American Express Discussion Area

mrtickle

IMHO it is if you can spend 5k.

The exact wording in their T&C on the back of the form I filled in is:

13. Rebates
(1) An annual rebate on the aggregate amount of all Transactions (other than Cash Withdrawls) will be payable to you by us at the following rates:
- 0.5% for aggregate amounts up to £2,000; and
- 1.0% for aggregate amounts from £2,001 to £5,000; and
- 2% for aggregate amounts in excess of £5,000
No rebate will be payable in respect of any interest or fees or the amount of any Balance Transfer.

(presumably that means "up to £2,000.99" and "from £2,001.00 to £5,000.00")

Jolaaled

Lucky you Can you remember what you said to get them to resubmit the application? I was told quite firmly that I can't apply again for 6 months. The letter says I can only appeal if I can provide new information

Thanks in advance

I asked customer services about why i hadn't been accepted..what was their internal scoring system...I pressed them to be specific, but they wouldn't tell me anything..i asked them categorically if it was my age/sex/salary level/where i lived etc ( went thro all the criteria covered in the application form. They finally said that they'd 'run it thro again' and to wait a week for an answer. So when the 'no' letter again turned up, i was dissappointed..but the very next day ....my card appeared!! very weird!!!
good luck

dark_star_3

Confirmation please.
So if I can get my hands on the platignum card that is the one with the best cashback.
Providing I pay the balance off every month.
Many Thanks

Hi Angela,
If you can rack up an annual spend on the card of £6K or over then this is currently the best deal, if not then go for the Blue card or the Circle rebate card.
This only works if you intend to pay off the full balance every month.
Hope this helps.

Angela

Many thanks yes it does.

mrtickle

Hi Angela,
If you can rack up an annual spend on the card of £6K or over then this is currently the best deal, if not then go for the Blue card or the Circle rebate card.
This only works if you intend to pay off the full balance every month.
Hope this helps.

Once again - I think that should be £5K or over.

With the Circle card if you spend £5K you get 1%. (£50).

With the Blue card if you spend £5K you get 2% of whatever you spend in the 2% offer period, and 1% of the rest. So that's less than 2% overall.

With the Platinum card if you spend £5K you get 2%. (£100).

The Platinum card wins if you spend £5K, surely. I posted the T&C earlier today. HTH

mrtickle

I asked customer services about why i hadn't been accepted..what was their internal scoring system...I pressed them to be specific, but they wouldn't tell me anything..i asked them categorically if it was my age/sex/salary level/where i lived etc ( went thro all the criteria covered in the application form. They finally said that they'd 'run it thro again' and to wait a week for an answer. So when the 'no' letter again turned up, i was dissappointed..but the very next day ....my card appeared!! very weird!!!
good luck

Many thanks, I'll try that

dark_star_3

Once again - I think that should be £5K or over.

With the Circle card if you spend £5K you get 1%. (£50).

With the Blue card if you spend £5K you get 2% of whatever you spend in the 2% offer period, and 1% of the rest. So that's less than 2% overall.

With the Platinum card if you spend £5K you get 2%. (£100).

The Platinum card wins if you spend £5K, surely. I posted the T&C earlier today. HTH

Hi Mr Tickle
When I kicked this post off I mentioned I was not taking the Blue Card introductory offer into account as I currently have a blue card (so not applicable to me)
If you spend £5K on the platinum card you will only get £40 because of the sneaky way the cash back is calculated.
I'm not one for telling tales, but the reason this thread came about was because I couldn't understand how Martin came by the £7K spend cut off...his article has now been altered to £6K...the calcs are on the previous page.

mrtickle

Yes but with the greatest respect, my point is that I think you and Martin have made a mistake. The Platinum cashback is not calculated in a sneaky way; it is not tiered. kbeattie pointed out, and the T&C do say, the cashback is on the aggregate amount. You do get £100, not £40, if you spend 5k.

The reason I typed out the T&C was to clear this up :-[

the calcs are on the previous page

So is kbeattie's correction to those calculations, and my verbatim text from the T&C!

(I'm happy to be corrected if the T&C have changed!)

dark_star_3

Fair enough Mr T, but I phoned AMEX and they confirmed it is calculated in the aggregate way, not on the full amount...perhaps there are different deals.
The calcs which Martin and i come up with are correct for the information I was given by AMEX. I wouldn't presume to assert this on to anyone else, so by all means base your spending on £5K and let us know how you get on.
But I personally wouldn't advise others to follow suite.
cheers
D_S

mrtickle

Hmm that is a mystery because they said different to kbeattie!

The T&C I am talking about is also online at
https://www66.americanexpress.com/eapp/uk/platinumrevolve/termscond_uk_platinumrevolve.jsp?cgid=null

The only other thing I can think of is that we have a different understand of the meaning of the word "aggregate". To me it means the sum total, the whole amount.

There are tiers to decide which rate they pay you at, but not for the calculation of the payment itself.

see section 13.1

To me, "An annual rebate on the aggregate amount of all Transactions" means that if I spend 5K, they will chose the rate of 2% from the three posibilities, and they will give me the 2% on the aggregate - the whole amount.

This is why I think that you only need to spend 5k, not 6K, for the Platinum card to be the best?

by all means base your spending on £5K and let us know how you get on.

Sadly they rejected me so I can't! But kbeattie has already post about this, and got a cashback of £284 for a spend of £14000. It's on the first page of the thread.