American Express cashback threshold

delmar39

I have the above .5% cashback card. My fault for not reading T&Cs, but my annual cashback has been forfeited due to not achieving the £25 threshold. I find this rediculous. My credit limit is £2.5k, which means I can only ever achieve £12.50 cashback! Yes, I could ask them to up this, but I will not spend £5k per year on this card. I'm better off with a Tesco or other reward card on this basis. Anyone else had problems or got any comments on this?

darkcloudi

delmar39 wrote: »

My credit limit is £2.5k, which means I can only ever achieve £12.50 cashback! Yes, I could ask them to up this, but I will not spend £5k per year on this card.

You don't need to spend £5000 in one go therefore your credit limit does not stop you meeting the required threshold for cashback, so you can easily achieve more then the £12.50 cashback using your current credit limit. Where you suggest you can only ever achieve £12.50 is incorrect.

Since you can use the card for normal spending such as petrol, grocery, insurance, etc and pay it off every month. On average you would need to spend £417 a month and clear the balance.

delmar39 wrote: »

I'm better off with a Tesco or other reward card on this basis. Anyone else had problems or got any comments on this?

If you can't meet the yearly threshold for Amex Card then I would recommend to switch credit cards since you won't be benefiting from the card. Tesco is a good one or Amazon and Play.com credit card are decent.

If you visit the card section of this site it lists a number of reward cards.

delmar39

darkcloudi wrote: »

You don't need to spend £5000 in one go therefore your credit limit does not stop you meeting the required threshold for cashback, so you can easily achieve more then the £12.50 cashback using your current credit limit. Where you suggest you can only ever achieve £12.50 is incorrect.

Since you can use the card for normal spending such as petrol, grocery, insurance, etc and pay it off every month. On average you would need to spend £417 a month and clear the balance.



If you can't meet the yearly threshold for Amex Card then I would recommend to switch credit cards since you won't be benefiting from the card. Tesco is a good one or Amazon and Play.com credit card are decent.

If you visit the card section of this site it lists a number of reward cards.

Thanks for this. I did a bit of looking around this site after my post and soon realised that the card isn't for me because my annual spend just won't be enough. I'm usually on top of these things, but have recently moved house so things have been a bit up in the air. I'm getting back on top of things now, first of all by cancelling my Amex card and sticking with my Tesco card (that I've had for a while now). That'll teach me for not keeping up to date.....:mad:

lisyloo

Firstly your credit limit is what you can spend PER MONTH not annually so you have plenty of scope.
Secondly the Amex card (the correct one) has a 5% promotional period in the first 3 months.
So you only have to spend £500 in the first 3 months to get to £25, although it does require a £3K spend to get cashback.

The 5% card is a great deal, but they have made a few hoops to jump through so you do need to do a bit of research and be aware.

For people that can spend £3K per year (most people if you put food and petrol on it) then it's the best offer out there.

delmar39

lisyloo wrote: »

Firstly your credit limit is what you can spend PER MONTH not annually so you have plenty of scope.
Secondly the Amex card (the correct one) has a 5% promotional period in the first 3 months.
So you only have to spend £500 in the first 3 months to get to £25, although it does require a £3K spend to get cashback.

The 5% card is a great deal, but they have made a few hoops to jump through so you do need to do a bit of research and be aware.

For people that can spend £3K per year (most people if you put food and petrol on it) then it's the best offer out there.

Thanks for this. On balance the card just isn't for me as I won't spend that much on it. I use Tesco vouchers for things like Pizza Express and RAC cover, plus days out for out little un, so will focus on this card from now on. For those who naturally spend the amount required the Amex card is great, but for me it would mean stretching things for not a lot of reward so Tesco card gets the vote. Thanks again for your feedback and comments - appreciated.:)

leanneee

I was thinking of applying for this card but don't think I will qualify.

Although I only earn 22k per year I am still at home with my dad so our household income is well above the 30k threshold.

However when I went to the American Express website it states this is "your personal income plus your partner's income" - obviously he's not my partner! so does anyone know if I would qualify?

Fiddlestick

leanneee wrote: »

Although I only earn 22k per year I am still at home with my dad so our household income is well above the 30k threshold.

However when I went to the American Express website it states this is "your personal income plus your partner's income" - obviously he's not my partner! so does anyone know if I would qualify?

Unless you live in some strange and remote part of Utah, I doubt your father would count as your partner, so you would be committing fraud if you put his income down instead

lisyloo

Can't say for sure and I understand they do consider some people on a bit less income, but I don't think you would qualify with £22K.

delmar39

leanneee wrote: »

I was thinking of applying for this card but don't think I will qualify.

Although I only earn 22k per year I am still at home with my dad so our household income is well above the 30k threshold.

However when I went to the American Express website it states this is "your personal income plus your partner's income" - obviously he's not my partner! so does anyone know if I would qualify?

Who’s it best for? Households with over £30,000 income who’ll spend over £3,000 per year (below that it doesn’t pay cashback). Unless you’ve...

So the answer is really 'no' I would suggest. Use the calculator on the cards section of MSE to see if it's worth you applying anyway. You're income along rules you out though.:(

leanneee

Yeah didn't think I would qualify - the household income is a bit misleading if they really mean you and your partner *sigh* nevermind, think I will go with Capital One cashback card but may need to wait a while as I think I only cancelled my previous card in October last year.

Thanks guys