American Express Discussion Area

eric_almly

Depends where you're flying.

Zebedee69

Iraq its nice this time of year:rotfl:

AireBase

Dr_Tre wrote: »

Like Julies82 above I too have applied for the 5% card but the documentation only says 3%. After a conversation with a very snotty AMEX employee - "we dont do a 5% cashback card" ! they have agreed to look into it (why dont they just look at their own website?) and will write to me in 3-5 days.

What a ridiclous situation to be in. :mad:

Julies82 - have you had any further from AMEX regarding this issue?

I received my first statement under the new 5% cashback offer and was confused by the MoneyBack summary, so I rang AMEX for an explanation. I was told that it was calculated at 3% and that they did not do a 5%, I came off the phone confused and read all the documentation that I printed off when signing up and sure enough, it says 5% for the 1st 3 months. I rang back, spoke to a different (more savvy) guy, who said that there was an error in their system and in fact it was at 5%. When I asked hime to explain the calculation of moneyback on the statement, he could not and said that it will all be calculated correctly in 12 months time when I get the payment!! He did however, say that it would definately be 5% and give me a reference number to quote if it was not. This all sounds very dodgey to me.

eric_almly

Tear that card up and never use it again. And publicize as much as you can Amex's shadey business practices.

eric_almly

Did ya tear it up?

abulkasam

The reason they can't give you a total amount on your cashback when you call is because the calculations can get quite interesting:

They need to work out how much u spent on the first 3 months to give you the 5% (or 3%) introductory offer.
They then need to take the total amount spent, and calculate what band should be applied next, whether it's the 0.5%, 1% or 1.5% rate. The 1.5% rate only applies after a total spend of £10000. I can't recall when the 1%trigger points are. So asking a customer rep to do the maths like on the spot can be a bit tricky

Anyway I'm coming up to the end of my 1 year with AMEX and should find out how much I get soon. I think I was on the 1% for a very long time, up until the 11th month. So it can be pretty difficult to spend £10000 on a CC. Also tesco just recently stopped taking AMEX, no reasons given as to why. The tesco checkout person said it was "company policy" implying it's nationwide.

What have people done after one year? Have you stayed on the AMEX card? Does anyone know if I can apply for a 5% card? or will they fob me off? Any tips for this will be much appreciated.

Berisford

I've been using Amex for about 4 years but recently went for the Capital One deal and stopped using the Amex.

DAK, do Amex offer any incentives to 'come back' into the fold so to speak?

I know that Barclaycard don't as I'd been with 'em for 20 odd years before the Amex and they didn't offer a bean. Not even the recent cashback deal they had for 'invited' card holders. This is despite sending me new cards recently! Still, I digress, sorry.

appleseed_2

Berisford wrote: »

I've been using Amex for about 4 years but recently went for the Capital One deal and stopped using the Amex.

DAK, do Amex offer any incentives to 'come back' into the fold so to speak?

I know that Barclaycard don't as I'd been with 'em for 20 odd years before the Amex and they didn't offer a bean. Not even the recent cashback deal they had for 'invited' card holders. This is despite sending me new cards recently! Still, I digress, sorry.

AFAIK, Amex don't offer incentives to use the card, at least when requested by the card holder. The account closure dept. does have more scope, as with most card issuers.

Tend to confine purchases to Amex because as a credit and charge card holder the service has been fairly exemplary; all calls get routed to Brighton and Amex are generally better than other card issuers at handling disputes with retailers under Section 75.

Oddly, just for a contrary experience with Barclaycard: have held the card for under a year (11 months), on a 12 month 0%APR on balance transfer offer; cleared the balance and phoned with every intention of closing the account, only to be offered - with little or no prompting - 2% cashback (max. £50 per month), paid monthly for 6 months. So think your response is quite understandable.

eric_almly

I dont believe Amex offers anything like that.

M_Thomson

appleseed wrote: »

Tend to confine purchases to Amex because as a credit and charge card holder the service has been fairly exemplary; all calls get routed to Brighton and Amex are generally better than other card issuers at handling disputes with retailers under Section 75.

When was the last time you called them and what card do you hold with them? My calls are always routed to India, so I'd be interested to know how you got Brighton.