Amex Cashback or Capital One Mastercard

no_more_cards_for_me

I'm considering changing from the Goldfish Barclaycard I have at the moment to either amex or the cap 1 mastercard. If I change to amex would keep the Barclaycard as a backup, if i change to cap 1 then close the barclaycard.

Card is used only for expenses, travel, entertaining, flights etc so shouldn't have any problems with acceptance. Normally I pay off in full before statement date, so a couple of questions

1) If I pay in full by statement date do I need a Direct Debit in place
2) Can you select the due date ?
3) How soon before the due date should funds be available ?

I'm changing because I'd like to get some cashback - the amex wins for this and I will exceed the £3k spend requirement.

Thanks for your help

lisyloo

1) Not for Amex. I pay by swicth and it gets credited the next day. However DD is always safer unless you are very organised.
2) Most companies will let you change your statement dates.
3) Don't really understand what you mean. Are you asking for clearance times of various forms of payment? I've found switch on AMEX is fast (one day) but I'd never leave it til the last day.

I would say go for AMEX.

Make sure you
1) Spend £3K but ideally stop there as cashback is 0.5% afterwards then swicth to another card (next best is capitalone with Egg money coming close) OR spend loads to get into the higher tiers.
2) Buy a sandwich per month to avoid them cancelling your card through lack of use.
3) Pence are discarded for cashback so avoid buying £1.99 sanwhiches every day, otherwise you halve your cashback. Try to do round or large amounts. The pence is less important relatively on larger amounts. I buy my £2.90 lunch on Egg money.

no_more_cards_for_me

lisyloo wrote: »

3) Don't really understand what you mean. Are you asking for clearance times of various forms of payment? I've found switch on AMEX is fast (one day) but I'd never leave it til the last day.

I would say go for AMEX.

Sorry- I didn't make that very clear. How many days before the due date do Amex apply to the bank account for funds under the DD ? 1 week etc. Effects whether I choose DD or not