American Express Cashback Con

r1ch1eg

Hi,
Just to warn everyone...
I set-up an American Express Platinum credit card back in 2008 and received my cashback rewards 1 year later.

However, I have just noticed that my cashback for 2009/10 has been forfeit by AmEx as I had not reached their new "cashback earned" limit.

Apparently the T&C's have changed, so you now need to earn £14 to qualify for the cashback!
At 1% that's a fairly hefty annual spend of £14,000.
If you're not likely to hit this annual spend then the card is not for you.

Anyway, I have now cancelled both of my Amex cards and will never deal with this company again. Grrrrrrrr......:mad:

shays_mum

And they charge if you don't use the card for over a year , that's why i got of them!, if you pay off every month, i have the capital one mastercard, 1% on everything! HTH:)

YorkshireBoy

r1ch1eg wrote: »

...you now need to earn £14 to qualify for the cashback!
At 1% that's a fairly hefty annual spend of £14,000.

Suggest you try a different calculator!

lisyloo

At 1% that's a fairly hefty annual spend of £14,000.

Err no it isn't.
It's £1400, which is not really a hefty spend.

Anyway, I have now cancelled both of my Amex cards and will never deal with this company again

Why?
Because you can't read the Ts & Cs or do maths?

For people that can read and do maths, these can be a great deal.
I've just had £120 on their 5% deal and have done it 3 times now.

r1ch1eg

:doh:OK, hands up...my maths went out the window after coming off the phone with AmEx customer support.

Even so, I am really upset that they changed their T&C's.
I had built up a decent cashback sum by using the card for petrol purchases and just missed out.

I guess the lesson to learn here is change your card every year...and read through those numerous T&C's that get posted.

Nuff said.

Mids_Costcutter

In my experience there are just too many retailers who don't accept American Express (in the UK) to make it a useful card for regular spending and cashback, especially when it comes to online purchases. The reason for this I've been informed many times is the high fees they charge vendors.

lisyloo

You are right. You need a backup visa/mastercard.
Personally I have found it worthwhile for the 3 figure sum I've had in cashback 3 times now, but you are correct you cannot use it everywhere.
It's a bit better than it used to be, with places like boots accepting it now, but still not small retailers or restaurants.

Mr_K

Cancel Amex after your first anniversary, when you've got and spent to the cashback. No point in having this card after that imho.

You could always apply for it again so you get the inital 5% cashback again (usually just before xmas is good timing ).

michaels

LL - how long after cancelling until you can be a new customer again?

Re the min cashback - current T&C suggest need a min annual spend of £3k before getting any CB so @I have had to carry on from the 2k @ 5% up to 3k, the last 1k only getting 0.5% (although hopefully the RAF should also get me an additional £20)

lisyloo wrote: »

You are right. You need a backup visa/mastercard.
Personally I have found it worthwhile for the 3 figure sum I've had in cashback 3 times now, but you are correct you cannot use it everywhere.
It's a bit better than it used to be, with places like boots accepting it now, but still not small retailers or restaurants.

MickeyM87

lisyloo wrote: »

You are right. You need a backup visa/mastercard.
Personally I have found it worthwhile for the 3 figure sum I've had in cashback 3 times now, but you are correct you cannot use it everywhere.
It's a bit better than it used to be, with places like boots accepting it now, but still not small retailers or restaurants.

I was on an old view of this thread and asked the same q as above - opps!

Cheers

lisyloo

LL - how long after cancelling until you can be a new customer again?

I think it's 6 months, but be careful of timing.
You need to spend £2K in 3 months to get max cashback.
Before Xmas is a good time, or before a big spending period (like business expenses).

current T&C suggest need a min annual spend of £3k before getting any CB so @I have had to carry on from the 2k @ 5% up to 3k, the last 1k only getting 0.5% (although hopefully the RAF should also get me an additional £20)

Yes, also they don't give cashback on pence only £s.
So cashback is a little below 3.5%.
That's still about 3.5 times as good as the best other deals out there if you can play by those rules.