MSE News: Amex set to revamp cashback credit card

JohalaReewi

kar999 wrote: »

Anyone who spends less than £7,500 is not affected.

They are if they don't reach the magic £25 of cashback but get over £12. Under the new rules, they won't get any cashback.

wizk1

The 1.5% cashback rate is a load of rubbish anyway, or any other rate AMEX provides for that matter. The rate in reality is lower than advertised, especially after a series of low value transactions. Cashback is based on the number of whole pounds on each transaction. So as is often the case, you buy an item that is £9.99, most people would assume that is approximately £10, but AMEX will only pay out on the £9. (Equivalent to only 1.4% cashback). For this reason, I much prefer using my Egg card

jonmimir

I racked up about £270 cashback in my first year and just about managed to get to the 1.5% rate. However, at the end of the year I got my cash, and then they dropped my rate back to 0.5% again. That's worse than my Egg card, and it would take ages of spending earning only 0.5% before it even matched my Egg card again. I told the customer services chap all this when I cancelled my card a couple of weeks ago and he agreed it didn't make sense to penalise high-spending customers each year. He told me that after a few months I'd be able to apply for the 5% offer again with a new card...so we'll see if it's still worth it then. Shame that Amex didn't take the opportunity to fix this loophole.

Grade_A_Reject

wizk1 wrote: »

The 1.5% cashback rate is a load of rubbish anyway, or any other rate AMEX provides for that matter. The rate in reality is lower than advertised, especially after a series of low value transactions. Cashback is based on the number of whole pounds on each transaction. So as is often the case, you buy an item that is £9.99, most people would assume that is approximately £10, but AMEX will only pay out on the £9. (Equivalent to only 1.4% cashback). For this reason, I much prefer using my Egg card

The 1.5% sounds good on the face of it, except that the first £3500 is at 0.5% and the 1.5% only kicks in at £10k. So you need to spend £13500 to average the same 1% that you get on Egg Money. I put everything I could through my Amex card including work expenses and still didn't quite hit the 10k threshold.

The good thing is that when I phoned Amex to cancel my card due to better cashback rates elsewhere they offered me a £20 credit on my account to stay which I accepted. I'll close the account in another 6 month's time.

JohalaReewi

wizk1 wrote: »

Cashback is based on the number of whole pounds on each transaction. So as is often the case, you buy an item that is £9.99, most people would assume that is approximately £10, but AMEX will only pay out on the £9. (Equivalent to only 1.4% cashback). For this reason, I much prefer using my Egg card

I thought that too when I looked at the cashback trail on the website. However, I added up my spend and cashback awarded over the months and it is pretty close to what used to happen so they must round up some transactions. The main problem is that it takes sooo long to reach the 1.5% band.

kar999

I only managed to get into the 1.5% band by making some big purchases. New TV systems for me and the in-laws (who paid me by cheque... I'm not that generous!!). Some big purchases like holidays, insurance etc wouldn't take Am Ex so I doubt if I'll repeat it next year. I'll max out my Egg money instead.

winnoch

In case anyone wonders why so few retailers take Amex it's because of the stupid amounts they charge retailers for the 'privilege' of accepting their card. None of the many shops I've worked in have taken the card for this reason. One place I worked actually lost money on an amex sale (the reason they stopped accepting the card). The sector this shop traded in (photographic) works on such small margins to start with.

The sale was for around £1000. Amex takes about 5-8% :eek:, then customer returned for a refund, Amex takes another 5% or so for the refund, then buys another product (on his Amex card of course)... result was that all the profit and more was wiped out because greedy Amex needs to fund it's 'generosity' to its customers somehow.

If an establishment accepts Amex, it's a sure-fire way of knowing that establishment makes a good profit and can afford to. For reference, last time I was privy to such information (a couple years back) debit cards charged around 0.5% and cards like mastercard, around 2%.

chriswatts

That's strange, sure it's that low for Mastercard. I'll be keeping my AMEX card and just making small purchase every now and again since I have come across places that don't take Mastercard or sometimes Visa, it pays to have all three. Although I'm sure the men in the white coats were just around the corner to cart the whole town off to the funny farm! :rolleyes:

kar999

winnoch wrote: »

In case anyone wonders why so few retailers take Amex it's because of the stupid amounts they charge retailers for the 'privilege' of accepting their card.

I can only echo that comment. All of the smaller retailers quote charges as the reason for not accepting Am Exp. It's also suprising just how many of the big boys wont take it either. I dont beleive Ebay and Paypal do as I wanted to try and offset some of their extortionate fees!

seeya23

if you was a retailers pay 8% charges for takeing amex that i was told