interest, will clear the annual fee (3) before any of the transferred balance (5) (as long as there is more than £15 left) so giving the effect of 4.9% interest on the annual fee.

creditcardking_2

JohalaReewi wrote:

It's not a 0% balance transfer period, it's a 4.9% life of balance offer so you could take more than a year to pay it off. If you spend £500 on the card, your payments go to clearing the BT first so your purchases sit there clocking up interest at 14.9% (or something like that). Not a smart move. Better to factor the £15 fee into the interest paid on the balance.

creditcardking:
The £15 fee is not part of the BT so will not attract 4.9% interest but, according to the T&Cs...

We will apply your payments in the following order and will repay:

1 interest;

2 any repayment protection insurance premiums related to your Account;

3 any Annual Card fee;

4 any fees other than the Annual Card fee;

5 any money in respect of Promotional Purchases and Balance Transfers shown on previous statements;

6 any money in respect of Transactions (other than Cash Withdrawals) shown on previous statements;

7 any money in respect of Cash Withdrawals shown on previous statements;

8 any money in the same order as shown in 5 to 7 above to pay amounts shown on your latest statement

9 monies in the same order as shown in 1 to 8 above to pay amounts shown on your latest statements


So it would seem that any of your payment left over after clearing the month's interest, will clear the annual fee (3) before any of the transferred balance (5) (as long as there is more than £15 left) so giving the effect of 4.9% interest on the annual fee.

That seems ok then, what would happen if I made a purchase for 500 pounds then returned the item the next day for a refund for 500 to the card, would the refund cancel out the purchase and could this cause problems with the balance transfer interest rate.

JohalaReewi

creditcardking wrote:

That seems ok then, what would happen if I made a purchase for 500 pounds then returned the item the next day for a refund for 500 to the card, would the refund cancel out the purchase and could this cause problems with the balance transfer interest rate.

I have no idea!!! Maybe you can ask Amex customer service? Although you might get some person who can't find the answer on his/her script . Amex support staff are hit and miss. You can get someone really helpful who knows the answers (or can get them), and next time get someone who has no idea what you are talking about but pretends they do.

The worst that could happen is that the £500 purchase hits your card and the £500 refund is used to clear your BT so you pay 14.9% on the £500 until your BT is paid off . My only experience with Amex refunds us when the refund comes in a month or so after the original transaction and it is used to pay off whatever balance is there at the time (with negative moneyback points of course).

The golden rule is just use the Amex as your BT card and don't put any purchases on it. Pretend the £15 admin charge is just 'more interest'.