'American Express you should be ashamed!' blog discussion

2

Comments

  • glossyhair
    glossyhair Posts: 133
    First Anniversary Combo Breaker
    Forumite
    Shame on AmEx indeed.
    Pity the person who sent the mail to Martin :money:
    mmmm, still seeking something witty to be my auto-signature . . . so this will have to suffice for now ;)
  • katyj10
    katyj10 Posts: 209 Forumite
    I also wonder about the adverts they have on telly where they fly a wedding dress out to someone and return a teddy bear. How do you get this kind of service?? I certainly don't get it!!

    I have the platinum card too but religiously pay off each month... Just use for food and petrol payments, and enjoy the cash back each year.

    Katy x
  • Niemand
    Niemand Posts: 117 Forumite
    I have an American Express card. I sent a link to Martin's article to American Express because I was interested in what they had to say. Here is a copy of the reply.
    Thank you for your email regarding an article in regards to our cash function.

    We have been made aware of this article, and thank our customers for feeding information back. Our cash function is for emergency's and shouldn't be used as a normal cash option.

    Once again, thanks for taking the time to point this out.
    Niemand
  • DarkConvict
    DarkConvict Posts: 6,338
    Combo Breaker First Post
    Forumite
    I had an American express pack come though today, to keep the service free you need to spend £18,000 :o a year. I'm still a student. It is the most fanciest advertising I've seen on any card, but its not something ill take out anytime.
    Although no trees were harmed during the creation of this post, a large number of electrons were greatly inconvenienced.

    There are two ways of constructing a software design: One way is to make it so simple that there are obviously no deficiencies, and the other way is to make it so complicated that there are no obvious deficiencies
  • Hannah_10
    Hannah_10 Posts: 1,774 Forumite
    edited 19 June 2010 at 4:30AM
    sgk123 wrote: »
    Didn't the UK used to have laws against this sort of thing ?

    This is the thing sgk, you'd think so wouldn't you, but that's what Martin's gone off to research because actually it's not so clear. I hope that he is able to do something about it because it's clearly utterly sharky and shouldn't be going on.
    Niemand wrote: »
    I have an American Express card. I sent a link to Martin's article to American Express because I was interested in what they had to say. Here is a copy of the reply.
    Thank you for your email regarding an article in regards to our cash function.

    We have been made aware of this article, and thank our customers for feeding information back. Our cash function is for emergency's and shouldn't be used as a normal cash option.

    Once again, thanks for taking the time to point this out.

    That is not how it sounds to me that they have advertised themselves at all, but if anyone got the promotional letter Martin's talking about and would like to scan it, photoshop out anything identifying and post it online for us I, for one, would be really interested to see it.

    I was brought up to trust the banks and big institutions and to believe that if you had money trouble it was all your own fault. Then I had money trouble and for the life of me I had never been able to reconcille the way the financial institutions had behaved towards me with what I had always been taught as the solid truth.

    It has only been since I found MSE and especially the DFW boards that for the first time since my first Visa card at age 18, I can finally breathe out knowing that it really isn't in my head! The big financial institutions really are playing dirty with people every single day. Thank goodness for the arrival of the new breed of financial journalist that Martin represents so well and thank goodness again for this site and forum.

    I'm £200-250 quid better off than when I joined and also now only in 91.15% of the amount of debt I arrived with. I joined under a month ago.
    I refuse to be afraid of the big bad wolf, spiders, or debt collection agencies; one of them's not real and the other two are powerless without my fear.
    (Ok, one of them is powerless, spiders can be nasty.)


    As of the last count I have cleared
    [STRIKE]23.16%[/STRIKE] 22.49% of my debt. :(
  • withabix
    withabix Posts: 9,508 Forumite
    American Express can't even run their cards properly.

    I applied for an American Express Gold Rewards card (that's the sort you pay in full each month) via Quidco, to take advantage of an offer of 20,000 Bonus Rewards points and multiple points per £ on expenditure.

    So far:

    No Quidco cashback (£60)
    No 20,000 Bonus rewards points (despite reaching qualifying spend 2 months ago)
    No multiple points on spend that definitely qualifies for it

    0 out of 10 Amex
    British Ex-pat in British Columbia!
  • bigbloke45
    bigbloke45 Posts: 2,338
    Name Dropper First Post First Anniversary
    Forumite
    DJ_Mike wrote: »
    That's just sick. I mean, I never withdraw cash on a credit card for precisely that reason, but to prey on the ignorant or uninformed like that is precisely why banks and card issuers need a serious kick up the backside. Shame on American Express!

    The best thing we can all do for their greediness is deliberately take out their cards and only use them to rack up the 5% cashback, then cease using them altogether once the cashback runs out. That works for me. In fact, that's what I've already done! :)

    That's what I've done, but do remember that Amex will charge you a fee of £20.00 if you don't use your card at least once a year. So I bought something for about a fiver to make sure I don't pay the charge. :cool:
  • It's pretty shocking that Amex is advertising its cash advance service like this without being transparent about pricing. They sent me a mailing a month or so back about a new option on the cashback credit card that would give me 2% rather than 1% on spending, but at weekends only, in exchange for a fee of (I think) £2/month. Both offers are typical of credit card companies trying to screw their customers for money - they are designed to make it difficult to compare costs and benefits in a rational way. Amex sell them because they know, from the huge amount of data they hold, that on balance they'll make money from the products. It's harder for consumers to work this out.

    In response to the comments on customer service - I've been really pleased with the service I've got from Amex. After dealing with Barclaycard for a few years, it's a refreshing change. I get the impression (talking to people who've worked there) that they stratify their customers, and that if they think you're unprofitable, you'll get a worse level of service (offshore call centres, less forgiving when you miss payments etc) than if you're one of their premium customers.

    Obviously their different cards (black, platinum, gold, blue) are designed to split people into clear categories - but I understand they go further and offer different levels of service to different people with the same card. The fact you enter your card number when you call means they can prioritize you even before they've spoken to you. Sneaky, eh?
  • pramms
    pramms Posts: 2 Newbie
    In 2006 my wife travelled to Japan with her best friend (she is japanese). On returning to the UK, she found he purse missing. Her Amex card had been used in Japan to the tune of about £60 only.

    We told Amex, they said their system shows the card was used and the pin correctly entered, so my wife must have used it or authorised it. Thats not the end, my wife's friend called the stores where the pin was used. They ALL have no chip and pin facility. I confronted AMEX and they refused to give me the proof (or copies of the reciept that PIN was used). Such BIG liars over £60. In the end they refunded the money and cancelled the card. Don't believe the card companies check theit story out.

    thanks
  • vaporate
    vaporate Posts: 1,955 Forumite
    Hannah_10 wrote: »
    This is the thing sgk, you'd think so wouldn't you, but that's what Martin's gone off to research because actually it's not so clear. I hope that he is able to do something about it because it's clearly utterly sharky and shouldn't be going on.



    That is not how it sounds to me that they have advertised themselves at all, but if anyone got the promotional letter Martin's talking about and would like to scan it, photoshop out anything identifying and post it online for us I, for one, would be really interested to see it.

    I was brought up to trust the banks and big institutions and to believe that if you had money trouble it was all your own fault. Then I had money trouble and for the life of me I had never been able to reconcille the way the financial institutions had behaved towards me with what I had always been taught as the solid truth.

    It has only been since I found MSE and especially the DFW boards that for the first time since my first Visa card at age 18, I can finally breathe out knowing that it really isn't in my head! The big financial institutions really are playing dirty with people every single day. Thank goodness for the arrival of the new breed of financial journalist that Martin represents so well and thank goodness again for this site and forum.

    I'm £200-250 quid better off than when I joined and also now only in 91.15% of the amount of debt I arrived with. I joined under a month ago.[/QUOTE]

    I liked your post. Keep it up with getting rid of debt.:beer:
    Hi, we’ve had to remove your signature. If you’re not sure why please read the forum rules or email the forum team if you’re still unsure - MSE ForumTeam
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