American Express Discussion Area

Aggrieved_2

Hi Martin et al,

I'm confused and hope someone can help. I received a letter last month (May 2006) from AMEX offering (very clearly and in two places, in one it was in bold type!) a 0% balance transfer deal for the lifetime of the balance transfer with a 2% fee that was open to existing customers such as myself.

The deal was open till June 15th 2006 so I called today ready to transfer a balance and was told by two separate customer service people in India that the letter had been sent out in error and the deal didn't exist and as compensation to some card holders who had received the letter in error, the 2% charge had been dropped but the 0% was only available for 6 months! I went on the website and they state they cannot currently take balance transfers on the website and you have to call them.

I'm suspicious about this 'error' and can't help wondering if the deal did exist but was too popular and so it is now no longer available over the phone or the net. I do however still have the postal slip for making balalnce transfers which can be filled in and posted to AMEX.

There are two things I would like to know:

1. Can I still use the postal slip and get the offer that way?
2. Are they allowed to do this as I cannot believe that this is a letter that was sent out in error?

Has anyone else been affected by this? Martin, have you come across it and what's your advice regarding the above?

Many thanks to anyone who can shed light on this as I am extremely annoyed and angry as you can imagine since I have been counting on being able to transfer my balance over at 0% for its lifetime as the AMEX letter to me promised!

(Extremely) Aggrieved

phoebe03cat

I took out amex platinum in Jan. and fairly quickly went through the 2k (.5cashback)threshold. Dismayed to see that the upper 2% cashback is being lost in October. Have broken through to this threshold last month so will just about be in the plus side overall for max cashback. Will this still be the best card to have then for balances paid off in full or is reduced to the ranks of the same as all the rest of them?

eagle

phoebe03cat wrote:

I took out amex platinum in Jan. and fairly quickly went through the 2k (.5cashback)threshold. Dismayed to see that the upper 2% cashback is being lost in October.

Sorry to sound a little confused, but can you please expand on the last sentence above? Am I mis-reading it as "AmEx are axing the upper band of 2% cashback on their platinum card from October"?

kazd

Yes apparently we are losing the 2% cashback from October, we have yet to be informed of the actual details. If it drops below 1% then I will go back to using my Capital One Mastercard full time as I still get 1% from them and its accepted everywhere.

creditcardconundrum

Hi,
Thinking about an amex red - does anyone know how rigorous the credit checking stuff is ('excellent' credit history vs 'good' credit history etc). also anyone who has any experiences with this let me know what you think.
Thanks

eagle

kazd wrote:

Yes apparently we are losing the 2% cashback from October, we have yet to be informed of the actual details. If it drops below 1% then I will go back to using my Capital One Mastercard full time as I still get 1% from them and its accepted everywhere.

Yikes!! This seems so sudden, but thanks for the confirmation. Is there another thread on these boards where this was first announced - seems like I haven't been keeping up again.

My immediate (usually knee-jerk reaction) is to head to AmEx Blue, which was where I came from.

save4u

kazd wrote:

Yes apparently we are losing the 2% cashback from October, we have yet to be informed of the actual details. If it drops below 1% then I will go back to using my Capital One Mastercard full time as I still get 1% from them and its accepted everywhere.

This situation has happened before when they last put the higher spend limits up from 5k to 7.5k a couple of years ago. They suck you in with the special offer and once in they apply these new (reduced cashback) rates retrospectively.
My anniversary cashback date is in February and the new limits apply to all expenditure in the previous year since this date. This is a repeat of the last hike and I am currently getting cashback at these lower rates which have not been announced yet. What company applies reduced rates retrospectively..even this government doesnt do that yet?

I took this up with Amex last time and they just did not want to know.

I suggest we all dump this card when the next cashback is received and use a combination of GE money (3%) for groceries/petrol and Egg or Capital One Circle (1%) for other spending.

sloughflint

save4u wrote:

This situation has happened before when they last put the higher spend limits up from 5k to 7.5k a couple of years ago. They suck you in with the special offer and once in they apply these new (reduced cashback) rates retrospectively.
My anniversary cashback date is in February and the new limits apply to all expenditure in the previous year since this date. This is a repeat of the last hike and I am currently getting cashback at these lower rates which have not been announced yet. What company applies reduced rates retrospectively..even this government doesnt do that yet?

I took this up with Amex last time and they just did not want to know.

I suggest we all dump this card when the next cashback is received and use a combination of GE money (3%) for groceries/petrol and Egg or Capital One Circle (1%) for other spending.

I kinda guessed this. most other cashback CC give on each month cashback earned to date whereas Amex just give a qualifying amout spent. Not good.In hindsight, it might have been better for me to have applied for nectar amex card. At least that gets 2% at Sainsburys.Shan't be using this card anymore.

eagle

save4u wrote:

I suggest we all dump this card when the next cashback is received and use a combination of GE money (3%) for groceries/petrol and Egg or Capital One Circle (1%) for other spending.

There's also Conran card from MBNA.

Prosaic

Not sure if this has been posted elsewhere ( can't see it anyway if it has) but got my Amex British Airways CC statement today

Default charges have dropped from £25 to £8 :T

Minimum repayments have dropped from 3% to 2.5% :think:

Cash withdrawals are now UP from 1.5% or £1.50 to 2.5% or £2.50 :eek: