American Express Discussion Area

jonmimir

The chap sounded pretty British to me. I was skeptical myself but he was the one that suggested it; I was just asking whether I'd get 5% cashback again after the first year as a special offer. He specifically said why not get another and that they only had the 1 card policy for the BA card (presumably because you get a load of air miles when you join up).

Kavanne

M_Thomson wrote: »

If that was an Indian call centre that told you that, I would take it with a pinch of salt.

As far as I am aware all Amex call centres are UK based... do you know something we don't?!

ICan'tStandIt

Kavanne wrote: »

As far as I am aware all Amex call centres are UK based... do you know something we don't?!

Amex have used a callcentre in Mumbai for years, but I don't think that they use them much now - too many complaints.

They have their main office in Brighton and a couple up North (which probably aren't actually Amex staff) that take overflow calls,

If you notice they answer the call "you're through to (whoever) at American Express in Brighton", so they always say the town they're in now.

As for the guy who said that it's possible to have two Amex Platinum moneyback cards, all I can say is that I hope you got his name. Normally, they won't let anyone have two of any of their cards and the only way around it has been for a guy to be the main cardholder on one account (with his wife/gf/partner as the secondary) and then the wife/gf/partner to be the main cardholder on another account (with the guy as the secondary).

That's the only way I know of to get two BA vouchers, two lots of moneyback etc.

Kavanne

Yep, I noticed that, ICan'tStandIt, I think it's really good

ICan'tStandIt

Kavanne wrote: »

Yep, I noticed that, ICan'tStandIt, I think it's really good

I do too :-)

I always thought that an off-shore callcentre was not very 'Amex' really, but they just saw £ signs and how much money that they could save. They didn't consider, or weren't bothered, about the effect on service, which was why they mainly dealt with the customers they regarded as being "low value".

They didn't think it through at all and didn't seem to have a back-up plan for when the monsoons arrived in India and the fact that so many staff wouldn't be able to get into work etc.

While they said that jobs wouldn't be lost as a result in Brighton, they really cut down on the numbers that they were taking on, so the end result was the same.

It was a similar story when they moved authorisations from Brighton to Malaysia.

They could have saved money by sacking the dopes they employed as managers who made these crazy decisions.

MrOrchard

I just applied for and was accepted for the AMEX green charge card, however I received a phone call saying I was elegible for the Gold or Platinum cards. I decided to stick to the green, based purely on the fee involved, but is it really worth upgrading to one of the others?

ICan'tStandIt

MrOrchard wrote: »

I just applied for and was accepted for the AMEX green charge card, however I received a phone call saying I was elegible for the Gold or Platinum cards. I decided to stick to the green, based purely on the fee involved, but is it really worth upgrading to one of the others?

It largely depends on how much you travel.

If you travel abroad regularly for work plus a holiday or two a year, have people you can give supplementary cards to and think you would use the Platinum lifestyle and travel services, then I would say consider the Platinum as Gold doesn't seem to offer much these days.

If you don't travel abroad for work, it's more of a posh piece of plastic in your wallet you're paying through the nose for more than anything else.

People tend to take out the Platinum charge card for the travel insurance, so you would also need to read the travel insurance T&Cs really thoroughly to make sure it covers what you need.

MrOrchard

Thanks for your feedback.

I have a work card that offers me the same benefits that the platinum would seem to offer me, and travel insurance is taken care of already, so I think sticking to the Green is the way forward.

ICan'tStandIt

MrOrchard wrote: »

Thanks for your feedback.

I have a work card that offers me the same benefits that the platinum would seem to offer me, and travel insurance is taken care of already, so I think sticking to the Green is the way forward.

I had a Green card for many years and always found it a good account and I agree that you should stick with it rather than upgrading for the time being. It's pointless paying for something that you already have elsewhere.

I wasn't keen on the plastic used for the Green card after it changed from the "old style" Amex card. Is this what they still use or did they change back ?

MrOrchard

I honestly couldn't tell you. The standard application on the website shows the old style, the additional cardhold bit shows the new style...